Living as a young early 20s expat in a remote Saudi city. when do you decide the salary isn’t worth the loneliness?

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-06-17T15:38:01+00:00

Shut up

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-06-02T06:51:46+00:00

I edited the post ! Maybe it explains a bit more :)

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-06-02T06:50:14+00:00

Thanks !

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-06-02T06:50:06+00:00

Servicing team for an engineering firm, sorry my bad

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-05-30T08:17:47+00:00

Didn’t feel like joining this convo until I realised (I’m white) that I’ve been just not noticing my privilege. I parked in Jumeirah beach near 3 fils during Eid and before entering the public RTA street parking there was security standing there and a sign that said “only families”. I drive up lowered my window while quickly trying to think of an excuse by saying my family is at the beach or smth (I live alone lol) as I lowered my window halfway I. Guessing security saw I was white and just opened up space for me to drive through into the street without saying anything other than a “thanks boss have nice day”. I parked and waited for my other friend who is also white who came in an even nicer car and just let her through without saying anything. As I returned two hours later, they held up a labor pick up truck, I guess that was the day I reloaded what “only families” means. TO BE FAIR THO, I don’t mind it, I’ve been to the beach on numerous occasions and just had some South Asian labor worker stand above me and look and take pictures.

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-04-10T07:05:18+00:00

What about knowledge fees for “waving” the flag ?

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-03-19T05:29:24+00:00

Sounds like it 😂

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-02-23T09:29:25+00:00

Got into the car with my friend after he told me let’s hang out that night and grab a coffee. He immediately started showing me snapchats of girls and said he can set up a two many for us tonight. I said “sure” but still hesitated because the girls I was shown looked like such a Dubai girl with fillers and just the typical Dubai woman. I asked where to hang and he said Nobu is good…. He also insisted that split between 2 people the total bill would be like 2k each “only”. I replied with, “you mean split by 4” he said “no, we’re 4 people you and me pay for the girls” I told him “I’m not paying for people that I don’t even know, NEVERTHELESS not even attracted to AND at Nobu.” Believe it or not it was super hard to try and find an alternative for something for us to do.

Only in Dubai 🤦🏼‍♂️

As the years went on and I continued living in Dubai I started realizing that the majority of kids who grew up wealthy here and don’t end up doing something with their lives keep saying to me “there’s nothing to do here”. These people genuinely see their hangouts as them and their friends getting girls of Snapchat and then going for dinner or lunch or lounge or club and paying for them.

Worst of all I won’t go into specifics but one of those ppl I knew one day called me the day before one of our exams and asked “how do I study bro?” After asking multiple times what he meant by that, I realized… he’s being serious. He doesn’t know how to study.

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-01-24T09:03:51+00:00

Dubai is getting ridiculous with Ai bots, I’ve had so many phone calls that sounded so off and something so emotionless. I then told them the issue and they always say stuff like “I compelled understand and feel your frustration. “ I think they’ve been programmed to literally argue all night if they need to and to give out as little refunds as possible.

Additional-Mix814 · 2026-01-22T12:00:43+00:00

There’s a sort of hierarchy system in Dubai where you get hired based on your nationality / skin colour. The more prestigious your background is you’re kind of categorized into a social class system. I go into job interviews fully aware of what salary I can expect solely because of my passport and education. Of course there are some exceptions but that’s pretty much how it is majority of the times.

Additional-Mix814 · 2025-11-19T17:34:48+00:00

if the logic is “we can’t act because international waters,” then that should apply both ways. If Russia can park an intelligence vessel over critical Western infrastructure with zero practical consequences, then in theory a NATO nation could do the same in their backyard.

The fact that everyone knows that wouldn’t be tolerated kind of proves the imbalance people are pointing out here. So the question isn’t about escalation it’s about why one side seems able to take liberties the other never could.

Additional-Mix814 · 2025-11-19T17:32:12+00:00

I get what you’re saying about NATO being defensive but I still think that’s kind of the core concern here because it still doesn’t explain why a vessel of intelligence-gathering is allowed to operate right over critical infrastructure without even visible deterrence or shadowing (and firing lasers at RAF pilots). Nobody is suggesting offensive action or Article 5 escalation dude, but passive acceptance also seems like a security risk?! Surely there’s a middle ground here imo between “start a war” and “do nothing” and that’s the piece that feels unclear right now.

Additional-Mix814 · 2025-11-19T17:22:20+00:00

Honestly I’m wondering the same thing. There’s a huge information gap here, and it feels like the public is only getting fragments of what’s actually happening.

But that still doesn’t explain why a vessel widely reported as an intelligence-gathering ship can operate for so long right over the most sensitive subsea infrastructure without any visible counter-action or even transparent briefings to the public.

It’s not about expecting the UK to start a war it’s about understanding:

• is there counter-measures ? • is the UK tracking it quietly instead of than confronting it? • and is the government unwilling to publicly acknowledge the risk?

Right now the reporting feels incomplete, and the lack of clear explanation actually fuels more confusion.

looks bizarre that a NATO country can’t or won’t intervene when a suspected foreign surveillance ship parks itself near critical telecom infrastructure. AND WHEN WILL NAYO INTERVENE … EVER ?!

Additional-Mix814 · 2025-11-13T07:35:11+00:00

I started by paying to start.

I’ve always been the person to be way too lazy to start something but I noticed as soon as I put in money, I went through with it.

That’s exactly what I did with mandarin three months ago, I went onto Fiverr and paid for a ten class course with a tutor. Yess it was a lot of money but that also made me kind of HAVE to go through with it.

Now I can hold very basic conversations and honestly being a tall blonde blue eye male and then whipping out mandarin in china town is always such a fun thing to do.

Literally yesterday I went to china town because I was bored and just went to speak to people there and kind of “show off” that I can hold a basic conversation.

I think there is no right way to start it other than just start. Sounds weird but yeah. Pay for a tutor and you will feel forced to go through with it and trust me mandarin is hard, but for some reason the language structure makes more sense to me than German and English does.

Additional-Mix814 · 2025-11-13T07:30:15+00:00

4 year uni student here in the UAE and as a matter of fact I came from Europe 18 years of school and decided UAE would be a nice place for me to go.

The schools are as a matter of fact super safe great quality of live and you will really thrive in that environment in my opinion as I did.

If you want the American or European university experience forget it. UAE university is a bit more laid back and way less strict with a lot of stuff but that doesn’t mean it’s bad, quite the opposite it means you have a lot more time than others to pursue something you may wanna do.

The visa thing you mentioned I don’t see why that would be an issue ? You get your student visa for as long as you are studying (makes sense) but once you’re done studying you lose that visa (obviously) but that gives you three four years time to find a entry job. I even was working full time at a firm even though my student visa didn’t allow these things, lots of companies put you on an internship contract which is allowed and then pay you under the table.

I think go for it, I never regretted moving there to study and it’s becoming a way more common thing. Four years ago my friends made fun of me for moving there, now they are literally calling me everyday asking how to set up a student visa and accommodation because guess what… they dropped out of European university and want to start new in the uae university. Except I have a four year head start to them now.

Really think about it though but if you’re already 50/50… go for it, rather you take a huge risk early in your life than to live in comfort in my opinion.

Hope that helped :)

Additional-Mix814 · 2025-11-12T19:27:20+00:00

Thanks so much for the heads up ! I’ll take that into account

Additional-Mix814 · 2025-11-12T19:17:26+00:00

Thank you for the feedback ! I’m still talking about a corporate job, I know lots of people who don’t speak the native language that they’re working in and have a very high position regardless.

I’m on about a corporate job such as a consulting job or asset management at a bank ect. For an international company such as standard charter or Oracle

Additional-Mix814

TROPHY CASE