I'm re-upping! #AnotherYear #LivingTheDream

I turned in my form on Tuesday of last week (which is now 3 weeks ago).

It's official: I'm staying in Abu Dhabi for another year!

The debate has been going on for months. In fact, I came back this year expecting to stay just a year. That's why I'm not coming home for Christmas vacation--so I can maximize travel time before I leave the Middle East.

But the second year has been massively, fantastically, astronomically better than the first.

The very first day back was better than any given day that first semester of last year (with the exception of the day I flew home):
  • I knew how to get home
  • I knew where I was going
  • I knew how to talk to the taxi driver
  • My rental car was all set up for 10 a.m. that morning
  • When my apartment wasn't clean, I immediately email school, who immediately took action and within hours had my apartment restored to cleanliness
  • The culture shock had worn off
  • The wall of humid heat when I got off the plane didn't surprise me 
  • In fact, the heat in general did not bother me nearly as much this year as last. Perhaps that has something to do with state of mind...
  • I am starting the school year with my student and not picking up in the middle of the year
  • I have some friends here already
And that was only the first day.

Since then I have made some friends at church. I have gone to church and found I really love it. I have found the running people and been diving twice already.

I have been so lazy about writing because I'm too busy doing stuff, as usual. So soon there will hopefully be some old-but-new-to-you updates about the semester so far.

Being here now feels like I hoped it would when I moved over here--it just took a year to settle in!

Thank God for perseverance, friends and hope. I am so very blessed.

The first day of school for students

My rental car. A Chevy Spark--not quite a Jeep Grand Cherokee!
Carting my new furniture home-I bought it off a friend who's leaving.
The back of my school.

The view from my balcony on the 18th floor (if you crank your head to the right).

The living room in my apartment.

Looking toward the door in the living room.

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