Moving to the UAE
I moved to the UAE 15 years ago, to join my friends who were looking to explore new endeavors. If it weren't to my friends, I wouldn't have tried to leave the Philippines. I had a permanent job at the government, and was pretty much contented with my life in the suburbs. The goal was just to check the country out, see if we land a good job, work a maximum of two years and go back home.
Honestly, I came to the UAE with little to no knowledge about the country. I don't think I even knew where the country was in the map (seriously, my geography was that bad). What I knew was based only on the stories relayed by my friend who was already living here before us. Making this life changing decision happened very fast - talked with friends about it, applied for passport in March, prepared all necessary documents, and flew in April.
There's no telling that the plan to stay for only two years did not happen, because 15 years later, I am still here. This is literally my second home now, the place where we have built our family.
My First Impression
It was a long flight. My first every plane ride almost took a day. There was a long layover at Bahrain, then when we finally landed in Dubai, we had to take a two hour drive to Abu Dhabi.
On the road, I saw tall sky scrapers. I honestly expected a vast desert.
When we reached Abu Dhabi, we also stopped in front of a tall building. Oh, this would be our new home. Almost all people lived in apartments, very far from "houses" I knew.
We came to rest and had the chance to go around the city the following day. A lot of the residents were people from different nations - Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs, and Europeans. Such diversity, indeed! I saw people wearing their traditional clothes. Filipinos have not worn traditional clothing for over a century already, with the exception of some national celebrations.
"Why is she walking backwards?" Oh, I honestly thought the lady in an all black abaya (a Muslim woman's clothing) was walking backwards. She had her shayla (head dress) worn over her face.
"What's Your Good Name?"
I landed my first ever job in the UAE two months later, as a receptionist/telephone operator. Before coming to the UAE, I did not really doubt my English but when I started working, I really had a hard time. I was exposed to many different accents, some I could not really understand. Many times, I had to ask the caller to repeat himself.
The names were different from the names that I knew. Indian names are so long, many I could not even pronounce. The same with Arabic. "Can you spell your name for me, please?" was what I would find myself asking the caller many times. I had lots of Indian colleagues, who did not only look the same to me, but they had similar names too! In my office, there were 3 Kumar's - Pradip Kumar, Jayakumar, Suresh Kumar. There were also 3 Pradip's - Pradip D, Pradip Kumar, and Jayapradeep.
I finally got to put faces to the names when I started to observe the door access registry on my computer. Each time someone comes or goes, they had to tap their access cards and I would quickly glance at my monitor to see the name of the person at the door.
Food
Another thing that was very different to me was the food. Almost everything had a distinct Arabic spice to it. I remember, our friend took us to her favorite chicken fast food restaurant here for the first time. She was so eager to let us try the food, because she loved it. Well, the chicken was honestly to bad. However, I could really not eat the kabsa rice.
It took me many years before I tried the same restaurant, and when I finally did, it became our go-to to satisfy our chicken cravings.
Eventually, I became more bold in trying out new cuisines. There are some that I liked, they actually just take a little "getting used to".
Life in General
It was a total change of lifestyle for me. First, the weekends here are different. Our work week starts on Sundays, and Fridays and Saturdays are the off days. Being an Arabic country, most of the holidays are also based on the Islamic calendar. This means that it generally relies on moon sightings - some holidays like Ramadan and Eid, Islamic New Yea for example are most of the time predicted only a day before the actual holiday.
We also have to adjust our activities around the climate here, which could be very overly hot and humid! Most of the activities are shifted indoors during summer. Lots of indoor theme parks have been put up over the years too. Have you heard about the Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi, and MotionGate?
Another thing that is there to love in this country is the sense of security. UAE has ranked third (of 133) in the list of safest country by crime index in their Mid-Year 2020 data. Source
Of course, everything here is not permanent. Our residence is only based on employment, and after all of these, we would have to go back to our home country. Much as I love the Philippines, I am thankful to the UAE for the opportunity given to my family and a lot others.
This post is my answer to the Cross Culture Question : What was the biggest culture shock you have ever experienced? by the Hive Cross Culture Community, along with the Abundance Tribe.
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