I own a house, a car and have other financial obligations. It is orders of magnitude more difficult to manage these things from abroad. I now wish I had only a suitcase when I first arrived on the Emirate’s shores.
There is an old saying “You can never go home again”. Roughly meaning that the traveler and/or the ones the traveler left back at home have fundamentally changed to the point where things just aren’t the same. I am concerned about this. I want things to be the same but I fear they will not. My experiences as an expat in the U.A.E. and those of my significant others back in America have profoundly differed in the last two years.
I have new attitudes and a fresh appreciation of the world. I hope these are understood by my “homeys”.
So my excitement of going back to my homeland is mixed with some anxiety. I am flexible and hope for the best. I will let you know how it goes. My next column will be from the state of Utah, U.S.A.
– Randy Parker
Randy has been a resident of Abu Dhabi since August, 2008 and works in the travel industry. He has a blog at: http://expatuae.blogspot.com/
