Today I was watching an intramural volleyball game and noticed that the six players on one side of the court represented 5 continents. Things like that are so frequent here that it is easy to lose sight of how amazing something like that really is.
KAUST is now well underway into its second year. We are finishing up our fourth week of classes, and that has been enough time for many assignments, presentations, quizzes, and even a week long holiday in Uganda. I will post a separate blog about that trip.
At first it was a very strange feeling, arriving at KAUST and seeing so many new faces. It was weird how much could change in a summer. The student population has doubled to about 700 students. Some of these new students I had met before at KAUST events, in Washington D.C. or in Jeddah, and one of these new students was even in my high school math class, but most were unfamiliar faces. Part of me felt like I didn’t want to invest myself into building relationships with these new students since the relationships would be short lived, but the two classes are definitely integrating quickly and becoming one student body. Other little things such as printing in the library, administrative personnel, fees for bowling, etc. made us returning students feel slightly out of place. Most things seem to have settled to an equilibrium though.
Many students who are looking to graduate soon are preparing for the GRE’s which they will take in Jeddah, so that they can apply to PhD programs after graduation. The nonnative English speakers will quiz me on the words. I think it helps their confidence when they realize that I have never seen some of the words. It is amazing, though, to see people attempt to memorize thousands of words in a few weeks. One very encouraging thing I saw was that a few native English speakers organized a couple sessions in which they taught skills for writing resumes and personal statements, both for job applications and PhD applications, and then went through and helped revise these.
Also, though the semester is young, expectancy is starting to build towards graduation. People are inviting parents and siblings and getting their visa processes started, so though it is still a long ways off, and though there is A LOT of work to do to get there, a hope is starting to spread.
