Author: Robin Chartier

I haven’t been writing lately because every day has been a variation of the same:

Day 56 — still on a raft, no land in sight. Spotted a dolphin. Feeling thirsty.

Day 57 — still on a raft. The water looks extra blue today. Still salty though. No land in sight.

In our case however, there’s not much sympathy for tales of woe like this:

Day 56 — still in the hotel. The omelette had extra bell peppers in it this morning. Still waiting for an Emirates ID.

Day 57 — still in the hotel. Still waiting for an Emirates ID. The truffles served at tea time were coconut instead of pistachio today.

We are fine, all is fine, the pets are fine (though the dog has skin issues of some kind and is wearing a cone in the photo they sent me), and as far as living in limbo, this is as good as it gets. Camille is a princess in her palace and we are treated like rock stars by the hotel staff. Every time we go to eat, “Good morning madame! How is your day? Off to school? Would you like your regular strong cappuccino? (Yes, I would) And hot chocolate for the kids? (of course).” I think it’s because we make eye contact with them, say please and thank you, call them by name, and try to get to know them and ask where they are from. That’s not too common around here so the tiniest bit of kindness gains a friend for life.

On school days Josh will pick Camille up around 3:30 and head back to the hotel (the boys both got parts in the play, so they have practice after school). Then they go up to the lounge to request “tea” and the staff, who has started setting aside a special plate for Camille, delivers her finger sandwiches and treats down to her room. She’s not old enough to eat in the lounge, but they are making sure she is well taken care of. On Thursday they even sent an extra container filled with marshmallows, M&Ms, and gummy bears because they thought she would like it. They know her well.

What else is happening? Um, we finally got Josh’s residence visa, which is the step before getting the Emirates ID. Once he has that (hopefully this next week) they can generate a lease and then Josh can turn on utilities to our property and then they can complete the maintenance on it and then soon, inshallah, we can move in. Yes, the houses sit empty in-between residents with no power or water. They all get shown in a nasty and dirty state (I saw cigarette butts and dead bugs on the floor) and you really hope that for 50 thousand dollars that you just paid in rent, that they will clean it before you move in. But that’s not a given. 

It makes those House Hunters families look like serious whiners: “I don’t really like the paint color in this room.” Or, “I was really wanting granite countertops.”  How about, “There’s a dead plant in my daughter’s future bedroom and I don’t know why.” Or, “I have no idea where the hookup is for the washing machine or where the gas canister goes to run the stove.” (yes, our stoves run off of tanks, similar to the ones you use to run your gas grill. They have trucks that drive around to deliver refills when you run out.) Those are some legit concerns. 

My future home in all its glory . . . those are the AC vents that need to be replaced along with some random trash.

Life has been the same as the week before and will probably be the same this coming week:

Day 63 — my cappuccino had extra foam today. Hoping for the gold leafed chocolates at tea time today. Still waiting on our Emirates ID.

Rough life. 

Josh had a swift reply to his email blast about his tax problem: “It appears you don’t have these forms on file. Please fill them out and return them and it will be reversed on your next paycheck.”

1. Why did someone not make sure those forms were filled out as part of the payroll process?
2. Why is there no instruction on how to fill out the forms? :sigh: Good thing I’m a tax nerd because a regular Joe wouldn’t know whether to file for the FEIE (foreign earned income exclusion) based on the physical presence test or the bona fide residence test. I feel like there’s an entire part of the process that we have missed along the way since there are rules to qualify for the physical presence exclusion, but no one from the company has made sure that Josh is aware of them . . . I suspect that this is going to be a reoccurring problem throughout this first tax year.
3. I hope someone is checking over the forms after he submits them to make sure they have been filled out correctly. That should be part of someone’s job, right?

Meanwhile, good things are happening. We just started the 2nd week of school and all the kids are happy and well adjusted. Both boys tried out for the High School play and will find out if they got parts today. Camille had a playdate at a friend’s house yesterday and had another tear free drop off this morning. We are miles ahead of where we were last year at this time.

Josh is at work this morning, making sure that everything is in order for his residence visa, which we hope to get this week. Well, we hope to get the visa tomorrow and then his Emirates ID a few days later. Once he has his paperwork, then he can start the sponsorship process and get us all switched over as well. Have you figured out that everything hinges on the Emirates ID? It’s a chipped identification and the assigned number is used for everything: banking, parking fees, gym and school registration . . . all processes start with, “What is your EID number?” or “I need a copy of your EID.”

I’m trying to enjoy being at the hotel since I’m going to miss it once we’re gone. I want to be settled in our house, but with that shift comes a whole lot of unpacking and other work and no more of this:

From 3-5 every day they serve afternoon tea. I miss it during the week while I’m at work, but on the weekends, there’s nothing nicer than going up to the lounge with my book and eating finger sandwiches and drinking a cappuccino. Camille is too young to go up to the lounge (you have to be 12), but the staff has been specially sending a tray down to her room so she can enjoy it as an after school snack. Living like a princess.

Meanwhile, church ministry has started back up. Josh and I went to Kid’s Church training this past week in preparation for serving again this year on Friday mornings. Tonight I have AWANA volunteer training — both as a participant and as a trainer. It looks like I’m going to have 60 T&T students (3-6th graders) and I’m praying for enough volunteers for our small groups. We are doing a new curriculum this year so even returning leaders will need to be trained on the new system.

We have lots to be thankful for and I’m happy we’re here. Life is still stressful and full of unknowns, but that all part of the transition process from active duty to civilian life. Yesterday, September 1st, was Josh’s first official day as USMC retired (prior to that he was on terminal leave). Congratulations babe! You did it.

So Josh got paid again. Wrongly again. This time we had a crazy amount deposited into our account (almost 40K). Great, right? Except when it arrived yesterday it didn’t match up with any amount that we expected to have coming in so we knew something had gone wrong, again. It was only 1/2 of what we were expecting for rent, but way more than what he would get paid for a normal paycheck, so what sort of messed up paperwork created this monster?

Well this morning Josh checked the breakdown and it is the money that we were given to pay our rent, but someone didn’t file the tax paperwork properly, so the government took 1/2 of it, assuming it was income and taxed it as if he were a 2 million dollar plus wage-earner. God bless. 46 thousand dollars in taxes out of a single paycheck. More went to taxes and expenses than ended up in our account. Hilarious.

So someone’s going to fix this. I’m not sure how, but it has become the new normal here. Give all information required, hope they can get it right, experience system failure, and then send strongly worded emails to light a fire under someone who should have done the job properly the first time.

On the bright side, all we need is an Emirates ID and we can get moved into our house. Our landlord will take a partial payment up front which gives us time to sort out the tax mess that was just created. We’re happy for the weekend and 2 days of rest, both physical and mental — though Josh won’t be able to mentally rest until someone takes ownership of this latest failure. The trial of living in the opposite time zone and waiting 12 hours for the work day to begin and someone to receive your very urgent email.

Third year at ACS, 3 days of school behind us, and 3 days with no tears. It’s a miraculous shift that couldn’t have come at a better time. At least when you go to school from a hotel, you can have anything you want for breakfast, including hot chocolate.

With all the other details of our lives in flux, it’s so nice to drop a smiling child off at school and know that she’s excited to be there and going to have a great day. That way we have the maximum amount of mental energy left to deal with other stressors: an internet company that doesn’t have a record of a payment we made back in June, a work phone that is locked to an American carrier even though Josh requires an unlocked phone for his job, a paycheck that isn’t correct — but wait, maybe it will be correct . . . I guess we’ll find out in two days if someone did their job, chasing down health insurance policy numbers (for the residence visa), sorting out who is going to pay our hotel bill, and more. Basically Josh has spent the majority of his time on administrative tasks related to our lives here, in-between work meetings/emails/and phone calls for his actual job.

All of the above are things that Josh has been taking care of, thankfully. I didn’t have to spend 6 hours on the phone with the internet people or field emails about the potential disaster of an incorrectly filed W4 (the outcome of which will be known on Friday). In general all is well, and it is coming together, but it has taken a lot of effort and mental energy. As Josh said, not one thing has gone smoothly.

Even getting our laundry done took a turn for the ridiculous. There are several services here that will pick up bags of clothes, wash, fold and return them for a decent price, approximately $13/bag. There are no public laundromats here so we’re happy there’s an alternative to the very expensive hotel cleaning services. The other day we were on our way to breakfast and then church, so we filled up 2 bags and asked the boys to drop them in the hotel lobby with the concierge so the service could pick them up while we were out at church.

When we returned, I checked with the hotel guys and yes, the clothes were indeed picked up. All was well until we got a phone call from the driver who was wondering where to pick up our clothes . . . ah yes, the very sweet, very helpful guys at the concierge’s desk misunderstood and thought the boys wanted the clothes to go to the hotel laundry. So Josh had to go downstairs and talk to the manager and explain that we would never, ever consider paying $600 for laundry (the bill they presented) when we could get it done for under $30. It all worked out and we weren’t on the hook for the full charge, but again, extra effort, extra stress, and something easy that ended up being difficult.

We think we will have Josh’s residence visa early next week and the magical Emirates ID (required for everything — car registration, lease signing, bank account opening, etc) by the end of next week. Assuming everything goes according to plan . . .

It’s been a better few days for us — partly because the Eid holiday means that we know we can’t accomplish anything so it relieves a bit of the annoyance of being in limbo. The stress of the previous issue has passed and only our housing remains unsettled. With everything on hold, the past few days have been sleep, lie around, eat, lie around, sleep . . . it’s too hot to go outside, but I have to wear pants and sweaters inside because the AC has to be cranked in order to keep the humidity down.

We are happy the kids are arriving this evening. While I haven’t missed the work of parenting, I have missed their excitement, energy, and wit. They never fail to make me laugh and that’s what I need more of these days. 

The rest of the holiday week will be spent at the pool (it just reopened after being closed for repairs since we arrived), eating, sleeping, and lying around while the kids recover from jet lag and prepare to start school on Monday.