In June I read Dubai-Gilded Cage, and learned a great deal. I started reading City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism soon after but it didn’t capture me like the first book I read. So I started searching for blogs and found Englishman in Dubai. What a wonderful read. Englishman in Dubai is a blog about, Aaron a British expat who leaves everything he knows behind. The story starts out in UK, detailing the process of moving to another country: selling his car, shipping his stuff, etc.
Aaron not only blogs about his trips and observations about the Dubai, but he tells about his travels to other countries, does movie and technology reviews (he works in the technology industry), which keeps his blog interesting and funny.
I leave today and I am excited and scared at the same time. These are the main things that I’m worried about:
1. I won’t find a job.
2. My roommate and I won’t get along.
3. I’ll gain weight.
Surprisingly, getting kidnapped, jailed, or hurt, is the least of my worries. After four years in college, if I don’t get a job, I will be extremely depressed. Recruiting season for accounting is during the fall, so studying abroad is making me miss recruiting season. I’m hoping my skills, and the recommendations I have from the accounting professors, as well having studied abroad (which not many accounting students have done), will offset the disadvantage of not being in the States during recruiting season. Some companies are willing to do Skype and phone interviews. Some are not. Either way, I’m sure I’ll find something, whether in Dubai, or the U.S.
The last time I lived in a dorm was when I was a freshman, and after that experience, I thought that was the last time I would ever live in a dorm. I’d rather live with my parents than in a dorm (that’s how much I don’t like dorms). Besides sharing a bathroom with 40 people, and the random vomit on the weekends, I also had roommate problems.
My roommate and I were good friends, until we moved in together. We had a lot of problems, but our biggest was communication. Since we were friends for so long, we expected each other to know what the other was thinking. Instead of talking to each other about what we wanting to change, we would just complain to our other friends.
We had a lot of other problems, which I think were mostly because we were both unwilling to change our lifestyle to accommodate each other. Since I am older now, I see what I could have done better, and I think a lot of the things that happened were my fault. I was selfish and mean sometimes, and I didn’t even realize it.
Anyway, sorry about the rant, but I hope my new roommate is nice, and I will do my best to get along with her and adjust my habits according to her needs. I will not find out who she is/where she’s from until I get there. It will have been nice to text and facebook her before my arrival. No matter where she’s from, even if she’s from America, I know that she will be completely different from me, and it will be a great experience.
How easy is it to gain weight when living in a dorm? Very. At UC, my freshman fifteen was a freshman twenty-five (I might be exaggerating a little). I had been constantly gaining weight and I was in denial (I thought I shrunk my pants haha). I thought I could keep eating the way I had been when I was a child. Boy was I wrong! After my size 18 pants were too small, I realized that I had to change, and I did. In about a year, I went from 220lbs to 160lbs. From a size 18 (actually 20) to a size 12.
Everyday is a struggle. You have to fight cravings everyday. It is easier for me to workout four days a week than it is for me to eat healthy. And it’s funny because diet is the most important part of weight loss. You could be killing yourself in the gym, but if you’re not eating right, you won’t see any results.
Anyway, at AUD, we are not allowed to have microwaves in our room. We have a fully equipped kitchen, which is shared between the whole dorm. This is quite an adjustment. Not only will there be no microwave in my room, but I might have to wait in line just to fix a meal!
Also, I do not cook. Yes, I am 21 and I have survived the past four years solely by the use of microwaves. Surprisingly, you can eat pretty healthy without having to cook. I just recently realized that I’ve been eating 3000mg of sodium per day because of the frozen chicken and canned vegetables that I’ve been eating. Sodium can really hold you back when it comes to weight loss.
So over the past couple of weeks, I been cooking my chicken and buying frozen vegetables. When in Dubai, I will by Jillian’s Master Your Metabolism cookbook, along with The New Rules of Lifting for Women. I was using workout tapes before joining the gym in the summer, but my room is too small to workout in so I will use AUD’s rec center.
I leave today, at 7:45 pm. I am afraid. I have no idea what my future holds. In January, I might be working in Dubai, or I might be working in Miami. Who knows, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am almost there!
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