Gubbi of Arabia: Expat Life in Dubai

RSS Archive Ask me anything!

It’s About to Get Real Up in Here

Sunset over the marshes on Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

Oh haaaaaaaaaay, interwebs!

So I know I’ve been gone for a while. And it would be really easy for me to fill that void with shiny happy posts about what I’ve been up to on Operation CASH and all our crazy fun adventures in Germany and California and South Carolina over the past couple weeks: how we saw some of our best friends tie the knot in a beautiful centuries-old German fortress in the Freiburg countryside; how we spent a perfect sunny California afternoon racing through the hills of Alex’s family vineyard on quad bikes with a brood of farm dogs and Alex’s indefatigable 91 year-old grandfather in hot pursuit; how I cantered on horseback through marshy trails on Seabrook Island this morning with the sea breeze whipping through my hair and then whiled away the afternoon on the beach, tanning and drinking beer and doing crossword puzzles with my mom.

And you know what? I’ll get to those posts. Because by and large, I feel like those are the kinds of things people want to read about, and they’re certainly the stories I feel most comfortable telling. 

But if I can just take a second to be real with you guys - because the bloggers and authors that I love most dearly are those that write with honesty and candor - I have to admit that despite all the greatness inherent in this trip, it has been a rough two and a half weeks. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking - first world problems, right? Like, “Yeah, yeah, I’m sure it’s so hard to leave your fantastic life in Dubai and go on a three-week vacation to Europe and the States, cry me a river.”

And you’re not wrong for judging me - I would probably react in a similar manner.

But one of the unique challenges of expat life is that you basically have a couple-week period, twice a year if you’re lucky, to do and fix and maintain all the things.

ALL THE THINGS!

I mean, look at our past few weeks: Germany was for celebrating an idyllic marriage, yes, but it was also for mending a broken best-friendship, in Alex’s case, and breathing new life into an increasingly distant close-friend relationship of my own. (Oh yeah, and going through a 5th-round interview for a new job I really want - no bigs, not like that adds stress to a VACATION or anything!)

California was for wine-tasting and outlet-shopping, to be sure, but it also centered around mediating the oft-vitriolic complicated family bonds of Alex’s extended brood, trying our best to play the honest brokers even when all we could do was keep a shit-eating grin plastered across our faces and eagerly anticipate the chance to drown our stress in a bottle (or four) of the aforementioned family-produced wine.

And South Carolina has been for beachside reconnection with my own family, which - while close-knit and comparatively “normal,” if that’s ever the case - poses its own set of challenges, because one week every six months is not a lot of time to re-establish bonds with now-adult siblings who don’t exactly, ahem, have the fondest memories of me from our shared childhood. (I was the oldest of three and I ruled tried to rule with an iron first, what can I say…)

So as much as I will cherish the great parts of the past few weeks - the places, the people, the laughter, the reconnection - I also feel weighed down by the laundry list of things that we simply can’t change in the truncated window of time we have to deal with them.

Add that to the insidious and ongoing jet lag (an 11-hour time difference split into 4 different time zones over the course of 3 weeks), the copious travel (6 flights totaling 40 hours of flying time, not to mention layovers / delays / hurricane advisories / 3:30 AM wake-up calls to get to the airport / frantic baggage reshuffling at the check-in gate because OH MY GOD LUFTHANSA, YOU REALLY ONLY ALLOW ONE CHECKED BAG PER PERSON ON INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS?!), and the inevitable sense of disillusionment when we realize America is not the sparkling, immaculate, perfectly functioning fairy land we imagine it to be whilst living abroad, and and and…

… and well, you’re setting yourself up for a good ol’ fashioned “someone get me some anti-anxiety meds a fainting couch!” nervous breakdown of the grandest proportions, which is basically where I’ve found myself over the past couple of days on our “beach” “vacation.”

(Let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you’ve woken up in a cold sweat at 4 AM and spent the next 2.5 hours frantically counting the minutes until daybreak when you can slip outside and go for a run on the beach in a last-ditch attempt - besides heavy-duty pharmaceuticals, that is - to calm your racing heart.)

So, in conclusion, I’m not complaining. I’m just alerting you, dear friends and readers, that no matter where someone lives or how shiny their life might seem… we ALL go a little batshit cray-cray sometimes. 

Me most of all.

In the meantime, we have a day and a half left before we head back to Dubai, and I’m going to do my utmost to enjoy every minute of it in a functional, well-adjusted, emotionally healthy manner… wish me luck!

  1. cupofchi said: Ha. YES. Thanks for sharing. But now I’m panicking that when I finally get back to America after 1.5+ years…what if it’s not PERFECT?! Oh god.
  2. messily said: Good luck! xo
  3. whattheeveneff said: you. speak. the. truth. my. friend. god, our lives are insane. xo
  4. gubbiofarabia posted this
blog comments powered by Disqus