Dubai expat life

We’re moving (again)

January 29, 2012

Call us crazy – this is the 4th time we’ve moved in our  five years in Dubai. First, we lived in a room inside my company’s guest house for three months after arriving in 2007. It was tough. We weren’t allowed to cook so we ate outside all the time. Pristine got a terrible stomach [...]

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Five years and counting

January 13, 2012

Today, FIVE years ago, we landed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Honestly? I can’t believe we are still here. Not that I want to be somewhere else right now but when I look back at what I was thinking when we first set foot here, it’s unbelievable. We thought our stint would be short, like [...]

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Expat life and saying goodbye

December 27, 2011

Yesterday, I have discovered the single hardest thing about being an expat in a fab place so many people call home, including us. We gain friends, enjoy those friendships and develop deep bonds as the years roll by. We are all expatriates, people in a foreign land who share stories of the ups and downs, [...]

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You think Dubai employers are racists?

December 17, 2011

The classified ads here are unbelievable – you would find job ads with ‘extra’ lines that read: “No Filipinos” or “White, Western female please” and “Indians only”. And nobody seems to care. It’s a common sight and job seekers apply to where they are appropriate. Racial discrimination is alive and well in Dubai. The companies [...]

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Unjustified ‘offloading’ of Filipino travelers

October 17, 2011

My old post: New Rule for Filipinos Traveling to Dubai discussing the pains of Filipinos traveling from the Philippines to Dubai has been getting a lot of  attention lately from people wanting to travel to Dubai but faced a lot of problems with the immigration officials in Manila. Despite having proper documents, Filipinos still face [...]

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The uniform saga continues

October 6, 2011

It was too early for me to celebrate the fact that Pristine’s school didn’t require us to buy new uniforms for the new school year. On the first day of school, she was wearing her old uniform in Grade 2. And everything was well. …until we received a newsletter saying that while there is no [...]

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Dubai Metro Green Line opens

September 13, 2011

Four years ago, the nearby street where I work looked like this: and the workers, toiled day and night, braving the fierce Dubai summer during the day. It was dust, noise, a lot of detours and traffic this past four years. But now, it is done. (Below photo taken September 12, 2011) The construction of [...]

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Moving and the office boy mentality

July 25, 2011

Sorry for the absence. It has been hectic in my world lately due to shifting of office – same building, different floor. It’s amazing to see how much documents have accumulated and dust behind my PC monitor! Also, I found a small Lindt chocolate bar in the depths of my desk drawer, within expiry date [...]

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