It’s a beautiful Saturday in this part of the world. Winter is finally coming, and weather is finally bearable. Soon, I will be able to take a walk in one of the city’s famous walking park, the Corniche road.

I’m here in my bed right now, writing. I’m on for a three-day weekend, so yey! Did you know? Tomorrow is Islamic New Year, or they call it Hijri. The Islamic calendar uses the lunar calendar, so most of its celebrations have different dates every year as it depends on moon sighting. Last Wednesday, it was officially declared that the Hijri New Year will be on 2 October, so today, it their New Year’s Eve.

Once again, I was absent for a whole week from my blog. It has been a crazy week for me and it is only the beginning. As a hotelier, we have “pick-up seasons,” in our language, this means when our hotels are filling up. For leisure hotels (such as resorts), this is usually summer or autumn or when it is a good time for the beach (in this part of the world, summer is dead because it is sooooo hot, we can’t bear the heat). In the UAE, pick-up season starts in September all the way to March, this is because the weather here is just perfect!

People often ask me how the weather here, being that it’s a desert. Well, in summer, if we were made of plastic, we’d all have melted by now. We’d go up to 40-50 degrees Celsius, and because we’re a desert and we don’t have much trees here, the heat is much worse and the humidity! But in winter, we go down to 15 degrees Celsius. Now, for those of you who experience snow, that’s not impressive, I’m sure. We do have the Arabian Gulf and the wind is crazy, it gets so cold I won’t ever go out without a sweater on. The best month to visit the UAE (if you plan to) is in February-April, weather is not so cold but hot enough for the beautiful blue beaches here.

So anyway, yeah, it’s busy season now and I had to do so many things for all the promotions the hotel is doing right now.

I’ve been thinking about my future lately. My contract here will end in March and I’ve been thinking of not renewing it. In fact, I am 90% sure that I will no longer renew my contract with my employer here. Career-wise, it’s a smart move because I’ve been feeling stagnant here and I need to grow, so I’m looking for new challenges and landscape. To be honest, I don’t see myself growing here in the UAE, despite its hospitality.

I don’t have much options, I can either go home and look for a job there or put up my own business (which I would need capital for, which means I’ll probably take a loan but I’m not ready to commit to that yet), or go somewhere else to look for a job. Another option is that I take my Masteral degree somewhere abroad. I’m really leaning towards the latter but this is also going to cost me, so I’m going through scholarship funding, and it’s not easy at all! I don’t know where to start and I’m so confuse right now. I’ve always wanted to go back studying so I’m really hoping this option would work out for me.

Anyway, this is just my meandering mind once again. Hopefully, things will work out. I’m glad I have this three-day weekend to think things through and to write some entry here.

So, what do you think I should do? 🙂

Today marks my first year in Abu Dhabi, well, technically, I landed yesterday but my life in Abu Dhabi didn’t start until the day after, which is today – exactly a year ago.

I packed my bags and left all the comforts that a home has to offer to fulfill one of my dreams. As a person who loves travelling, I’ve always dreamed of being an expat – to work and live in a different country and meet a variety of multi-cultured people.

I’ve always been independent – I’ve moved to a different city for college and stayed after graduation for work. Technically, I’ve only been visiting my hometown since 2007. I’ve made a life in my second home, Cebu City, a metropolis in the Philippines. I find myself saying “Cebu” when someone asks me which city I’m from in the Philippines and always add the fact that my hometown is a tinier city called Ormoc.

And even though I’ve had enough training of being far away from my parents, it didn’t made adjusting easier for me. When I landed, I only knew of two people in the city and we didn’t even meet until weeks and months after. I came here bare and raw, with nothing but my bag filled with hopes and promises of growth and self-discovery.

Abu Dhabi has been a gracious host. It has given me some worthwhile experiences and has afforded me memories I wouldn’t trade anything for. I have met people from around the globe and my knowledge on culture continues to expands. I work with diverse nationalities with very different culture and yet, we find ourselves together working to reach the same goal.

I’ve seen things happening in Abu Dhabi that would never happened anywhere else in the world. Amazing architectural beauties that fills the heart of the city, I’ve taken glimpses of new luxuries I couldn’t have even imagined. There’s always a Ladies Night somewhere where we could drink cocktails and dance all night long.

And mostly, I’ve learned to appreciate the rich Islamic culture of this country. I’m glad that I have gotten myself more acquainted with Islam and how it is an integral part of every day life here. If I have any questions about it, I only ask my Muslim friends and they’re happy to talk to me about their faith.

I am glad that I took the opportunity to work here. It might not be rainbows and sunshines all the time, and it might have been difficult when I didn’t have a physical support system but I’ve grown. I might not be able to point what’s different about me, but I know somehow I am. I think differently, I might talk differently now, I might even have  new habits, and this is part of growing up. I’ve met people here that I’ll always cherish.

Have my hopes been fulfilled? Not everything, but it’s a continuous process. I might not find everything that I wanted here, but I definitely found something. I’m not entirely sure if my goal to self-discovery has been successful, but I know this journey has pushed me in so many ways.

It’s been a year since I haven’t been home. I’ve missed birthdays, family trips, get togethers, Christmas and New Year but it made me stronger. I’m planning to go home on May and I cannot wait to hug my family, my friends and my dogs! I’ve missed so many things from home, and I really cannot wait. 🙂

 

-May J