International Students

Greetings,

We have just finished our second full week of school - and I would say that we are off to a great start this year. One of the most interesting aspects of our school, other than our amazing colleagues, is our students. The variations on their life experiences speak to true internationalism. In classes of 6th and 7th graders, I have or have had such vast diversity among my students - those who are from England but have lived mostly in Saudi Arabia, an Indian student born in Saudi Arabia, an Egyptian student from Canada, a Pakistani girl from Manchester (who speaks strongly like a girl from Manchester), American students, Filipino students, Saudi students who have lived in the States or the UK, a French boy born in the US, an Egyptian student from Austria who speaks a mixture of German and Arabic and heavily German-accented English, a German girl from Sweden, Palestinian students from Jordan and Canada, a Canadian girl who has lived in Indonesia, Moscow and now Saudi Arabia, Canadian students born and raised in Dubai. I have a student from Korea and one from South Africa, several from Singapore and from Malaysia, a Russian-American and Indian-Saudi, a Fijian-Australian and an Egyptian-American ... the list goes on and on. In our grade 7 humanities class, I ask students to share where they were born and where they have lived - and I learn fascinating stories about their lives this way. It makes me realize that these kids, though they do feel they have a home country or two, do not necessarily feel they have to live in those home countries. They are global citizens who will be able to live wherever they choose. And, typical, of middle school students, they are funny and amused easily, eager to learn and play, willing to play 'thumbs up seven up' when five minutes of class remain, and - increasingly for our school - excited about reading (especially the 6th graders!).

Thanks for reading. More to come ...

Jennifer

End of Summer Updates

Greetings,

Summer was so full and busy that I sort of got lost in trying to keep up with the blog observations and comments. We loved Mallorca. It was rich and diverse, friendly and lovely. We ate wonderful food and enjoyed tasty Mallorcan wine, we played in the sea and the pool, we rented bikes and rode the entire bike trail near the sea of Palma, we explored Palma, Soller, and Valldemosa. We ended with evenings in front of the TV watching the Olympics and appreciating BBC's commentary and lack of advertising. I realized that I did not tire of watching the Olympics this year because we did not have to endure endless and tedious American advertising, interruptions, and the ethnocentric focus on American athletes. When we returned to Saudi Arabia and watched the AlJazeera coverage, we appreciated the continuous Olympic sport coverage on several channels all day with English-speaking announcers and - once again - no advertising. Fabulous!

For the last week and a half of our Mallorca summer Hayden and a close friend of mine from college days joined us. While David continued his studies, we continued to explore and play in the lovely blue water.

After David's program, our family headed to Menorca, another Ballearic Island. I expected it to be virtually the same, and I could not have been more wrong. It looked and felt different. Lower hills, fewer people, less busy, more Spanish. We spent an entire day at the beach and later at the pool with friends who used to live here on our same compound. Great chance to catch up since they have moved back to Bath, England. In Menorca we rented kayaks and paddled around, walked around a touristy/fishing village called Fornells, and enjoyed our rental car explorations.

Finally, after three days, we headed to Barcelona. I expected it to be a little edgy and dirty, and - again - could not have been more wrong. It was clean and beautiful, neighborhood-like, and impressive. We had allowed only three days in Barcelona, but I could have stayed much longer. We managed the crowds of La Rambla, explored the city some by tourist bus so that we could see more of it, and found some enticing small neighborhood restaurants. I hope to return to Barcelona to actually explore the stunning main Cathedral and La Familia Cathedral.

We returned to KAUST, worked and prepared for school for 7 days, and then Eid holiday came around. We flew to Italy, spent three days with friends who have a home in the Piedmont region and then took the train to Venice. Wow. That's sums it up. Wow. We rented an apartment in San Basilio so we were just a bit out of the hustle and bustle of the San Marco and its narrow streets. Our apartment was in a quiet Venetian neighborhood with an incredible little restaurant just behind the apartment in a small plaza. We admired the flower-box windows and the shutters and the canals and boats and the shops and cafes. We were lucky to end up in the Bell Tower in San Marco plaza just as the bells were tolling 2 p.m. Pretty outstanding.

I have realized lately that in emails, Facebook, and blogs, I frequently write about or comment on amazing foods we eat when we travel. I think sometimes it must seem as though we have some fetish with foods, but really it's because the food in other places is so fresh and tasty. We get plenty of healthy food options here (we are hardly starving), but since the food comes a long way - almost none of it is grown locally - it just does not taste that flavorful. In both Spain and Italy this summer, the fruits tasted the way they are supposed to taste. I recently bought nectarines at the supermarket at KAUST and, although they looked good and I thought they would ripen, they just went from unripe to rotten. It was so disappointing. From my travels and time in Europe, I am beginning to understand the motivation for food movements around the world - the idea that food should be in season and should come from some place nearby makes a huge difference in taste. Even in Seattle we could get out-of-season fruits in the winter but they never tasted very good. I get it. In Europe you generally get the options that are available and seasonal. Though that might be fewer choices in the market or grocery store, the foods taste so much better and fresher.

School is back in session. We have just started The KAUST School's fourth year. Wow! Lots of great new teachers and students. More to come ...


Thanks for reading, Jennifer

Mercat d'Oliver, Mallorca

Greetings,
Yesterday, Logan and I explored this large market in Palma, the main city of Mallorca. We had heard about it from a guy in our apartment building, so we took the bus to the area and walked about until we found the market. From the outside, it's a large yellow-colored building, with small windows up towards the ceiling. It does not look like much. We went in to discover one of the most immaculate and interesting fish markets we have ever seen. There were rows and rows and rows of fish sellers, filleting fish and skinning fish. We saw skinned and cleaned rays, smaller sharks, massive tuna, tiny sardines, and a gazillion other types of fish that we didn't know the names for. It was so clean and intriguing to watch. People came in to buy exactly what they wanted - for their home or restaurant, presumably. In another section of the market, we found glorious displays of colorful fruits and vegetables, cheeses, olives, nuts, wines, baskets, cured pork and pork legs, sides of beef, eggs, chickens. It was the most immaculate market I have ever seen. We exhausted ourselves taking photos. The funniest thing we saw was bacon-wrapped dates, coming from Saudi Arabia where dates grow to a place where they take a similar product and ensconce it in finely sliced pork product. We had a good chuckle over that.


From the market we bought sushi to eat in the square and from there, we  proceeded through the old section of Palma with its narrow winding lanes, free from cars and filled with shops, cafes, restaurants, and gelato stands. I felt like we could eat our way through Palma, but we were selective and waited for what looked like the perfect gelato!

Mallorca, very popular with Brits and Germans, is less well-known among Americans. English seems to be spoken by many, but I find my years and years of junior high and high school Spanish coming back in a flash. Even all of those verb conjugations make sense to me. I cannot really produce great sentences or paragraphs of spoken Spanish, but I find that I understand a great deal and - except for the random sentence in Thai - I feel pretty good about that. With several months here, I might really be able to communicate with great efficiency.

While David is in class each day until about 1:30, Logan and I swim, play at the beach, explore different sections of the island nearby, shop for groceries, and generally enjoy our free time. We love to jump from the large rocks near our apartment into the salty and wavy sea, and we all spent an evening listening to an incredible orchestra play Mozart and Beethoven in the Bellver Castle. What a wonderful spot for live music!

We are thoroughly enjoying our time here. It's culturally rich, stimulating and incredibly beautiful. The view from our apartment ...

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

Longer than a 36-Hour Day

Greetings,

We are now in Mallorca, Spain – an island in the Mediterranean which has an airport that is the 3^rd largest in Spain, David read recently. We have an incredible apartment – well, a fine two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with a small kitchen – and an amazing view of the Mediterranean Sea and the pool in the complex. The apartment was recommended by friends from KAUST who have actually stayed here in previous years. We are pleased! David’s teaching program began yesterday, so we had a day to adjust, get groceries, enjoy the pool and beach, jump from the rocks into the aqua sea, and catch up on sleep!

We had a wonderful visit to the United States. We flew first to Minneapolis to catch a shuttle to Carleton College in order to attend David’s 30 college reunion. When we arrived in the dark and pouring rain, Hayden’s first comment was, “How come there isn’t a wall around this college?” A testament, I guess, to living in a perpetually walled compound in Saudi Arabia.

We flew to Traverse City to visit David’s parents in Interlochen, Michigan, and to celebrate his father’s significant birthday in September by going to Mackinac Island for one night at the Iriquois Hotel right by the water. David’s folks took David and me there eighteen years ago when we were first engaged and I first met them. We biked around the island on its 8.2 mile loop and explored the fort on the island.

At the last minute I decided it was possible to attend my 25^th reunion at Principia College. Hayden encouraged me, after seeing the large 25^th reunion group at David’s reunion, so I flew to St. Louis where my parents met me at the airport – also in town for my mom’s 50^th reunion from the same college. At first none of my friends or classmates were there, and I felt for awhile like a kid at my parents’ event, but eventually friends of mine who now live in St. Louis arrived, and I was able to connect with several people I knew in college. At David’s reunion, we ran in a 5k Fun Run, and I ran in one at Principia too – though I got lost and ran less than the 5k loop. Others got lost and ran more than 5k, so I guess it all averaged out okay.

On Sunday, I got up early, caught a shuttle back to the airport in St. Louis, flew to Chicago, and then on to Traverse City, where David, Logan, David’s sister and her husband picked me up. We went home to the Interlochen house, ate lunch, packed, did a quick load of laundry, returned to the airport (this time with David and Logan) and flew back to Chicago a mere five hours after I had been there! Hayden avoided this flight because he’s staying in Interlochen to attend the Summer Arts Camp for three weeks where he will focus on creative writing, sports, classical guitar, and ceramics – amid ice cream, ultimate Frisbee games, and cabin fun.

After arriving in Chicago for the second time in one day, we ate a quick salad, and caught our flight to Munich and then on to Palma, Mallorca! It was an incredibly long day, with the added flight from St. Louis, but all went smoothly and our bags, much to our delight, actually showed up as well. Isn’t that truly amazing? You hand over your bags to a stranger in an airport and then many hours later, they tumble down a conveyor belt in the very airport in which you have just arrived, continents away from the departure city. No one told us in the Palma airport that if the bags originated from an airport outside of the European Union, they would arrive on a separate belt than everyone else’s, but David wandered around and found them, going around and around. We were eternally grateful as we really needed showers, clean clothes, and some teeth brushing!

Thanks for reading! Cheers - and hasta la vista! Jennifer

A 36 Hour Day

Greetings,
We are now in the United States - for ten days! It was quite a journey to get here. After 36 hours from door-to-bed on Thursday, we are feeling much refreshed today. The campus here at Carleton is, of course, lush, fragrant, and beautiful. We are relishing the change of sights for the eyes, tastes for the tongue, and smells for the nose, and a return to - what is for us - a familiar culture. Wow. The boys were particularly excited with the morning breakfast buffet - bacon, fresh fruit, bacon, pastries. Did I mention bacon?

The phenomenon of travel never ceases to amaze. That we could depart Jeddah at 2 am on Thursday and arrive in Minneapolis some 30+ hours later on Thursday evening is pretty amazing - and confusing. We left our house at 10 pm on Wednesday night and arrived in the dorm room at Carleton a bit before 6 am (Jeddah time) on Friday morning. It's so confusing. You get in this weird mental 'travel mode' where you watch the movies on the plane and stand and walk around and try to sleep if
possible - and you avoid thinking about the time where you originated, the time at your destination, or how long the flight might take. When you arrive at the next airport, which - except in the case of the Jeddah airport - looks an awful lot like the last airport, you find your next gate, some good food and drink, and plunk down to wait for the next step in the journey. Again, trying to avoid too much thought. Last night I started to fall asleep and I was trying to recall our 36-hour day, but for the longest time I could literally not remember the time in Frankfurt. I finally did but it was vague and fuzzy. People here ask me what time is it in Jeddah, and I tell them I honestly don't know. I just try not to pay attention because if I immediately try to live like I am in this time zone, it helps a lot - plus no naps!

Jeddah to Frankfurt, wait three hours, eat, struggle to get confirmation on the next flight (finally did!), Frankfurt to Chicago. Tried to sleep. Watched three movies. Ate a bit. Stood and stretched in the back for a long time ... Arrived in Chicago just as flight was due to leave. Went through US Customs, collected bags, rechecked bags, got reconfirmed on a new flight three hours later (which was then an
hour late leaving), sat down to eat another, surprisingly good, meal - fresh salads, pizza, caprese, wine Airport food has really changed! Waited. Wandered. Waited. Wandered. Looked at books. Bought one for Logan. Finally, finally boarded airplane, finally left. I slept the entire 65 minutes until the flight was so rough I woke up. Arrived in Minneapolis. Collected bags. Found Carleton desk but shuttle bus was not due to leave for two hours. More waiting. More coffee and snacks at Starbucks. Waiting.
Waiting. Left. Arrived. Dark and rainy. Walked in the rain to the dorm. Made beds. Took showers. Collapsed. Barely able to function any longer. Boys did not - I mean, did NOT - complain one time! Incredible. As always, grateful to have arrived safely and with all bags.


We have attended reunion meals, chatted with former classmates of David's, run a 5k fun run, enjoyed the Reunion Convocation, which was stellar, and truly relaxed for the first time in a while. Vacation!


We head to Michigan on Sunday to visit David's parents, travel to Mackinac Island for a night, run in the incredible northern Michigan woods, and get Hayden set up at Interlochen Summer Camp. We will be there for a week.


Thanks for reading!
Jennifer

End of Year Three!

Greetings all,
We finished Year Three on Wednesday. Students received yearbooks and requested signatures, classes ended, grades were completed ... some seniors cried! It was momentously celebrated by many probably in a variety of ways. Hayden finished 6th grade and his first year of secondary school; Logan completed 1st grade. We had a relaxing weekend with no reports to write, no essays or tests to grade; we headed to the beach and enjoyed time with friends.

Logan's Piano Recital

Today, the first day of the final and student-free week for teachers, Hayden joined a golf clinic and Logan played with his good friend, Charlotte. David and I headed to an all-school meeting in our school's auditorium. After the brief meeting, we headed back to our classrooms - along with our colleagues - to review all of the grade reports submitted by all teachers for our advisees. About five minutes into this valuable and culminating review process, the fire alarm blurted out its piercing warning and an announcement in both Arabic and English. After so many false alarms this year, nearly every teacher and administrator stayed in his or her classroom/office, trying to work. Finally, another American colleague came to my room and ushered me out of the building. Reluctantly - more due to the incessant noise than the concern over an emergency - adults left the building, gathering in the 40 degree heat, in the shade of the basketball court. Many, many minutes later, the fire marshall declared that the alarm had been triggered by humidity in the building from an open window. Now, let me explain that our building in the morning is often 18 - 19 degrees Celsius, so individuals - myself included - open the window to let in enough warmth to actually not have frozen fingers. Apparently, someone had done this. The alarm was ultimately shut off, but it took another 30-40 minutes to actually shut off the automatic voice announcing an unexpected emergency and directing everyone outside without using escalators or elevators (which we don't have). Everyone returned to their classrooms, trying to edit grade reports with the unstoppable voice ringing through the halls and classrooms. Sigh. It felt a bit like Year One - though, blessedly, no students were on campus.

Hayden's Guitar Recital

Though each teacher is happy to be heading into vacation, I admit to missing my wonderful 7th grade students, just as I did last year. They are, again, a wonderful group of 11-13 year olds from Malaysia, Jordan, Canada, the Philippines, India, United States, Russia, South Africa, Egypt/Austria who read every book I asked of them, who struggled to engage in meaningful discussions on themes of books, who learned how to write five paragraph essays (remember those?), who took spelling quizzes, learned to punctuate and paragraph dialogues, tried to recognize run-on sentences, played Taboo, and made me laugh and smile and appreciate them every day. Teaching middle school kids is demanding, challenging, humorous, never tedious, and always satisfying as we see their development and growth, sometimes despite themselves! I am lucky to know these kids - and to have a summer to prepare for the next group!

We head to the US in four days, attend David's college reunion, visit David's family in Michigan, celebrate David's father's 80th birthday in September, get Hayden settled at Interlochen Summer Camp and then head to Mallorca, Spain, for David's summer teaching program.

Thanks for reading!

Jennifer

A Year of Rejection

In some ways, life overseas often includes some elements of confusion, but lately those confused moments have led directly to rejection. First off, we are allowed to choose one professional development option per year to attend or do online, and we are reimbursed a set amount of money towards that PD. Often if we travel, the costs are higher than what we actually get reimbursed, but the reimbursement is helpful and shows commitment to our professionally developing selves. This year I found the perfect workshop in Abu Dhabi that I was excited to attend; it was about Adolescent Literacy, which is exactly my interest. With the new processes in place this 2011-12 school year, I girded myself for a several step process, got rejected once because I had handwritten a form that needed to be completed on my computer, and attached a litany of documents - hotel cost (anticipated), workshop fees (expected), and flight cost (estimated). I was not allowed to pay for any of these items or make any deposits, which was rather tricky as the hotel and airlines were not willing to hold the room and seat for long. After a couple of hours of collecting, scanning, and finding the necessary documents, I submitted all to a person-in-the-know for these types of activities. She was pleased with my efforts and thought all was well. I hesitated to actually purchase the flight, however. A week passed and it was now three days until I was supposed to travel. When asked, I was not sure if I was traveling out of the country for the weekend or not. Finally, I got word that my request had been rejected since I had already purchased the plane tickets. (I had not.) With the-person-in-the-know, I went through all documents and found not a single confirmation of anything. As it turns out, while waiting for approval, the workshop had filled, the flights were sold out, and the hotel had no rooms left. I will try again next year...

Since our son broke his arm in the United States last year, we have been trying to collect the required documents from the hospital in New Hampshire and the clinic in Colorado where his arm was set and re-casted over the course of the summer. Upon our return from the US, I completed the requisite insurance forms and submitted the insurance documents that the hospital and clinic had provided us. Claim was rejected until all of the hospital invoices and doctors' notes could be supplied. I called the hospital. They were willing to mail everything I needed to a US address and, no, they could not send them in an email. The documents were mailed and eventually forwarded on to us through someone heading to the US who was able to bring them back. I supplied all the documents again. No, it was still not enough. I explained that I was supplying all of the documents that the hospital had, including the invoice that showed we had paid. After many many weeks, the insurance company reluctantly agreed to reimburse us about two-thirds of the amount spent on the doctors and care received.

Unfortunately, we started receiving an entirely second set of bills, which I thought were simply mistaken until I called and found out the second set was to cover the costs of the medicines and services actually supplied in the emergency room. The bill was slightly more than the original bill. At first I refused to pay, but then thought again that I actually might hope to return state-side someday, so after a few months of payments I was able to pay the second bill. I again sought to gather documents needed to submit to my illustrious insurance institution. It took awhile to actually get an itemized invoice which also showed we had paid the bill in full. I finally submitted all of the documents, with a letter, copies of all of the first invoices and doctors' notes, and a spreadsheet showing all expenses paid. After several weeks, nothing happened - until one night I received a phone call from a man stating that my claim had been rejected. Click. He hung up. Literally. I contacted the insurance representative at our campus, and they agreed to look into it. I provided them copies as well. Today, I received an email that - though it didn't reject our claim outright - offered us such a pittance that it may have been a rejection. We have not even been reimbursed half of our costs from our insurance company. Now, it is true that medical care in the US is outrageously expensive and few patients would ever have to pay what Americans pay for health care; nonetheless, I cannot imagine that Saudi Arabia's expenses are less than half as expensive. I was told the claim was rejected because it had been more than the 180 days allowed, but truth be told at least one third of those days we were still in the US, another third we were waiting for insurance to communicate. Rejection again.

Another benefit of working here is that we get plane tickets to return to our home country once per year or we can request cash in lieu of those tickets and we can travel where we want to. There is a somewhat simple process we must go through to request funds for this benefit. I recently submitted copies of our tickets and followed - or thought I followed - the steps listed for this request. After about a week, I received a terse, auto-generated email from a computer that I was not able to respond angrily to announcing that my request had been rejected. No idea why. Now I am going through emails and the human contact channels to determine how to rectify this problem. More rejection just means more delay and more work to solve the confusion.

My last major rejection of late was when I applied for new Saudi visas for David and myself. I was emailed the form, I dutifully completed it on the computer, I sought the requisite signatures, and I went to the appropriate offices to collect the final signature. As I handed my form to the HR guy, he said, "I don't think this is the right form."

"It was the one I was sent," I brilliantly replied, knowing all along that he must be right. I returned to the first floor of the building to actually submit the form, and I was promptly told, "This is not the correct form."

"Can I just fill out a new one and attach it to that one with all of the signatures?" I naively asked.

"No. You must start again. Didn't you notice that it was the wrong form?"

Rejected once again.