Adapting to the UAE

I only set foot on UAE soil after marriage. Yes I have been a transient passenger browsing through the impressive Dubai Duty Free stores some lifetime ago, but never had I ventured through the immigration gates that now stamp me as a resident. I have been a UAE resident for a little over 6 years now. In some ways, the UAE has become a friend and in others, she is still an elusive stranger.

UAE has a way of growing on you. They say time flies in this whirlwind of a city that never sleeps. Needless to say, the first few years were hard on me, a girl from sleepy rural New Zealand. I found UAE too chaotic, the glitz and glamour blinding and even threatening. I was homesick and missed the solace of fresh chilled air. I missed my loved ones and familiar faces and places. I even missed the biting cold which now seemed like a luxury in 50 degrees of humid desert heat. A part of me still longs to go back, but survival instincts have since kicked in and, in many ways, changed the girl I used to be…

My wardrobe has expanded

In New Zealand, my wardrobe could be described as ‘smart-casual’ and this saw me through social calls, idle window-shopping days, and even the office. In the UAE, I have office wear, smart-casual for casual dates with friends, cocktail dresses for more sophisticated dos, and an ethnic collection for Indian or culturally-reserved events.

The heat is almost tolerable

My parents came to visit the UAE this January, and they had to use the air-conditioning to sleep while I was blissfully huddled in my blanket. I am still no fan of the sweltering UAE summers, but the heat is slowly growing on me and perhaps the crisp Kiwi winters will not be as refreshing now.

I’ve improved my Hindi!

Hindi is not my mother-tongue, but Bollywood has taught me the basics. I could understand the language, but not get away with spitting out s sentence without squirms on my ‘foreign’ accent. Given my brown skin and Indian features, the Hindi people I have encountered here seem to find it almost insulting that I am not a fluent speaker. My office boy even said he cannot follow my English, so he manages with my broken Hindi which seems to be improving day by day.

I am spoilt with help

In the UAE, we really are spoilt when it comes to servicing. Since coming here, I’ve forgotten what its like to make my own morning coffee in the pantry. My ‘Office Boy’ dutifully serves me cups and cups of my caffeine fuel throughout the day.

In New Zealand, the concept of having a housemaid is very alien and conjures up zealous images of slavery and the like. Here most households have a maid who cooks and cleans and babysits.

I’ve become a rasher driver

One of the hardest things I found was adapting to the crazy traffic in the UAE. For most of my early years in the UAE, I was a Sharjah-Dubai road-rat averaging three to four hours of my life on snail-paced traffic that gave me knee-aches just from working the brakes as I braked and un-braked at each short move. Initially, my Kiwi courtesy would allow fellow roadsters a passage into the labyrinth of cars ahead of me, but now I’m a psycho b**** and often forget to ‘give way’.

I know a guy in New Zealand who would go to McDonalds driveway after work and order his meal items one round after another just to remind him of what a traffic jam is like. True story!

I visit salons more

In New Zealand, you have to be earning pretty big $ to be visiting a salon every month, and not just for haircuts. Here I get a facial, a body wax and massage, manicure and pedicure on a bi-monthly basis. Luxuries like these sure are cheaper here.

I am far less sociable

In New Zealand, I had a close-knit circle of friends, and I was even one of the organizers for the social club at work. I made friends from university, from the gym, from family gatherings. In the UAE, it is a different story. Everybody seems to be too busy, and everybody is very competitive. Perhaps relationships are more fickle here because we all know we are only temporary guests in the UAE. We are also more career-driven as job security is on the low side, and the idea is to take advantage of the tax-free income and save for a comfy nest when we are old and grey.

The UAE has done wonders to my career

Given I am into marketing, the retail jungle of the UAE has been a delight for my career. I have had the opportunity to work with some of the world’ most luxurious brands, experienced the trials and tribulations of very diverse industries including beauty and travel, and now have a colorful CV to prove it.

I know more about luxury brands than most of my Kiwi friends

When I was just a student in New Zealand, I could be forgiven for thinking Chanel only does perfumes, and that Louis Vuitton was one of the 101 Dalmatians. This is not to say that my Kiwi counterparts are not brand-savvy, they just don’t give a damn. In the shallow world of UAE who’s-who, big brands do the talking and everyone’s throwing a Gucci or Bvlgari item around. And if you can’t afford it, there’s always the Karama knock-offs.

 

I shop more

If you knew me back in my NZ days, you'd say this was impossible but here in the UAE, shopping is a lifestyle. We shop when we're bored, we shop socially in groups, and we shop to escape the humid heat (and enjoy the icy cocoon of massive malls).

As time passes on swiftly in the UAE, I come to terms with this arid country I have decided to call home, albeit temporarily. New Zealand will forever be my haven, but I have warmer days ahead and intend to make the most of it.

- Big Sis.