Final exams are over. Campus is quieting down as some students leave for home, even as others hunker down and gear up for summer term. The internet is running noticeably faster these days with the reduced student population no longer hogging the bandwidth. Gardening and maintenance crews are hard at work in University City, sprucing things up just in time for graduation ceremonies later this week.
Yes, summer is here. Even disregarding all of the above, I know this because two weeks ago it was 117 degrees outside.
These days, the questions on any expat educator's lips - and a lot of expats who aren't educators - are: where are you going this summer, and when do you leave? I've heard that the traffic and activity levels in Sharjah and Dubai slow noticeably during July and August as those with somewhere else to go, go there, for the duration. So, will we be part of this summer exodus, or not?
Well, it looks like not. We're determined to stick it out at home in the UAE this summer. This decision has puzzled a lot of people, bringing on such follow-up questions as:
You're not going to visit the US?
Nope. No plans to, anyway.
So you're really staying here the whole summer?
Yeah, but we're allowing for the possibility of a shorter, regional vacation, or a staycation, to break up the monotony.
Don't you miss your families?
Thanks for suggesting that we do not at all mourn the loss of a good, fun, summer-long romp with the cousins and grandparents. YES, WE MISS OUR FAMILIES. On the other hand, we just saw them not quite a year ago. And they are never going to come visit if we cave and go see them instead, right?
But wait, I thought Jeremy's job paid for annual leave tickets...
Well, it does. But guess what you get if you don't go anywhere? The money instead of the tickets. Imagine, if you will, the cost of a roundtrip ticket from Dubai to the western United States. Now multiply that by four. Now think of that sum sitting in your bank account every time you get a little bit bored this summer. Yeah.
Will you ever go visit your families in the US?
Of course! Next summer, for sure.
To be honest, abstaining from a carefree American summer with the extended family does break my heart a little (or a lot) every time I think of it. It seems especially cruel when you consider that we could have the airfare paid for if we wanted it. When Jeremy accepted this job, it seemed like a no-brainer: of course we'd go to the US every summer! But earlier this year when we were making plans, when we considered in depth the realities of the living hell that is jetlag with kids (it lasts two full weeks, folks), and the fact that it's our first year here so this summer can be a kind of fresh adventure, and that we have moved around SO DANG MUCH our whole married lives in general, and the last two years specifically...well, we realized that it's in the best interests of our family to just stay put, just this one summer.
Think of it this way: it will be the first summer in eight years that we haven't moved somewhere else. So this summer at home in the UAE will be a gift to ourselves, a gift of lazy, hot days ending at the pool - every night if we want to. A gift of no suitcases, no boxes to pack, no transatlantic flights, no shifting awkwardly as a family of four in our childhood bedrooms, no jet lag (hallelujah!), a rest from a change of scenery that, while fun, is sometimes disruptive for our kids.
Meanwhile, I'm making a mental list of all the things I will miss deeply this summer - the requisite trip to Enchanted Forest, bingeing on all the library books I can't get here, and reading them while grandparents and aunts and uncles tend my children, watching the cousins play together, and hanging out with my own siblings and siblings-in-law. Maybe some hikes, maybe a race, definitely some camping, maybe WARRIOR DASH.
Keeping all these things in mind will make next year's trip to the US all the more meaningful.
Yes, summer is here. Even disregarding all of the above, I know this because two weeks ago it was 117 degrees outside.
These days, the questions on any expat educator's lips - and a lot of expats who aren't educators - are: where are you going this summer, and when do you leave? I've heard that the traffic and activity levels in Sharjah and Dubai slow noticeably during July and August as those with somewhere else to go, go there, for the duration. So, will we be part of this summer exodus, or not?
Well, it looks like not. We're determined to stick it out at home in the UAE this summer. This decision has puzzled a lot of people, bringing on such follow-up questions as:
You're not going to visit the US?
Nope. No plans to, anyway.
So you're really staying here the whole summer?
Yeah, but we're allowing for the possibility of a shorter, regional vacation, or a staycation, to break up the monotony.
Don't you miss your families?
Thanks for suggesting that we do not at all mourn the loss of a good, fun, summer-long romp with the cousins and grandparents. YES, WE MISS OUR FAMILIES. On the other hand, we just saw them not quite a year ago. And they are never going to come visit if we cave and go see them instead, right?
But wait, I thought Jeremy's job paid for annual leave tickets...
Well, it does. But guess what you get if you don't go anywhere? The money instead of the tickets. Imagine, if you will, the cost of a roundtrip ticket from Dubai to the western United States. Now multiply that by four. Now think of that sum sitting in your bank account every time you get a little bit bored this summer. Yeah.
Will you ever go visit your families in the US?
Of course! Next summer, for sure.
To be honest, abstaining from a carefree American summer with the extended family does break my heart a little (or a lot) every time I think of it. It seems especially cruel when you consider that we could have the airfare paid for if we wanted it. When Jeremy accepted this job, it seemed like a no-brainer: of course we'd go to the US every summer! But earlier this year when we were making plans, when we considered in depth the realities of the living hell that is jetlag with kids (it lasts two full weeks, folks), and the fact that it's our first year here so this summer can be a kind of fresh adventure, and that we have moved around SO DANG MUCH our whole married lives in general, and the last two years specifically...well, we realized that it's in the best interests of our family to just stay put, just this one summer.
Think of it this way: it will be the first summer in eight years that we haven't moved somewhere else. So this summer at home in the UAE will be a gift to ourselves, a gift of lazy, hot days ending at the pool - every night if we want to. A gift of no suitcases, no boxes to pack, no transatlantic flights, no shifting awkwardly as a family of four in our childhood bedrooms, no jet lag (hallelujah!), a rest from a change of scenery that, while fun, is sometimes disruptive for our kids.
Meanwhile, I'm making a mental list of all the things I will miss deeply this summer - the requisite trip to Enchanted Forest, bingeing on all the library books I can't get here, and reading them while grandparents and aunts and uncles tend my children, watching the cousins play together, and hanging out with my own siblings and siblings-in-law. Maybe some hikes, maybe a race, definitely some camping, maybe WARRIOR DASH.
Keeping all these things in mind will make next year's trip to the US all the more meaningful.