If you just have to see the complete article, look here. My only encounter with camels so far is seeing 4 or 5 of them being herded through Rabigh when I went to get my driver's license.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Where Cultures Meet
I went shopping in Jeddah a few days ago which revealed more ways in which the American and Middle Eastern cultures are different yet the same. Four guys from my department took the 90km ride to the Red Sea Mall after work. The Red Seal Mall is truly a mall just like you would think of one in the U.S.. It's large, modern, is full of people and has a ton of stores (dominated, of course, by women's clothing). I lifted the following picture from another blog, jedisinjeddah.blogspot.com. (Four MBA students from Berkley spent three weeks in the KSA on a consulting gig. It's a pretty entertaining blog.)
I took the next couple of pictures the night we were shopping. The first one shows a huge 2 1/2 story "shirt" hanging over where the fountain is in the picture above. I have no idea why it was there but a few days later it was gone.
The fountain below is outside the entrance to the mall.
The Red Sea Mall has Starbucks, The CheeseCake Factory, Radio Shack, Gucci, Sony, KFC, Hardee's Burger, and many other recognizable and not so recognizable stores. There are many families shopping there plus lots of teenagers (girls in Abayas, of course). The stores and Malls in Jeddah don't really get busy until later in the evening. After 9 pm is when they start to get crowded which, by the way, is after last prayer. There are 6 prayer times during the day beginning at about 5:30 am with the last prayer at about 8pm The prayer times vary by a few minutes every day and it's important in Islam to pray at the proper time. I have an app on my iPhone which tells the daily prayer times and uses the iPhone compass to show the direction to kneel (facing Mecca). It's helpful to know the times because, if you happen to be in a smaller store, everyone is shoo'd out shortly before prayer time and the doors/gates are closed. In the larger department stores, you may be allowed to keep shopping but the gates to the mall close and the registers are shut down. Just before prayer, everyone heads for the food court or the coffee shops, gets something to eat or drink, and sits down to wait it out. The lines get long so knowing the prayer times is useful. The shopkeepers in the food court push serving to the last second, half closing their gates while still serving food and drink. The "mutaween" or religious police are on hand to make sure they are closed by the time prayer starts. There are large prayer rooms available for the men (not women) at the mall. Prayer usually takes about 30 minutes after which everything opens back up and normal mall activities resume. It's just life as usual here in Saudi Arabia.
I read a very interesting article in the Gulf News, a UAE paper, which captures a subtlety of public social life that I sensed but couldn't put my finger on. The complete article is an opinion piece by Gautam Raja entitled Of American conviviality. The gist of the piece is that Americans in social settings talk at length and loudly about what other cultures consider too personal or, in some cases, too obvious to bother with. It's an interesting commentary worth reading to get an insight into how we are sometimes perceived. Having read Raja's article I now realize that, even in a busy place like the Red Sea Mall, it's much quieter than a similar venue would be at home. It's not earth-shattering but it is interesting and is one more difference to file away.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Pictures From KAUST
Here are a few images from KAUST taken Friday, February 19 which is my "Sunday".
This is the entry to my apartment. The door on the right is the "maid's" entrance to the little tiny maid's room. The little sign on my door says "Occupied" which is to keep the many laborers from taking their breaks in an occupied unit. Yesterday I had several guys lounging on my patio. We were both surprised to see each other when I slid open the drapes.
A view of my apartment looking at the patio. I have a table and 6 chairs for sitting out. The sliding doors on the right open from my main living area. Those on the left open from the downstairs bedroom. The buildings are quite tall so I have very high ceilings, (over 20') in the main living area and there are still apartments above mine.
These homes are right on the Red Sea. They are for much higher status folks than me!
This is the Red Sea. Notice the fence with concertina wire. We can't get to the beautiful beach. I assume this is because they don't have controls in place to keep unmarried men and women from mingling which is considered "haraam". (In Islam , haraam is used to refer to anything that is prohibited by the faith. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haraam) Eventually they will have a "men's" beach, a "women's" beach, and a "family" beach. Westernization, even at KAUST, can only go so far in the Kingdom. It doesn't reach beaches or health clubs.
I took this self-portrait at a nearby park using the camera timer. It's really beautiful here but hot! It was about 90F at 11:00am when I took this. I am reluctantly anticipating temperatures regularly between 100F and 115F in the summer.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Tea, anyone?
Today is just a random collection of thoughts and observations regarding my stay in the Kingdom. One of the things I have to get used to is the money. It's not U.S. greenbacks anymore. Not only is the money different colors but it's different sizes, too. Making purchases reminds me of learning a language. Huh? You might ask. The comparison I'm drawing is that, when learning a language, one spends a great deal of time and energy translating from the native language to the new language......you think about what you want to say in English, for example, and then translate the words into Spanish in your head and then speak them. As your familiarity and comfort with the language increases through repetition and usage you eventually just think in the new language. Much easier...much faster.
Money is similar. Today, for example, I went to the store for, among other things, a tube of toothpaste, and saw that it cost 9.75SR or 9.75 Riyals. I had no idea if that's a lot or a little. Sounds like a lot.....but is it? So....let's see....the exchange rate is 3.75:1 so 3.75SR is $1 so 7.50SR is $2 which leaves 2.25SR / 3.75 is about 55 cents so the toothpaste cost about $2.55 or so. Pretty fair price but it took some thinking to figure that out. (In my case a lot of thinking!) Eventually I hope to just know if the tooth paste is overpriced or not in Riyals. Just to make matters more interesting, they don't do coins here. My tally at the register today was something like 14.50SR and I gave the cashier 15SR. My change? A piece of candy. Perfectly acceptable here and a nice treat to boot.
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You'll note from the picture above that only one side of each note has the value of the bill in English. With a little memorization, the color of money will come in handy. To save you the calculation, the USD value of the 1277SR above is about $340 and a piece of candy by the way. The exchange rate is fixed so I don't have to worry about that issue in my calculations.
But what about the tea? That's just another little thing I find interesting. My hotel room has an electric pot which produces boiling water in a minute or less. The tea and coffee are not unlike that in any U.S. hotel room. What's different is that, as with so many things here, English and Arabic coexist.
Finally, a piece from today's "Arab News" states " It’s that time of the year again when the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) “sees red” at shopkeepers selling Valentine things — or even strawberries on cakes." This particular commission is affectionately known as the "Religious Police". The article also states "The Haia editorialists have been out in full force in the days up to the annual holiday, publishing letters in local dailies warning florists, pastry shops, cosmetic stores and gift shops against selling red gift items and red roses for “un-Islamic activities.” Imagine my surprise when I went to dinner at my hotel and found red tablecloths, low lighting, and a particularly lavish buffet laid out in honor of, you guessed it, Valentine's Day. Saudi Arabia is just full of contradictions.
Money is similar. Today, for example, I went to the store for, among other things, a tube of toothpaste, and saw that it cost 9.75SR or 9.75 Riyals. I had no idea if that's a lot or a little. Sounds like a lot.....but is it? So....let's see....the exchange rate is 3.75:1 so 3.75SR is $1 so 7.50SR is $2 which leaves 2.25SR / 3.75 is about 55 cents so the toothpaste cost about $2.55 or so. Pretty fair price but it took some thinking to figure that out. (In my case a lot of thinking!) Eventually I hope to just know if the tooth paste is overpriced or not in Riyals. Just to make matters more interesting, they don't do coins here. My tally at the register today was something like 14.50SR and I gave the cashier 15SR. My change? A piece of candy. Perfectly acceptable here and a nice treat to boot.
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But what about the tea? That's just another little thing I find interesting. My hotel room has an electric pot which produces boiling water in a minute or less. The tea and coffee are not unlike that in any U.S. hotel room. What's different is that, as with so many things here, English and Arabic coexist.
Finally, a piece from today's "Arab News" states " It’s that time of the year again when the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) “sees red” at shopkeepers selling Valentine things — or even strawberries on cakes." This particular commission is affectionately known as the "Religious Police". The article also states "The Haia editorialists have been out in full force in the days up to the annual holiday, publishing letters in local dailies warning florists, pastry shops, cosmetic stores and gift shops against selling red gift items and red roses for “un-Islamic activities.” Imagine my surprise when I went to dinner at my hotel and found red tablecloths, low lighting, and a particularly lavish buffet laid out in honor of, you guessed it, Valentine's Day. Saudi Arabia is just full of contradictions.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
You Are Here
I keep losing track of just where I am in the world. It's amazing how quickly I've gotten wrapped up in just getting up and going to work every day. As a reminder of just how far I have traveled, here's a map that provides a pretty good picture. It's from Google weather but it works.
Thoughts from KSA
As a kid growing up in Alpena, Michigan, diverse meant some notion of "a range of different things". A couple of examples might be that there wasn't much diversity in things to do for entertainment in Alpena or that I might have a teacher describe a genus being studied in biology class as diverse. Now Alpena is a small town on Lake Huron in the northeast section of the lower peninsula of Michigan. I don't think anyone ever considered applying the term to the population. There were Poles, Germans, English......a fairly standard mix of caucasian folks and that was about it. People went to work, went to school, shopped, went to the corner bar, went to church and some had an accent. Still, just people from different places. No big deal.
As I grew older, however, I traveled away from Alpena. I went to college in Kalamazoo, took a job there, took a job in New York, traveled to various places, and took a job in the Detroit area. I'm not sure how but over the intervening years, the term diversity took on entirely new and significant connotations. In the first place, it was supposed to be a good thing. By inference its lack was a bad thing. Schools, companies, states, and even nations adopted the term. And what a term it has become! It still means a range of different things but now when you think of diversity, the default topic of discussion is people; by nationality, by race, by color, by language, by ethnicity, by sex, by sexual orientation and everything else that makes one person different from another. Many people in the US and elsewhere embrace diversity while others abhor it. Wow! "Diversity" is loaded! I thought I had a handle on it but, as it turns out, I still thought too narrowly. To me, in the good old US of A, it meant people that were different from me. My sheltered world provided an egocentric perspective. The Kingdom has been a revelation.
It turns out that I, too, represent diversity! All this time I thought diversity meant I could look around and see some people different than myself with whom I spoke and worked and socialized. It's finally dawned on me just how big that word really is. I'm sure most of you already know this but it's sunk in to me just how omni-directional diversity really is. One fact that has struck me here in Saudi Arabia is first, how many ways there are to pronounce the English language and, second, the fact that I'm hearing how many ways there are to pronounce the English language. I am having difficulty training my ear to recognize my own native language as spoken by Brits, Aussies, Scots, Lebanese, Czechs, Pakistanis, Saudis, Indians, Thais and others..... But isn't it amazing that all those people speak at least some English... (Not too much credit to the Brits, here. They did speak it first :-) ) One thing all these diverse peoples need is a common way to communicate and English is it at KAUST. Nonetheless, KAUST is a culturally diverse community. But hold on......just the other day a Vice-President of the University addressed the entire Information Technology staff. One of his concerns was that he did not see enough women and Saudis represented. So perhaps KAUST has at once overreached its diversity targets and failed to reach them completely.
All I know is that, as an English speaking American, I am a tiny minority here. It's humbling and enlightening at the same time. It's a good place to be.
As I grew older, however, I traveled away from Alpena. I went to college in Kalamazoo, took a job there, took a job in New York, traveled to various places, and took a job in the Detroit area. I'm not sure how but over the intervening years, the term diversity took on entirely new and significant connotations. In the first place, it was supposed to be a good thing. By inference its lack was a bad thing. Schools, companies, states, and even nations adopted the term. And what a term it has become! It still means a range of different things but now when you think of diversity, the default topic of discussion is people; by nationality, by race, by color, by language, by ethnicity, by sex, by sexual orientation and everything else that makes one person different from another. Many people in the US and elsewhere embrace diversity while others abhor it. Wow! "Diversity" is loaded! I thought I had a handle on it but, as it turns out, I still thought too narrowly. To me, in the good old US of A, it meant people that were different from me. My sheltered world provided an egocentric perspective. The Kingdom has been a revelation.
It turns out that I, too, represent diversity! All this time I thought diversity meant I could look around and see some people different than myself with whom I spoke and worked and socialized. It's finally dawned on me just how big that word really is. I'm sure most of you already know this but it's sunk in to me just how omni-directional diversity really is. One fact that has struck me here in Saudi Arabia is first, how many ways there are to pronounce the English language and, second, the fact that I'm hearing how many ways there are to pronounce the English language. I am having difficulty training my ear to recognize my own native language as spoken by Brits, Aussies, Scots, Lebanese, Czechs, Pakistanis, Saudis, Indians, Thais and others..... But isn't it amazing that all those people speak at least some English... (Not too much credit to the Brits, here. They did speak it first :-) ) One thing all these diverse peoples need is a common way to communicate and English is it at KAUST. Nonetheless, KAUST is a culturally diverse community. But hold on......just the other day a Vice-President of the University addressed the entire Information Technology staff. One of his concerns was that he did not see enough women and Saudis represented. So perhaps KAUST has at once overreached its diversity targets and failed to reach them completely.
All I know is that, as an English speaking American, I am a tiny minority here. It's humbling and enlightening at the same time. It's a good place to be.
Monday, February 8, 2010
A "normal" day
A routine, of sorts, has settled in. I awake at 5AM so that, by 5:30AM, I can talk to my family. (It's 9:30PM the previous evening in Michigan). We either Skype with video or I simply dial home using a local number with my Vonage internet phone. My family sees "Walled Lake" on callerid. This is so cool! We talk about the day just past (I've had a night to sleep on it). At 6AM I got to breakfast. At 6:35AM the bus leaves the hotel for KAUST. At 7:45AM or so, we arrive at KAUST. There is an interesting checkpoint on the hightway just north of Jeddah. Everyone slows down to a crawl as we pass through narrowed lanes where there are Police? Guards? Military. I'm not sure. They just watch the vehicles pass and we haven't actually stopped yet.
Once we reach the entrance to KAUST, however, it's a different story. We go through three checkpoints within about a mile. Usually at two of the three, a guard boards the bus and walks the aisle looking at ID badges. The checkpoints are a bit unnerving because of the discreet but visible automatic weapons and, at one stop, truck-mounted machine gun. I suppose it will just fade into the scenery eventually. I certainly have not experienced an ounce of fear or trepidation since I have been in Saudi Arabia. I think it's just a precaution because one never knows who might take exception to our presence.
Once on the KAUST camput, there are visible guards here and there but no visible weapons. It looks pretty much like any other campus except everyone has an ID badge. It reminds me of a corporate campus in many respects. There are just more "throbes" and "abayas" than you typically see at Michigan State or UM. :-) Below is a stock image; this is not KAUST. The men wear throbes and the women wear abayas. This dress is very common everywhere I've been.
At work there is much to do. The computing clusters on which I work were ordered by Saudi Aramco (who built KAUST) before there was a "Research Computing" department (which is where I work). Now there is a single manager and 3 staff members out of 18 projected. What's installed is not what any of us would have purchased and much of it does not work according to the requirements that had been given to Saudi Aramco. As a result, not much works at all. This is resulting in long days which are made even longer by the roughly 3 hours per day I spend on a bus.
Speaking of the bus, moving to the KAUST campus is a dream for many. Some have been in hotels in Jeddah for up to 6 months. Last week a note was sent to a number of people currently in hotels telling them to get ready to move! They have not heard a single thing since then. Apparently these "false starts" are not uncommon albeit very frustrating for the long term commuters. As a result, I am planning for a long stay at the "Habitat" hotel. On the bright side, I've been supplied with a new KAUST-supplied MacBook Pro and, until a new shipment of iPhones arrive, a loaner Nokia mobile phone. My desk phone has been installed but I can't call off campus yet. There's a new form that the administrative assistant didn't know about that must be filled out to allow such calls. This is a fully modern and high-tech University but it is manned by people who are still married to the paper age. Thus they go through reams and reams of paper creating forms for every requirement. To exacerbate the problem, they don't use check boxes to indicate options. Each option seems to have its own form. This is a small issue in the light of all that has been accomplished here, though.
Once we reach the entrance to KAUST, however, it's a different story. We go through three checkpoints within about a mile. Usually at two of the three, a guard boards the bus and walks the aisle looking at ID badges. The checkpoints are a bit unnerving because of the discreet but visible automatic weapons and, at one stop, truck-mounted machine gun. I suppose it will just fade into the scenery eventually. I certainly have not experienced an ounce of fear or trepidation since I have been in Saudi Arabia. I think it's just a precaution because one never knows who might take exception to our presence.
Once on the KAUST camput, there are visible guards here and there but no visible weapons. It looks pretty much like any other campus except everyone has an ID badge. It reminds me of a corporate campus in many respects. There are just more "throbes" and "abayas" than you typically see at Michigan State or UM. :-) Below is a stock image; this is not KAUST. The men wear throbes and the women wear abayas. This dress is very common everywhere I've been.
At work there is much to do. The computing clusters on which I work were ordered by Saudi Aramco (who built KAUST) before there was a "Research Computing" department (which is where I work). Now there is a single manager and 3 staff members out of 18 projected. What's installed is not what any of us would have purchased and much of it does not work according to the requirements that had been given to Saudi Aramco. As a result, not much works at all. This is resulting in long days which are made even longer by the roughly 3 hours per day I spend on a bus.
Speaking of the bus, moving to the KAUST campus is a dream for many. Some have been in hotels in Jeddah for up to 6 months. Last week a note was sent to a number of people currently in hotels telling them to get ready to move! They have not heard a single thing since then. Apparently these "false starts" are not uncommon albeit very frustrating for the long term commuters. As a result, I am planning for a long stay at the "Habitat" hotel. On the bright side, I've been supplied with a new KAUST-supplied MacBook Pro and, until a new shipment of iPhones arrive, a loaner Nokia mobile phone. My desk phone has been installed but I can't call off campus yet. There's a new form that the administrative assistant didn't know about that must be filled out to allow such calls. This is a fully modern and high-tech University but it is manned by people who are still married to the paper age. Thus they go through reams and reams of paper creating forms for every requirement. To exacerbate the problem, they don't use check boxes to indicate options. Each option seems to have its own form. This is a small issue in the light of all that has been accomplished here, though.
Friday, February 5, 2010
The Little Things
I'm beginning to see lots of evidence that Toto and I aren't in Kansas anymore. When shopping one has to be cognizant of prayer times. That is so because, when a prayer time arrives, everything stops. If you happen to be in a store they may just turn off the cash registers or, in small stores, have everyone leave and they lock up. Then 20 or 30 minutes later, everything starts up again. It can be a bit disconserting for a novice. Here's an example of prayer times as published daily in the Arab News.
The schedule of activity here seems to be focused after the final prayer with stores opening at 5pm and closing at midnight. Some of the heaviest traffic occurs late in the evening as everyone goes to do their shopping.
It's also surprising how many Arabic signs have English translations underneath them and how many local folks seem to have a basic knowledge of English. Not everyone, of course, but many. I'm also struck by the presence of many international icons such as McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and others. I found a local shop in walking distance from my hotel with the following necessity:
The schedule of activity here seems to be focused after the final prayer with stores opening at 5pm and closing at midnight. Some of the heaviest traffic occurs late in the evening as everyone goes to do their shopping.
It's also surprising how many Arabic signs have English translations underneath them and how many local folks seem to have a basic knowledge of English. Not everyone, of course, but many. I'm also struck by the presence of many international icons such as McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and others. I found a local shop in walking distance from my hotel with the following necessity:
KAUST DAY One
My first day at KAUST was a bit of a blur. I went to HR and got some paperwork started and was taken to get my ID badge. That only took 1/2 hour or so. From there I went to my work location and got reacquainted with my boss whom I worked with when he was at GM and I at IBM. I was given a desk by his administrative assistant, a small, young Muslim woman wearing a pretty standard burqa and head covering. She put in a request for my laptop computer, desk phone, and mobile phone. By the end of the day I had changed desks (it was easier to go to the location of the new 20" display for my laptop and the desk phone than have them come to me :-) )
I met what co-workers were available. There are now 4 members on site of 18 projected to be in the department. Three more are expected to arrive yet this month (February). Including a services guy from Saudi Business Machines (the local IBM entity), we are a Finn, a Frenchman, an Indian, an American, and a Pole. It's a great mix of people and cultures.
I went back to HR in late morning to begin the process of getting my iquama which is the Saudi equivalent of a US green card. It will allow me to get a driver license, open a bank account, and assure any authorities that I am legally in the country. Unfortunately, though I had been forewarned that I would need passport photos, the ones I brought were too large. That process will have to continue on Saturday because Thursday and Friday are the weekend. I did get a cursory health check and some blood drawn in the process, however. Mobile phones were back-ordered so I received a new SIM for my existing Verizon global phone. It has not been activated yet so I don't know when it will begin to work.
In speaking to other expats on the bus back to Jeddah, the pace of my processing turns out to be much quicker than most experience. I was told of having to go back to security for badges multiple times; of hour-long waits; of no desks being available; of office assignments being already occupied. They are still working out the kinks at KAUST.
The ride back to Jeddah was about 30 minutes longer than the morning one because of traffic. Now there is a life-threatening proposition. The roads strike me as barely controlled chaos. Cars race by with inches to spare, cutting in and out. The lane markers seem be merely suggestions and cars will form 4 lanes where the markings indicate there should be 2. Defensive driving is critical because it's common for people to drive back in the wrong direction on a divided street, for example, if they missed their turn-off. Families will drive along with a small 4 or 5-year old in Daddy's lap pretending to steer. Seatbelts are obviously not a popular accessory. It reminds me of life in the US when I was a kid climbing over seats and sticking my head out the window while traveling.
Here are a couple of views from my hotel in Jeddah.
I met what co-workers were available. There are now 4 members on site of 18 projected to be in the department. Three more are expected to arrive yet this month (February). Including a services guy from Saudi Business Machines (the local IBM entity), we are a Finn, a Frenchman, an Indian, an American, and a Pole. It's a great mix of people and cultures.
I went back to HR in late morning to begin the process of getting my iquama which is the Saudi equivalent of a US green card. It will allow me to get a driver license, open a bank account, and assure any authorities that I am legally in the country. Unfortunately, though I had been forewarned that I would need passport photos, the ones I brought were too large. That process will have to continue on Saturday because Thursday and Friday are the weekend. I did get a cursory health check and some blood drawn in the process, however. Mobile phones were back-ordered so I received a new SIM for my existing Verizon global phone. It has not been activated yet so I don't know when it will begin to work.
In speaking to other expats on the bus back to Jeddah, the pace of my processing turns out to be much quicker than most experience. I was told of having to go back to security for badges multiple times; of hour-long waits; of no desks being available; of office assignments being already occupied. They are still working out the kinks at KAUST.
The ride back to Jeddah was about 30 minutes longer than the morning one because of traffic. Now there is a life-threatening proposition. The roads strike me as barely controlled chaos. Cars race by with inches to spare, cutting in and out. The lane markers seem be merely suggestions and cars will form 4 lanes where the markings indicate there should be 2. Defensive driving is critical because it's common for people to drive back in the wrong direction on a divided street, for example, if they missed their turn-off. Families will drive along with a small 4 or 5-year old in Daddy's lap pretending to steer. Seatbelts are obviously not a popular accessory. It reminds me of life in the US when I was a kid climbing over seats and sticking my head out the window while traveling.
Here are a couple of views from my hotel in Jeddah.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
So It Begins.....
On February 1, 2010 I began my journey to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and KAUST. Leaving my family in Michigan was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I will also chronicle here, my rookie international traveler mistakes. Going to the airport, I knew my bags were overweight. What I did not realize was just how expensive overweight bags are to fly. I wanted to check 3 bags which is one more than is allowed. Two of the three were overweight. That added up to 2 @ $150 and 1 @ $250 for a total of $550……..for my luggage! Fortunately my wife, Cindi, spoke up and said “could he upgrade to business class and get the bags for free?”. Brilliant! So for $600 my bags flew free and I got business class to Germany. It’s economy from Germany to KSA but the bags go all the way on the first ticket. You might wonder why I would spend that money when you could just leave stuff behind? Because I have home in those bags and it was going with me.
The Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was great….multi-adjustable power seats that lay almost flat; personal video; delicious food….I just wish I could have slept. Landing in Frankfurt brought another surprise. They don’t have those nice heated jetways we are so used to in the States. You park on the tarmac and bus to the terminal. It’s winter in Germany now, too, so it was a cold ride. Security at the airport doesn’t seem to care if you are actually boarding a plane. They don’t check your boarding pass/id at the security line. They just screen your bags and you. I found out later when they cleared everyone out of the waiting area and made us queue up to get back in that they do check id and boarding passes. Just at a different time than I am used to.
I also find it a bit intimidating being the foreign person in someone else’s country. Lot’s of languages are being spoken and English is far from the most common. It’s a good thing to get out of the cocoon, though. I’ve always “known” the world was bigger than the USA but never really “knew” it.
The flight to Jeddah was uneventful. The seats were smaller and less luxurious than Business Class but I had a row to myself so I was comfortable enough. The food in economy cannot be compared to that in business class and there were no free drinks. Just a way to prepare myself for alcohol-free Saudi Arabia. When we arrived in Jeddah at King Abdulaziz International Airport, it took about 15 minutes to taxi to our parking spot (again on the tarmac). Another 10 minute bus ride got us to the terminal. To my relief, the KAUST desk was clearly visible when I entered the terminal. I was greeted by a very cordial young man in Arabic dress whose English was flawless. Turns out he was born in Chicago, moved to Saudi Arabia when he was 4, and spent the next 17 years living on an English-speaking compound. His Arabic was just fine, too. He escorted me and two other KAUST folks to the head of the customs line where I was fingerprinted and photographed. Then we got our luggage and it was put through an xray machine. The staff at the machine barely glanced at the screen and we were out of the airport in about 15 minutes. KAUST definitely gets special treatment! I spoke to a fellow who arrived when noone was at the KAUST desk and it took him 1 1/2 hours to get through the airport. After a brief ride to my hotel, the "Habitat", I unpacked just enough to get to bed and sleep.
At 5:30AM (9:30pm the night before in Detroit), I was back up getting ready for my first day at KAUST. The breakfast room was full of expats and consisted of about a 40 foot long spread of everything from scrambled eggs and pancakes to mozarella tomatoes and numerous unidentifiable Saudi dishes. There was fruit, coffee, and juice so I was happy.
The bus (or motor coach) was about 1/2 full so everyone had their own seats. We departed from the hotel about 6:35AM and arrived at KAUST 1 hr and 15 minutes later. The scenery on Medina Highway to KAUST was certainly different. There was plenty of traffic....trucks and cars alike. The cars covered the gamut of makes including Toyota, GM, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, Chery Motors, Dihatsu.....they had it all. The terrain was very flat and, surprise, surprise, "tan". Not much green stuff in sight except for the occasional stand of trees. The memorable features of the landscape included incomplete construction, (seemingly abandoned), low concrete walls by the hundreds whose purpose was a mystery, tons of abandoned tires laying morosely by the road in ones and in small groups along with litter, litter, and more litter. KAUST appeared at the end of this ride like an oasis.
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