Heading Back to Abu Dhabi for our Third Year!
August 7th.
The girls are scheduled to start school on August 21. We are scheduled to fly back to AD on the 12th – arriving in the evening of the 13th. This will give us enough time to unpack and time for me to adjust to the 8 hour time difference. I have a hard time adjusting to the time change on the way back!
But today we received an email from the Superintendent of the school stating that due to the uncertainty of the start and end of the EID holiday (the celebration after Ramadan has finished), the start of school is going to be pushed back to Aug 26th. Oh dear – what to do now. I’m not sure I want to be there 2 weeks before school starts. To my surprise, the girls were ready to go back to Abu Dhabi. I of course could use a few more days here to get things around the house organized!
We are about to start our third year in Abu Dhabi – is that possible?!! I remember like yesterday leaving Melbourne for what we thought would just be 2 years! But I am happy to report that the girls are very happy, as are Leon and I, and the business opportunities are exciting! We enjoy the city life, the friends we have made and the travel opportunities! Elise even asked that we stay the extra year so that she could graduate from the High School here!
The return gets easier each time – we know what we have to bring back from the US, and we bring less with us to the US each summer! We enjoy being able to stay at our home. Though I do spend more time than I would like doing maintenance on the home. And of course there is time spent visiting friends and family.
It is a strange feeling though as we enter this third year. We feel very much at home in Abu Dhabi, but then when we arrive back in the States there is a feeling of comfort. We like the familiarity of the States; knowing where to go for things, and knowing that we will be able to get what we want when we need it! And for as many Malls as there are in Abu Dhabi – 11 I’ve been told – the shopping in the US can’t be beat! But as a friend in Abu Dhabi told us, when you still have your house available in the US, it is like having your feet on two sides of the pond – you’re neither here nor there. Has that happened to us already?
The girls feel very torn as they have grown apart from their friends here in Florida. Our friends here have moved on and it can be a challenge to work back into their lives. Everyone does a great job of trying to see us when we are back in Melbourne but they all have their own lives and are busy. I always feel guilty when we haven’t been able to connect and see everyone. But I have to admit that it is exhausting trying to make all those get togethers work. Especially during the summer when friends have summer holiday travel plans and kids have camp. We do the best we can.
“When will you guys be back?” was the most common question we were asked this summer. And that is hard to answer! Elise will graduate at the end of this coming year and Sara will have finished the 9th grade. On paper that would be the time to return, but we really do like it in Abu Dhabi. Could we stay another year after that? Would our friends forgive us for not keeping to our 2 year plan? Would our families be disappointed as they already expected us to be back in the States? But what is the best thing for our family? This has been such an amazing experience – I wouldn’t trade it for the anything.
Only time will tell.
Leave a Reply