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.