Moving Day

Been a little lax getting my blogs posted, but it’s been a busy week starting ATC training and finalizing things for the new apartment. The landlord flew in from France to get the place ready. It’s a brand new building, so she had to go thru a punchlist of items to fix. I also had to take care of the financial end. I had deposited the housing allowance on Tuesday morning and the funds were available that afternoon. Thursday morning went back to the HSBC branch to get a ‘manager’s check’ for the rent, security deposit and the agents fee. But let me backtrack a little, because while it’s been a glassy smooth for me; some of my classmates have been enjoying a real struggle, trying to keep eager Realtors at bay.

It takes awhile (but not a long while) for money to trickle in from Serco. You have to make a request and then it takes a day or two to get a check. Then you have to deposit the check, but you can’t deposit the check at a teller—you have to use special Deposit ATMs (which are pretty cool, because they scan a copy of your deposit check and print it on your receipt). Anyway, after the deposit, since the Serco check is the same bank as ours, it normally clears within a day—one even cleared in about 2 hours. However, one of my classmates check didn’t clear for 3 days—3 days of daily phone calls, texts, and emails from the realtor, threatening to kill the deal. He had already paid a security deposit, and explained how things work on our end, but it’s like the people either don’t believe you or they just aren’t listening.

So, once your check clears you have to go to the main branch of HSBC in Deira (older part of Dubai = zero parking). Let me back track again…HSBC is the bank; they have 3 full service locations and about 20 ‘Service’ centers, but you can really only do something at your home full service location—which for us is Deira. The only thing the ‘service’ centres can do is show you how to use the deposit ATM…you can’t get money (except from the regular ATM), you can’t cash a check, you can’t get a cashiers check, you can’t deposit cash, in fact, I think the only thing they can do is sign you up for new services that the bank may offer. So anyway, back to HSBC Deira…my first trip down their was last Tues. I drove 2 of my classmates down to get ‘Manager’s Checks’ so they could pay security deposits, school tuition, etc; I also had a check to deposit. Because of a closed street due to Metro construction, to get to this branch you have to negotiate thru a detour with about 30 different turns thru alleys, parking lots, around a couple green spaces…all to traverse one closed block.

We parked wedged between a dumpster full of last nights leftovers baking in the sun and a car that looked like it hadn’t moved in a few months (which I have since learned, looks like about any car here after 2-3 days without a wash). We walked the block and a half to the bank , and I made my deposit in the ATM while the others arranged for their checks. You have to sit down and fill out a form with all the info for the payee and the amount, they have to go get it approved, then they have to go to another place and have the checks printed, then they have to have 2 signatures. You sit waiting and you get a text msgs each time they cut a check saying that the money is being taken from your account. The whole process takes about 90 mins. Since my business was finished, I chatted with one of the ladies at the bank, Zania, who said she was from Jordan, but was born and raised in Dubai (?)…but insisted I visit Jordan before I leave. I had heard they were opening a new Deira office with better parking and I asked her when it was opening…she told me ‘this is the new branch.’ Oh.

I got Zania to help me a couple days later when I went for my own manager’s checks—she pulled me out of the queue. I had also left my ATM card in one of their machines, so I asked her to help me with that—after a little running around, she said they had the card and I could pick it up at the Deira branch on Sat. Sheepishly, I asked (ok, got on my knees and begged) if they could mail it to me.

Back on track now, I had received an email from my realtor outlining what I needed to pay:

Rent and Security Deposit: 213,000 aed

Agency fee: 10,500 aed

Fee for making the best apartment in Dubai available: 2,000 aed in cash

I got my checks, called my Realtor, Sharham, and arranged to meet him in about an hour at his office. If you remember from last week’s blog, I’d never met him in person and I had never seen the apartment—everything up to this point was phone, texts, and emails. I met him, handed over my checks (not the 2000 cash), signed a Tenancy agreement—he said he’d get the landlord to sign and get the keys. The next day, I met him at the apartment (and paid my 2000 cash)…my first time seeing it. Pretty sweet and obscenely expensive—but as I have heard a lot in the past 2 weeks, That’s Dubai.

I went out and bought a few things…mostly cleaning supplies, because it was pretty dusty. I also went to a look at a bunch of Furniture stores. After about 5-6 stops I decided to buy something before I got more confused. That seems to be the Dubai way…you get so overloaded, you just want to be done so you can say you accomplished something.

The next morning I took my first load (you can only get so much in a Yaris) and found my new landlord there, supervising the cleaning (yea!) and a few small repairs. She’s from France, but has split time in Dubai for the past 10 yrs. I came back a few hours later and had the place to myself. I made about 3 more runs for stuff, crap, food, and necessities. I also went by DEWA (Dubai Electric & Water Authority) to put utilities in my name.

I have one piece of furniture (an office chair from IKEA). I’m sleeping on an air mattress. I bought too much for my very small freezer and had to eat a quart of ice cream that wouldn’t fit. My only entertainment are cds I have downloaded on the laptop. But it’s still better than living under the flight path. And this morning, it’s 90 degrees and sunny…again, and I’m sitting pool side catching up on my blog.

Just a follow up note about the sandstorm…it blew open one of the glass doors here at the pool and shattered it to pieces! I also hope to come back and add some photos to this blog and others after I get settled in--right now internet time is still limited to how much coffee I can drink.