Dubai Life as I Lived It - Friends

I know I am not that friendly but I know how to keep people in my life. I guess I have been taught to know who I want to be friends with and who to get rid of.

People come and go of course but somehow, these people leave a mark in your life. Both marks could either be good or bad – but still a mark.

I have had good friends – people that I treated as family since living abroad is not that easy. People that somehow knew me and saw through me at least in a manner that they know me.  But have you noticed I used the “have had” in the beginning? Yes, we do no connect anymore. They knew me and saw right through me like

I met families and couples that lived here for a good time. Families that have dreams and are slowly creating a little world in a land that’s thousands of miles away from home.  People that I have become familiar with and somehow treated me like family and not a stranger. Working folk that I have considered to be friends.

Friends are important to be a support system and shock absorber while living abroad. Home-sickness, work-stress and all kinds of pressures can get into you and these people.

How can one get friends? I don’t know. Actually, I know a good number of people that can somehow be considered a good circle or connections. But of course, not all of them can be considered as a friend. What does it take to be considered a friend while living and working abroad?

Do you have to have the same salary bracket? Does it follow to have the same interests? Is daily quality time an important aspect to be considered a “Best Friend”? Or just a simple connection is all it takes to be friends while hustling this amazing city?

They say that you would know who the real friend is when that person is there for you in your darkest, lowest moment in life. But does it have to reach to that point to know that this person is a friend?

Since coming to Dubai, I have had a good number of friendships that faded. Connections I have had with people that somehow grew far apart. Still, the respect is there but of course – communicating through social media. Friendship while being an expat is hard but it makes the experience worth while.

Dubai Life as I Lived It - I remember

Remembering what everything was like.

Since coming to Dubai, I have never seen myself suffer in the changes, challenges and obstacles that one has to face on a daily basis. These things helped me grow mature and somehow “scarred” me.

Imagine moving to a place where everything is unsure and the only thing that is sure is the fact that everything is unsure. See how confusing it is? I am writing this in total recall yet everything for me was a “BLAH!”. But for the sake of having to tell my story on how I am doing in Dubai, I’m trying to flip open all possible dots that could somehow connect my life from the past to the present.

I remember trying to check the amount I will be sending back to the Philippines given that my salary was of a humble amount but is not given on time.

I remember trying to budget a bag of Spanish Bread for 3-4 days for my lunch at work. I would buy a box of instant coffee and store it in my drawer in the office. Consuming one stick a day and trying to smile above all these. Back then the Metro was the only mode of transport I get. I seldom get into taxis in the thinking that this will never let me survive.

I remember trying to extend my salary to more than a month since we don’t get it on the dot. It is always delayed and sometimes doesn’t come for more than 3 weeks to a month. I remember my officemates and I share 5 dirhams just to make sure one gets to the office so no one can get a deduction for the monthly salary that doesn’t come at the end of the month.

I remember going to work on a weekend – wasted to the level that I felt that throwing up in the bathroom was the agenda for that day. I drank the night before with a mind-set that I will never have a regular weekend off since my job doesn’t allow me too.

I remember walking in the cold winter breeze at 7 in the morning going to the train station then realizing that the breeze was too much. I didn’t take the taxi as I can’t afford it. And even if I can, it may be my last bill and have to wait for the next uncertain salary date.

I remember being asked in the mall “Do you want to buy something?” and inside I would rephrase the question to “Can I afford to buy something?”

I remember waking up to the sound of my alarm clock, going down from my bunk bed and realizing that tears have flown down my cheeks. Bewildered about the idea that I am working but not getting paid in a city that somehow can offer everything – including a good reflection about life – at a certain price. A humble amount that I not getting.

When I was new, I was taken away by the dream; the promise of life and the comfort to the sound of the phrase “Living the Dubai Life”. It was a ride that changed me.