From One Nest to the Next

I like moving but only if it means moving forward. When I came over to Dubai, it was a forward career move in terms of expanding my horizons even if I started back as a junior in marketing…understandably so. Everybody here no matter how much experience one has will not matter to veterans. As far as they’re concerned, you have to prove yourself before they consider promoting you.

Right! Apparently, it also applies to finding my comfortable living space and so far, I moved three times in a span of 16 months. Back home, I had my own room, my own bed and, I was surounded by my own stuff. Lots of comfort there. When I arrived in Dubai I had to be a bedspacer and it was all I could afford because living space is just way too expensive. When I rented a one-bedroom condo unit with a friend in the heart of central business district in the Philippines, we were paying about AED 800 per month. In Dubai, I was paying AED 650 per month as a bedspacer. Fortunately for me, my first time as a bedspacer was pleasant. I lived with a Filipino father and son and their partners. Each couple has their own space. I stayed with a friend in a room and it happened we were the first inhabitants of a more or less 24 square meter room. The room can cram six people on three double deck beds, each to share a closet which I think is good for one, and space enough to make a beeline to our own beds. I lived there for about nine months and when I left, there were five girls living in which now looked like a tenement. The lower decks were curtained off to provide privacy and a semblance of owning a room. Each deck also houses personal stuff accummulated over time like bags, utility shelves, hair dryers, hair irons, laptops, etc. while leaving space to lie on for sleeping.

It was getting stuffy for me so I left Dubai and moved to Sharjah for two reasons. One was I needed to be nearer to work and the other was to have my own room even by paying AED 100 more. Well, more like my own space since the room I got was actually a partition…a living room walled off to make up another room in a two-bedroom unit. Like my previous accommodation, I can freely use the washing machine, put food in the refrigerator and, use the kitchen stove and kitchen paraphernalia for cooking.

I wasn’t totally happy to live in that partition so when my friend invited me to share a real room, I moved in with her after about four months. My living conditions were getting better now even if my rent increased by AED 300 more. I still have all the creature comforts and I even get to watch cable from our landlord’s TV. The only problem was the whole flat has centralized air conditioning and the landlord controls when it is on or off. That really became a problem for us despite our request not to turn it off while we’re still in the room. We told them we will turn it off before leaving for work. Our reasonable request fell on deaf ears and by chance, our landlady overheard our nasty talks about them. That earned us an untimely eviction and most unfortunate for me, it fell on my birthday. So, we haven’t even enjoyed living there for three months and we found ourselves looking for another place to stay.

We spent a week searching for a new place and we were forced to take a room two days before our eviction. The room happens to be bigger than our last, the flat also has centralized air conditioning but the other residents are totally respectable on not turning off the air conditioning while someone is still in the house. We’re paying AED 2,200 for the room per month. It’s still walking distance from work and every now and again, we can catch someone’s wi-fi signal and use it for free.

Thus, so far, my experience of moving from one accommodation to another has always been a move to a better living space although hassle-full. I also realized that it’s really not the place I come home to that can de-stress me but the company I have. Going home to people I get along very well with, laugh my heart out with, chat the night away with, or talk about the future with can be totally relaxing and give me a much needed fitful sleep. Moving is not as simple as it sounds so let me share that in my next blog.