how long did it take you to settle in?

KathyT feel free to email me at the address I listed below. I would love to meet up with anyone who is interested. Maybe we can start a "new to Dubai and lonely club" LOL

Nothing on or near Palm as far as I can see in way of EW meets, so would anyone be interested in meeting up informally at some point for cuppa to set ball rolling? Coco pops - am also in shoreline apt and loving it in main. 3boys - know jar and walk too, so would be happy to meet in your neck of woods too.

I go to the coffee morning in the golf club at Arabian Ranches - all the ladies i've met there have been very friendly and nice... http://arabianranchesladies.com/

Thanks for starting this thread Cocopops - I was nodding my head in agreement with most of what you had to say. I've been here two and a half months and still feel like I've moved to another planet. Do the ladies that have replied (who all sound very down to earth and nice) belong to a group/club? How do you go about meeting new people here?

we were here for 2 months then went on holiday for 2 months and have now been back for 1 month... we are not settled at all. i have a 3 1/2 yr old son and another son on the way due nov. 7th... so far i have enrolled my son in nursery and have found a dr. to deliver... and thats about it i dont have any issues with the "glam" thing... im not a "glam" person but at the same time i dont feel out of place... i also dont have a problem with the culture as we lived in kuwait for 3 years and have been to dubai many of times... but dubai is much different when you are here as a tourist... i was so excited to move here... its something my husband and i talked about for many years, but im finding it much more dificult here then i expected. i dont have a car, i dont know where to grocery shop, dont know where to get my hair done, i cant find certain things i need and when i do they are so expensive, i havent met a single sole... my husband works 6-7 days a week 10- 12 hrs a day (that part im used to because its been that way for 5 years) but it just makes it to where we dont get out of the house much, i get sick when i take a cab, and am not comfortable for my son to go in one without lugging his carseat around i thought when i signed my son up for school i would make friends (thats how i made my friends in kuwait) but that is not happeneing, it might have something to do with the area we live in... but i have not met ANY americans, let alone any that are around my age. i have met/seen a few british people but none that seem interested in befriending me. im hoping next year when my son starts kg1 it will be at one of the american schools and i can make some friends and maybe volenteer a little... only problem is i dont know how we will afford it, im currently trying to even get us on their waiting list and the pricing is outrageous. to top it off i dont even know how we will get our visas, my husband tried to get them but they want us to do all kinds of crazy stuff and send our documents to the head of state for approval stamps etc... with no real instructions... so we have to do visa runs every 30 days hopefully we will figure it out soon, we might wait until after we have the baby so we can just do all of ours at once. well now that im done complaining... i hope everyone eventually gets settled (as im sure i will) if anyone knows of a group where i can make some friends please let me know. i live in deira, and am 27 :)

3 boys: we took the kids to "The Walk" a few days ago in the evening and there were lots of people out there with their kids, seemed like a lively place. If you fancy meeting though I'm up for it,as I drive & I've stayed at JBR in the past so I know my way there :) I am definitely up for meeting for coffee or something sometime. During the day I generally have the little ones with me, evenings I can normally leave them with DH :) let's do an evening coffee that way we can relax and chill out without the kids for a change ;) let our hair down ;) ok so how do we exchange details without giving away that "air of mystery" about ourselves lol I have a "throw away" e mail I don't mind posting jenr8951 at gmail dot com msg me there and I will email you back from my "real" email

I found a website called Dubaimumsclub and there is a meet up for mums in just about every community you can think of, not an organized event like te EW one just a Mum posting to see if theres anyone else in her area kicking about during the day. I find that you can post something on that site and not get a response for months - its not ""alive" like this forum

I was really quite unhappy at first, the stress of all the paperwork, finding somewhere suitable to live, laying out money left, right and centre for items you already have back home, of a better quality too, people pushing in front of you at the supermarket etc etc. But the fact is after a few months all those things are sorted (apart from the queueing thing) and once the stressful stuff is put to bed you'll find friends. I found a website called Dubaimumsclub and there is a meet up for mums in just about every community you can think of, not an organized event like te EW one just a Mum posting to see if theres anyone else in her area kicking about during the day. I made 3 lovely friends and 9 months later we are still meeting regularly even though 3 out of 4 have got jobs now. At first you feel like you're going on a blind date, bit awkward finding things to talk about ( I just went for the shock factor of telling my child birth story). I m really glad I took the plunge and put myself out there like that as girl time is so important. I used to think I was quite glam compared to my fellow villagers in rural devon, since getting to Dubai I feel like I am at rate 0 on the glamour scale!

3 boys: we took the kids to "The Walk" a few days ago in the evening and there were lots of people out there with their kids, seemed like a lively place. If you fancy meeting though I'm up for it,as I drive & I've stayed at JBR in the past so I know my way there :) I am definitely up for meeting for coffee or something sometime. During the day I generally have the little ones with me, evenings I can normally leave them with DH :)

sgilli3 Thank you for posting that link for me. I have been in contact with them and am hoping to join. We unfortunately can't make their meet up this month but hope to go in the future. It looks like they are a great group. You're welcome. They are a fab group, and I have no doubt that you will enjoy getting together with them, and will make some wonderful friends too.

sgilli3 Thank you for posting that link for me. I have been in contact with them and am hoping to join. We unfortunately can't make their meet up this month but hope to go in the future. It looks like they are a great group.

3Boys- Read that you are homeschooling your boys and are struggling to meet others. Have you joined The Northern Emirates Homeschooling Association (NEHA?) There is a great group of homeschoolers who meet up for outings etc.It is a great group- very diverse range of ages and nationalities. http://uaehomeschool.wordpress.com/

CABear Where are you located? I have 3 boys (as my username might suggest :) ) ages 2, 3(4 next month) and 6.5 who would love to make some friends

I have been living here for just over 3 months and am feeling very isolated. I have two small boys (not going to school) and am pregnant with my third (maybe a girl this time?. I haven't got a car and find it difficult to explore without one. My husband is an exec. chef and we are finding his salary does not stretch as far as we hoped! So no budget for a second car, and find it difficult finding things to do for the boys that doesn't cost a lot of money. I have met a couple of wonderful people but their lives are busy so I don't see them often. I am interested in the coffee mornings but I have assumed they are not child friendly??

Thank you all for so many positives about living in Dubai! We are moving on out on sun and understandably apprehensive about uprooting our family. EW has been a huge help with gathering info about schools, where to live etc over the last couple of months but just recently I have had to stop reading the threads due to the bitchy and nasty comments that people feel they need to write on other peoples threads. I was beginning to think that there was no-one in Dubai who actually enjoyed living there!! I certainly will not be one of the glam set & have already signed up to be a brownie leader so as I can help my daughter settle and also so I can meet others who have been in the same position as me. I'm not stupid and I know that there will be hard times but I really hope that the good outweigh the bad! Thank you again ladies x

It didn't really take me long, but I've moved around almost constantly since I was very young so I can settle quite easily anywhere, though I haven't really made any close friends, I've been here the last 3 years. Meeting new people is a bit daunting. I'm too chicken to make it out to the EW coffee mornings even though they're withing walking distance of where I live lol.

KathyT We are in JBR, which is nice because there is a good deal of things I can walk to since I don't plan on driving here anytime soon, LOL. I'm trying to stay positive but its definitely rough right now. Kids and I have been constantly sick , belly issues, since we got here. *knock on wood* I think everyone is finally healthy so that is a plus. I also know I need to work on getting out of my comfort zone and exploring more but with 3 little ones being adventurous takes a good deal of planning :)

Cripes...I'd be even more intimidated by an EW coffee morning than a school mum one!! LOL!

Rounding up a couple of months now and still not settled but I think it will come with time. :) Had a really tough start as well because the second day we arrived, DD got chickenpox and DS got sick...so what a welcome!! lol Anyway, starting to feel a bit better, I guess we just have to find a rhythm and get into little routines. I know I was very negative when I first came and also felt not "glam"enough etc... However, I think that trying to change to positive thinking and giving everything a go will defintely help with settling in. Don't worry about those people that can't be bothered including you, etc (personally I think it's rude) but you know what... you probably wouldn't want to be friends with them anyway and you will meet people the longer you stay, you just have to dust yourself off and keep putting yourself out there. That's what I am planning to do anyway. ;) Hope that helps.

Cripes...I'd be even more intimidated by an EW coffee morning than a school mum one!!

Kathyt - EW organise coffee mornings every day at various locations...click on the list down the left... <em>edited by Sue62 on 22/09/2011</em>

We've been here 9 months and the bureaucracy involved in the first few weeks drove me crazy, even though I has alot of help from my company. We settled in very quickly after that, however the quality of our life has improved immeasurably; no long commutes, more family / quality time (becasue DH works from home), so I get to see DD every day now, we eat together in the evening (proper food, no micro meals) and socialise much more. I did worry about making friends and having 'enough' friends to have a social life, rather than hanging out with the same work colleagues although we now have a wide circle of friends (although I socialise more than DH who tends not to organise things). I work though so I might feel very different if I were at home and more isolated. Someone gave me the advice never to turn down an invite and that proved to be excelelnt advice...join everything you can. I even met the school mums for coffee even though school mums scare the you-know-what out of me!! :) Best of luck

around 6 years.! but now i love it.

We've been here for four weeks and I have to say it feels like four months. Starting kids at school, doing all the bureaucracy, starting to drive on these crazy roads, doing the grocery shopping, cooking dinners and the rest has all meant that haven't had a lot of time to dwell on the fact that I am friendless and in a totally different and often bizarre culture. Learning curve has been and still is very steep, but I think when I have time to sit back and contemplate me for a bit, I will have to accept that feeling at home will just take time. Like you, I am positive about the adventures ahead of us but certainly not settled yet. On a positive note, I do feel that each day, I learn something (good or bad) about my new home and that things do get a little bit easier. I am still getting frustrated about daily routine with no outlet in a social sense, but am trying to be philosophical about that. I have also, like you found some people quite unfriendly but I also found this in the uk so was expecting same here. There should be a way of new residents meeting up, don't you think? Like a kind of post natal group?? Does anyone know of anything like this? Where are you coco pops? I am on palm but kids at school in Jumeirah. As for the glam thing, well....getting kids to school for 7.30 and the rest of it....you have got to be joking. Might put some mascara on at weekend if going out for dinner and if I'm feeling like spoiling myself, might cut my toenails on a Friday!!! 3boys - I hope things get better. You have a lot on your plate with the homeschooling too. That would be an enormous task in your own country let alone here. Where are you too?

I've been here just over a year and I am definitely not settled and feel sad a lot. We've moved around and so am used to starting over which I've always enjoyed, but here, it's HARD! On the streets no one smiles or looks at each other. It's like everyone is telling you "you're on your own".

Glam? GLAM? Come round to my place any time before midday or any time after 3pm and you'll find me in my PJs, hair tied back, usually covered in whatever we had for breakfast or lunch :D. I know exactly what you mean, though - this place makes you feel underdressed if you don't look like you're going to the opera when you're standing at the meat counter in the supermarket. I got here a while ago when I was much younger and I hated it for three months. I was fully intending to leave at the six-month point when I didn't owe the company any money for bringing me over here. And... that was a long time ago. There are plenty of people who'll say hi then go back to their conversations like you don't exist. They suck. But as aroha says, in the end you'll be able to laugh at them (and do take her up on the offer - I can guarantee she is as normal as they come!). Just remember the glam ones are probably the ones who'd be in their full make-up and gladrags to do the school run at home so nobody knows what they're really like. That's the beauty of this place for these types - nobody knows where you came from! Not sure about the 'normal' bit DC :D but thank you, lol! the email is there, if anyone needs a bit of help meeting new friends just let me know.

It took me about 18 months to feel merely indifferent about this place (leagues ahead of the first 9 months of hating everything about it)... and now, 3 years on, yeah, it's ok. DH and I were talking last night and we both feel that if we had to leave next month, we could both do so without feeling any kind of pang. Don't get me wrong, I've got great friends here (/waves), have met some interesting people and seen some interesting places and like the perks, but there are so many frustrations that just don't need to exist in my life and so many underlying issues that I'm conveniently just blanking out (that's me having found out how not to hate the place)... and ultimately, I don't want to live like this. I've somehow managed to survive 30 years without cheap mani-pedis, brunches and buffets and if I ever get to the stage where superficial things like that are the main drivers for staying in such a place, you can officially come and shoot me. As CT says, the big change is in your mind. I wanted to desperately find... something... roots, integration, cultural understanding... I don't know. Flitting around in an expat bubble wasn't what I'd hoped our move to be about... but then, I accepted that Dubai couldn't give me those things, but could give me a swimming pool, cheap mani-pedis and buffets... along with travel opportunities. Basically, make the most of what Dubai has to offer and try not to pine after what it can't. Treat every week as if it's your last because we are all transient, so go explore the region, do stuff... all that, really!