Move to the Middle East. Crazy? Absolutely. Nuts? 100% A cool adventure? That too.
I interviewed through a company called Teach Away and in just 2 weeks I will be flying away from the States to live in the UAE. Hopefully in Abu Dhabi. Some of the details are not set in concrete yet. Which I keep trying to convince myself is part of the allure and the fun of the adventure and not the stress producing events that lead me to wondering "What the heck do you pack when you don't know what city you'll be in or grade you'll be teaching?" Hmmm...
Did I mention I am also packing up to leave my house and visit my parents this Monday? As in two days from now Monday. Looking around my house there is still so much to do. Not to mention the mail forwarding, address changing, going to be gone two years kind of things to do.
Part of my to do list looks like:
- Create new account of cheaper incoming overseas transfer (to still allow me to pay US bills in US currency)
- Order enough contacts for a year (and, gulp, receive them in time)
- Weed through my important paper documents
- List out my potential tax things for next April, seeing how I will be trying to do them from the UAE
- Get a VPN on my computer -- I need to Skype!
- Make duplicate house and mailbox keys, just in case
- Buy a car cover
- Sign up all my bills for paperless statements and auto payments (after setting up a new bank account)
- Sort through my clothes for appropriateness (my personal version of What Not to Wear)
- Order a new UAE friendly powersupply cord for my computer
Next on my list would be getting ready to go see some of my girlfriends for one last outing. Then home to tackle a few more things off the list!