Alright, today was Tuesday, the last day of activity in the Kingdom for our group. Conventional wisdom said that I needed to pack up all my stuff, since upon completion of our day’s activities, we would be flying back to Riyadh. After arriving in Riyadh, we were supposed to stay in a hotel overnight until our flight left from Riyadh for Washington DC at 7:00 am. I had my laundry done the night before so that when it came time to pack, I would only have to role up my clothes and not waste space, since I have a lot of stuff to take home. We had to be ready to leave the hotel by 8:00 am for King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. But after packing in like 20 minutes, since I didn’t get my laundry back until 7:30 am, I was on my way out the door with all my luggage when one of the other members of the delegation told me that we were actually not checking out now, but leaving our stuff in the rooms and coming back later. This excited me a lot, because this meant I wouldn’t have to travel in my suit!
Like I said, our only visit today was to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, or KAUST. People in Saudi Arabia actually just call it Kaust for short, not bothering with the full name, or the abbreviated letters. Kaust is the new crown jewel university of the Kingdom. It has only been open for one year, and is the size of an entire city. It is HUGE!
We had an official tour guide, and were shown a good deal of the campus’ new technology, including the most high definition computer screens in the world. we didn’t get to meet any officials at the university because the semester had just ended, and all the faculty had left on vacation.
The tour lasted a couple hours, and then we were off. Usually the drive from Jeddah to Kaust was about 2 hours. But when your driver is going about 180 kilometers per hour, you get there a little sooner. We got to the hotel around 12:30, and had the whole afternoon to ourselves. I’m proud to report that for only the 2nd time since the 4th grade, I took a nap that wasn’t related to working overnight. I was tired, and that nap did wonders. It also caused me to wake up very late, at 5:10, with only 20 minutes to pack up my suit and get dressed. I did get packed in time, and was definitely relieved that I would only be in jeans for the rest of my trip. I loved my time in Saudi Arabia, but I hated having to be in a suit literally all the time. I was so overjoyed to be in my jeans in public again.
Well, I’m typing this up from the airport. Our flight, which was supposed to leave at 8:45 pm, never took off. We had to get off the plain, and now we have to wait until 12:30 am to get back on and leave. Then our flight leaves from Riyadh at 7:00 am for the states. So this is the last post guys. Thanks for following me, those of you that did. When I get back, make sure to get a hold of my people, so they can schedule a day where I can give you a more thorough rundown of what it was like over there. Here are some completely random things that I picked up from being here:

Saudi’s like to smoke. A lot… Saudi’s are the nicest people in the world. they love Americans, and they are so happy to see us here… there is a lot of money to be made by investing in Saudi Arabia. There are a lot of opportunities in manufacturing, education, and finance… it is hot as holy hell here… Arabic coffee sucks, and so do dates… penguins are not the way to learn about leadership… Josh is a Mennonite… converse college isn’t that bad, it’s just the people are all psychotic… that’s all for now guys. Hopefully see you very soon.

Oh yeah: FEAR THE ZOMBIE CAMEL!!!!!!!!

Day 8

Monday was a pretty easy day for us. We didn’t have to be ready until 9:30 am, which gave us a little bit of time to sleep in. My sleep schedule is still fairly messed up, even though I take my meds every morning. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to bed before midnight except the very first night we were in Saudi Arabia, and usually it’s around 2:00 am when I go to sleep. It does help that I usually only need about 5 hours of sleep to be fine, but I think it’s something in the air here that keeps me awake until 2:00 am.
Anyways, our first visit was to Effat University, which is the first all female university in the Kingdom, but no longer the only one. It was established by Queen Effat, who was married to the late King Faisal, who reigned in the 1950s and 60s. Effat U is situated in the middle of Jeddah, and it’s inside some massive walls. The compound is fairly large, but nothing compared to anything else we’ve seen. The school is private, getting most of it’s funding from private donors, and through partnerships with various universities around the world, including Duke, Virginia Tech, and UCLA.
We were greeted by the president of the university, Dr. Haifa R. Jamal Al-Lail, and basically all the heads of all the departments. There are a few men teachers now, which apparently caused a fire storm when they joined the teaching ranks a little over 10 years. Not everybody was extremely happy with the choice to bring male teachers in, and the school lost a few major donors, but the school is still going, and it’s actually getting international recognition.
We weren’t allowed a tour of the school because it’s an all women school, and men aren’t allowed around them unless they cover up, which would just burden them. But we were given an incredibly awesome gift: free wireless mouse’s that charge, not use batteries. That’s awesome for me, because my wireless mouse died.
Our next visit was to King Abdul Aziz University. This university is really large, and had a giant medical school. The medical school is one of the best in the world apparently, and is absolutely huge. We didn’t have a long time to meet with anybody, but did meet with quite a few students and one of the deans’. They showed us a movie on the university, and then we were allowed to ask questions and such to all the students and had a great chance to talk with people our own age. That meeting also didn’t last too long, and around 2:00 pm we headed back to the hotel. We had lunch at the buffet upon returning, and didn’t have anything else planned until 4:00 pm, when people from the consulate in Jeddah were supposed to meet with us. I tried to get a bit of nap, but something I ate at lunch really messed with my stomach, and unfortunately I was late to the meeting with the consulate members in our lobby. I did make the last half of the meeting, just in time to hear one of the people who came talk about watching religious trends and such. That’s the exact same kinds of things that I’m interested in, and luckily had a chance to talk to him a little bit afterwards. He was also impressed about my paper’s direction, and said that studying in that area will really help me in my life if I can pass the Foreign Service exam.
After the meeting we had no other official events or meetings planned, and finally got to do some serious shopping. We went to the Red Sea Mall, which was just like any mall in America. Personally, that was a slight disappointment, because I’m not in Saudi Arabia to buy American things that I can purchase for the same price or cheaper in America. I want real Saudi stuff, like camels and thobes. We spent probably an hour at the mall, and then went back to the hotel. The thing I was most excited about was the souk, which apparently is Arabic for marketplace. That’s where one goes to get random Saudi crap and things that you can’t buy in America. I’m not going to go into detail about what the souk is like, because I don’t think I can explain it through blogging, but it’s basically a huge area of town where tons of people have shops set up that are really small and you argue and haggle with them to get the best price. You will always overpay for whatever you buy unless you have a Saudi with you, like our handler Saad, to argue and get our best price for us. This is where I got my beautiful thobe and khafia, the headdress, and a number of other things.
After the souk, we had to get back to the hotel to meet with a reporter from the largest Arab newspaper that is printed in English in the country. He was really cool, but we were all bone tired, as we had been up for a long time. Also, most of us thought we had to pack, which I’ll get into next time. One day left of activities, and then I begin my travels home. Not much more reading left guys. If there are any people reading this, hang in there, I’m almost done. Promise.

Thobe alert

I GOT A THOBE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do ya'll think about that?

Day 7

Sunday was a pretty full day for us. We spent the majority of our day in Jubail, the brand new industrial city of Saudi Arabia. Back in the late 1970s, the king wanted to boost the industrial and manufacturing power of Saudi Arabia. So they built a city that is basically comprised of nothing but factories and plants and manufacturing centers. Everything and its mother are produced here, along with the grandmother. It does stink though, not going to lie. The first thing we did was make a visit to the headquarters of the historic and achievement center. There we met with a bunch of very important officials from Jubail, including the leaders of all the different universities and colleges in Jubail.
Jubail has its own neighborhoods, schools, sports facilities, playgrounds, shops, and all that, but it’s not like the ARAMCO compound, because it’s still under Saudi Arabian rule. Nobody lives in Jubail unless they work at the plants though. The sole reason for the city is industry and manufacturing, and that is all that matters. It is amazing, sort of like an overgrown downtown Pittsburgh.
One of the people we met with, Saad Morais al-Harthi, is the ‘Director, Community Service and Continuing Education Center/ Jubail University College,’ was very interested in all of our school exploitations, in particular how we were using this trip to help out what we were working on in school. I gave my take on how it’s going to help my senior thesis paper, which was a follow up on my research methods paper about nations with one single dominant religion and the ability to work towards a democracy. My new paper would be testing how well states with one, single dominant religion can work with democratic state, especially those states that a) have an official state religion, and b) are not democracies themselves. Harthi was very interested in my paper, and told me that I definitely should not keep that paper a secret, but tell everybody I could about it.
After a quick tour of the historic museum and awards hall, we were given a bus tour of the city, but were told we couldn’t take pictures. It was very impressive, and was always expanding. In fact, Jubail was so successful that they were actually building another Jubail right next to it for more companies to come in, and further expansion. The new city will just be named Jubail 2. The only reason that the first city is so small is that in order to protect it from yearly flooding (remember, this is on the coast of the Persian Gulf), they had to lay 2.5 meters worth of sand and dirt to raise the city up. Since they only did a limited amount of land like that, each company had to pay very high prices to get the land. Now that the government has seen how much they can make on companies that produce their good here, the second city is going to be huge, so that each company can have as much space as needed.
After the tour, we were taken onto one of the housing compounds to have lunch with basically the same people we met with earlier. While waiting in what was easily the most opulent waiting room I’ve ever been in, the officials came filtering in among us to talk, and I had another chance to talk with Harthi. It turns out his son had just finished a six month period at UNCC! I can’t believe that I actually met a Saudi official that knew about UNCC. It made my entire day. It was literally 119 Fahrenheit outside, but this made my day all over. We talked a bit about his son’s experience, such as what he thought of the school and the city, and what he did there. Harthi’s son is an engineering major, and he wants to study at a specific school in the UK that specializes in a particular field that almost no university in the world teaches, but his English is crap. So Harthi’s son came to UNCC to learn better English, and now the university in the UK will take him. He said his son loved the school, and that he was never once treated unfairly because he was Saudi. I was very happy to hear that we impressed his son, as that made me look better in his eyes.
Lunch was absolutely amazing. We had a ton of different appetizers, including shrimp and beef pockets, which are my new favorite Saudi Arabian food. The main course was a different fish, chicken, and beef steak dish with rice and humus on the side. It was great, but the servants really made things awkward, because they wouldn’t let us do anything by ourselves. They would insist on pouring our water, even though they left the bottles on the table, and then they would remove our plates almost before we could signal that we were done. Desert was a mango cheesecake, and kiwi slices. It was all amazing.
After lunch, we all went back into the waiting room to talk a bit more, since we didn’t really have much to do, and our flight wasn’t until 6:00 pm. I had another chance to talk with Harthi, this time by myself, and I think I made my most important contact for my senior year at this point. Harthi wanted to know a lot more about my initial research and what I really wanted to prove. After talking for a little bit, he gave me his personal email address, and told me that if I have any questions at all, I should email him, and he would find the expert on my question in the entire country to answer it. I couldn’t believe it; this was the director of the Jubail Industrial College, basically the 2nd in command for the number one industrial university in the entire state of Saudi Arabia, and he wanted to keep a personal relationship going to help me out. These people are just too damn cool.
After lunch we had a chance to go see the Zamil group factory. If any of you guys remember Zamil, he’s the guy we met the first day in Saudi Arabia, and then we went to his house for dinner a couple nights later. Zamil had flown out to Germany the night before, but he let his people know we were coming. Zamil owned the newest and biggest factory in Jubail 1, and his factory was very impressive. Actually, Zamil group had just acquired a different company, Arabian Amines Company, and their merger was creating a new type of factory that produces chemicals for other companies to use in their factories. Delivery time must be quick then, if they only have to deliver within the city. We met with Ahmed Mahmood Khan, the General Manager of the site, and the only Zamil Group member that was actually stationed in that factory. The rest of the people are from AAC, and they were all complete nerds. I’m sorry, I know I probably shouldn’t post something like that, but their pocket protectors had pocket protectors. That’s how nerdy they were. But they were still extremely nice, and tried their hardest to keep things interesting for us.
After a tour of the facilities, and then a drive by of the entire factory outside, we were about to leave when a British man got on our bus to say hi and that he was sorry that he missed us, but his car had broken down. It wasn’t until we got his card and were driving off did we find out that man was president of the board of directors for AAC. I was blown away, because he almost seemed like we were the important people. BP’s CEO could learn a few things from him.
That was the end of our visit to the Eastern Province. After the tour of Jubail, we drove to the airport, and flew on to Jeddah. The flight was awesome, because we had business class seats, and that meant tons of room, and even a meal, even though we were only in the air for about 1:45. Jeddah is the place I’ve been wanting to go since we first arrived in Saudi Arabia. It’s the most progressive town by far, and the coolest in terms of awesome factor. The one thing all of us kept hearing from everybody we met in all the other regions in the country was that after arriving in Jeddah, we had to get Al Baik. Al Baik is a fast food restaurant that serves chicken and fish. Apparently it is the most amazing stuff in the world. We were originally going to wait for Monday to go get some, but none of us could wait, and were ready to get some food now.
OK, so if Al Baik opened in the US, it would be all over for all chicken establishments. All. Over. No joke. There is no way to express how amazing that food was. Seriously, I think I’m going to have to try and smuggle some of it back here. Al Baik is enough to make me want to move to Jeddah, if it wasn’t for the lack of my favorite beverages, the lack of what I call a nightlife, the sun, and no women. You know, I think I could really save some serious money if I went to school in Saudi Arabia. I spend most of my money on women and alcohol, so if I go somewhere that doesn’t have really either, I would probably become rich just from not spending money.
Anyways, Al Baik was everything I thought it was going to be, and that made me happy. I’m posting this on Monday evening, and Tuesday is our last day of travel here in the kingdom. Tuesday night we fly back to Riyadh, and then Wednesday morning we fly to the states. I can’t wait to see you guys, and I think this means only one or 2 more posts, so you don’t have to read that much more.

Day 6

So last night I totally planned on keeping on track with the blog, and write up Saturday’s events on Saturday night. But instead I had to pack up, because we had to leave the hotel at 8:30 am, and didn’t want to rush to pack in only 30 minutes like last time. Plus, I wanted to get to sleep at a decent time, so that I wouldn’t be dead all day. Well, I did get the packing done, but it was about 2:00 am when I finished, so I didn’t get that much sleep. We’re all having problems now from all the free stuff we keep getting from all these visits. Now I know you guys are all going to say that I’m complaining about a good thing, but when you have a severely limited space, and you’re getting literature and books and pamphlets from every place you go, you start to run out of room. It hampers the ability to pack the stuff we want to take, and the things we by with our own money. And the problem is that we’re not allowed to just leave the literature in our rooms when we leave, because the hotels will mail it back to the places that we received it from, and that would make us seem ungracious. Not a good problem to have.
So Saturday began with a trip to the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. We met with a bunch of people from the public relations and international cooperation departments, and learned a lot about how Saudi Arabia is quickly becoming one of the world leaders in engineering and nanotechnology, again. I was amazed when I was told that KFUPM taught exclusively in English, except in the area’s of Islamic studies and those who were taking Arabic. But it’s not like a lot of people came to KFU for Islamic studies, since it was an energy, computer science, engineering, and architecture school. Islamic studies is really only offered as an elective course, since all students in the kingdom must take it no matter what school they attend.
After leaving the initial meeting and introduction to Dr. Khattab G. Al Hinai, Supervisor for Public Relations and International Cooperation, and Muhammad Hayyallah Al-Thabiti, Public Relations Representative/ Public Relations and Information, we were given a tour of the oil research and search department. This is where the brightest minds in the entire country scour the land with digital and thermal imaging to find new sources of oil, and the best ways to access the already found oil. It’s a pretty well known fact that all the major oil fields in Saudi Arabia have been found, but there is always the possibility to find smaller ones, and sometimes you can find a better way to access already found oil wells.
After the tour of the searching department, we left for the Saudi ARAMCO compound. I think a quick history lesson is in order here, because you should know about how oil is done in Saudi Arabia. In 1928(ish), the British basically owned all the oil fields around the kingdom. The way they did this, though, was through colonizing the lands and then basically ruling the people as they drilled for oil and took the resources away. Nobody had access yet to Saudi Arabia, but on the other hand, nobody really knew if they would have it. It wasn’t until Bahrain struck black gold that people thought it could be in Saudi Arabia. All the British oil companies in the region began to put bids in to the king for the concession to explore for oil. Fearing the British would come in and eventually colonize and take over his kingdom, the king granted the concession to an American company, since it was a private organization, and not involved with the government. The original company that began drilling here didn’t find oil until 1938, when “lucky oil well #7” struck a goldmine of wealth. The company was American to start out with, but eventually controlling interest was given over to the Saudi’s, which is how the government became so rich.
The company that was in charge of drilling the oil was called ARAMCO, which stood for Arabian American Oil Company, and today Saudi ARAMCO is the only producer of oil in the country, being state owned. However, it is not really state operated. ARAMCO has it’s own compound, that has different laws and rules than the rest of the country. For instance, women are allowed to drive on the campus, and don’t have to fully cover up. There are housing facilities, schools, hospitals, grocery stores, and everything else that a society needs to survive. Even though it is like another country, you don’t need a visa to get back into Saudi Arabia.
So that’s what Saudi ARAMCO is. It’s a great place, and it has a rich history. The first stop was to the history headquarters of the entire company, where we were showed a movie in their theater in 3D, and then given a private tour of the information exhibit. We were also informed that President Bush Jr was shown the movie in the same seats we were sitting in. The exhibit was really cool and informational, but we unfortunately didn’t have time to really read all the information and such, as we did have a strict schedule to adhere to. After the tour, we were driven to “Lucky #7”, the well that first produced oil for the Kingdom. It wasn’t really special, since they no longer drilled there, as it had been closed for some time now.
We had lunch with the American Consulate General in Dammam at our hotel afterwards. The Consulate General is basically like the ambassador to a country, but in a different region. And he doesn’t have final say as representative of the government. We met with his Excellency and his Public Affairs Officer, Cynthia Cook, for lunch, and the Consulate General gave us the whole spiel we’ve been hearing since the beginning of the trip about the history of Saudi-US relations. Listen people, we read book on the history of our relations. We wrote a book report on it. Then, we wrote a paper on the future of relations between our peoples. We don’t need any more history on how oil came here, and what our peoples have been through. We get it. Just let us get our food, and let us learn new stuff, OK? Thanks.
After lunch, we had a little free time at the hotel until we went to the Prince Sultan Center for Science and Technology. It’s basically a museum for people to learn about the living and mechanical world. For those of you who grew up in Charlotte, and went to public school, you know what the Discovery Place is. This place is the equivalent of that. For those of you who have not made it, go to the DP, and it’s the exact same thing. We even saw an IMAX film, called Journey to Mecca, which is about a 21 year old law student from Morocco who makes the hajj in the 14th century (the hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims must make at least once in their life to Mecca and Medina). It was really cool, but we had already seen the film once the first day here, but this time it was on the big, big screen.
The last event of the day was a visit to Heritage Village. If anybody reading this has seen the South Park episode where the kids visit “Pioneer Village” where the employees never break character, then you know how this goes. It was really cool, and we had a great time looking at random articles, as well as a gift shop, and then had true Saudi Arabian food. It was a really good time, and at the end, we were all stuffed, and wanted nothing more than to see the US-UK game. We made it back to our hotels in time to watch the end of it. You guys already know about how I spent my evening, so I’m going to go ahead and start working on the blog post for today’s activities. After the flight here lands.

Day 5

So you remember how I said that I was planning on waking up at 10:15, to pack? Well, I didn’t wake up until 11:15 am. I basically had to throw my clothes into my suitcase, and then pack up everything in a half hour, and get ready. We were supposed to be at the lobby at 11:45 am to check out, and then depart for the airport for our flight to Dammam. I literally got to the lobby at 11:49 am. Didn’t really matter, because the last member of our delegation didn’t get to the lobby until 12:25, at which time we loaded the SUVs, and rode out. Pretty much none of us had time to actually eat a thing, and I was already really hungry. Didn’t help that the hotel had set up this huge buffet in the lobby for an incoming party of really important Saudi’s that was arriving at 1:00 pm. It looked absolutely delicious, and made me even hungrier.
We arrived at the hotel around 1:00 pm, and waited in a private waiting area with some really comfortable couches. We all asked about the possibility of obtaining some food, but weren’t given the chance. Our flight was at 2:40 pm, and yet we had to just sit around and entertain ourselves. Unfortunately I had finished my book the previous night, and didn’t really have much to do but listen to my music. You guys know how much I can’t stand doing nothing. No need to go into details.
Once we were allowed to actually get into the main level airport, we didn’t have enough time to get any food. Most of you know that I get “hangry.” That is when someone gets hungry, they also become a total grouch. That was already happening to pretty much the entire delegation, and it didn’t get that much prettier. The flight to Dammam was only an hour long, so we barely had time to get drinks before we were already descending into the city. After arriving, we had a bus waiting just for us to take us to our hotel, which was about an hour away from the airport. The Dammam airport is actually in the middle of scenic nowhere, about an hour from the actual city of Dammam, and 35 minutes at the minimum from Al-Khober, the city we’re actually staying in.
After arriving in the hotel, we had to wait for almost an hour before our rooms were ready. This was our first sign that our hotel was going to be less than the Four Seasons. Let’s set the record straight right here: I called it in one of my first blog posts that the Four Seasons’ hotel was going to destroy me for all other hotels afterwards. And it’s already begun. I’m not going to go into details, because I’m trying to stay positive about the fact that we’re here for free and that we have an exciting schedule ahead of us. That being said, the food here isn’t that good, and most of our meals are served at the hotel. Based on how well none of us handled being hungry and interacting with each other, this leg of the trip will definitely be interesting.
I SAW A CAMEL!!!!! On the flight to Dammam, as we were descending there were definitely camel herds in the barren desert, and I was able to see a couple herds. I don’t really have any good photos of the camels, but I will definitely try to find them at some point before I go home.
Soon after arriving at our hotel, most of the group went to an antique shop that had some really cool traditional Arab things. Not much of it was actually made in Saudi Arabia, but as the saying goes “the only thing made in Saudi Arabia is sand.” Of course that isn’t completely true: they do make camels here.
So I know I’m behind in posting, but once this is posted up, I will actually be on the correct day. However, we have to be in the lobby by 8:00 am tomorrow morning, because we have a full day ahead of us, and then are flying to Jeddah in the evening. I can’t wait to go to Jeddah, because that is where I’m going to get my thobe, the traditional dress shirt of the Saudi’s. I’ll try and post tonight, so that I don’t fall behind or anything.

Day 4

So Thursday was basically a nothing day. I was able to sleep in, not having to wake up until about 10:30ish. We had nothing planned until 1:00 pm, at which time we were supposed to all meet up for lunch at the hotel. But I was informed by another member of the delegation that the lunch was cancelled because Dr. Anthony, Pat (the vice president of the Council), and Josh (that really tall kid from the Council that wore Converse’s with his clothes at the national competition) were meeting with a doctor privately. So nothing was planned until 3:45 pm, at which time we were supposed to go to a different doctor’s house, and then go to a party that was being thrown just for us. So we went shopping at the same area from the previous night around 11:00, which was a lovely idea, as it was hot as can be out there. We only walked around for about an hour, then had our private driver take us to what is called a “Pull and Bear”, a shop located mainly in New York, which had pretty decent clothing. I had zero interest in the shop, since a) I wasn’t here to buy American clothing, and b) I was starving. We made it back to the hotel by about 1:00 pm, and were then informed that our activity that was planned for 4:00 had been cancelled, so we didn’t have a thing to go to until 5:00 pm.
I had some pizza from room service, which was ok, and worked with my partner on our assignment- creating an outline to use in interviews and speeches given once we return- and was then informed that we didn’t have a thing planned until 6:15 now. Things were great: I had lots of relax and rest time, got caught up on a blog post, and then took a long shower and got ready for a party.
The party was at Dr. Salwa al-Hazza’s house, and it was a beautiful home. Dr. Salwa grew up in the United States, and she was very proficient in English. She was a very gracious guest, and her children, Hala her daughter, age 17, and Naif her son age 18, were very cool and had extremely good English. The whole delegation got to know them both better, and we all exchanged information and such over dinner and dessert. We stayed out quite late, and didn’t get back to our hotel until around midnight.
The night didn’t really end there, since a few of us planned to meet up at one of the delegation members’ room and watch game four of the NBA finals. I wasn’t really interested in the game too much, but I was interested in seeing some sports and hanging out with the delegation. The game didn’t start until 4:00 am local time, so we took a short nap, and met up around 3:30. We ordered lots of ice cream and coffee, and did watch the game among other things. The game ended right around 6:45 am, which was perfect, because I had to get back to my room by 7:00 am in order to have my suit jacket delivered from dry cleaning. After getting that back, I decided to take a short nap, wake up at 10:15 am, and pack my stuff, as we were leaving for Dammam on Friday afternoon.