If you’ve read my previous blogs, you know I moved to the Middle East last year with my husband, shortly after we got married. I’ve been somewhat vague about the exact country, but here’s a big hint: It rhymes with “Naughty Labia.”

Anyway, after a year of living on the east coast of “Naughty Labia” my husband’s job has moved across this giant sand-pit to the west coast, and we’ve packed our bags and relocated. For me, this meant quitting my teaching job at the end of the school year, hoping to find new opportunities in our new home. The only problem is that our new home is more isolated…we’re essentially living on a small university campus about an hour away from the nearest major city.

In some ways, I’m completely loving the new place. It’s nice to be somewhere a little quieter, and the housing they provide is WAY nicer than what we had before. They have a really nice beach and a movie theater and a grocery store and a couple of restaurants, and what more do you need, really? Free gym membership and riding around on a sweet purple moped that literally costs 25 cents to fill with gas…yeah, in some ways life is looking up!

But, at the same time, it’s a change, and I am not a person who typically digs change. The biggest upheaval I’ve ever experienced was leaving the US in the first place, but I was so lucky to find the job of my dreams, which kept my mind off of the other annoyances of living in a foreign land. Now, though, I’m back to square one. The friends we made in our first year? Gone. Teaching those amazing students? Just a memory.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying my newfound freedom from work, and I’ve been kept busy packing and unpacking all our worldly possessions. But there’s also a twinge of loneliness that comes from not knowing anyone and boredom from not having a job or even that many hobbies. The hard part is that I know this transition period isn’t going away anytime soon. Like all college towns, this place has cleared out for the summer, so it’s not just quiet—it’s dead. I haven’t seen a single other person on our street, and the school I might work or volunteer at and the students I might tutor are all on vacation.

So for now, I’m waiting. Waiting to see what will come and who I will meet and what I will do. I just hope things work out as well as they did last time. Otherwise, you might start seeing a lot more desperate housewife-y blogs from me…I’ll have nothing better to do! Got any ideas about how I should spend my free time?