I've officically completed my first week here in Dubai. I can't believe it's only been a week and at the same time, I can't believe how fast the week has gone by.
I absolutely LOVE my job, my colleagues and my boss. I can't remember the last time, if ever, that I was able to say that in truth. I think I never really felt like my job fit my capacity or direction. For the first time, this one fits both, and in such a gracious way. The principle of Delta Lighting (his name is Ziad, for future referencing) has completely taken me under his wing. I feel like I "get" this man. I think we already have a very strong rapport, appreciation of each other and mutual respect. He literally treats me as if he had been dog-paddling in the middle of the ocean for a day, and somehow someone threw him a lifesaver, and it's me. Yesterday, he took me aside to let me know how glad he is that I came and how much I've already contributed in such a short amount of time. It was really a wonderful end to my first week at work.
I wasn't quite sure what my job was going to fully look like. It has been my experience that frequently when a person in a management position (and who has been there solely, and for quite some time) requests management assistance, it's rarely relinquished to the new person very easily or without hesitation. My situation here could not be more opposite. Not only does Ziad have no "ego" attached to the managing of the company, he completely and totally makes me feel like he has full trust in me and my capabilities--which gives me a dual feeling of gratitude and fear at the same time. I'm obviously grateful that someone sees me this way, but there is that inherent fear that I will somehow let him down or disappoint him in some way. I think that's normal, but I certainly am working to repress those thoughts as much as possible.
Another "first" this week was the heart attack that I had as I spent every evening after work looking for a place to live that wasn't going to literally cost me an arm or a leg, or the promise of my firstborn child. I had no such luck. The rents are in excess of triple the amount that I paid in San Diego. I could buy a small car each month for what I will pay to rent a 1600 sf flat. I did, however, completely fall in love with a place, so at least I have a "home" now and one that I am extremely excited about. However, whatever vertical financial step I thought I had made by moving here might have been stunted significantly by the most basic living expense.
Today, it's my first Friday completely to myself. Friday here, means Saturday at home. Our work week is Sunday thru Thursday, which has taken some time to get used to but was a pleasant surprise yesterday (on Thursday), when I realized my first week of work was over.
I'm at the beach for the first time today. It's stunningly beautiful. Moreso than I imagined. I stepped off of a very dirty, dusty concrete Dubai road and into a park that was covered with brilliant greenery and fuschia bouganvilla trees. I could have easily been in Balboa Park, only there was turquoise ocean in front of the park, peeking at me beneath the trees.
I stepped off of a little Indonesian looking bridge onto a patio and then into the fine white beach. I looked around to see palm trees growing right out of the sand populated with dots of sunbathers seeking shade lying beneath them. Red and white umbrellas lined the edge of the water, which was clear and blue and stunningly beautiful. I couldn't believe this was where I would spend the day...not on vacation, but in my new home city. It was my favorite 'first' since being here as of yet, although I can't get enough of them (the "firsts").
"Firsts" are what I love about traveling. Seeing something or someone new for the first time---hearing a new dialect, tasting a new cuisine; having a brand new experience, after thinking you couldn't possibly see anything else in your life that would truly 'stun' you. And then something else does...and another....and another. It makes me feel young and inexperienced......humble and small, which is always a refreshing way to feel.
My ex used to call me "insatiable" in Life...and the way he used it wasn't positive. I guess in a lot of ways that is true about me---I do love to experience new things and I'm rarely captivated enough by one experience to not reach for another one. This is what Life is about for me. Is that wrong? I don't want to have been given the amazing gift of breath on this earth and then have used it all in one place. I think for me, it doesn't feel like being 'insatiable' is in any way tied to being ungrateful. For me, it's about being SO grateful that I want to keep experiencing the gift that I have. It's the difference between the child that receives and then puts a gift up on a shelf behind a glass case, and the one that carries it with them everywhere they go, because they can't stand the thought of being without it. I want to carry my gift with me far and wide. I want, at the end of my life, for it to be completely tired and worn out...like the precious stuffed animal that has lost it's eye and stuffing and has the ear hanging on by a thread. If that's what being "insatiable" means...I'm up for that label. And I'm definitely up for continuing to see more and more "firsts".
But for now, I'm really enjoying the "first" I'm currently in, sitting here at the beach with my toes in foreign sand, with myriads of dialects going on around me and even in the being of another "first", I feel at oddly "at home".
