It’s been a year and exactly seven days since I moved to Dubai, the most superficial, pretentious but yet such a promising land of opportunities.

Remember my goal of ’30 by 30′ (30 countries by 30 years old)? I’ve done 29 countries and I’m turning 31 in a few weeks time. One more country and one more week to go before I achieve my goal of ’30 by 30′ in Egypt.

Life in the past one year has been so surreal. I still wake up and try to pinch myself to see if this was all not a dream (albeit, sometimes it can be really unpleasant so I’m not sure if ‘dream’ is appropriately used here). I wake up to a foreign bed in a foreign room of a foreign home in a foreign land. I sometimes wake up, just running my hands against my bed, my sheets to find some sense of familiarity – just to make sure everything is real and is actually happening.

Being abroad, alone, in a place where you don’t know anything or anyone is tough. I know I may sound like a broken record by now but I just needed to emphasise that, it IS tough, and I’m not exaggerating.

Trying to change a place you barely know into a place you have to call ‘home’ now requires so much persistence, tolerance, perseverance, independence and the flexibility to adapt. I chose this path and I never regret my decisions, be it a bad one or a good one because we all learn from the mistakes we do. I take my journey in life as a journey to discovering new things and experiencing new adventures.

Moving abroad has taught me so much but I will not get into the details. Lets just say that these are lessons that money can NEVER buy you. It’s tough, but I believe it’s something we need to do in order to experience self-realisation, to mature and have better understanding of what the real world is like.

So if there are any of you, who are still swinging on the thoughts of moving abroad, even for a short while, DO IT. you will thank me later, I promise you.