Busy Days

Let me tell you about my Tuesday.  The lead-in was on Monday night when, much to my surprise, I received an email from the KAUST housing department informing me that my accommodations were ready for me.  I have been staying in a hotel in Jeddah for two weeks along with other "commuters" who have been there much longer.  Apparently the KAUST leadership has been pushing pretty hard to get people out of Jeddah where they are paying all the bills into on campus housing where the employees start paying  rent and don't get free food.  After spending 3 hours per day on a bus, I wasn't going to turn down the offer.

First, though, Tuesday (and Sunday) are the days to get Saudi Arabian drivers licenses and I had already planned getting my license on Tuesday.  At 9AM I went to the "Government Affairs" office at KAUST.   There I met a Saudi gentleman who took a copy of my passport, visa, and Saudi Iqama and filled out a form.  He did this for two other guys and we all got in his Toyota Camry for a ride to.....where?  Our destination, I discovered,  was Rabigh, about 50KM north of KAUST along Medina Highway.  The  Saudi driver and I were joined by a Palestinian  and a Moroccan with a French Canadian driver's license.  The first is an elementary school teaching assistant at KAUST and the second is doing post doctoral work.  (There are about 75 countries represented by KAUST  students, teaching staff, and employees) 

The first notable consideration on this journey was the highway speed.  It's posted at 120kmh or about 75mph.  It seems a reasonable speed,  if you actually travel that fast.  Unfortunately our driver maintained a steady 140kmh, reaching speeds of 180kmh (~110mph) on many occasions.....and we were being passed by other cars!  Faster traffic would flash their lights, we would slide over about 1/2 a lane, the overtaking vehicle would pass, half in the lane and half on the shoulder, and we slide back into our lane.  (I would discover that these were not unusual speeds on the following day when the driver taking me and my luggage from Jeddah to KAUST drove at similar speeds).  We got to Rabigh rather quickly and proceeded to a stationary shop.  There we each spent 2SR ($ .52) on a file folder with a paper binder attached.  We punched the paperwork we had so far and put it in the binders.  Then we all went a few storefronts down the street and walked into a medical clinic.  At least the lab coats and stethoscopes led me to believe it was a medical clinic.  We walked up to a counter where an Abaya clad and veiled cashier accepted 60SR ($16) from each of us.  From there we went to have our blood typed.  That procedure went pretty quicky because, when I told the "lab" technician I was O+ (actually, I pointed to it on a form on which everything else was in Arabic), he just circled it and stamped it with some official looking stamp.  That was much quicker than drawing blood, that's for sure.  Then it was up 3 flights of stairs to the Optician.  There we looked across a room at different letters on a blurry eye chart projected on a cloth on the wall and received some more official looking stamps on our paperwork.  I was told I needed glasses to drive.  I'm getting used to being referred to as "Mr. William" as in (insert heavy accent) "Mr. William.  You need eyeglasses to drive the car". Back down the 3 flights of stairs to another guy with some stamps; off to another room and yet another guy with some stamps; and out the door.  Whew!  Back in the car and off to a Police Station.  There we turned over our paperwork and sat down in the waiting area.  One by one we were called before an officer with a little eye test machine on his desk which we looked into and told him if the little "E"s were pointing up, down, or sideways.  For this we received another form and some more stamps.  (My form, as interpreted by the Palestinian, said I did not need glasses to drive.  Go figure)

From there we went to what would pass for a small strip mall of shops.  We went to a small coffee shop where there was seated a rather harried looking guy surrounded by paperwork.  This was the guy who was going to, for 40SR each ($10.65), translate our home country drivers licenses into Arabic and for another 20SR, enter the results into the "official" website for the traffic bureau.  All the conversations were being carried out in Arabic.  While my KAUST facilator's English was sketchy at best, both the Palestinian and Moroccan spoke Arabic and their English was slightly better English so  I managed to follow at least part of what was going on.   Apparently, the "translator" felt he was too busy to do the work that day.  After a lot of arguing and cajoling by our KAUST facilitator, he finally agreed to do it.  In the meantime we walked our forms down a few storefronts to the traffic bureau office.  I'm guessing here but the guys behind the windows had uniforms and it looked official.  They looked at our paperwork, looked at our Iqamas, looked at our licenses, and sent us back to the translation guy.  The Moroccan had to translate his own French Canadian license to English so the guy could translate that to Arabic.  My Michigan license ( as you Michiganders will note if you look at your own) does not contain the word "drive" in any form.  It says "Operator's" license.  I had to convince the translator that "Operator" meant that I could do more than just start a car; I could also drive it in traffic.  The cost of the license itself was another 440SR ($117) which, oddly enough, we gave to the translator.  This adventure in Rabigh took about 4 hours and, after a "fast" drive back to KAUST, it was on to my next adventure of the day.

I went to the KAUST housing office which is currently located in a ground floor room at the KAUST Inn, a nice on-campus hotel for visitors.  The staff is young and run ragged trying to move people in to places as they are still being finished.  The folder containing the information  for my unit had a contract for someone else in it.  It took a couple of hours to sort that out and get the right contract.  In the interim, I went to look at the assigned unit to see if it would be acceptable.  The design and style of the housing is absolutely gorgeous but, unfortunately, it's been built by low paid, low skilled imported labor and completed in a very short amount of time.   Everything is still beautiful from a distance but close up the townhouses and apartments are a mess for being virtually brand new.  There are paint splatters everywhere, toilet covers are scratched and dulled from being used as step stools, the appliances are scratched, the tile floors are dirty and the finish has been ruined, the granite countertops  are covered in hardened drops of spilled grout or something, and it just doesn't feel clean in the sense that I am used to clean.  All the surfaces that should be smooth and shiny; granite, wood, glass, chrome, etc. are dulled and/or covered in a filmy residue.   That said, as I looked at my designated townhouse  accepted that everyone was doing the best they could with the resources at their disposal and I was  happy with having gotten a pretty decent place to live.   Certainly it's much better accommodations than the vast majority of people on this planet are blessed with.  Some hard work (and cleaning supplies),  will make it a really great place.  Here is the location on the campus compound relative to my workplace.

I got a really large place for one person because KAUST is still under the impression that my family will be joining me.  That's highly unlikely but, for a small  amount more per month, I have much more room.  It's a two-bedroom townhouse with a bedroom downstairs and a bedroom and office upstairs.
Here's a picture looking down at the main living area from the upstairs.

The units come equipped with a washer and dryer, kitchen appliances, furniture, two TVs, two IP telephones, dishes, flatware, pots & pans, linens, etc..  Unfortunately I have to start cooking for myself and doing my own laundry and cleaning.  Oh well.  Back to reality!  The unit does include  a room about the size of a laundry room with a single bed and a very small bathroom that is for the live-in maid.  Unfortunately a maid would only be allowed if my wife were living here, too.

I've made two walking trips to the supermarket (pointed out in the picture above) and managed to get some of the essentials for cooking and cleaning.  I'm going to get in lots of walking at KAUST by not having an automobile  and the health club (see photo) is also close by.  The health club includes well-equipped workout rooms (separate for men and women), swimming pools (men only, women only, and family), squash courts, racquetball courts, basketball courts,  and a small bowling alley.  I'm hoping the shipment of goods I made before I left the States will arrive next week.  It will include my bicycle so I can explore the area a bit more broadly.  The local bike shop also sells some pretty cheap Chinese knockoffs of Suzuki scooters and motorcycles.  I wonder just how silly I would look on a scooter.