Meow

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/anna...s-too-whingey/

A fairly short article, but what do you think?

I reckon there's an element of truth especially in respect of those who expect the UAE to be just like the UK and complain that the supermarkets aren't the same as Tesco. That said, times change and you aren't a better exxpat because you're roughing it.

mikewot

I think why bother going to work overseas if you expect it to be just like home. I like (OK maybe to strong a word) the differences, it's partly why I came out here. OK the main driver was cold hard cash but.......

co durham boy

You see the same whinging in most other expat destinations . Dubai has more expats in a more varied field which brings in more varied types of people.

The trouble with a percentage of expats in Dubai is that they think that Dubai life is the norm in the Gulf and when some of them have to move to another Gulf destination they fail miserably .

Can't see why people get parochial about Gulf cities . There's only a different depth of veneer in these places and everyone is faced with the same kind of crap day in and day out .

We all leave eventually

Bahtatboy

Its not a new phenomenom, nor restricted to the Gulf. I have found that, generally, Brits are pretty poor at accepting the differences, and Americans the worst (their pioneer spirit seems to have completely withered and died in the space of a hundred years or so).

Beaverstate

On a somewhat serious note, changes that American settlers adapted to were usually enviromental, almost never social. The social customs were brought with them and imposed where needed. Of course some mingling did occur mostly in the southwest.

weasel decentral

What expats are truly roughing it?

If not finding my favourite brand of peas in Tescos is roughing it then I am roughing it.
But otherwise even in off the track locations I have always had a very high standard of living, comparable to Europe in most cases but not trying to recreate it in my host country.
The only ones truly roughing it are O&G or civils guys in very remote locations, but living standards there also have risen dramatically.

edit to say “accept and embrace what’s available” I like this quote in the article

flares

some are, some aren't

OleJanx

Hmm. I really don't know how to deal with this. 30 years ago most people didn't have a clue where Dubai was. Now, it appears to be a victim of its own hype.

Bahtatboy

Really? (Not a sarcastic "really"). I'd have thought that with the great mix of nationalities that populated the States, there'd have been a lot of different social norms mixed together, or was it the case that national groups stuck together? Where's the social anthropologist when you need one?

weasel decentral

When you look back at General Custer and the like, they seemed to have a fairly strict assimilation policy into white society.

weasel decentral

Things move on granddad

*cranks handle on model T ford and drives off*

The Dean

I'm not soft....... as long as I get my weekly mani-pedi at the salon, life is bearable.......

scrubbedexpat141

The way I look at it is that I wouldn't go to some of places that I've put guys.

Take one chap...mega bucks salary, working in the arse end of Yemen. Rocket attacks on the project the day he landed so they wouldn't transfer him (because of road blocks etc) until it was a bit safer. He sat and chilled in the Hilton until it was safe to move to site. Still did it.

That's mental.

Dubai is not a hard life, but it's definitely not somewhere that you can always feel free to do whatever you want (legal or illegal).

The thing I reckon is that I'm 3500 miles from home, my mates, my sisters, my mummy, my nieces and nephews etc. and ever farther from my old man. That blows, but Dubai itsself makes it more than tolerable.

OriginalSunshine

Compared to living in Saudi Arabia, Sakhalin, Lagos (& being pregnant there!), and Indonesian Borneo, living in Oman is a dream, and Dubai is just another world. Anyone who thinks Dubai is "hard", is "soft".

OleJanx

I spent four very happy years in Oman. Going to Qatar after Oman was like regressing twenty years into the old hardship posting era.