I just got to my seat at work and a quick check at my inbox, I know today’s going to be a long day. A work colleague went for his annual vacation (we get 30 days off each year) and I need to step in – do all his work on top of what I already have. No violent reactions as that’s how it works here. When I go for vacation, one of them has to do my work too. 

Before I delve in into my tasks for today, and there are so many, I had to take a few minutes to write this post.

I’ve been seriously people watching in the Metro on my commute lately. It’s a short ride, only 10 minutes to be exact but every day, there are stories to share. I usually share what I see on Twitter but today, I simply have to write it here where I wouldn’t need to care of the 140 character limit. 

I am greedy for more characters today.

As the train door started closing, a mom carrying a child, I think about my son’s age (3 years old). The boy had soft curly hair and was rubbing his eyes. He was still wearing his sleep wear and a Crocs slip-ons so anyone can tell he was just pulled off from his bed and taken outside. With an apologetic look in her eyes, the mom felt obliged to tell the person seated next to her as her boy wriggled through the seat that “I have to drop him off earlier today at a friend’s house. We have no maid. He is still very sleepy and we had no time to change his pajamas.”

This is the thing: Dubai looks so glamorous in the glossy pages of travel brochures and magazines. People constantly assume everyone who lives here is rich, driving big fancy cars and shopping like there’s no tomorrow and do not struggle daily. I started this blog to document our life in Dubai after relocating from Japan eight years ago, to show that there are normal people who commute to work everyday like I do, a working mom juggling career and taking care of kids everyday. And the scene this morning is a reminder that Dubai can be a normal place just like every where else.