One month in

Ok, so we have been here a month already! It has gone both fast and slow at the same time, but how has it really been? What has happened?

Well, when I look around the house I realize how busy we've actually been. Like I wrote in my previous post, nearly all the furniture we need is already in place. The house is done, just as we wanted it, and it feels good.
In Brunei we stayed in a furnished house for nearly a year before we moved into our proper house, and even after moving in it took about another half a year to finish furnishing that. This time around we have been a lot more efficient, but we were also lucky we actually had the means to do it all in one go. A lot thanks to me selling all of our stuff in Brunei.. ! :)

Another thing that has been a lot more efficient here is all the admin work. It's all done, bar my 'Alcoholic License' (yes, that's what it's called!) which is supposed to be ready next Tuesday.
It was all like a game of dominoes, as soon as the first thing was done, everything else followed suit pretty quickly. We have our Residence Visas in our passports, we have our Emirates ID cards and Medical Cards, and I have my local drivers license. It's all been impressively easy to sort out actually! As long as you have the right paperwork, it's super straight forward, and people are super helpful.
Plus sometimes it's good that there are two lines, one for men and one for women - there is never anyone in line in the women's line, so you never really need to take a number even!

Kids have done their first week at school. Linnea has already made the acquaintance of the School Nurse (on day 2, tummy ache) and Lucas was even home from school on day 3, with the same thing. If you ask me, I don't think it was really physical, it was more of a big worry and an overwhelming feeling after so many new impressions...
Linnea seems to have settled in a bit better than Lucas though, but she is also a very different character. She jumps in with both feet first, and she has already made several friends who have asked her for a play date.
We did have a chat with Lucas' teacher today, and she was pretty happy with how his week has gone. Obviously, there are a lot of new things to get used to, but she thought he seemed happy and relaxed albeit a bit wide-eyed at some things they were going over. Socially he will need to mix a bit more, but give it time, and I'm sure it'll happen all by itself.

Nathan has been busy working, nights, and me... well... I have been standing at the school yard before and after school and maybe scared people away smiling frantically at them - because no one has approached me or talked to me. Maybe it's so big here you don't really notice new people?
I don't know. It's very different to Brunei where new people tend to get swooped up straight away by "old" people excited about the "fresh meat"!

I did go to a Coffee Morning organized by school on Tuesday, and I was the only one there. I'll just have to keep trying I guess! I still haven't been able to make it to the SWEA (= a Swedish Women group) Coffee Mornings each Thursday, and I still haven't been to any gym or Zumba class. It'll all come with time. I hope.

Next week we get our first visitors, my parents. Temperatures are spiking here at the moment and it's getting really hot, so I don't think we will be doing much outside sightseeing, but it'll be nice to have them see where we live and where our new life is.

So, that's pretty much it for our first month. I guess I'll get around a bit more together with my parents, since I haven't really been exploring much yet. I only really know the way to school, to a few malls and to IKEA! Lots of exciting things still do see and do!