Getting Ready

It's amazing how much stuff you put off knowing you can get to it "next week".  We've gotten all kinds of things done more quickly than usual in preparation for my departure.  That's been finalized, by the way.  I'll be leaving Detroit on Monday, February 1, taking an 8 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany, a 3 1/2 hour layover, and then a 5 1/2 hour flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  I'll leave at about 7pm Detroit time on Monday and arrive in Jeddah at 8pm on Tuesday.  The 8 hour time difference will be a challenge.

We've sold one of our three vehicles so my 17 year old daughter and I will be fighting for wheels for the next week and a half.  I'm trying to sort out what to take....not much I can tell you.  I have an air freight shipment being packed up on Friday, 1/22 so I have to get everything I want to ship and everything I want to take with me sorted.....what's going in a suitcase and what's going by air freight.  The air freight should only take a few weeks but who knows.    I will likely be staying in a hotel in Jeddah for a few weeks until on campus housing gets sorted out.  Then I will be moving to the campus compound.  It remains to be seen what I will be able to rent; an apartment? 1 bedroom townhouse? 2 bedroom townhouse?  house?......I just don't know at this point.  I'm taking my bicycle with me for transportation.  I am hoping that between the bus service on campus and the bike I won't need to purchase a vehicle while in Saudi Arabia.

Below is a Google Maps view of KAUST.  If you search for "Thuwal, Saudia Arabia" in Google Maps,  you will see this.  (oddly it won't tell me how to drive to KAUST from Michigan )  The highlighted area below is roughly the campus itself.  I've provided a few pointers for reference.  Jeddah, where I will be staying initially, is about 50 miles south of Thuwal.

Moving Forward

I'm sitting in my home office waiting for the FedEx delivery guy to drop of my newly minted Saudi visa this Saturday morning in January.  For some reason the visa makes everything real.  I guess it's because everyone has told me, "don't do anything until you get the visa".  Don't give notice at your job, don't initiate shipping anything over, don't make travel arrangements.......   Now all that will happen and there is no turning back.  It''s kind of ironic that I found out yesterday at my current job that, in our practically annual reorganization, I have a new manager.  So to whom do I give notice?  I've also been contacted by two different headhunters this week regarding other job opportunities.  I have not heard from anyone in 15 months and now two in one week.  Go figure.  

My soon to be new boss at KAUST has been sending me some info and asking me to weigh in on some decisions being made there.  It's a fascinating transition, having a mental foot on both sides of the world, and not an entirely comfortable one.  I've been looking at issues of electricity this week and sadly discovering that many of my smaller appliances won't work in KSA.  Desktop stereo, radio, wireless router, cordless phone, computer speakers..........one never considers these incompatibilities until faced with their impact.  I guess I'll be buying new in KSA or living without.  I have acquired several plug adapters for those dual voltage items I can take along.  I think the convenience I'll miss the most is my Keurig single cup coffeemaker which is, unfortunately, single voltage.  It's really spoiled me with its practically instant gratification and no waste.   In the greater scheme of things, it's just "stuff" and a reduction of "stuff" in my life has to be good.