Starting to feel like ages

Although it is just eight weeks that I have been here, it feels like ages!  We meet people who are new and they look at us like veterans when in fact we are just as ‘wet behind the years’ as they are.  But we can’t miss the opportunity and often say with a smile that we have been here from before the opening.  Work is going by like a blur as we work from one issue to the next.  Setting up software and applications and systems is not a simple thing even in a mature organization.  Setting up the whole thing from scratch is indescribable in its complexity!  Blackboard which I work with primarily, is a relatively mature application as a whole, but when connecting to other applications and additional programs that sit between them to assist in communication between the two… the scope for error, and complications is exponential in nature.  We are beginning to tackle the grading system while students are taking exams and instructors want to upload these results in Blackboard -- while we are trying to figure out how to pass these grades to the Student Records system which ultimately generates a student’s transcript and grade point average (final marks) -- is a challenge to say the least.  In tandem, we are developing our backup processes and systems so that we can recover data if there is a system failure.  On top of this we are addressing single-user access issues on a daily and hourly basis.  All of this keeps the three of us hopping!  I say three, because I work with Vanessa (an Australian lady who has been here longer than I…), and Velavan who is an Indian contractor from a company called EduTech out of India and Dubai.  I had dealings with this company while working at Dubai Women’s College in the UAE.
‘Guy intelligence’ 

And now there are two.  This past week, Kannan’s spouse arrived from Bahrain where they had been living before Kannan got this job here.  Now there is only Arindam and I who are bachelors – from the initial ‘hotel group’ when I first arrived.  Kannan was in a panic for the last few days before his wife arrived and both Arindam and I were trying to council him in how to handle the situation.  Kannan was fixated on getting the home spotless while Arindam and I were telling him to do a ‘little’ but not ‘too much’ because we believe that the effort a man puts into cleaning just never seems to be good enough for a woman. I firmly believe that a home is not a home till tidied and cleaned by its manager.  As an aside, I was also trying to talk sense into Arindam related to his shipment that was sitting in boxes in his hallway.  I said that it might be best to leave it as-is and ‘help’ his wife when she comes in a few months, to put things where she wants them rather than guessing where they ‘should’ go.  I was trying to convince him that it might be an exercise in futility…  I lost, and he gave in and unpacked.  Time will tell what eventually happens.

What to do?

Grocery shopping till 1am and home by 2.30.  Arggg!  Arindam and I split the cost of a taxi for the full day and ventured into Jeddah again.  Since the selection is very limited in the small grocery shop here on campus, it is almost essential that we make a grocery run at least twice a month.  My first big shop cost me $150.  We did a few other stops along the way which included IKEA again for the first stop, then to Al Balad (the old district of the city) and finally to a large grocery store. 

No one sleeps in this country!  We were driving home after 1 am and there were children all over the places – from toddlers being tossed in the air by parents to teens.  There were family groups sitting in circles where ever there was grass and most were choosing the grass in the median of the road (between the two lanes of traffic).   Can’t think that this is the safest place for children to be playing tag, but it seems to be a common occurrence.  Makes me wonder about what these children do about staying awake at school. 

IKEA, I now understand why people were killed here... A press of humanity!  We thought that it would be faster to walk backwards through the store and find the stuff we wanted in the warehouse and then get out rather than walking through the whole store and then through the warehouse.  Where our plan fell through was that all the signs are in Arabic and a lot of the things in the warehouse were not on display so we could not shop the shelves and had to move further into the store to get part numbers.  Man!  That was a mistake big-time!   I think I might have been the only Caucasian in the whole store that night.  Pushing our cart was sort of surreal, a bit like driving in Jeddah -- I was cut off and pushed aside at every opportunity -- but in this version with no cars, everything was in monochrome – B&W. 

 Making my house a home:

I have taken a number of photos that were taken in the UAE (a series of Camels on gravel road, an old man sleeping on a wooden boat and a portrait of my family, …) and enlarged them with Photoshop so that they can be printed in  sizes up to 3’ x 2.5’.  They will all be mounted on a wood backboard.  I think the total cost will be just shy of $100 which I think is a good price.  Here a week later, and I have them on the walls around the house.  They are so much better than the schlock that was here when I moved in.

There is bicycle envy on campus.  8-)

 Riding to work each day, I get many comments on my bike – Donna purchased it for me in Dubai for a birthday present 3 years ago.  It was getting a ‘bit’ dusty and I felt compelled to wash it.  Oh, the vanity of it all!  On the environmental side, I think I can recoup some of your opinion of me by telling you that it took one ‘damp’ cloth to wash it, no running water, no bucket of water and no phosphates etc...

Navigating the bureaucracy

Never a dull moment when I venture out to acquire official documents.  A group of us gathered at the administration building at 9 am expecting to leave for the dreaded drivers license again.  You might ask yourself that I have already got mine!  Yes, but I have to go through it all again because I want to get a motorcycle license.  If I want an additional vehicle added to my license I have to go though the whole process all over again and get a second card.  I forget to bring food... that was a mistake!  We finally got out of the university’s admin building by 11.  We have no idea why it took so long, but have found it is better not to ask. 

We drove away from Jeddah this time as the Government Affairs people at the university were determined to find a place less crowded than Jeddah’s police station.  We drove 60 km North and then into a small town where we promptly got lost.  Eventually we found a medical clinic.  We gave blood again and eyes were tested (myself and a German were the two that were doing this for a second time, the rest were getting their car licenses).  When we finally got to the police station we were just in time for prayer time.  The place was deserted…  We were told to sit in a waiting room and the Gov. Affairs guys left to find people.  We then were taken to a translation room and each gave their home country license (second time for us…).    Each time we said that we did not want the car license but the motorcycle, the official would stop and look at us…    Motorcycle licenses I think, are not common! 

We found it a bit odd that there was bargaining taking place when we were paying for our licenses and translation. It started at Saudi riyal 430 and ended at 300.  For some reason, the cost is greater out in the outlying towns.  Don’t ask!  8-)

After the translation we were all taken back to the medical center and given another eye exam because we all were told that we need to have had a microscope-kind-of-test rather than the chart on the wall variety which was the kind that we had in Jeddah – why?...   Don’t ask!  We found that ‘us motorcycle license guys’ were being asked for more information than the car guys.  They wanted our finger prints.  Again, no questions on our part, it seems to be just process, but wondered if they thought that our fingers would be the only thing identifiable after an accident??? Hmmmm  The police station and medical clinic closed for the day after the eye exam and we were told to come back another day for the finger printing process.  8-/   Oh, and another thing, they would not give us our license until we present a receipt from purchasing a helmet.  I said I had a helmet from Dubai and would bring it in… They did not accept that, they wanted the receipt.  So, I will be asking around from some of the other people at the university and ‘borrow’ a receipt so that I can fulfill the license obligation.  Can’t figure out why they would not accept seeing my helmet other than that they wanted to attach a copy of a receipt to all the other paper work.  Oh dear me!  I believe that if I get a bike after all this, that I will be one of a very small elite fraternity of bike riders.  In the end, there was progress -- on a positive note, we are half way there.