It has already been over 6 months in Dubai for our family! We had our first Christmas and New Years Eve abroad and now it is already February. Kids have been back to school after holiday for almost 6 weeks now and next week is half term vacation.
Christmas in Dubai
I love Christmas! It is my favorite holiday and maybe that is why I got really homesick around Christmas time. I had to buy a LOT of Christmas decorations in our home to make me feel even a little Christmas and listen a LOT of Christmas music.
But still I had a feeling that something was missing and couldn’t get the same Christmas feeling that I had in Finland. I made a really Finnish Christmas dinner with Christmas ham (gammon), home made casseroles and everything. I even made glögi myself from the lingonberry juice that I found from Ikea. It actually was the best glögi that I have had and got compliments from our Christmas day quests too about it. But still, even the Christmas was wonderful, something was missing from my Christmas spirit.
Kaapo looked so handsome with his Christmas bow 😍 Kaapo has been really good boy last year because Santa brought him some nice gifts.
So Christmas was really nice, but something was missing. Maybe it is the cold weather and snow and the darkness or maybe I was missing friends and family. This was first time that I have been feeling so homesick after moving here.
Got the best Christmas gift ever!
I couldn’t believe it when I opened my gifts – there was a gift for me to get the Lasik surgery! I was about to get rid of my glasses – something that I have been dreaming for years.
So right on Monday, on Christmas day I booked an appointment to see if my eyes were suitable for the Lasik surgery. I got the appointment already on Tuesday 26th December and after the examination doctor told me that yes, he could fix my vision with the Lasik and that he could do that on the next day. Oh my god I was excited! My dream was coming true and so fast!
The operation
So on Wednesday 27th December I went to the hospital around 1pm and the operation itself was really fast. I didn’t get any sedatives so I was a bit scared but it went really quickly and I didn’t feel a thing. But the few minutes under the laser machine was a bit horrifying and I was squeezing my pants because I was afraid that I might start to flail my hands.
After that I rested a while and then doctor checked my eyes and told me everything is ok and I can go home. I got 3 different drops to put in my eyes for 5 times a day. I was home around 6 pm that same day. So really quick operation overall.
After 3 days I went to post check-up and my eyes were healing perfectly. The next check-up was week after the first check-up and the next check-up will be in a few days.
My vision isn’t perfect yet, but it can take up to 1-3 months to have a 100% vision. I can see very good already, almost perfectly, even though the vision isn’t yet as clear as it was with glasses. But I am so happy and satisfied! I can see my vision getting better and better every day. It really feels amazing to see without the glasses ❤
My Lasik was done in the Saudi-German hospital here in Dubai and I can really recommend it if someone is thinking about getting rid of glasses. It was really good experience and the doctor really knew what he was doing.
Fireworks and Legos
On the New Years Eve we decided to take the kids to the Legoland Dubai. We spent the whole day there and it is really fun place. All the things build from Legos – just amazing! Also a lot of fun things to do, all in the Lego theme.
These are all build from Legos 🤩
Fireworks at Riverland
Legoland Dubai is in the Riverland, same place that has Motiongate theme park and Lego waterpark. We noticed that there would be New Years Eve’s firworks at reasonable time for the kids so that was an easy way to see fireworks. We managed to get great place to watch them (there were a lot of people to see them) and it was really nice firework. That felt like New Years Eve 🎇
6 months in Dubai and life is going as usual
January is already over and our life in here is going as usual. Everyone in our family had a little flu couple weeks ago (being sick in Dubai is as awful as it was in Finland 😅), I am keeping things rolling at home and teaching every Monday in Dubai Finnish school.
The lunch and snacks duty are starting to be boring (most likely because our daughter is so picky eater and I don’t know what to pack her anymore for lunch). So about a week ago we decided that she can by herself lunch at the school cafeteria. I didn’t want to let her buy herself the lunch at first, because there was a risk that she would be eating pizza everyday. But then I thought that does it matter, at least she would be eating. And now that she have been buying her lunch she hasn’t been eating pizza everyday. So problem solved!
I miss the free school lunches in Finland – no need to think about what to pack for snacks and lunch everyday. Our kids also liked the lunches at school in Finland. But in here it is either making the lunch and snacks for them to school or give them money so that they can buy the food from school cafeteria.
So much feelings
Our life here is going great – kids are loving the school and having friends in the neighborhood, playing outside everyday. They are already speaking, writing and reading English really great. It is so nice to hear them having chats with their friends – chatting as they are chatting in Finnish.
But still for some reason I have days when I miss Finland so badly. And then there are days when I love it here and would not want to never leave.
I guess that the process of moving away from your home country is just still going on in my head. It is a really big change in someones life so maybe it is ok that it takes time, even when you really love the new country you are living in. And to be honest, the days that I really miss Finland are the days when things haven’t been going well and there has been some sort of annoying hassle. So maybe the feeling of missing Finland is just missing the familiar, missing to knowing how things work. I don’t know, but I think that all kinds of feelings are ok at the moment. And now that I am writing this I think that no, I don’t want to go back to Finland, I love to live here. It is a process still going on 🙂
How our adventure begun? Read about it here: https://familylifeindubai.com/index.php/2023/05/30/welcome-to-our-adventure/
