Where to live Dubai - travel times
#32
Re: Where to live Dubai - travel times
When you are an expat you are cut off from all the troubles of home, whether family, political, cultural or social. They become abstract concepts and it's a liberating feeling. The rootlessness of expatdom comes with a freedom of its own. Because you're neither of home nor of the place you live as an expat, you're your own man (or woman). At home you're much more conscious of being an irrelevant cog in a machine that doesn't care for you.
Oh, don't get me too wrong. Being close to the folks is wonderful. The English countryside can be glorious. Certain English ways of doing things are so very endearing. Notwithstanding COVID, life isn't too difficult for me and I have things to be fortunate for. But I always remember a friend of my parents who, just before I left the UK for my first expat stint in Singapore, warned me not to spend too much time overseas or I'd never get over it. Given that I'm pushing 41 and have spent nearly 12 years of my professional life as an expat, I've discovered he's right. I knew he was right because barely a month after I bought my house I was actually seriously talking to the company about going overseas again, this time to the US. I backed out because I realised I couldn't do that yet. Note the emphasis on yet
Oh, don't get me too wrong. Being close to the folks is wonderful. The English countryside can be glorious. Certain English ways of doing things are so very endearing. Notwithstanding COVID, life isn't too difficult for me and I have things to be fortunate for. But I always remember a friend of my parents who, just before I left the UK for my first expat stint in Singapore, warned me not to spend too much time overseas or I'd never get over it. Given that I'm pushing 41 and have spent nearly 12 years of my professional life as an expat, I've discovered he's right. I knew he was right because barely a month after I bought my house I was actually seriously talking to the company about going overseas again, this time to the US. I backed out because I realised I couldn't do that yet. Note the emphasis on yet
One thing I've seen over the years is that some people are forced to leave the Middle East (and don't have the lifestyle out of their system), and some choose to leave.
Get it out of your system otherwise there will always be this nagging doubt if you did the right thing.
*she is now terrified of wasps
Last edited by NorthernLad; Nov 7th 2020 at 5:40 pm.