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    Living in the UAE
    Living in the UAE
    Living in the UAE
    Ebook166 pages1 hour

    Living in the UAE

    By Rick D. Jolly

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This is the first book in the Alexander Co. Abroad series. It is a story about an American married couple leaving the United States to live and work in the United Arab Emirates, a small oil rich Muslim country located in the Persian Gulf. With a brief background on the two North Carolinian's and why they chose to leave everything behind for a chance to travel the world while based in a Muslim country. The story is told from the husbands point-of-view as they experience cultural differences and language barriers while adjusting to their new environment. Examine the transition from living in a western society to living in a modern Muslim society and compare the differences and similarities to measure the quality of life each has to offer. Take a first-hand look as the book describes many first time experiences highlighted with photos taken by the couple during their adventures abroad.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRick D. Jolly
    Release dateMar 21, 2016
    ISBN9781310759970
    Living in the UAE
    Author

    Rick D. Jolly

    Rick D.Jolly is from Taylorsville, North Carolina, the eldest of three sons raised in a blue collar family. Married to Samantha White-Jolly, they lived in Hickory, North Carolina before moving to the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East. He opened several social media accounts as a way to relate his experiences to family and friends, posting videos and pictures with firsthand accounts of trips in the UAE and Europe. After several years of living abroad he used previous online posts to help write a series of books called "Alexander County Abroad" with various subtitles to describe each location. The title comes from the county he was born in, Alexander, a small rural county in western N.C. primarily a farming region. A place where most residents rarely venture pass state lines and never travel out of the country or "lord have mercy" a Muslim Country.

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      Book preview

      Living in the UAE - Rick D. Jolly

      Living in the U.A.E.

      Alexander County Abroad

      By Rick D. Jolly

      Other Alexander County Abroad Titles

      Keep in touch with us

      alexandercountyabroad.com

      Introduction

      This is the first book in the Alexander Co. Abroad series. It is a story about an American married couple leaving the United States to live and work in the United Arab Emirates, a small oil rich Muslim country located in the Persian Gulf. With a brief background on the two North Carolinian's and why they chose to leave everything behind for a chance to travel the world while based in a Muslim country. The story is told from the husbands point-of-view as they experience cultural differences and language barriers while adjusting to their new environment. Examine the transition from living in a western society to living in a modern Muslim society and compare the differences and similarities to measure the quality of life each has to offer. Take a first-hand look as the book describes many first time experiences highlighted with photos taken by the couple during their adventures abroad.

      Chapter 1

      Leaving Home for a Foreign Country

      Why leave home? A better question is what not! Many people dream of traveling the world to see what marvels await and experience different cultures once only found in books. Some of us take a chance on life and head to parts unknown just to see what happens.

      Setting in our cozy little condo nestled in a quiet neighborhood of NW Hickory North Carolina in 2012, the question was asked; Is this it, is this the American Dream? Neither of us had a decisive answer. Samantha just started her new career as an elementary school teacher, after going back to school for two years. She had enough of the banking world so she quit and got a job at Olive Garden to work her way through school, a big decision for someone close to thirty and out of college for almost a decade. For thousands if not millions of hard working well educated Americans this had become the only choice. The thought of waiting on patrons at a chain restaurant gave her pause, but the end results would have to be better than residential banking. The slowdown in the banking Industry had put pressure on banks to get creative with securing new revenue. One idea used locally, mandatory telemarketing, was the final nail in the coffin. Never mind the monthly new accounts requirement in an area hit hard by the recession. People had stopped moving to our region of the country. Jobs were scarce and pay was flat or lowered to stay in business. Yes you should always promote your place of business, but add more responsibility without compensation to everyone from the teller to the branch manager and implement it into the work review was over the top. Calling existing customers during and after regular banking hours to solicit new business is not for everybody, let alone on top of your primary job responsibilities. Hell, I was in sales and hated calling strangers on the phone to set-up appointments. I knew exactly how she felt. If she wanted to be a teacher, then do it. I paid the mortgage and utilities and she brought us all the soup and bread sticks we could eat.

      I also grew tired of my sales job, basically a door to door salesman preying on the elderly. Final expense and Medicare Advantage plans were my bread and butter. The idea is simple and needed by many uninsured seniors in our country. The practical implementation of the job is a distorted version of how the Industry should conduct business. Morally, I had a difficult time persuading very low income retirees to part with a substantial amount of their monthly income on the promise their children would be thankful upon their death. The fact was, they would be thankful, but could the social security checks pay for all the monthly necessities and a life insurance policy too? Many could if they were careful with non-needed items, but many could not. The doughnut hole would cause many to cancel the policy and try to start it again the following year. That’s bad for business and a waste of money for them. The Medicare Advantages plans were easier to sale, but required more knowledge to sell the right way. Many agents would promise the moon on their mothers’ grave, get a signature and disappear into the wind. The recipients of a health plan not suitable for their needs and unsure how to fix it. I would find these poor souls bewildered and angered by the betrayal of someone they welcomed into their home. The idea of setting in a trailer park or section 8 housing complex listening to dying people lie to my face about their current and past health condition as cockroaches crawled on the walls and my briefcase sparked a need for change in my life. I switched gears and started selling supplemental insurance in the workplace. Same concept, different environment. I found and enticed several large Industrial Associations, looking for disability insurance, my plans would benefit them. My insurance company, worried about the escalating impact of the Affordable Care Act, said no to the Association idea but wanted all the contact information. I may have been born at night but it wasn’t last night, so I left the Insurance Industry and temporarily found myself back in the no mans land of furniture manufacturing. It wasn’t ideal, but the bills were paid and we went forward in life.

      We had contemplated the idea of moving to another state with a better economy, but not knowing people outside of North Carolina made this challenging. Texas looked promising, but Texas is a big ass state. What do you do just throw a dart at a map and say that’s it? Of course you don’t, but how much can the internet really tell you about the best places to work and live in an entire state! North Dakota was hiring everybody, but damn it’s North Dakota! Not that North Dakota isn’t a fine state to work and live in, it’s just too cold and too far from the beach for our liking. OK, I will now have to visit North Dakota one day before I die.

      Traveling has always been a passion of mine, even though it rarely happened in my youth. A short trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina twice and Cherokee Reservation, North Carolina once were much appreciated treats. My biggest trip came from my uncle Allen when he took my brother and me to Florida for a couple of weeks. We had a blast visiting different places, even though our behavior was somewhat questionable. He took us to Marineland, Sea World, Circus World, an Alligator Farm and various other tourists spots. He died several years later and I doubt he knew how much we really appreciated him for taking us on that trip.

      After my eighteenth birthday I went to Cancun, Mexico with a group of friends from high school. That is another story for another time. To summarize, I really enjoyed just being in a different environment and experiencing new life styles. The only problem was money or the lack of it and not knowing other means to travel abroad. This new passion started in 1991, before we had the internet and knowledge came from a place called The Library. Alexander County to this day only has around thirty-two thousand residents,

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