Pizza Delivery

View of Administration Building where I work Here at KAUST we have several dining out options: fairly nice sit-down restaurants at the Sports Club, at the Golf Course and at the Marina. In addition, there are several fast food style restaurants where you order at the counter, including Burger King, Quiznos, Pizza Inn, an Indian fast food place called Spices, and a Shwarma/Falafal restaurant called Shoro. We also have Baskin Robins at the movie theater, and there are some other coffee shops and cafes around campus with a few other options. The Dining Hall (cafeteria) is where most people eat lunch since the food is fresh, they have good variety, and there is a lot of appeal for students since the price is right too. They serve dinner (and I think breakfast too) but I haven't been there for either of those meals.    Closer view of Admin Building    Last night we went to a friend's house before we had a chance to either make or go out for dinner, so we thought we'd try the delivery pizza from Pizza Inn. I called from our friends' house and started out with the usual.   "I'd like to order a pizza for delivery."   Communication can be difficult sometimes here, and the language barrier is even more pronounced over the phone.   "What size would you like?" "What sizes do you have?" "We have 6", 9" and 16" "I'll take the 16" pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms and onions." "Ok. You want pizza sauce?" "Yes. Pizza sauce and cheese too of course."   Then the gentleman said some things I couldn't understand. I thought I should just confirm the order, which is something they tend to do here at restaurants as a general practice: repeat back everything you order.   "Can you tell me what you have for my order?" "We have teriyaki chicken, chicken Caesar..." "No, no. I don't want that. Just tell me what you have for my order. Just tell me what is on my pizza." "16 inch, pepperoni, mushroom, onions, pizza sauce. It will be about 20 minutes." "Ok. See you then."   Twenty minutes later the delivery guy from Quiznos shows up at the door with a 16 inch toasted sub with pepperoni, mushrooms, onions and pizza sauce.   Pizza Inn promo   Everyone thought it was pretty funny, and it also explains why the guy on the phone kept mentioning teriyaki chicken. It turns out I had called the wrong number and got Quiznos instead of Pizza Inn. I had no idea I had called the wrong place, especially since everything fell more or less in line with a traditional pizza order.   It really was pretty humorous, and the second time I called, I called the right number the second time and got something a lot closer to what I was envisioning. Even the simple things can get confused if you don't ask the right questions. I guess that if I had said, "Is this Pizza Inn?" we wouldn't have ended up with a pizza sandwich.

Month End Update



View of our living room

 It's high time for a blog post, and I can only say that my new job responsibilities and other commitments have been keeping me from updating the blog. Working in the HR Department at KAUST has been going well. Now I am working, I have met a lot more interesting people. It is a mixed group in the office, as one might expect, the staff consists of expat workers from all over the world and locals. I work in the Administration Building, which is very showy, with an oval glass tower that makes up its entryway. The building has a central atrium, and there is a café on the ground level. I have already been there to make sure their chocolate chip cookies are up to snuff. My job is to help the team stay organized with all of the learning opportunities that they host. It has been nice having a job again.

Bill has been playing a lot of golf. He was in a tournament over the weekend and has been playing several times a week. I went out on the course with him over the weekend too, so I know a little more about what makes the greens "fast," which is how they are currently described. The weather is beautiful right now, and it's nice to be outside. The course seems very well maintained (not that I have a lot of reference points as a non-golfer) but there are dozens of workers carrying out various tasks all over the course, and it is all beautifully landscaped. The best restaurant here at KAUST is probably the one at the golf course. I had a great steak sandwich there the other day, and they have the best pizza here too.

Dining room

I have been running nearly every weekday morning. A trip to the farthest end of the island, plus two laps around one end takes me sixty minutes. I always see people taking their kids to school, or scootering or biking to work. Some people have cars, but things are usually pretty quiet. I run past probably a hundred workers every day--no exaggeration. There are dozens of gardeners raking, trimming, weeding or squatting next to a sprinkler. Some of them say, "good morning ma'am," and others just stare. There is also an army of garbage collectors and street sweepers who are distinctive in their bright green jumpsuits. No leaf goes un-collected and no sand lays undisturbed in the orderly streets but there is a guy in green with a shovel and broom to remedy the situation. Honestly though, the workers are not always working. One day we were throwing a stick for Wally in part of one of the extensive parks here and accidentally hit some playground equipment with the stick. You never saw a guy sleeping in a child's plastic slide jump up as fast as this one did! We had no idea anyone was there until we saw him launch out of the slide, trying to act like he was just walking by.

Kitchen

I have been meeting my friend about every other day to practice Spanish and help her improve her English. The campus library here is probably the most beautiful building here and has a gorgeous view of the showpiece "beacon," the lighthouse-like sculpture in the harbor. Most of the exterior is glass, and the interior finish is beautiful, so it is really a lovely place to spend time. I'm sure the students appreciate it given how much time I'm sure they have to spend in the library. There are lots of rooms of various types where people can meet in groups of any size to collaborate, and sliding doors help shield the rest of the space from any disturbance. My friend and I meet in the café area for an hour and a half at a time and work on our second-language communication skills.

I'm sure it has helped me a lot already, and I think my friend is more motivated to study also. The more I explain the pronunciation, the more difficult I realize it would be to learn English as an adult. "Sun" and "son". "Sew," "so," and "sow." And why spell "cough" without an "f"? It would be tough to tackle such a language. I read somewhere that there are more words in English that mean the same thing than in Romance languages. The reason is that English brings words both from Latin and from Germanic sources. Therefore, we have a lot of names for the same things. Anyway, Spanish is difficult too; just in different ways. At least you can get the pronunciation right.

We have been down to Jeddah and back to Barnie's the hookah bar. I can't say the food is great, but the atmosphere is very attractive. They play music, there are lots of people, and of course the brazier comes around whenever you need a new coal to keep the tobacco burning. I don't think it's especially healthy, but as I said before, there aren't that many vices here so you have to sometimes take a risk with something like hookah once in a while. At Barnie's this last time we called for a reservation so we got to sit outside. You can see some of the city lights, and you can just barely see King Fahd's Fountain, the world's highest fountain (1024 feet high) down on the Corniche. It's an enjoyable place to spend a couple of hours before a walk past Krispy Cream Donuts, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Starbucks for a quick stop at the international market grocery store and then back on the KAUST bus.

We are scheduled for another dive trip this weekend, which I hope is better than the last one. Rough seas made it challenging for the crew to anchor the boat and in the end the dive site we were able to finally explore was not what everyone was hoping for. There is always something beautiful to see, but now that we have been going out regularly I guess my expectations are rising. I do feel like I am getting more comfortable every time we go, and that alone is rewarding.

Red Sea Diving

Enjoying a French-style cafe



I officially recorded my twenty-sixth dive in my dive log book yesterday. Wow, over 25 dives now! I can say I'm gaining confidence and having an easier time descending from the surface once I make the "giant step" entry into the water. The most stressful part of diving, for me, has got to be at the beginning. I am focusing on pre-entry calm behavior: breathing normally, trying to ignore my rapid heart rate, getting my fins on, mask on, regulator in my mouth... Then I hold the mask in place and step off the boat deck into the water. The first thing that happens of course, is submersion (with this, more focus on calmness as I reassure myself my mask is secure), and then I begin to float among the waves, thanks to the inflated BC. Being buffeted around in the waves is a little bit stressful too, so descending actually minimizes the buffeting around business. Then I concentrate on the dive master, letting air out of my BC and clearing my ears.

Red Sea Dive
Photo by Gary Taylor

We had two very enjoyable dives again on Friday (Again, that's our second day of the weekend. Like Sunday). The boat trip out to the dive site was pretty rough. I'm not sure exactly the threshold for seasickness for me personally, but that wasn't quite enough. Bill and I both still felt fine even after a lot of dips and rolls. The day was probably 85-90 degrees, with a little breeze. Very pleasant. The first dive was very cool, with a lot of swimming among coral formations. It reminded me of the rock formations in the desert, but with colorful coral growing all over the rocks. There is so much to see, and you can concentrate on just one cluster of coral in spiky purple shapes, or a more round-shaped growth in blue, or fan corals with white veins... There are sea anemones and fish standing by that look like Nemo's inspiration. I can't identify all of the fish yet, but I have seen some familiar ones: yellow grunts with blue stripes, parrot fish. Mostly I call them "blue schooling fish," or "the big black fish with the blue outlines with some orange spots." We see a lot of tiny gold fish in schools in certain spots, and then other schools of small fish that are half black, half white--front and back. I have seen red fish with blue and white spots, giant clams that have amazingly glowing blue interiors, and lots of other colorful ones.

The second dive focused more on the wreck of a cement ship from 25 or so years ago. Coral is beginning to grow all over the ruined ship, and we swam all around the outside of the large vessel, through the propeller housing, and then over the ship's deck. We saw a giant pulley lying on the sea floor and lots of other pipes and other components that are now the home for fish and other sea creatures. We saw a 6 ft. nurse shark near the beginning of the dive (this is a non-man-eater, Mom.) Upon our return, everyone was really impressed that we had seen a shark. I think it was just trying to have a nap because it never moved from its spot. Underneath an overhang we saw a sting ray, also resting with its blue markings and yellow eyes glowing. There are some really beautiful and unusual creatures living under the water, and it's really amazing to have a chance to see them.

We went to the beach over the weekend too. We relaxed under a palapa and listened to some bad American music. After an hour or so, some people asked us to join them for a volleyball game, and even though Bill and I both told them that I'm really not very skilled at volleyball, they were so short on players that I agreed to give it my pathetic best. We did have a fun time, though I really did prove that I am indeed terrible at volleyball. My most redeeming moments were two: serving (I'm not as bad at that) and running to get the ball when the wind blew it far out of bounds. My hand-eye coordination has always been an issue with games involving balls, but I like to say I'm good at other things so I don't get too worked up over it. Anyway, it was fun and everyone was a good sport.

As we prepared to move to KAUST, I noticed a phenomenon associated with belonging or maybe with responsibility, and that is associated with keys. As we approached the move date, I kept giving up more and more keys. Keys to the cars, keys to the garage and to our house, keys to my friends' houses disappeared one by one. When I arrived at KAUST, I received one key: the key to the villa. Now I have two keys because I now have an office on campus. I started a job today doing some work for the HR department in their Learning Development department. It will be afternoons on weekdays, and that is the time of day that I have had the most free time. I have been very busy, for the most part. I think the part-time job will be a great way to stay busy, meet more people, feel validated and make a little money. I have to have Bill sign my employment contract that I will take in to the office tomorrow. As a dependent, I have to have his permission. 

Tomorrow I am teaching my first English class on my own. Last Sunday I taught about half of the class at the community library. The class consists of all women. There are a couple of women from China, one from Sudan, several Saudi, one from Egypt and one woman from Uruguay. I mentioned in class that I am studying Spanish, "so I know what it is like to study another language," was what I was saying. I didn't realize I had a Spanish speaker in the group, but it has turned out to be a great discovery. My new friend and I have met twice for coffee and to help teach each other our respective languages. I'm thrilled to have met someone I can practice with! I have been studying a lot and am making good progress.