The 2011 KAUST Bike Race from Hayden

Greetings, friends and family,

Yesterday, the 2011 KAUST Bike race took place. Once again my speedy dad won the race. However, the adult bike race wasn't the only thing that happened yesterday. There was also a six and under race, that my brother competed in, and a ten to twelve year old race, that I competed in. Logan started out in about the 5th row of kids at the start line and ended up to be the winner. When the race was over, Logan hadn't even broken a sweat. I was not so lucky. I had to do two giant laps, instead of one small one. I had to race kids two years older than I. I had to race in the hottest part of the day. I also had to win. So, that's what I did. I still was not as lucky as Logan though. When I got done I was dripping with sweat and could barely walk. I then collected my medal, shook hands with the president of KAUST, and drank about five big bottles of water.

I guess it wasn't that bad though, because as soon as I got done I played ultimate frisbee for two hours. Ultimate frisbee was really fun. I scored a few points. Finally, we went to the yacht club and had an okay dinner. The view was great. Thanks for reading!

Hayden

A Weekend Outing

Greetings,

Yesterday we rented a car and drove to Jeddah. It's not too expensive to rent a sedan-type car for a day, and, since we don't own a car, we thought we might do it once a month. In 19 months, we have rented a car maybe three times. Driving to Jeddah is far and increasingly we find that, except for Starbucks coffee, we can get a lot of the foods and other items we need right here on campus. I always feel a low level of constant stress when we go to Jeddah as we try to accomplish many things in a short period of time. With traffic, fast flying cars on the highway, and the occasional driver heading the wrong direction on streets, getting around can be challenging. Busy long highways sometimes go a mile or more without an intersection or break in the median forcing drivers to frequently drive far past their destination simply to make a u-turn and head back to where they need to be. With beautiful walled homes and glamorous malls, I have never been able to figure out the justification for the vast heaps of construction rubble, neatly piled like small pyramids, across large swaths of the city's otherwise empty land.

After a long day of soccer games and errands, we headed back home to KAUST but, since we had a car for a few more hours, we decided to drive beyond home to the King Abdullah Economic City where there were, apparently, some newly opened restaurants. We exited the highway, drove through a gate that resembled a makeover of the Arc de Triomphe, thanked the friendly guard, and proceeded another 15 kilometers through barren land lined by palm trees and a simple hedge. We eventually came to a beautiful apartment building where we saw some cars parked. We too parked our car and were amazed to walk down a gorgeous sandy beach - the sand recently brought in from elsewhere - in front of a lovely waterfront walkway lined with several restaurants and lots of outdoor seating. We walked all the way past the buildings, through remnants of construction, and to the section of the beachfront where villas had been built in a V-shape configuration opening toward the Red Sea. The reddish-brown color of the villas reminded me of an Arizona resort. On the water, a long pier has been built that leads directly to the coral reef drop off. On either side of the pier is a small swimming area where the coral seems to have been cleared out,with steps down to beckoning sea. It was stunning and we had visions of returning some time for an afternoon/evening swim or snorkel. Hayden saw a large sting ray slowly swimming over the rocks, only to disappear lazily into the dark blue depths of the swimming area. Hmmmmm.

We picked up shells, enjoyed a long beach walk and a lovely Lebanese dinner on the waterfront before winding our way back to the road which ultimately brought us home. We have heard that construction at the economic city is on pause as many of the builders have been brought into KAUST for work, and it is clear that much of the economic city is ready for occupants and building completion, but the apartment buildings that are finished are beautiful, the waterfront is nicely designed, and the restaurants are happy to serve!

Thanks for reading. Jennifer

Jeddah rivals Seattle in rain

Strange but true: from late December through late January Jeddah probably had more rainfall than Seattle. Even though December is often the cruelest, wettest month in Seattle, with January often not that much better, Jeddah has been more than holding its own this year. During our winter break away in Austria, Jeddah had three rainstorms, one of them big enough to flood much of the city (and, temporarily at least, portions of KAUST). Then, a few weeks after returning to KAUST, we had another huge rainfall, this one wreaking even more havoc in Jeddah and again testing KAUST's limits on drainage.

Fortunately, the engineers at KAUST did their homework after last year's also big flooding. Although we had our own temporary version of the Great Lakes on campus, the storm drains worked overtime, the water diversions held, and soon campus was pretty much back to normal. Jeddah was not so lucky; KAUST coordinated a humanitarian effort to help those most adversely affected, with even our school playing a helpful role.

While Seattle is synonymous with rain, far fewer folks would associate Saudi Arabia with the wet stuff. Given this, a few images from the past weeks might attach a bit of humor to what was otherwise a very tough week for many in these parts.

• Biking across a bridge that had the biggest puddle, a lake really, even though the bridge straddled water. Huh?
• During the worst torrents, looking over at manicured shrubs and noticing that they were receiving their pre-programmed watering. Nothing like a double dose of water! "Excuse me, sir, it's time to wake up for your sleeping pill."
• Biking to dinner in a downpour, which we hoped would end, and basically needing a kayak to get home after the rain's intensity only grew. Logan's bike at one point was below water level. And he was still riding. This prompted pulse increases in both parents. It was then that we abandoned the roads and just went for high ground.
• January is often synonymous with snow days for US school kids. Not so here, where students miss school because of heavy rain. Which makes sense when you think about it if you're receiving more than 100% of your annual rainfall in the space of a few hours.

So, amazing to say this from Saudi Arabia, but we don't need anymore rain, at least not for awhile. Fortunately, there's none forecasted. And I mean FOREcasted. Now, true to form, it could well not rain for another ten months. At all!

Thanks for reading,

David

The 2011 Fun Run from Hayden

Greetings,

Yesterday, the 2011 KAUST Fun Run occurred. Once again my speedy dad won, however, the person in second was very fast too. At the end of the race everyone had to go around the track once. The person who was leading at the time, for some reason, did not know this fact. As soon as he got onto the track he slowed down, thinking the race was over. My dad, who was right behind him, quickly whizzed around him and won the race again. Fortunately, the guy in second was the same man that my dad passed on the track. The person in third was a high school boy from New Jersey. He is one of the best runners on campus, and only in tenth grade. Logan is the real exciting part in this story. First, Logan probably hopped about 100 yards in the kiddie sack race. Then, he decided that he wasn't tired at all and that he wanted to do the 5 kilometer race. He started out at a really fast pace and kept it that way for about half the race. Then, at the first water station, he took a 2 or 3 minute water break and watched about 50 people run by him. I was one of those people. When I finished the race I sat down with a bottle of water and waited for Logan. I didn't have to wait long. About 2 minutes later, Logan came running across the finish line. Surprisingly, Logan beat about 5 of my friends who were doing the race. We then waited for Mom, who was about 3 minutes behind. We waited around for the awards ceremony. Then, tired and hungry, we biked (slowly) back to our house. Thanks for reading!

Hayden

Campus Rain 2011

Greetings,
It has been nearly a month since we last posted on our blog. Since then, we have had a glorious holiday of snow, cold, snow, cafes, Christmas festivities, and skiing in Austria - with safe travel all around. We were so fortunate to be able to stay again in our favorite apartment in Seefeld!

We have been back for a full week and today were going to start our second week when emails came through saying that school was closed for students today. Why? Rain. Last night's incredible rain. Last year when we had these intense rains, we had equally intense flooding both inside and outside. This year our house was nearly all dry and the roads, though flooded with thigh-deep water last night, gradually drained throughout the night and were nearly dry this morning.

It is ironic to be a Seattle family whose wettest bike ride occurred in Saudi Arabia. We managed to bike to our friends' house for dinner in the rain and the puddles. We took extra clothing to change when we got there. After a lovely Greek dinner and a wonderful evening, we figured we needed to brave the weather to head home to check on our own house, just as water started cascading down our friends' inside stairwell. We thought there was a lull in the rain, but it picked up as we biked the 1-2 kilometers home. The puddles we had ridden through had, in the two hours we had been at their house, turned into small lakes. We were able to make it across the road, through a slightly higher parking lot, across another lake-like road, and up onto a less flooded sidewalk. We made it safely home, threw all clothes in the wash, and took hot showers. (You never know exactly what kind of water you are riding through!)

Although many of the lakes had drained or been pumped during the night, the electricity was still out in the elementary school and school was, as a result, canceled for safety reasons for today. In Seattle, we had school closure once for what our neighbor termed "cold sidewalk day." Snow that was anticipated did not come until the next day, but school was closed prematurely. Then, of course, it had to be closed again when the actual snow did arrive. Last year here, we had major rain and floods right before an Eid holiday and school was closed because no one could safely get through, the drains did not drain, and the schools were very leaky and wet.

The sun is out now, so hopefully all will dry out and the rains will move elsewhere. Thanks for reading, Jennifer

School Support Staff

Greetings,
At the three buildings that make up The Kaust School - the early childhood, the elementary, and the secondary schools - we have support staff who clean, repair, adjust the freezing air conditioning, and serve lunch to all students and faculty. The staff is make up of people from the Philippines and several countries in South Asia. A committee of teachers organized an appreciation lunch today for all of the staff, including faculty members who wanted to come too. Teachers prepared food and students helped serve and clean-up. It was a lot of fun to have these members of our school community sit and eat lunch with teachers and students. They all do so much for us and we are so grateful.

Thanks for reading.
Jennifer

KAUST coming into focus

Greetings,

First it was one girl who had previously been with our girls-only program, but now a member of the co-ed 7th grade group that I teach has joined the after-school math group. She had questions about some of the math problems I'd assigned for recent home work and wanted some help after school. A minute later another girl, a classmate, joined her. She'd been out that day visiting the dentist, and, though she could barely talk and was certainly in pain with a visibly swollen mouth, she too wanted to come after school for math help. They came together, and pretty soon we were discussing the nuances of fraction-based word problems, the kind that could trip up most any student, non-native English speaker (as the case was) or not.

Then two ninth grade boys, also my students, walked in, asking for help, and pretty soon I had word problems flowing on one side of the classroom, on the main whiteboard, and algebraic equations using the midpoint formula going up on the side board. Finally, two more students walked in, neither one of them a student of mine, but both in search of math help. They had a crossword puzzle involving math terms, and when I told them that crossword puzzles were absolutely the best things in the world and that math crosswords were the best of the best, they chose to stay.

Now what is amazing about this entire, spontaneous gathering is that all six students were Saudi - which is to say that none of them are native English speakers and a number of them had never had instruction in English before arriving at KAUST. Rather, here were students who could barely speak a word of English 14 months ago when KAUST School opened its doors, now reflecting on some fairly sophisticated problem-solving or terminology, and they were doing it on their own time, after school!

At one point I looked up as each group was working through its particular challenge, and I briefly stopped them to let them know how amazing this all was. Were it me, for example, and had I suddenly been immersed in an entirely different school system using a wholly different language with a set of fairly demanding teachers and a tough curriculum, I'm not sure I would have had the courage, let alone the ability, to stay after school barely a year later and carry on with learning the way these students were.

Saudi Arabia is a land of immense gifts, and KAUST is a result of one man's vision of an educational path this country could take. If you could capture in one classroom what this vision is beginning to look like today, you might look no further than the room I was fortunate enough to be in yesterday. Education may be a gift, but it's one you have to earn, and these kids were clearly there making the most of what is obviously becoming a unique, powerful, and instructive life experience for all, students and teacher alike. Thanks for reading.