Between Two Worlds

 Home... For now

Sunsets are not too bad here either - here being Berwick-Upon-Tweed

So we are back in the UK (at time of writing). However, this is only a very temporary state of affairs. We are heading back into the international circuit in a few days.

The situation is an usual one. Being here feels very much like being back home, but at the same time we know this is only for a matter of weeks. Getting comfortable is something we need to kind of guard against as we are not back permanently and need to set our sights on the next destination - the UAE - more specifically - Dubai.

Why Dubai? Well, it's a halfway house between staying in South East Asia and returning home. This will likely be our last international destination. Realistically we need to be closer to home as our families are reaching a stage where we absolutely need to be on hand and settled. We also recognise the need the permanence of roots and to find a school for Thomas to do his GCSEs. With the difficulties of getting postings in Europe thanks to our changed relationship with the EU the next most obvious international destination was the Middle East. It brings us a big step closer and creates a nice bridge between our South East Asian adventure and the UK.

I've written before about the advantages and challenges to living in South East Asia, but for us the distance was just too much in the end, particularly given our specific family context. South East Asia was brilliant and Penang in particular was something of a sweet spot (I encourage anyone reading this to visit Malaysia), but in the end 24 hours and several thousand pounds was involved in any visit to the UK and this was just untenable.

Now begins the next chapter - we have accommodation and have done as much research about how to set ourselves up in the UAE as possible, but it turns out that most of this can't be done without an Emirates ID, so I guess it's just wait and see. This is a bit of a contrast to our experience in Malaysia where we were able to do a massive amount in advance thanks in most part to the efforts of the HR officer at my school (thanks Santhi - you are brilliant) and our estate agent Eunice - who I would recommend to anyone at any time! 

In the UAE we are going to have to just hit and hope, but it looks like the school are pretty much set up for this - we aren't their first incoming teacher family!

There is a certain amount of trepidation in all of this and I feel woefully underprepared to walk into a brand new teaching position, but I'm sure I'll adapt. Honestly in nearly 25 years of teaching I've never really started a new term feeling prepared, so this will be no different.

So keep an eye out for updates from the Traveling Teacher in Dubai!

The view from just at the bottom of the hill where our current accommodation is located.