Considering a move to the UAE.

[SpunGirl]

Soo, husband and I are considering taking teaching positions in the UAE with a private company that runs a school for the children of its expat employees. I don't know anyone that has worked for this particular company and all I can find online are glowing reviews posted by the company itself, or disgruntled rants by some bozo who probably wasn't doing his/her job on non-affiliated sites.

Does anyone here have experience living as a US citizen in the middle east, anything to share? We're facing a choice now that we need to make by mid-January... move overseas next fall OR buy a new house while the economy is still in the shitter.

-K

[Warriorbird]

Soo, husband and I are considering taking teaching positions in the UAE with a private company that runs a school for the children of its expat employees. I don't know anyone that has worked for this particular company and all I can find online are glowing reviews posted by the company itself, or disgruntled rants by some bozo who probably wasn't doing his/her job on non-affiliated sites.

Does anyone here have experience living as a US citizen in the middle east, anything to share? We're facing a choice now that we need to make by mid-January... move overseas next fall OR buy a new house while the economy is still in the shitter.

-K

Sounds interesting.

[Whirlin]

I've worked out the middle east a couple times on short business trips, and I managed to spend a summer in Tokyo with some ex-pats...

All I can recommend is to be incredibly skeptical, and to learn as much as you possibly can on the position, what qualifies good work, bad work, etc. Remember that you likely won't be under US laws when it comes to employment protection, and you could be dropped suddenly with no recourse. Always have a backup plan to get back to the US in case of emergencies. You will be faced with anti-American racism, and a large amount of anti-woman sexism. Your husband will have a much easier time integrating. It's also incredibly important where in the UAE you move to. Large cities tend to be a lot more progressive than the smaller towns, and any adversity you face would be heightened as you move further away from the capital.

Make sure you understand the local economy, and know how much money you'll be making based on local currency rates, as the poor in the middle east make our poor look like kings. And there's no way for them to ever get out of their poverty.

[Archigeek]

I used to date someone who moved to the UAE and still lives there quite a few years later. She is an english teacher and her first school was one like you mentioned, and for the most part it seemed pretty nice. Equipment was first class. They had autocad loaded on all the PCs in the library at the junior high, and all the class rooms had state of the art equipment. Most parts of the UAE will be very accepting, particularly the large cities (Dubai especially). It's hard not to be accepting of expats when 90% of your population is expats. Of those expats, about 60% are from India. It's very unlikely you'll run up against anti-American sentiment in that particular country. The UAE is essentially a group of city-states, and each has its own laws. Some are dry, some are not, some it's even illegal to transport alcohol, some you can buy it at the liquor store. Most places you can buy it in restaurants. There are a ton of expats there, as I said, so you won't find yourselves alone. All the teachers hung out together and went on weekend vacations together to the Musandam Peninsula for SCUBA diving etc. They were very tight and seemed like a pretty great group of people. You'll find that alot of people who teach overseas do it as a vehicle for travel. They are travel nuts, and many of the ones you meet will have been all over the world. They're some pretty interesting people, though I'm not sure I want to date a nomad again.

You should expect good pay and benefits, and housing should be included in your pay. Make sure of that. As a two-fer, they should like you guys, because they will spend less per teacher on you. You should be able to squirrel away a good chunk of cash if your dilligent about it. Make sure the place is reputable though. There are entire websites dedicated to ESL teachers and their experiences at various schools and with various companies. Go to those and ask. They'll give you the straight scoop.

Apartments in the UAE are very nice: skim coated plaster on the walls that was as smooth as a baby's butt, granite floors, tall ceilings, workout center, pool on the roof, doorman. It was a nice place. You can pay someone to wash your car everyday, and if it needs repair, they come and get it for you and return it when they're done. Need to hire a car? I rented a car and driver for an entire day for about 50 bucks. At the time I was visiting, construction was going on everywhere. I suspect it has slowed down some, but I bet there's still alot going on. This was a bit of a pain in the ass at times. For example, the sewer system hadn't caught up to the housing developments. So her apartment building was pumped out every night.

In Dubai, there was every sort of Muslim and non-Muslim there for vacation at the amazing hotels, and shopping at the amazing malls or skiing at the indoor ski slope. The place is really quite incredible. The same was true at a desert oasis resort we visited. And the Arabs absolutely love 4-wheelers. Screw camels, they all want the latest Polaris with all the gear.

The UAE is also nicely centrally located and has a tremendous amount of air traffic that goes all over the world. It's a great hub for trips to Europe (same or similar time zone) and Southeast Asia and Africa and the rest of the Middle East.

The downsides: if you're religious and not Muslim, your choices for churces/synagogues/other places of worship will be very limited. There are some in Dubai, but not many. If you get let go, you'll have a limited amount of time to find a new job, after which you'll have to leave the country if you don't find work. Though with two of you, I'm sure if one of you quit or got laid off, the other could stay. There are also weird visa rules, but there are work-arounds. You'll possibly have to leave the country every month or two, but they accomodate that via a short drive to Oman and back.

[subzero]

I have no real insight to offer, but I don't think you could pay me enough to live over there regardless of what Archi said.

[Methais]

I hear the middle east is great this time of year.

The New Year's fireworks should be a sight to behold.

Here's some of last year's:
http://biznz.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/tucson-explosion.jpg
http://www.pyroworks.co.nz/images/services/special_effects/fireball2_700x434.jpg
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/9357/batman-4-building-explosion.jpg

[Archigeek]

Equating the threats in highly explosive countries (Iraq, Egypt, Syria) in the middle east to the UAE would be like equating the murder rate in Mexico with that of the US, except there isn't even a shared border in the case of the UAE. Take a look at a map. The UAE borders only two countries, Saudi Arabia and Oman, neither of which is in the midst of turmoil, plus, the border with Saudi Arabia is not one that anyone in their right mind would cross. It's just all frickin' sand and heat for as far as the eye can see. The Oman border is probably pretty porous, as that side of things gets somewhat mountainous/rocky, and there is a fair amount of border to border commerce there. It's a very safe place. In fact it's probably alot safer than the US. You do pay a price though if you're in to things like freedom of expression and what not. There is repression there, but so long as you don't go planning a march or a sit in, you aren't going to have a problem. The economy of the place is based on three things: oil, financial/trading, and tourism. They don't mess with westerners because they want westerners to come and spend money.

All that said, I think it's good advice to always have a backup plan for how to get the hell out of Dodge and to have a plan for how long you might stay. And unlike Saudi where things are pretty repressive vs women, in the UAE a western woman can walk around in normal clothing and no one would think twice, so long as you don't go into a mosque.

I considered moving there for the relationship, and based entirely on that, I'm glad I took a pass. If I had decided to go though, I probably would have been pretty eager about the large amount of nearly tax free income I could have made, all while someone else was covering my housing costs, and where services are very cheap. For example, the GF got her place cleaned once a week for 15 bucks. And when I say cleaned, I mean top to bottom, by the same woman every week, including the laundry which was all left immaculately pressed and folded. The woman was self-employed. I can't even pay the water bill here for that.

So the place is a long ways from perfect, but there are some advantages to living there. Best of luck with your decision, and do your research: CIA website, Wikipedia, and the aforementioned websites dedicated to ESL teachers.

[Androidpk]

It's not the UAE but it's close. I lived in Qatar for roughly 4 months and it was great. I went into Doha a few times and would highly recommend that you go there at least once.

[SpunGirl]

So literally 45 minutes after I posted this, a dude emailed me and we've spoken a little bit more with the recruiter that got in touch with us after we put in our applications. The company we're looking at has locations all over the middle east, but as of right now, the place they really want to put people is on a compound right outside Riyadh. The money is just stupid, like 4x what I'm currently making, and that's just ME. We're thinking that if we do this for five years, we would be able to put a lot away and come home to buy a pretty bitchin' house anywhere in the country we care to live, and then continue teaching until retirement.

My parents are pretty much working the opposite end of things getting us to stay, offering to put money towards a new (bigger) home purchase. You wouldn't believe what you can get in Vegas these days!

[Archigeek]

Riyadh is not the UAE. Saudi Arabia is a completely different deal with a different view on westerners and a much lower level of openness, and it's not the travel/vacation hub that Dubai is. I assume that the compound you're talking about is an oil company compound. You still need to take a very close look at the company and the complete compensation package, and pay particular attention to guaranteed flights home and lots of vacation time, because you'll need it. Personally I don't think I could handle 5 years in a compound, no matter how nice it is.

[Allereli]

I would not want to be a woman in Saudi Arabia.

[4a6c1]

Oh god no. Stay out of Riyadh.

[Fallen]

Woah. Just be careful there, Spun.