Flying, Haircuts, and Planning for Eid

Flying across this large country:

ARAMCO owns and operates the Shaybah oil field. The description below is from their website.


“The Shaybah oil field is located in one of the most remote, desolate and inhospitable areas in Saudi Arabia. It is situated in an isolated desert area known as the Rub' al-Khali (the Empty Quarter) among towering rust-colored sand dunes. Dune heights of more than 200 meters (660 feet) are common. Summer temperatures can reach 56 C (133 F). Not surprisingly, the area is very dry. Occasionally, sandstorms pushed by 75-mph winds scour the area, reducing visibility, grounding aircraft and blanketing access roads.”
Saudi Aramco reports to its owner, the Saudi Arabian Government, through the Supreme Council for Petroleum and Minerals Affairs, chaired by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and is one of the largest oil corporation in the world with the largest proven crude oil reserves and production. Interestingly, Aramco is managing the budget of KAUST for the next few years as we continue to set up. Associated with this relationship, Aramco invited students and faculty to visit one of their large gas and oil production facility in the ‘Empty Quarter.’ I learned of the trips and was able to join the second.

On Thursday last week, (the first day of our weekend here) I joined about 120 other people from the university and we climbed on three fancy Mercedes buses with leather seats and everything, and traveled to the South end of Jeddah to the private Aramco airport. From there, all 120 of us boarded an Aramco jet and traveled 2.5 hours straight East to Shaybah (details below). We were too late to be given a tour of the oil/gas extraction facilities but not too late to climb to the top of some of the large dunes and take photos of the setting sun. Later, we gathered for some presentations by Aramco employees and then had a wonderful Arabic meal out under the stars and then back on the plane and then busses and home again by 12 am.
Statistics: Shaybah has 19 billion barrels of oil and a similar quantity of gas. Currently they are using horizontal drilling to reach multiple oil pockets branching holes off from the main hole. They have some 106 horizontal wells and 200 plus ‘regular’ wells. The site of Shaybah has four large gas/oil separation plants. I believe that they pump the gas back down the wells to assist in extraction of the oil once it is separated.

Click on the link below to open a map of the area:
Things to look for in this Google Map. To the North on this image you will see the UAE. Along the coast is Abu Dhabi and up along the coast to the North East is Dubai. Use the zoom tool (click on the +) on the left of the map to zoom in on the center of the map to see where I was. As you zoom, you will see the individual dunes come into view.  Closer yet, you will see some roads and closer still, you will see the oil separation plant, buildings and airstrip where we landed. If you see a ‘pin’ that I have placed on the map, it marks the location of the plane when we landed and taxied to the terminal. If you back out a bit, you will see a small road going directly to the south of the terminal. It goes up some hills and ends in a small loop at an interpretive center where we had our evening meal after climbing the dunes just south of the center. Once you are zoomed in close, you can click and hold your mouse on the map and ‘pull’ it around on the screen to control what you want to look at.
When we lived in the UAE between 2003 and 2008, during the first few weeks in Dubai, the family went on a trip down to the left bottom tip of the road that is in the shape of a W just over the border in the UAE in the Google Map image above. Little did I know that I would revisit this area 6 years later – on the other side of the border, in Saudi Arabia about 40 km to the South. In the series of photos on this website http://www.pbase.com/pinicola/first_days_here you will see the family coming down the slip-face of a 300 m. + dune in a Toyota. For those interested in trivia, the moving wave in front of the vehicle as it moved down the slope provided us proof that moving sand ‘sings.’ The moving sand produced a low moaning sound.

Friday I was up early again (this is later in the week and I am still not fully recovered from the weekend!). I was off for scuba diving and my open water exam which I passed and am now a certified Scuba Diver. 8-) I think this next weekend will be spent around the house cleaning and resting! Whew!

A bit of the Globe:
The University is really the most international place I have ever been. On the trip back from Shaybah I was sitting beside an American instructor of Applied Mathematics and noticed that the only other people who were talking English in hearing distance from me were the Nigerian and Chinese men sitting right in front of us.
This past week there was a Mexican celebration (the week before had a ‘China day’). The Mexican students wanted to have a 'catered' meal for all at the university but it eventually became a Mexican meal at the cafeteria – or became ‘as the chefs interpreted Mexico,’ at least that is how it seemed to me. The serving and catering staff were all dressed up in ponchos and a few were strumming and singing with eukalalys (sp?). You can probably guess who was doing the singing (read my previous blogs…). Later, on my way home from dinner, I stopped my bike and watched a group of Mexican students playing and chanting while blindfolded participants tried to bash away at a piñata and with a paper mache bat. 8-)

The Technology at KAUST fact for the week:
This university is loaded with technology and the examples are all over the place. The video clip here, is a demonstration of something called a Visualization Screen.
Standing outside ‘Building One’, I watch a meeting taking place between three locations. On the huge screen (about 30 ft by 10 ft), are the three locations as well as a shared document. The main screen area is a series of smaller displays forming the "wall'. Each meeting can be moved to 'any' location on the large screen irrespective of the independent displays.


Some time soon, I want to get a tour of the inside of that room and experience the different 3D visualization rooms. One is called the ‘cave.’ Stay tuned!

Considering my options for Eid
Well, I got my exit visa in my passport and now can leave the country. The visa is a 8.5x11 folded piece of paper stapled to the back page of my passport. I will have to take care that it does not get ripped out…

I have been looking around for a place to go for the 9 days of holiday. Going to Dubai is an option. I was thinking of going to a yearly gathering of our associates and friends there, but it happens the weekend before Eid and our weekend is not the same as theirs now that ‘they’ have shifted to Friday and Saturday. I am also still in my probation period and cannot use work-holidays yet – Eid is a public/religious ‘holiday.’ So, I am thinking of where to go… The closest place in Africa for me to go is Ethiopia and this seems like a good enough excuse to visit that continent again. There is lots to see and I will write about what I plan to do as things progress. Maybe some other place or opportunity will come up too! Who knows.
A Hair Cut:

The group of guys that I hang out with decided that we did not want to go on the Shopping Bus for the 3 hour round trip plus 4 hours stay at a mall…AGAIN, just to get our hair cut. We had just learned that another person had gone into the small town close beside the university the other day and paid 5 Riyal ($1.50) for his cut. We all though that this was too good to be true and we hired a taxi from the university and shared the cost between the 4 of us. We drove past three barber shops looking for one that was not too grotty looking and decided that the one with the large couch stretching around half the shop was a good indication that the owner considered that comfort was of some importance – we thought that this might transfer to the quality and cleanliness of the hair cut. On the way home, I purchased some medicated shampoo just in case I catch something.
I must add that there is a lot more white coming off my head these days! The most interesting part of the hair cut was the straight razor treatment. This guy replaces his straight razor blade (half of a safety razor blade…) each time he cuts hair. He then dips it in alcohol and uses a small blow torch to light the razorblade on fire. This is what he is doing in this photo of me taken by Arindam on his mobile (I look stunned or something!). He rotates it a bit until it goes out and then does the tidying up of hair around the neck and sideburn areas. After telling this story to some folk at breakfast, they said that I should look forward to the full treatment – the barber takes the blow torch and flashes it over the edges of your ears to singe off the short hairs on the ears. Woooo! Maybe not!

Diving, iPhones and Other Things

Got a new toy.. an iPhone.

Each of the employees in IT have been given the option to have an iPhone or a Blackberry. I chose the iPhone because of its possible use in eLearning. I have added a few free tools that can be downloaded from the Internet. I have a tool for scuba diving (more about each of these later), a tool for Blackboard and the ‘iPray’ tool …. 8-)   Also included in the free tools I have acquired, is a Bloomberg stock-chart tool that is really cool. Each of these tools is a little self-contained program that does something unique.
After my small group of friends got our new mobile phones, my boss passed by while we were standing outside one day and commented on our huddle…. We had our heads together, standing in a circle busily calling each other and then taking the missed calls and adding names and details, building our contact list in our phones. He said we looked like a group of guys planning a conspiracy. There is a lot of work to ensure that one is accessible – we each have a private mobile, a desk phone, our new work mobiles and our home numbers. I wonder what life was like when a person had to walk over to someone and ask a question. Man! That must have been like the Stone Age!

Eating in the Cafeteria

The cost of eating is going up here. Food is now not free in the restaurants in around where the houses are. But, it is still worth the bike ride to the cafeteria as it remains free there and will be we think till after the second Eid holiday (December 4). I have been staying a little late at my desk so that I can stop at the cafeteria on the way home. By around 6 or so the sun is starting to set and it is wonderful to sit at the window facing the sea, looking over a reflection pool outside the window and watching the sun set over Egypt. Some day I will follow the sun and visit that country.

Scuba Lessons
I searched on the phone’s ‘application store’ to see if there was anything for calculating how long I could stay under water while diving. I searched on PADI which is the association that my lessons are through. I found one. Too bad the phone is not waterproof!

This whole diving thing started with me coming to Saudi concerned with how I would fill my time – so I thought that I might look into the following: getting certified for diving, sailing, doing a bunch of fishing and a few other things between my work day…. Well, always keeping my eyes open for an opportunity, I was talking one day with a student and he told me about the scuba lessons he was taking. Ah ha! I jumped right in and invited myself to the lessons. I joined the class at lesson #3, but that was not a problem because they have everything on DVDs these days and I could bring that home and watch just as well as being in the classroom. Incidentally I have attempted to get fully certified two times before but each time fate conspired against me and I was not able to take the final open-water exam although I passed the written exam – I still never became certified. So, I sat in on class #3 and then two days later was in the pool at a local resort just along the coast, south of KAUST. The glass is made up of a large group of Mexican students, a sprinkling of Chinese a Brit and a tag-along Canadian who is just about old enough to be their father. We spent 6 or so hours in the pool (I got wrinkles on the wrinkles on my hands as you can see!)

The sea dive was great! We walked out about 100 ft from the stairs that we went down to get to the water and then swam parallel to the shore for another 50 feet. Where we started to swim, was the drop-off. What a surprise.  There is just a cliff underwater that drops to about 35 feet and all along its vertical surface is living coral and fish all over the place in spectacular rainbow colors. We swam out to a small buoy and dove down from there following a rope that was anchored to a wire frame platform. I understand that this first dive usually has a rope to assist in the drop down to the bottom. I went first because I was indentified as being able to control my air consumption and would be the longest down at the bottom. I held onto the wire frame and watched the fish swim around me like large colorful soap bubbles on a gentle breeze. As more and more of us came down, it was interesting to watch the bubbles floating up like curtains slowly rising at a theatre flashing colors as the sun set. I can not underestimate the pleasure experienced by all when we were traveling home. A good day!

My job:
Presently, I am working with a program that contains online courses called Blackboard. Hence the iPhone tool for Blackboard – I read that it is more of a communication tool for email and course communication than a ‘learning’ tool that you use to do assignments with.
Acting as a Blackboard application administrator, I have been dealing with student accounts and their enrolments into courses. Along with that, there have been technical problems with the way that all the computer systems interact which in most cases means that we have to deal with each issue one-by-one rather than changing something and everyone’s problem is fixed.
Assisting the teachers in their use of this program (training) is another task that I have right now. I have been enjoying getting around the campus on desk-visits to the teachers’ offices. This gives me time to help them and get to know them a bit. I am very impressed with the caliber of researchers and professors that KAUST has. I sure hope that I have opportunity to find out what they do – observe them in action as it were.
It is particularly nice to be sitting eating in the cafeteria (still eating free food!) and when I look around, there is often someone to wave to. 8-)
I have been riding my bicycle around campus for about two weeks now since my shipment came. There is a bike shop on campus now although sadly, the owner has underestimated his customers and I fear that he will not get many. All his product is of the cheapest material around! We got a bike like one of the ones in this shop when we were in Dubai and within a few days it was covered with rust and we were not too keen on riding an ‘ugly’ bike. Shortly later the tires were always flat and the thing just continued to deteriorate.  It constantly amazes me to think of the effort that is put into making objects that last such a short time!
While Arindam and I were visiting this bike shop and asking about a bike lock for Arindam, there was another person who arrived. He was greeted by the owner and then a sales person took him to the side of the shop and opened a door and pulled out a new shiny motorcycle. It was the kind that is halfway between a scooter and a motorbike. The sales-guy spent some time describing and pointing out all the buttons and things while the new owner listened and nodded his head. We went back in and purchased the lock and were standing out beside our bikes talking when the new owner having started the bike, revved the engine a few times and took off right into a concrete post! We turned around to this almighty crash and stood with our mouths open for a while -- then became self-conscious of our appearance and rode away. As we left, the owner was sitting on the bike getting his front forks straightened by the sales-guy. I should have told him to get the bike delivered and leave it in his garage for a few weeks before he takes it out. New vehicles are always jinxed! Come to think of it, maybe this guy is one of the few who did not have a Saudi drivers license? Oh! And Arandam had to return the bike lock because it did not open. 8-/

And for the final iPhone tool, the iPray.
I learned about this this morning finding that many people are using it. Apart for the intended use of assisting Moslems in their daily prayer-life, us non-Moslems have found it quite valuable in assisting us to work around prayer times. You might have read in a previous post how shopping is a challenge to us newly arrived people in Saudi Arabia. Well, this tool provides not only the time of the next prayer but with a simple touch of the finger, the user can see how much time there is left till ‘store closing time.’ For example, today the prayer times are 5 am, 6:17 am, 12:07 pm, 3:27 pm, 5:55 pm and 7:25 pm. The last two are the issue when you travel to the shopping malls on the ‘shopping bus.’ We leave around 5 pm, get there just at closing time or just before, have to hang around for about a ½ hour and then do some power-shopping for about an hour and then hang out again till stores open again around 8:10 or so. The busses leave the malls about 10:20. I think I will have to take the ‘trip’ again shortly as I need to get a hair cut and there is no facility here on campus yet. 8-/

And a final bit of information.
I heard from Mohamed that he had to sign a document at the school here (gr. 8) for his daughter to take home her MacBook Pro. Each of the school children get to use a MacBook. I am not sure if that is ALL the students or just the middle school and high school. But on top of that, they also get an iTouch which is the same as my iPhone but does not have the phone. Students would be able to connect to the internet through wireless or their computers and download all the small programs just like I have. What the schools will do with these bits of technology for the students? Who knows! It would be fun being a teacher at those schools that is for sure!

Post Script...  Today I was awoken by a call to prayer at 5am. from the bedside table.  I was so sure I had turned  the sound off!

Day 26 working at KAUST and my shipment is delivered to my new home.

I had only an air shipment and have not used my sea allotment. Some of the other people here had better ideas than me and purchased some inexpensive suitcases and put things into them and they then were shipped. Me, I just said “take that stuff from that closet and this stuff in this pile over here.” What I got delivered, was that stuff and that pile, all in one pile… with my clothes used as packing material to fill in the spaces! I have some of my cloths in the closet hanging in the off-chance that they will relax and I will not need to iron everything. Some of you might have caught my comment on Face Book about my ironing marathon; I did 13 shirts in one stretch! Mind you, Donna might not have passed a few of them if I was still at home doing them, but here…. Hey! Who will know? 8-)

Talking about all things domestic,
I am witness to a number of attempts to metamorphosis to domestic technician. ‘Us’ bachelors are comparing notes on how to use a top load washing machine, commenting on the black marks that the dryers are putting on our white shirts, and wondering if laundry detergent will also work in the dish washer (that one was not from me!).

You know that duvet cover that I got? I should have spent a few sessions watching the house cleaning staff at the hotel work with them. Each day, they would take the duvet cover off and put on a new one. Man! How do you get that HUGE flat pillow thing into that bag? Pushing does not work… pulling not much better. I thought of climbing inside the thing and wiggling down to the end to sit cross legged and pull it in but thought better of it since I would probably pull it all back out on my attempt to exit the small hole at the bottom of the thing. I finally worked out that if I sort of push a corner almost inside out and grab the corresponding corner of the duvet that I could pull it in and then do the same with the other. Then with a whole lot of shack’n go’n on, I could get it moderately distributed in the bag. Then I had to tackle the buttons on the pillow cases that were half the size of the pillows themselves. I guess I can choose from mostly packed-hard small pillows and loose over-soft normal pillows now – 4 of them on my bed.

A KAUST Picnic
Mohamed's family has arrived and they have moved onto campus. They called me up the other night and invited me out to a family picnic. The food was run of the mill sort of corporate fair but the company was more interesting. There were the obligatory bouncy castles – very large ones at that, 3 horse and carriage rides that were brought in from Medina (at great expense I heard…) and for the adults, an invitation to try out the security’s Segway bikes. They are really very fun to be on! They respond to how you lean and it takes a bit of trust at first, but once you get the hang of it, it is like an extension of your body – an odd but interesting feeling, that!



On the way home I passed the fire trucks and emergency vehicles that were parked at the edge of the central park where the picnic was taking place. The Fire Department sponsored the event. There was a young local boy in the police vehicle and he was playing with the siren. The emergency people did not know how to get this youngster out of the truck and to stop him holding down the siren button… this went on for close to 15 minutes. 8-/ I am sure that the people in the houses around the park were not too pleased.

Funny thing, the day after the picnic a news item was circulated saying that guests will be much more controlled on campus from now on. It seems as though when the local Jeddah-ians (?) learned that there was free food, that the picnic was rather more popular than they had anticipated and a whole lot more ‘visitors’ arrived. We are getting daily emails now about using the ‘Main’ entrance to the campus and also hearing that security has tightened up significantly since the grand opening. I think this article might shine some light on the issue: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/10/04/world/international-uk-saudi-education.html

Keeping Time
I am not sure if I mentioned the clock that I purchased when I went out to the Al Balad district of Jeddah. I was told that it was much better than the other ones that this store owner had because it was made in Japan and the other ones were made in China. I sure am glad that I got the Japanese one, because the one I got only lasted one night! To replace it, I got a free one which came with a set of Duracell batteries. Didn’t much like its look – with these old fashioned looking clangor bells on the top but thought that it would do in a pinch. When I got it home, I realized that the bells on the top were plastic and just for looks. So, not liking them much, the clock is now less two bells and a small fake hammer! Job done and the thing has worked like a charm since.

Maintenance
It is not like we really need alarm clocks here much as the door bells ring at any time. We were told quite emphatically that the phone number 959, used to log issues for maintenance worked 24/7. Arandam was talking to an electrician who came to his house and he mentioned that ‘Americans stay up late and sleep in late’ so it is easy to get work done… Well, I can tell you, Indians and Canadians go to sleep early and get up early! In one night, I had maintenance arrive at 10:30 (had to get dressed fast and down stairs to open the door and hang around while they did their work – but glad for it), they rang Arindam’s bell at 12:45 (wrong house…) and then turned up at Mohamed’s place at 2:30 am. for something or other that I can not remember but he let them work at it while they were there.

I found out that my stove was not grounded correctly. I had attempted a second time to cook at home. I had purchased a single box of Kraft Dinner (look-alike) to see if it actually tasted like ‘KD’. I had put the water in the pot and then the macaroni and had picked up a mettle spoon to stur the contents when I got a good buzz. I wad barefoot and holding the spoon in the water. I guess I made a better ground than the electrical wire connected to the mains! I called 959 and later that night the doorbell rang and a very polite electrician went though the system with a fine tooth (he had a single screw driver… so I lent him a few tools). I guess the people who had hard wired my stove had put the ground wire to the wrong connection and the rest of the electrical wires were just twisted and wrapped with electrical tape that tends to get moisture from the humidity on it and ‘leaks.’ RIGHT! OK, so I have been a bit hesitant to repeat the cooking attempt but can tell you that since then, I have tapped the elements and not got any feedback so think that everything is OK now.


The Driving Exam
I have discovered one of Saudi Arabia’s exclusive domain’s of men... getting a driving license – not a women to be seen in this busy place. I had been told that it was not too hard for people with Western drivers licenses but unlike the UAE, everyone has to have a driving exam. So, a load of us traveled in separate vehicles arrived at the driving exam center. I was one of the first to get in and wished that I could have taken a video of the whole event but it passed too quickly and I was not permitted back in the examination area again after I had had my test. 8-/
I got into car with one of the grumpiest examiners that I have ever witnessed. This guy knew no English and was very brusque. An American man was motioned over and told to get in the back seat. I put my seat belt on, and caught out of the corner of my eye, a flick of the hand of the instructor as if he was telling me to not bother – I did it anyway. I started up the car (standard) and moved ahead about 5 feet and then stalled it. Took it out of gear and upon starting, successfully moved about another 15 feet around a short corner and told to stop and get out of the car. ‘Go, Go’ was all he told me. So I got out and watched the American climb into the drivers seat. He was told to reverse the car back to where I had started – another 20 feet movement. He was commanded to get out too. We went over to a guy sitting under a palm tree and he stamped my form. I took it that I had passed with flying colors! Of group of 10 or so stalwart drivers only one failed. Upon discussion we were not sure if he was the ‘token’ failure for our group or if he actually did not know how to drive. We were herded into the main building and sat an waited while the KAUST government ‘agent’ went around and got our forms stamped. I think we counted 12 stamps on our forms – meaning 12 different individuals and line-ups he needed to go to for this process. I guess this promotes employment?
I can now drive in Saudi Arabia. Do I WANT to? That is another question entirely.


The Shopping Bus:
3 guys with 4 hours to blow... Man but time can drag slow.
I went with Mohamed and Arindam to be some help while they purchased bicycles in Jeddah. I believe neither of them have had a ‘geared’ bike before so they wanted some advice on knowing what to look for and now to size it for their height. We went to the Mall of Arabia. Every night there are ‘shopping busses’ that leave from the campus and return ‘about’ 5 hours later. We left at 4 in the afternoon on Thursday (our weekend here) and were back home by 10:30. Well, I can tell you, I am not sure if I want to do that again. I believe I can talk for most men when I say that we go to GET things not necessarily to look around. We ‘looked’ around to ‘find’ the sports store. Our timing was not quite right as it was closing for prayer time when we arrived. So Arindam and I waited outside the store in the mall main-area with everyone else who did not go to pray. A half hour later, the gates where opened and in we went. We purchased the bikes. By the time we had finished the bike selection the next prayer time had arrived and again we were herded out of the store. Shopping is not a man’s sport so we mainly did NOTHING till 9:20 when the bus arrived.

This and That
Kannen, made a comment about Garnet’s name when I said that his name comes from the name of a kind of stone – but also is known as a kind of sand paper. He said, Oh! That is good -- he is precious yet utilitarian!
Kannen often comes up with little witticisms. This one was mentioned when we were talking about the possible problems we might face in getting our drivers licenses: Never trouble trouble until trouble trouble us.


I will write about ‘work’ next week, now that things are starting to settle down.

The last two weeks of September 2009: From Ramadan to Old Town

Picture this:
Mobile phone rings …. Echoey woman’s voice calls out: “Paging the driver of the black BMW....” This was the ring tone of the taxi driver while we were on our way out into the night, during Ramadan in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We were: a Pakistani bedraggled taxi driver, an Egyptian (professional), an Indian (professional) and me – the white guy, all in this beat up white/cream taxi sliding around corners and weaving between traffic, all at high speeds, out on an adventure to explore the city. This setting repeated itself in one form or another over the past week or so as we collected essential things for our houses that we were preparing to move to. Each of us were getting really tired of traveling 1.5 to 2 hours each way on the bus from the hotel to the University. These trips and the work day made for some long days: 12 to 14 hours, often with us finishing dinner around 9:30 to 10 in the evening and then asleep by 12 or later, to be up the next day at 5:40 or so. Then with us getting out an about, we were getting back by 2 am some nights.

IKEA
During one of these trips we found ourselves at IKEA looking for sheets and other miscellaneous household items. At this store, all the prices were written in Arabic and I had to hunt to find the small inconspicuous and often missing ‘western’ pricing. I think I am getting better at reading their numbers.

I think it was the ‘IKEA evening’ that I was watching someone fill in a form and finding myself like many times before, being amazed at the way that Arabic people write. They write letters from left to right, but when writing numbers they write them from right to left (like us). I have always wondered how they estimate the space they have for large numbers when they are filling in forms…. Mohammed my Arabic friend mentioned one evening that ‘western’ numbers are what is called Arabic numerals yet Arab people write using Indian numbers!

I am not used to, nor do I think I will ever get used to the fact that stores close for every prayer time; this means that when we are out shopping that we are often asked to leave the store for about a half hour around 6 and then again around 9. But, when in IKEA, they just announced that the tills were closing and that anyone in the store could remain but the doors would also be locked during this time. So we remained in the store -- to the sound of the call to prayer playing over the PA system, while we shopped.
When the store opened again, we progressed to the tills and passed out into the area where the food area is (we have all been there !) and we purchased shuarma (chicken wraps) and an ice-cream cone for me. We moved over to the seating area and sat down. Shortly after a security guard sidled up to us and attempted to tell us with gestures that we needed to move – no way! I was there for the duration of my meal, so we only spoke English and played dumb. Later we realized that we were sitting right below a large sign that said ‘Family Section only.” I guess I am a bachelor now and have to watch were I sit. I think I will tell them next time that my wife is lost in the store and I am waiting for her. 8-) The seating is better in the Family Section anyway.

Al Balad
Last week myself and two others (a German, Paul, who is responsible for the salt water aquariums in the research labs on the Red Sea and Douglas an Irishman, Forensic Computer Security Specialist) went to the ‘Old Town’ area of Jeddah. We left at 9 pm just after the last prayer-time of the day and traveled by… guess what? Taxi! The Al Balad district is an area that has many old coral bock buildings of which many are boarded up and extremely dilapidated. Too bad that night is the time when things hum in this part of the world but is not that great a time for photography. I will travel back to this part of the city during the day and spend some time photographing some of the better preserved buildings. The district is a hub of business and small streets all heading out of the center like the spokes of a wheel.
I think the image that will stay in my mind about this trip was walking down very busy streets restricted only to foot and handcarts, and stepping over and around little mobile battery-operated toys like dancing dogs and the like wondering where their owner was. It was like these things had got loose and were making a flat-out run for the edges of the roads lest they get stepped on and crushed to bits. A few times, I had to take a hop to the side lest I be the one causing the demise of one of these escapees and then being chased by its enterprising owner looking for the replacement cost.

Shops galore in this area! There are stores selling everything and anything. The Middle East is a great example of marketing gone awry – or maybe we have it wrong and need to think out-of-the-box a bit more… Take for example, plumbing supply pipes and pad locks displayed on sheets in the middle of the street, every possible variety of TV remote ever made on the planet with knock-off watches, or coffee carafe/watches to gold jewelry/flashlight stores all over-layered by the sweet smell of hot buttered corn venders and other unmentionable smells wafting up from bent-grated sewer holes in the street. As we walked, we passed from the textiles district through the watches to the pens and abaya areas. I have found a great little gathering of shops that do photo enlargements and plan to come back to get some of my photos enlarged for the walls of my home.

Around the Campus
We have live music in the toilets at work from the people hired for janitorial duties at the University, working 12 hour shifts and told to not loiter in the halls of the building. So, we have these fellows standing right at the door when you walk into the smallish bathrooms. It is rather uncomfortable to go into the stall and have someone just outside the wood grill – singing. These people are definitely proving that they can sing just about everywhere.
Someone told us the other day that he had got the keys to his house a few days before and his parents had come to see him so he took them to the campus from Jeddah. He toured them around the place and then to his new home as he had not moved out of the hotel to his home yet, he had nothing in the house but wanted to show it any way. He arrived at his home and put the key in the door and opened it to find a lady standing there. She asked, ‘who are you and where did you get a key to my house?” Shaker was shocked and basically asked the same of her. She said that they had problems with their house and so were told that they could live temporarily at this one. Shaker was going to move to his house shortly…. The lady said that he could not come in because her husband and children were upstairs asleep. Could this be a Goldilocks and the Three Bears retro?

The big event happened; the grand opening of the University had a budget of $60 million to be blown over a two day opening event. Here is a page with some information and links to photos. http://inauguration.kaust.edu.sa/inauguration/exhibition.aspx


And From the desk of ‘Confusion about ID’:
I was making use of the free-food-across-campus bonus that staff still have (everything from Quiznos, to Pizza Inn to Baskin Robins and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to name a few). This event took place this evening (second night in my new house) when I was ordering dinner from the Indian restaurant. I had ordered my meal and another person was just in front of me. He talked to the man at the till for a while, then signed the form to keep records for the businesses and left. I moved to the counter and was signing the form when I noticed that he had written down my ID number. Luckily, he had by chance left his mobile phone number with the employees. I showed my ID in some haste, suggesting that the he must have seen my ID while I was standing there. He was called and he came back. In walked the suspect…. a short Indian, rather plump with a round happy face. He showed his ID and ‘Bob’s your uncle’ if he did not have the same as me! But his ID had HIS face on it. We talked for a bit and I discovered that his name was Phylip Joseph, who incidentally, I had met a week or so ago and he has house was # I-3535; my number is I-5335. I just wanted to check if he was not living in my house or expecting to move in on me! Never knew I had an Indian twin, although we do not look much alike! Guess it is off to HR tomorrow to figure this one out. 8-)

I am HOME!
I think that you just cannot take the Canadian behavior out of a Canadian. I found myself walking with that hunched over walk, flat-footed and arms swinging stiffly at the sides when I carefully stepped on a patch of water that was from dripping condensation off the ‘cool’ windows of the buildings around the University – I was instinctively walking carefully lest I slip on the ice….
This morning was my first ‘meal’ that I made in my new home. Last night I had stopped by the grocery store on campus and because I have to walk everywhere, I only picked up a few things. I got milk and Honey Bunches of Oats cereal. This morning I prepared that meal to spectacular failure! I was pouring the milk over the cereal when realized that I had purchased buttermilk (Laben here) – it came out thick and with a strong tang. So, I collected my stuff and left for work and dropped in at the cafeteria for free scrambled eggs, two cups of coffee and some salty grilled goat’s cheese. And you already know what I had for dinner. 8-)

Settling In

Week Two
This is the second weekend I have been here in Saudi Arabia now. I will collect a few thoughts and a bit of information in this letter to put my experience into perspective for those of you interested enough to read this kind of thing. First off, a bit of detail about WHERE I am working and then follow up with a few accounts about what I am doing and seeing.
I work at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) which was the idea if King Abdullah of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia three or so years ago and will be opened on September 23, 2009, on the 1000th day anniversary of his idea. (Special Inauguration site http://inauguration.kaust.edu.sa/ ) The university will focus on the following. These areas will have beneficial, direct benefits for the region:

• Catalysis
  
• Clean Combustion
  
• Computational Bioscience
  
• Geometric Modeling and Scientific Visualization
  
• Membranes
  
• Plant Stress Genomics and Technology
  
• Red Sea Science and Engineering
  
• Solar and Alternative Energy Science and Engineering
  
• Water Desalination and Reuse

I mention the ‘Research labs/buildings’ a number of times on the photo site http://www.pbase.com/pinicola/saudiarabia, but do not say what kinds of things are (or will be) in these buildings. I will place this information at the end of this blog for those who are really interested. Mind you, it is pretty cool stuff – three dimensional visualization rooms that you can stand in and manipulate molecules and cut them and look inside… wow!
My job is to support researchers and teachers in their use of teaching technology and specifically in their use of the Internet to teach with, and to contain their notes, examples, teaching materials and exams. At this university I work with a program called Blackboard http://www.blackboard.com/


Going out to the malls
During Ramadan stores are generally not open during the day, although they might say that they will be, they are not, so it is best to not bother to go out at all during the day. But after the evening prayer around 9 to 9:30 the stores open for business. So, we pack up , the four of us usually: Mohamed (Egyptian – from the States who is a Researcher studying bacteria genome in the Red Sea and had studied for the past 10 years, trout DNA in the States); Kannen an Indian who has worked in Bahrain for a number of years in investment banks with their IT and sits and works closely with me; Arindam an Indian with an Australian accent who is a BRAIN in computers and programming, previously worked for CISCO and a number of other large companies …. and me! And head out to find out where the best places are to acquire what we need for our new homes and lives.
At one mall the four of us got out of our taxi and I was first to walk into the mall, Arandam followed me and then Kannen and Mohamed. Kannen and Mohamed were stopped by the security guard at the door and were told that the mall was for families only. I guess that Arandam was considered some part of my entourage but Mohmd and Kannen might have been following too far behind. Single men are seen as potential harassers of the women in malls so these two were singled out. Mohamed told the guard that he was a family man but his family was not with him yet and that he was a respected person and a ‘Dr’ to his name (PhD). The guy finally relented and let them in. I learned of this a short time later when Mohamed told me that I was let in because I was seen as an ‘old man’ with my white hair! WHAT? Me? White? Hmmmmm maybe a little bit, but come on!
So, among some of the malls we have been to are: the Mall of Arabia: http://www.mallofarabia.com.sa/ Red Sea Mall: http://www.redseamall.com/indexe.php , Star Avenue mall (no site) and a number of other smaller ones. We are looking for a large store that sells fresh vegetables and often they are connected to malls in these countries but so far we have struck out.


Taxi divers
Getting around is not too hard if you have nothing to carry. Taxi drivers for the most part know the city (more about this later). Our trips our foraging and exploring often start with the following: We gather in the foyer of the hotel in the evening when Mohamed gets back from evening prayers and walk out beyond the phalanx of taxies at the front gate who honk their horns to get our attention, and amble over to one of the main streets to flag down a ‘less expensive’ taxi. The ones outside the hotels expect to get wealthy patrons.
I guess I have also found out that white hair could be an asset, or maybe it is just my cloths and white skin? Last night I saw myself as a benefit for our small group of explorers – sort of like ‘fly paper’. We were looking for a taxi outside our last mall of the night around 2:15 am. We saw a few but they passed us by. I moved out close to the edge of the road and sure enough, one passed the other guys standing down towards the entrance of the slip road honing right in on me. Got him! I waved over the other guys and the taxi driver was motioning for me to come closer because he was being hassled by these other guys, not knowing we were all together. Arindam started talking to him, then the other guys attempted. This pattern happens all the time until we find a common language. I believe that we have among the 4 of us about 10 languages to draw upon. This time it was simple, as the driver knew Arabic. Mohamed got into the front seat and we piled all of our stuff into the trunk and got in, and away we went at high speed. This guy could DRIVE! I think they know the size of their cars down to the mm as they can get about 3 cars into one lane on the highway. This is not like Dubai where there is some respect for lanes, nor is it like India where they ignore the lanes totally but drive slowly; this is a combination of all the worst of both – fast and no respect for lanes. Funny thing about this trip though, was that Mohamed bargained the price (the normal 25 Riyal, which is about $7 for just about anywhere) and we were off before we discussed where we were going. The driver, Mohamed discovered, was newer to the city (just moved from Riyadh) than we were and did not have a clue where we wanted to go. SO, here we were, a car-full of guys with not a clue where to go. We asked directions and raced across the city at high speeds going through back alleys and around construction zones -- sort of in the right direction. As we drove along we told him that we will pay him 25 for the trip but that he should pay us 30 for being his navigators to get back to the hotel. We all had a good time! 8-) We got back to the hotel after 2:30 am. Mohamed did not go to sleep as he needed to get up at 4 for breakfast and prayer before sunrise. Up in my room, Garnet caught me shutting down my computer and chatted on Skype for a short time. Life might be strange sometimes but the distance to the familiar is pleasantly near these days.



Getting my Iqama
As many of you know, it was a bit of a hassle getting my passport stamped with my Saudi Arabia visit visa while leaving Canada. It took about a month and a half and I had to delay my flight three times and cost something close to $500 to do. The nice surprise I got here, was that I get all the money I paid to get over here, back. 8-)
Now for the Iqama or ‘residency visa.’ When we got here, we were put up in the Crowne Plaza Hotel all expenses covered but for the food in the minibar. Every work day we stagger down stairs and into a large bus for the 1.5 hour trip from Jeddah out to the University. (some suggest that one of the reasons the University is so far out of the city could be for safety reasons) We will all be doing this until our accommodation on-site is ready. Mine has a few more things to get done before I take the leap and move.
Well, after we got our University ID, we were immediately taken down for ANOTHER health check… $200+ of the cost of my visa while in Canada was a comprehensive health exam in Edmonton. We were hustled into a small office and had a chest x-ray and blood work done. We each provided a set of photos and filled in a form and were back on the bus and off to the university forthwith. Time passed and we all become anxious because EVERYTHING hangs on our getting our passports and Iqama and we were hearing nothing (1-3 days they said… said!). Since our passports are taken by immigration we have no identity but for the University ID and that is not ‘official’ so would not stand up to questions. We were not let know that we could get a letter from the uni/immigration that our passports were taken and in the hands of the government. When we found this out we all went to get ours (seems like most places in developing countries, information of a critical nature like this is passed though word-of-mouth from one traumatized person to the next on an as-needed basis). I only had one photocopy of my passport and reluctantly handed this over to get an official stamp and a letter that would explain the our circumstances to any police that might questions. (there are police stops on many of the roads as they are everywhere and getting thicker as we get closer to the Grand Opening). Each day, we would make the walk from one end of the university to the other (1.5 km?) to check on the government official to see if our Iqama had arrived. (there is no phone book yet) On one day we walked 4 times. FINALLY after about 5 days of waiting, a number of us found out that our photos were too large and Mohamed and I go out to the little town (more of a dust bowl than town) just outside the walls of the Uni and get new photos taken. We hand these in with moments to spare before the office was shut for the weekend. That was Wednesday afternoon (weekend here is Thur/Fri). Today we find out that they have lost our photos so we arrange for the government official to drop by the hotel so that we can give him a third set of photos. 8-) maybe we will get the thing on Sunday, ‘Inshalla’ (God willing).
After I get my Iqama (positive thoughts here), and my passport back, I can then apply for an Exit Visa so that I can travel out of the country. Also, the Iqama is required to set up a bank account and get a drivers license and rent a car – and a whole host of other things. So, until I get that, I am sort of stranded.
Oh, one thing of interest in Jeddah is that there are no Religious Police here in this city. Mohamed suggested that, since it is an important trading center in the country that there is more of a polyglot atmosphere here and therefore less tolerance for people going around and hassling visitors. Western women ware something that covers their body but is actually often quite fetching and do not need to cover their heads – at least I have not been in an area where I women would WANT to go and would feel that she need to cover her hair. I have been to areas where there are NO women that I saw, like at 1 am in a technology district with throngs of men all hanging out looking and purchasing mobile phones in small shops along a very busy street.
KAUST Employee out in public. Some abaya are just very thin black fabric that is open down the front and is almost like a cape.


Zam Zam water
Each night for dinner, I have gone down to the Iftar buffet in the Chrystal Ballroom (breaking of the fast at night). I do this for a number of reasons, one is that it is better than sitting in my room and eating room service food, it is has the largest variety of food in the hotel and there are prizes drawn each night. 8-) The waiters know us because it has been close to two weeks now that we have been dining there. Each night they bring us a fist-full of draw tickets. For four nights running we had a winner from our table. I got a watch worth $400 Mohamed got the same, Kannen got 500 Riyal coupon for Damas Jewelers which he gave to the waiter because its value would just about pay for a visit into the store, the things in the store are so expensive, and Arindam won a woman’s ring which he showed his wife on his webcam that night. Ramadan is just about over and on the first morning of the end, is a large party taking place in the ballroom at around 7 am (just after first prayer time) and I am told that there will be LOTS of electronics as prizes. Man, I am SO going to be there! Hehehehe
The other night, I went out into the tent off the side of the ball room where the hot fresh cooked foods were being prepared and while filling up my plate I saw some people taking what looked like water from earthen jugs (the kind that need a stand and are pointed at the bottom like a tear drop and have a plug at the top). I asked Mohamed what Zam Zam was. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamzam_Well He told of a story of Abraham’s wife and one of her children needing water after Abraham left for a short time and her run out of water for herself and her infant and started to run between two mountains (one of the traditions during the Islamic Hajj). The infant became desperate and was banging his heals against the earth and water came forth – the holy spring of Zam Zam. Interesting that he said that it did not have a smell but was full of salts and it did not quench thirst very well.


For those of you who might be interested in seeing some video that I took on my digital camera (poor quality) I have two which show some of the physical teaching spaces.
1. Lecture Theatre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz6I3m1_C9c
2. Teaching Classroom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSinRyHS9Xs

___________________________________________________________________

Cutting-edge laboratories will enable researchers to make major scientific breakthroughs at KAUST. Other research institutions in the Kingdom and the region will link to the University’s supercomputer and other laboratory facilities through the 10 gigabytes per second (Gbps) Saudi Arabian Advanced Research and Education Network (SAREN).


Supercomputer: Shaheen -- the Arabic word for peregrine falcon -- is the fastest supercomputer in the Middle East and one of the most powerful in the world. Developed with IBM, it is capable of 222 teraflops, or 222 trillion floating point operations per second. In non-technical language, this means Shaheen can solve 222 trillion complicated calculations per second.


Visualization: CORNEA is a fully immersive, six-sided virtual reality facility that gives students and researchers the ability to turn data into 3D structures that they can interact with and examine. It was built in partnership with the University of California, San Diego.


Nanofabrication, Imaging, and Characterization: A clean-room environment equipped with leading-edge tools to support research in advanced materials, biotechnology, electronics and photonics, and MEMS/NEMS. The Imaging and Characterization Labs include a suite of 10 advanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers and facilities for scanning, transmission, confocal, and Raman microscopy, magnetic and thermal measurements, allowing scientists to examine nanostructure devices and surfaces down to the level of individual atoms.


Coastal and Marine Resources: Located next to the Red Sea, the Coastal and Marine Resources Lab facilitates marine research. The facility builds and deploys modern oceanographic instrumentation and provides operational services to support research vessels for marine exploration, diving, and sampling. Indoor and outdoor seawater facilities allow researchers to culture marine organisms.


Analytical Core: These labs boast highly skilled staff focusing on spectroscopy, chromatography and mass spectrometry, trace metals analysis, wet chemistry, and surface analysis.


Biosciences and Bioengineering: These facilities include genomic and proteomic labs essential to the study of cellular molecules for DNA sequencing and genetic analysis, as well as the investigation of cellular processes. The genomics facility is equipped with robots and laboratory automation.

Day One on KAUST Campus Saudi Arabia next to the small town of Thuwal (80 km North of Jeddah) Sunday, September 06, 2009

This place is absolutely huge.

I would think that you could put about 10 of my old colleges in Dubai into the campus here and still have room. The buildings are huge as well. When you look at the pictures I have linked at the bottom of this sort of blog, If you have ever seen any video/film/movie that shows the size of the buildings at the Kennedy Space Center where they launch shuttle craft etc, you will get an idea of the shear mass of these buildings.
I will be working more with Blackboard than working with classroom setups and the AV systems although the teacher experience is where the managers seem to be focusing their energy right now. This is day two of teaching at the uni today and like any place there are problems.
We are working with MacBook Pros as our laptops and most of us are using Windows on the laptop but we can not control if the Mac OS or Windows will be used by the teachers. We are also just starting with BB V 9. I did not even know that it existed until I got here! So, they have had it set up by someone who has no prior experience with BB and I am now going to take a look at what the thing looks like. The whole place is flying blind and addressing problems as they come up. I would expect that this will be the norm for a while here. It is exciting and makes for an interesting day.
I found out that this university has a dedicated 10 Gig fiber optic cable that runs under the sea from this uni to the Netherlands! This institution has more data transmission dedicated to pure research computation capacity than the whole country put together. The $ here is bottomless too it seems. We have huge plasma TV in each teaching room and most have more than 2 which one is a touch sensitive and some have up to 8 video projectors or more. Each room has one of those object projectors as well and wall control touch pads for controlling everything in the room. BUT... we are still having difficulty with the simplest of things -- cable connections! and wiring. Like most new designers, the teacher was not considered when the classrooms were designed so there needs to be alterations made.
And finally, the grand opening will happen after Ramadan is done and they are building a large structure (to be demolished after the opening) and event and the budget is topping $60 million for the one night.

Living.... is not too tough right now
The cost of living here right now is not too painful as the food is free at the hotel as I wait for my house and also free throughout the campus. Free food is rather distracting and living in a hotel does not offer much opportunity for learning how to cook which is one of my goals while living in Saudi.
I got my Mac computer today and I will be running Windows on it so it will be much like just an ordinary laptop but the keyboard is for a Mac so it is providing a bit of a pain as the keys other than the alphabet are different locations and have different symbols. The mouse pad is awful as it does not have buttons but you need to do some sort of two finger tap to get a menu and I have not figured out how to click and drag yet. I need a mouse and external keyboard but they do not have any at the uni right now. To get them, they need to be ordered into the country. So, special things take a while to arrive like you can imagine.

Day Two: Meeting folk around campus
Over the past two days I have had the opportunity to get out in a professional capacity and recreationally (during meals) and meet some of the other people at the university. Other than those who I work with who are in the IT department, I have met people of diverse professions as: geologic seismic wave researchers who intend to develop simulations and models of seismic wave activity in different kinds of rock strata, genome researchers studying bacteria in the Red Sea, and other geneticists. From now on, I intend to keep a running list of the different kinds of things that people are here doing. I think it will be very fascinating!

The bus
On the way to work today I observed the typical traffic light scenario. Our bus came up on a light that had just turned yellow and to my amazement, he stopped – just short of the line where the lights were (these were normal overhead traffic intersection lights). Shortly after, a SUV cut around to the right of us and drove out into the center of the intersection and did a U-ee to go back on the other side of the divided road. This gave other cars the idea that there was possibly some room in front of us. Not a minute passed and there were about 6 cars packed in front of us lined up side to side ready to race across the intersection when the light turned. I feel that people see the lane lines as suggestions rather than rules of the road. Often there are 5 vehicles side by side in a 3 lane road. Not many race, but people are moving back and forth in abandon as they jockey around the slow moving ones while flashing their lights like strobe lights and hooting their horns as they pass. The place is not as bad as India, but definitely a notch below Dubai traffic behavior. Often we are cut off as a car dodges from two lanes to our left across our front and exits just in time to catch an off ramp.

Security Measures
During my walks around the neighborhood as I go out trying to get a grasp of the store timings during Ramadan (there are none! Might as well just shut up shop and come back a month later…) I walk by concrete barriers around our Hotel (the Crowne Plaza Jeddah and I understand all other hotels where foreigners stay). These are heavier then the normal you see between highway lanes and are pained yellow and black stripes. They are set away from the hotel and are laid out in a staggered way as to make cars have to zig zag and really slow speeds to get around and through them. I take it that they are there to stop a vehicle intent on crashing into the hotel with explosives inside. Each hotel has rather heavy security as well, with gates at front, guards around and metal detectors to walk through upon entering (which seem to be off most of the time). For me, I do not feel threatened or uneasy in any way walking around and doing a bit of shopping in the area as I always walk with purpose and do not gawk too much. 8-)
I found out today the person to contact about sports at the university. I understand that the reef natural protection park area in front of the university will only be in a few small areas to protect specific coral reefs. This will leave me with places to go fishing. Also, there will be designated areas for spear fishing while snorkeling. I am going to approach them about setting up a dragon boat team as part of the residential area of the university called the “Island” is separated from the main university area by a manmade river/moat.
Talking about the Island residential area, I found out that our new house will be on the Island. The area has periphery housing all around the edges and then some rings of houses on the inside surrounding a green area with soccer pitches etc. Our house will be on the university side of this green belt close to the moat.
I have taken some images of the inside of one of the houses – I understand that the are all mostly the same but for some having more rooms than others and the outside and configuration being different.
A bunch of other guys and I went to view this person’s house – he was to meet someone and get a tour but they did not show up. So we walked around the house and found a window open and one of the guys climbed inside and then went and opened the front door for us to walk around. I had missed the last bus leaving the college that evening so had found these guys who were willing to give me a lift home, but after they had viewed this house. After, we went out for dinner and we went to Quiznos – all for free! Since all food is for free on campus for the next month or so. Even though the campus is just starting up, there are still about 5 small restaurants open.
I will put up some photos on a web site with captions. If all you see for captions right now are the image names, please forgive me as I have little time when I get back from work after the 1.5 hour drive and waiting for the fast to end and then eating dinner and visiting and all the things that happen at the sort of festive time of end of day here…. As well, please forgive the quick ‘instamatic-like’ feel to the photos as I have been using my small digital camera as I want to just have something in hand as I walk around and it fits in my pocket. I will keep putting up images on the site over the next few weeks. I hope to send out a blog of sorts like this now and then – especially while things are new and exciting. 8-) http://www.pbase.com/pinicola/saudiarabia