Week 1

So sorry that it took me a whole to week to update this but what a week it has been! Let's get started with the stories shall we?

Thursday Arrival the Hotel:
Everything worked out well. Walked into hotel room to find that it's a suite type room with a little living room and a bedroom. To my surprise the bedroom has two single (!) beds. Now, I've been in my share of hotel rooms and this the first time I've ever seen single beds, very interesting.

Friday:
Woke up pretty early after a bad night's sleep. I guess having an 8 hour jet-lag will do that to you. Met my British colleague V. and discovered that my hotel breaks every Islamic rule on earth by actually having "women's hours" for the pool! While I realize that this may seem like a small feat, you have to understand that women in KSA are very limited and to go to a pool and actually be able to wear a bathing suit (and a two piece at that!) is a big no-no. So, we sat at the pool and met other KAUST people. V. had only just arrive four days prior and so had not purchased an abaya yet so we decided that today was as good a day as any to go do so. We asked around and were told that the Al-Balad souq (a souq is a typical market-place type thing, where basically there are a lot of stores and stands where you can buy pretty much anything).
Wonderful, I had already agreed with the driver that had dropped me off at the hotel the night before that I would need a ride to do some shopping. He picks us up and we head to the souq to realize that neither of us actually has any Saudi Riyals. So what do two smart, western women do? Go to the ATM, naturally. One problem, the ATM would not work, not with my card or V's. Ok, so we go try another, same thing. We try a third ATM and again leave with nothing. At this point I'm beginning to think that this is going to be one short shopping trip when I finally stop someone and ask him if he knows anywhere close by where I can exchange USD into SR. Fortunately he speaks English and proceeds to ask us if we know where X street is, we of course reply, no. Then he asks if we have ever heard of Y place, again our answer, no. So he kind of smiles, says something to his friend in Arabic and says "Come we will show you."
At this point, I'm sure most of you are thinking, please Cata tell me you didn't go with him. Well, I did. What else was I going to do? I needed to buy an abaya! I had gotten lucky that someone loaned me one to go to the souq but I needed one of my own and if my ATM card wasn't going to work then exchanging USD was my only option. The guys turned out to be friendly enough. One of them started to talk to V and the other started to me. His name, Ahmed and he quickly clarified for me that he was in fact Egyptian, not Arabic. "It's not that Arab men are bad, but everyone is bad so trust no one," is what he told me. I guess I'll have to trust him on that one.
As we walked, Ahmed asked me for my name, my occupation, my age and then my marital status. Apparently, this is quite common in the Arabic world and ladies if you ever do find yourself in this part of the world the correct answer is either that you are married or engaged. I of course, did not know that at the time and told him I was neither married or engaged. He walked us to one place where they promptly told us they would not be able to exchange my dollars, we went to a hotel where the guys had stayed previously hoping they might be able to exchange $100USD (which is not much is KSA) but they said they had no money.
Finally as we walked out the hotel Ahmed offered to change the dollars for me himself. He actually gave me the exact exchange rate and then proceeded to give me his phone number, which me made me write down. We thank them for their help and go our separate ways.
Now V and I actually have money to go abaya shopping. We find an abaya shop and are quickly accosted by the salesman. Now, I've dealt with my fair share of overzealous sales people but this guy was just creepy. He kept insisting that he had to "help us" put our abayas on (over the abayas we were already wearing, mind you). By the end of the whole thing I was so uncomfortable that I bought the first two abayas that fit moderately well and ran out of the store. I probably paid more than I should have but I just wanted out of there!

Saturday:
The beginning of the work week. I had to wake up at 5am! As it turns out the hotel I'm in is 1.5 hours away from KAUST and the day begins at 8am, so that means that the bus picks us up at 6:30am. So after another bad night, I get ready have breakfast and get on the bus. I saw the sun rise

I arrive at KAUST and was ushered to HR. Met with my HR rep who was nice enough and was picked up by my supervisors, my direct supervisor the Assistant Director of Admissions and his supervisor the Associate Director of Admissions (my former college counselor back in Bogota). We walk over to Admissions where I finally meet the Director of Admissions. I am shown around as the "new professional staff member" and am told to sit at a desk for the time being. With nothing to do and no "proper training" in how to read applications I am given the VERY important task of labeling files. I task I do, ALL DAY LONG.  Get on the bus at 5pm, see the sun set, get to the hotel at about 6:30pm, try to have some dinner and fall asleep exhausted.

Sunday:
Another early morning and long commute. I arrive in the office and am shown to my "permanently-temporary cubicle." Basically the office is a bit unorganized and while V and I are meant to have actual offices there are other people (who are not Admissions) in them at the moment, so we have to wait until they move out. Today I get promoted! Now I get to open mail, stamp it as an original document, file and then, of course, label the files :)
I did however remember to take pictures of the campus...

 

Monday:
I have to get blood work done for my Iqama (the resident visa card), which is all fine and good until they tell me they have to take my passport while the card is being processed and that the process can take up to two weeks (eeek!). I also discover that KSA is the only country in the world that requires an exit visa, so I will have to be getting one of those when I get my passport back.
In the office I am still filing away until at the end of the day I (finally!) get a computer set up at my desk. Well, this of course can mean only one thing, another promotion! Now I get to upload the mail that I've opened and filed onto the system, but alas still no reading of the file.

Tuesday:
Pretty much the same. My boss asks me to work on a flyer (yey for a break to filing!) and I actually stay late because V and I have been offered a ride back to Jeddah and dinner at place other than the hotel. Dinner was good, but I think I'm a better cook, so I'm desperately waiting for housing to set me up in a house with a kitched.

Wednesday:
The end of the week has finally arrived! Unfortunately so did the staff meeting where we were told that we are expected to work Thursdays for the next "few weeks" because we are behind in reading files. On a happier note, I did go out to dinner again with my new hotel friends and had a blast (although, once again the food was underwhelming).

Thursday:
In the office at 10, which means I got to sleep in until 7am :) Finally got reader training! Started to read, which for my fellow AO's, KAUST reading is a breeze. All I need to look at are GPA's, tests scores and making sure that the rec letters and essays correspond to the right student. Unfortunately, we are working with some bizarre system that basically requires a million more steps to get the process moving than it should. Oh well, Inshallah everything will work out by the Jan 30 deadline for PhD and the Feb 30 deadline for MS candidates.

Overall, a very long week, but so far so good.