I feel very excited and... overwhelmed. I suppose I should start with how we came to embark on this adventure of relocating our Tannaci family to Saudi Arabia. It all started with a good friend of John's, Dr. Justin Myner. He highly suggested that John should look into a position at KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology). The position is Manager of Research Oversight and Planning. It's a promotion into management at a high level University. A position he would do really well with but may not find very easily here in the United States. That being said when John went out to KAUST to see the University and interview for the position, I still had no intentions of moving to KAUST and was 99.9% certain John didn't either. When he returned, he was amazingly excited about the community in KAUST and even more so about the job he would be doing. Which then began our research period into what would it be like to live in Saudi Arabia/ KAUST.
Those couple weeks of looking at pictures, hearing John's retelling of what he saw there, talking to people that live there, looking up other family's blogs, looking up anything and everything about Saudi Arabia and KAUST on the internet and so on, went by fast and were a bit of a whirlwind. Ok, we are still in that whirlwind just slightly different, but here is what I found out without actually going there:
1) The community where the university is and where we would live is gated and very secure, albeit small, but catered to western culture with no restrictions on women driving or clothing. There are a multitude of pictures at https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaust_photos/ If you hover over the picture it will tell you what you are looking at.
2) Saudi Arabia in general has hundreds of compounds like this and many foreign residents. We will be located 50 minutes north of Jeddah and next to a small fishing village called Thuwal along the Red Sea on the west side of Saudi Arabia. We will not be near any countries that border Saudi Arabia.
3) Women in Saudi Arabia cannot drive and must wear an Abaya in public which is a long gown that covers them from neck to ankles. It is generally black, but can be other colors like gray and brown, etc. In most areas of Saudi Arabia women must where a veil that covers all but the slits for their eyes. This is called a niqab. My understanding is that is not the case for Jeddah. Most women in Jeddah will wear the abaya and a veil covering their hair.
4) Islam is the official religion of the country and Saudi Arabia government is based on Islamic Law. To be a citizen of Saudi Arabia a person must be Muslim. Clergy are not allowed in Saudi Arabia and there are no churches. By official laws people cannot bring any religious items to Saudi Arabia except their personal bible. In the privacy of a our own home we can practice whatever faith we choose. Along with no religious items other than Islam, there is no pork, no alcohol, no gambling, and no pornography.
5) People I have talked to or others have talked to say they really like it there, especially at this particular University community. There are a multitude of activities on the campus for all community members, including, scuba diving, wind surfing, a recreation center, parks, beaches etc. The girls will go to the preschool and elementary school on the campus. It is based on the international bacchaloriate curriculum. English is the primary language in the community but the kids can learn Arabic in a class at school. There is apparently a large grocery store on campus with Safeway/Vons products.
I am sure I will be learning much more everyday when we are there. At this point we are still in the preparation phase and are waiting for our VISAS to be processed. This should happen any day and then the tickets will be booked. I will let you know as soon as that happens and we have our departure date set. In the mean time we just spent this past Sunday August 24th celebrating Isabella's Baptism. She was a perfect angel and slept through most of it.
We wish you all well and look forward to sharing our adventures with whoever is interested.