1. You have to work on Sundays

The best part is that you've already endured the first day of work while your friends back home are probably still complaining about Monday.

2. It’s warm outside but freezing inside

Once you get used to the temperature outside, you step into the office and guess what? It's freezing! AC wars are a given when you work in an office in the UAE.

3. You need a friend, but your friend lives in Sharjah

If you're new to the UAE, meeting people is a lot of fun, however sometimes you click with someone and realize "omg they live in Sharjah or Ajman". Good luck getting them to be on time for anything with the traffic that they have to go through.

4. You're confused by all the superlatives

Dubai, in particular, is the home of superlatives with the world’s tallest tower, tallest hotel, largest sweet shop, longest gold chain, longest driverless metro network, and many more Guinness World Records to mention. People who visit seem to think you have a mental list of all of them

5. Trying to sleep with construction noise

Change is inevitable here in Dubai. You arrive in the city and see an empty lot, then suddenly, one day a building pops up. The construction site and the noise is everything in between.

6. Each mall is designed like a maze

Even after three years of living in the UAE, you still depend on Mall Store Locator Apps to look for the shop you need. Whether you're in Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates or Madinat Jumeirah. Good luck!

7. Finding your car at any parking lot

You have been warned. We urge you to remember, to write or take a picture of your parking spot, lest you want to suffer for hours.

8. When you forget your Nol Card

Okay, it happens, you forgot your metro card. Just buy a day pass to get to work and back home for the day. But don't say we didn't warn you about having to stand in a long queue. You will be late to work.  

9. Sorry, not sorry

If you ask anyone born or bred in the UAE to pump gas into their car, you may be waiting for a very long time. I'm sorry but we don't know how to do that, and after you've lived here, you won't know how to do it either. 

10. A yoga pose just for a picture of the Burj Khalifa

You will have to bend, lie on your chest with elbow support, legs flat on the floor, balance your phone or DSLR, and do all sorts of floor positions in all ways possible just to get the right angle and make the tallest tower in the world fit in your frame.

11. The water from the tap is always hot

Turn on the hot faucet and you’ll get steamy water running from the tap. Turn on the cold faucet and you’ll still get hot water. Sigh.

12. Barrage of massage cards

Park your car for a few minutes and you’ll get a crazy amount of business card-sized adverts from massage parlours or ‘health spas’ slipped into your car window or placed under your car door. 

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in CNN Travel on Wednesday November 15th, 2017 http://bit.ly/gulfnews12firstworldproblems