Hi all,
On Saturday, it will be one month since I left home to start our new family adventure. Its been so busy the time has really flown by.
A number of things have been accomplished since the last time i sent an email. I may refer to these items in the singular but don't think for a second that Carmen hasn't been key to these decisions. I wouldn't dare make these decisions without her ok
Place to live: A home for the next year (at least) has been selected. Effective mid November we will be residing in a nice 3 bedroom townhouse. Although we are giving up some space that we had back home, the compromise is that we live in a gated community area that has fantastic facilities, including a big pool, a kiddie pool, 3 tennis courts, a squash court, and a workout gym. Also within the complex, is a grocery store, hair salon, spa and a nice little restaurant….very self sufficient wouldn't you say. All these facilities are less than a block away from the house which will make it convenient for all. The house has a pretty decent back yard (especially for here in abu dhabi…most places don't have much of a yard) so we will be investing in a trampoline or play centre for the kids to play on. Since I've been gone, the kids have been sleeping in the same room in Canada and seem to be loving it. We'll continue this in Abu Dhabi which means the third bedroom will be wide open for all of you guests….who's going to the first?? Most of the schools that we are looking at for the kids are quite close which should make it convenient for them and Carmen. I will have approximately 25 minute commute into work each morning until we move into our new office building (approx Mar 2012) at which point the commute will be less than 15 min.
Vehicle: I finally got through the process to get my drivers license. It was a bigger process than I imagined, but I really shouldn't have been surprised. One of the things I've come to realize quickly is that Canada is not a favourite of the UAE. Due to some airline revenue battle between the local airline and Air Canada, the UAE government has made being a canadian here a little more bureaucratic. An example of this was when I went to get my drivers license, they required me to have the canadian embassy stamp a copy of my arabic translated license to verify its authenticity. This may seem reasonable being its an international license, but Canada is the only G20 country that is required to do this….can you say spiteful Anyway, after a couple of trips I was successful in getting my license. This opened up a number of doors….I was now able to drive and stop taking taxis everywhere. For the record, taxis are pretty affordable and were a good way to get introduced to the city without the stress of trying to figure out where I was going…..but now I wanted to be able to drive. Since I didn't have a specific car lined up, I decided to rent a car for the first month so that i could make sure I found the right vehicle for me. I did however find a Lexus SUV for Carmen and the kids. Due to the expat turnover in UAE there are lots of used vehicles. Like with any used car market, you can find a good deal is you're patient enough. I take possession of the SUV in the beginning of November.
Work: well….work is work….enough said
Furniture: Now that i have the house lined up, I needed to start looking for furniture for the house. When I started this process two weeks ago, I was actually pretty excited to do it (god only knows why..) but now, I just want it to be done. Similar logic to the vehicles, since there are lots of expat coming and going, there is a ton of used furniture available. This can make it more affordable but has introduced some other challenges. One, Ryan's ability to visualize a piece of furniture in the house is quite bad. I'm a numbers guy…not a creative bone in my body. Of course another challenge is to weed through the junk (that seemed nice on the internet but isn't) and find things that will go nicely together. Also you then need to coordinate a mover from each location that you purchase the used (buying new guaranteed delivery and installation). Add the complexity of taking pictures of each item, emailing them to Carmen, discussing them that evening and then in most cases starting over again the next day….hummm sound fun?? Joking aside, we've made pretty good progress so far. Something different here is that no places come equipped with appliances. Since this is consistent for all places, its pretty easy to find used appliances. So far I've landed a number of used items, all appliances (except dishwasher), bed and mattress for Carmen and I, couches and TV for living room. For the remaining items I've searched most of the stores in Abu Dhabi with limited success and have decided to go to Dubai this weekend to check out more stores. Hopefully it will be more successful!
Schools: As I mentioned earlier, we haven't decided on which school the kids will attend. There seems to be really good private schools here, mainly based out of Britian however we are also looking at a Canadian school (ironically with Alberta circulumn) and a French bi-lingual school. Part of the reason that we haven't confirmed yet is that most of them are already full with students and therefore we are on a wait list. The positive to the expat turnover is that school positions come available more often so we will know better as to which schools have availability by December.
Entertainment: Although its been quite busy, I have tried to spend some time seeing the city and some of the highlights. Abu Dhabi has an annual international film festival (similar to the Toronto film festival) for 10 days in October. There are no big actors to mention other than I saw Topher Grace in the opening of the movie "the Double" (also in the 70s show)..yeah I know…WHO?. Next month Abu Dhabi hosts one of a Formula One races. Although I'm not a race buff I think it will be interesting to take in. Similar to our experience in Cayman, there seems to be a lot of nice restaurants. The entertainment in the evenings often revolves around going for a nice supper. Of course, there are many ethic food options available, and I must say the Indian food is very delicious. The hotel I'm staying at has a great beach and gym facilities so I often spend my extra time (when I'm not anxiously looking for furniture) playing squash, hitting the pool or gym. I also tried golf for the first time this week. Due to being so close to the equator it gets dark by 6pm. Normally this would limit golf to the weekends, however, a couple of the courses in Abu Dhabi have 9 holes of night golf. Basically the entire 9 holes are surrounded by flood lights. Also with being so hot, golfing in the evening makes for a more enjoyable round. I must say that the weather has noticeably improved from when I first arrived. The highs are still in the 30s but the humidity is less and the evenings are more in the high 20s.
Well, I'm sure I've bored you enough with my goings on. I will continue to provide updates however I promise to keep them a little more brief next time
Ryan
On Saturday, it will be one month since I left home to start our new family adventure. Its been so busy the time has really flown by.
A number of things have been accomplished since the last time i sent an email. I may refer to these items in the singular but don't think for a second that Carmen hasn't been key to these decisions. I wouldn't dare make these decisions without her ok
Place to live: A home for the next year (at least) has been selected. Effective mid November we will be residing in a nice 3 bedroom townhouse. Although we are giving up some space that we had back home, the compromise is that we live in a gated community area that has fantastic facilities, including a big pool, a kiddie pool, 3 tennis courts, a squash court, and a workout gym. Also within the complex, is a grocery store, hair salon, spa and a nice little restaurant….very self sufficient wouldn't you say. All these facilities are less than a block away from the house which will make it convenient for all. The house has a pretty decent back yard (especially for here in abu dhabi…most places don't have much of a yard) so we will be investing in a trampoline or play centre for the kids to play on. Since I've been gone, the kids have been sleeping in the same room in Canada and seem to be loving it. We'll continue this in Abu Dhabi which means the third bedroom will be wide open for all of you guests….who's going to the first?? Most of the schools that we are looking at for the kids are quite close which should make it convenient for them and Carmen. I will have approximately 25 minute commute into work each morning until we move into our new office building (approx Mar 2012) at which point the commute will be less than 15 min.
Vehicle: I finally got through the process to get my drivers license. It was a bigger process than I imagined, but I really shouldn't have been surprised. One of the things I've come to realize quickly is that Canada is not a favourite of the UAE. Due to some airline revenue battle between the local airline and Air Canada, the UAE government has made being a canadian here a little more bureaucratic. An example of this was when I went to get my drivers license, they required me to have the canadian embassy stamp a copy of my arabic translated license to verify its authenticity. This may seem reasonable being its an international license, but Canada is the only G20 country that is required to do this….can you say spiteful Anyway, after a couple of trips I was successful in getting my license. This opened up a number of doors….I was now able to drive and stop taking taxis everywhere. For the record, taxis are pretty affordable and were a good way to get introduced to the city without the stress of trying to figure out where I was going…..but now I wanted to be able to drive. Since I didn't have a specific car lined up, I decided to rent a car for the first month so that i could make sure I found the right vehicle for me. I did however find a Lexus SUV for Carmen and the kids. Due to the expat turnover in UAE there are lots of used vehicles. Like with any used car market, you can find a good deal is you're patient enough. I take possession of the SUV in the beginning of November.
Work: well….work is work….enough said
Furniture: Now that i have the house lined up, I needed to start looking for furniture for the house. When I started this process two weeks ago, I was actually pretty excited to do it (god only knows why..) but now, I just want it to be done. Similar logic to the vehicles, since there are lots of expat coming and going, there is a ton of used furniture available. This can make it more affordable but has introduced some other challenges. One, Ryan's ability to visualize a piece of furniture in the house is quite bad. I'm a numbers guy…not a creative bone in my body. Of course another challenge is to weed through the junk (that seemed nice on the internet but isn't) and find things that will go nicely together. Also you then need to coordinate a mover from each location that you purchase the used (buying new guaranteed delivery and installation). Add the complexity of taking pictures of each item, emailing them to Carmen, discussing them that evening and then in most cases starting over again the next day….hummm sound fun?? Joking aside, we've made pretty good progress so far. Something different here is that no places come equipped with appliances. Since this is consistent for all places, its pretty easy to find used appliances. So far I've landed a number of used items, all appliances (except dishwasher), bed and mattress for Carmen and I, couches and TV for living room. For the remaining items I've searched most of the stores in Abu Dhabi with limited success and have decided to go to Dubai this weekend to check out more stores. Hopefully it will be more successful!
Schools: As I mentioned earlier, we haven't decided on which school the kids will attend. There seems to be really good private schools here, mainly based out of Britian however we are also looking at a Canadian school (ironically with Alberta circulumn) and a French bi-lingual school. Part of the reason that we haven't confirmed yet is that most of them are already full with students and therefore we are on a wait list. The positive to the expat turnover is that school positions come available more often so we will know better as to which schools have availability by December.
Entertainment: Although its been quite busy, I have tried to spend some time seeing the city and some of the highlights. Abu Dhabi has an annual international film festival (similar to the Toronto film festival) for 10 days in October. There are no big actors to mention other than I saw Topher Grace in the opening of the movie "the Double" (also in the 70s show)..yeah I know…WHO?. Next month Abu Dhabi hosts one of a Formula One races. Although I'm not a race buff I think it will be interesting to take in. Similar to our experience in Cayman, there seems to be a lot of nice restaurants. The entertainment in the evenings often revolves around going for a nice supper. Of course, there are many ethic food options available, and I must say the Indian food is very delicious. The hotel I'm staying at has a great beach and gym facilities so I often spend my extra time (when I'm not anxiously looking for furniture) playing squash, hitting the pool or gym. I also tried golf for the first time this week. Due to being so close to the equator it gets dark by 6pm. Normally this would limit golf to the weekends, however, a couple of the courses in Abu Dhabi have 9 holes of night golf. Basically the entire 9 holes are surrounded by flood lights. Also with being so hot, golfing in the evening makes for a more enjoyable round. I must say that the weather has noticeably improved from when I first arrived. The highs are still in the 30s but the humidity is less and the evenings are more in the high 20s.
Well, I'm sure I've bored you enough with my goings on. I will continue to provide updates however I promise to keep them a little more brief next time
Ryan
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