Most Expats’ Silent Realization After a Year in the UAE.

Something strange happens to many people about twelve months after they come to the Emirates.

Initially, everything seems temporary. The buildings look like a dream. The heat is very uncomfortable. Even the grocery stores are not like the ones you are used to. You tell yourself you are only going to stay here for a short period – maybe two years. Spend some money, see Dubai, then move on.

However, little things start to change.

You begin to see the same barista every morning. The Pakistani grocery store owner around the corner can tell you the exact type of bread you buy. Your phone book includes numbers of people whose families grew up in five different countries.

One night while you are driving along Sheikh Zayed Road, the skyline shining under that weird pink-orange desert sunset, you suddenly realize quietly:

You have come to consider this place as normal.

This thought doesn’t just occur. It takes time.

The UAE operates at a very different pace. It is fast ambitious at times even chaotic, yet strangely very stable. It is quite unusual for you to walk through a city and see it changing in front of you. Skyscrapers go up, new shops open, and whole districts have their character changed within a few years.

Thanks to the very international population, at all times you would be surrounded by different perspectives. A single dinner time discussion could feature a Lebanese, an Indian, a UK resident and a person who has grown up in the Emirates.

In fact, after a certain time, that diversity not only stops feeling like an exotic but starts feeling like…normal.

Long-time residents put it this way: The UAE is like a live course on inter-cultural living. You pick up the skill of interpreting different social cues, working with different ways of thinking, and the appreciation of the fact that people’s lives unfold in many different ways.

Admittedly there are some challenges. The price of living might be a shock to the uninitiated. Summer will try your tolerance. Plus, the constant transforming of the place could sometimes bring a sense of transience to it.

Still, the fact that millions of people are continuously making the decision to stay is something that can not be ignored.

Opportunity accompanied by a fairly stable environment is what the UAE is providing – and this duo is becoming very scarce in the world. If you are prepared to change, work hard, and remain receptive, here it will be noticed and appreciated.

In fact, that two-year plan a lot of expats make before coming here, gets stretching into something much longer time wise.

Five years. Ten years.

Sometimes even a whole life.