KAUST life

a time lapse video of our drive from KAUST to the Red Sea Mall in Jeddah. 

Thank you to my friend Logan for driving and sharing the video with me!

As you can see in the video above, when we leave (or return to) campus we go through two separate checkpoints. KAUST requires you to be registered in some way before entering campus (it feels similar to visiting the army base in Seoul). Employees, students, and residents have kaust id cards that you need frequently for campus life (checking into the gym, running the copy machine at work, getting in and out of campus, etc.) 

So what's kaust life like? It's so unique that sometimes it seems unfair to say that I live in Saudi Arabia. As you may have seen in recent news, women will soon be able to drive in the kingdom. In my previous blog post I talked about how shops and restaurants close during prayer times in jeddah (and the rest of the kingdom). Both of these things don't really impact life in KAUST - I can drive here and nothing shuts down for prayer time. There are some very western compounds in Jeddah that from what I hear don't allow Saudis, but here in KAUST we live according to the rules, with a little bit of a western interpretation. I have been starting to realize that living here in our compound is simultaneously a hardship and luxury. How does that work? I haven't entirely worked it out, but here's my best explanation:

Luxury

• As previously stated.... I can drive here! I bought a little scooter and get around campus very quickly. Dont worry, mom.... I wear my helmet all the time! (they give tickets for not wearing a helmet)
• Our grocery store carries a lot more international foods than the average supermarket in Jeddah (or Seoul, honestly)
• Options for sport - I think this is a MAJOR difference from my previous life in Seoul or other schools in Saudi. Here I can take spin, yoga, kickboxing, join intramural teams, go snorkeling, scuba diving or rock climbing, and swim in either gender segregated or co-ed pools (yep. that's a thing. a women-only pool) and it's all pretty inexpensive. The normal workout rooms and facilities are free to use, just bring you KAUST id ;)
• There is a community of artists here that keep themselves and others active. The climate outside of our community is not so welcoming so it's best if I don't write about it, but rest assured that there are outlets if you know where to look. 
• Government Affairs: I have a coworker here who previously worked in Jeddah at a different international school. When they wanted to take their child home from the hospital (after the baby was born), they had to go to 7 separate government offices before being allowed to leave the hospital. SEVEN! My saudi visa process nearly killed me (I exaggerate, but only a little) and that was with the help of the university's government affairs office. There's a separate office in our university called "embassy relations" - yeah, a whole team of people dedicated to getting you through all that paperwork and calling the right people to make things work. GA makes things happen and it's a luxury that I wouldn't have recognized if others hadn't shared their horror stories with me.
• AC not working? light bulb burn out? call 959. Because our housing is all built and owned by the university, if something breaks you just call maintenance and they show up in a couple of hours (or sooner if it's an emergency) and they take care of it at no cost (unless you recklessly broke it)
• We have a movie theatre (and bowling alley)! That might not sound like a luxury to those of you living outside of the kingdom... but google how many movie theatres there are in this country and then you'll get it ;)
• We have our own health services on campus so anytime I need to see a doctor, dentist, etc, it's just a 5 minute scoot away (compared to my 75 minute bus ride to the foreigner hospital in seoul)
• My commute to work is less than 5 minutes and there's never any traffic. This fact has definitely enabled a new unreasonable snooze-button-pushing habit.

Hardship

• Want to go to the mall? Need to visit the embassy? Get some Shake Shack? Return a pair of pants that don't fit (and you couldn't try them on in the store because of gender-unequal nonsense)? Visit a big hospital? be prepared to sit on a (cushy, air conditioned, free) bus for a little over an hour one-way. We're a small town (7,000 people, including kiddos) about an hour north of Jeddah and that's usually fine, but it can be inconvenient and isolating at times
• Most of the hardships actually center around that word I just mentioned - isolating. Because it's a small town there's zero anonymity. I see my students (and coworkers) literally every time I leave my house. I generally am pretty fine with that, but sometimes you don't want your 9th grade music students seeing you in your sweats, buying 3 pints of ice cream on a friday night, ya know? 
• I just got a bike and there's not a lot of places for me to go ride it. Campus is only so big, and I am NOT riding my bike out the security gate. There are (co-ed) groups who go riding in the desert, but I'm under the impression that they load up and take the bikes to a more appropriate location (no crazy drivers or people who would protest women being uncovered / publicly active, interesting terrain, etc.)
• Personally, I miss alcohol and music. If I'm playing cards with friends, it's nice to have a drink. When I'm eating dinner in a restaurant, I occasionally feel very awkward because it's silent - there's no music playing. There are, of course, ways to make your own fun, but it's a little strange on a friday night thinking "should I go play ping pong or join the board game group?" instead of going to a bar or concert. It's different - that's the hardship, just that it's a big change in terms of culture.

So a lot of those hardships come from my perspective - I'm a artsy, liberal city kid who moved to Seoul which has a population nearing 10 million. From Minneapolis to Seoul to Thuwal (the town neighboring kaust) is a big transition. I think my thoughts will change over time, but for now that's just a little snippet of what the kaust life is like. For now, I'm busy learning about my work and enjoying the resort life of KAUST, trying to process the hardships when they occasionally come up.