We arrived to Dubai a week ago. The hot Dubai summer weather jumped to our face when we got out from the airport and believe me, it really did felt hot! My glasses went all misty and I couldn’t see at all for a while. After a week living here we are already used to the hot weather and it is not all that bad that what we thought it would be.
Arrival at the villa
So we arrived to our villa around 5 am on last Thursday. We were all so tired – we had almost 12 hours of travelling behind us and just wanted to get to sleep. After all kinds of fuss around 6 am our bed sheets were on their place and we got to lay down! We slept sooo good until the middle of the day and then we took our first trip to our community center. We had a really good lunch at one of the restaurants there (at this point I have learned that the food here in restaurants are really good!).
After lunch we got some food and other necessary supplies at the Carrefour store and headed back to villa. It took a little while to find what was needed, because almost every product was totally new brand to me and even most of the familiar brands products are having a little different products here too.
Waiting for our poodle to arrive to Dubai
Our poodle flew first to Amsterdam and he spent one night there. His flight from Amsterdam to Dubai departed at Thursday afternoon and landed on Dubai around 12am. I couldn’t sleep properly that night, I was so nervous that something was going to go wrong and that he wouldn’t get to Dubai.
The last minute panic
This point is good time to tell about a little last minute panic we got regarding importing our dog, because this last minute panic was the reason I was so nervous waiting up him to arrive. We had scheduled to take Kaapo (our poodle) to the airport on Wednesday morning. At Tuesday afternoon/early evening we got a message from our agency in Dubai that the health certificate isn’t what it is supposed be and Kaapo wouldn’t be released to country with that certificate.
I panicked, I mean REALLY panicked. Thank god my husband could stay calm at that point and then talked to the agency here in Dubai. We received a template that should be filled in and stamped by the official vet in Finland. In our home city there is this official vet 24h duty and she luckily could fill in the correct health certificate at Tuesday evening and then we were good to go.
Luckily we found this super agency, Sandy Paws to help us importing our poodle in Dubai, they helped us so much even with this last minute panic. So thank you Sandy Paws again ❤ I can really recommend this agency if you ever need to relocate your pet in Dubai.
Kaapo arrived to Dubai safely!
But back to last Thursday. I had set my alarm at little earlier than when Kaapo’s flight was about to land. But I woke up like half an hour before the alarm went off. Then I just waited information about Kaapo. The agency was so great again, they kept me informed all the way of the importing process and also sent me videos and pictures.
Around 3.30 am Kaapo finally arrived to our new home and he was so happy! The tail went all grazy when he saw me and the happy jumping just wouldn’t stop.
Look at this little furry face ❤ We are so happy that Kaapo is here with us. I think he already feels like home in here, he is sleeping around like he has always used to – paws towards the sky.
Great news about the school!
At June we had a little set back from the children school, we were put on the waiting list. But on last Wednesday, about 2 hours before we left to airport I received a call and they asked if we are still interested about that school. And of course we were!
I was so relieved! Our children now have places in one of the Gems school in Dubai, exactly the one we wanted them to go. It is a totally new school that will open this fall and have British curriculum.
There is still a lot of paperwork to do regarding the school and of course I am anxious about all this. When I feel relieved about something that I was anxious about earlier my brain will find new things to be anxious about. I just hate my head some days! But maybe all this anxiety is quite normal at this situation, there are so many new things to learn and so many official papers to fill.
All kinds of official paperwork and new things to getting used to
So now there is a lot of paperwork still ahead of us, but we have finally arrived to Dubai! At this point we have learned that it is very important that all the official paperwork needs to look official and needs to be stamped with official stamps. It just takes a little time to get used to all these kinds of stuff and I think it is also good that they are so precise with the official papers, that way everyone can be sure that they really are official papers.
One thing that is also taking time to get used to is that in Dubai you can order everything to your door. I can order for example groceries from our nearest store and the delivery is in about an hour. I ordered coffeemaker and vacuum cleaner from Amazon and they were delivered to my door. Also wine can be ordered with delivery to my door.
So all kinds of things that are taking some time to get used to. The villa are starting to feel like home, I just have a huge urge to decorate this to look like more of us. But everything at a time, these official matters are more important right now than decorating.
Read the earlier blog posts here.
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