For me and my little family, January 1st 2009 was ushered in really quickly with a little break between preparing my luggage, organizing a bunch of papers and coming close to panicking, as only 5 hours into the new year I was heading to the airport to move to Dubai.
The one great thing about traveling on January 1st and so early in the morning is that not that many people are mad enough to do it, and so I ended up on a Tunisair A319 Airbus plane with only 22 other passengers, which meant more space for everyone, and a more pleasant flight.
Almost 6 hours later I landed at the Dubai International Airport, where things went quite smoothly. Once out of the airport though, it took me a while to get to the company apartment as the taxi driver had no idea where it was. Anyway, once there I was greeted with an awesome view from the apartment balcony. The bad thing though is that there’s no way I’ll be able to get a view like it when I actually rent an apartment of my own.
On my second day here, just 24 hours after landing in the city, I got to attend my first meetup, which was a WordPress meetup, where I got to meet a bunch of cool people, some I already met last time I was here, others I only knew online through Twitter, and some I was getting to know for the first time.
Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, was also present at the meetup, so it was really cool to meet him here.
I also got to check out the Ibn Battuta mall really quickly yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised to see they had a Tunisia-themed court, which was pretty cool.
Anyway, my main priority now is to get my residency sorted out quickly so I can sponsor my wife and son to join me here asap. I’ll also be on the lookout for some good/cheap apartments in the areas around Dubai Internet City, so if anyone knows of any good deals, do let me know.
Another point on my mind is getting a driver’s license to be able to get a car; I’m hoping that won’t be much of a pain.
Other than that, I’m looking forward to the adventure that is living and working in Dubai, hoping it will be some good fun and that I’ll be meeting lots and lots of very interesting people.
