Some of my friends have asked me to post pictures of the campus, and really, the pictures from the internet are way way better than my pictures and trust me, in reality they look that awesome, too.
But, anyways, I guess I'll put up some pictures. I didn't get many good pictures, because as an aspiring, amateur photographer, I did not know what settings to use for the very very bright outdoors. Also, my lens fogs up every time I stepped outside an AC building. Oh well.
This is the Discovery Square. Here, we have the FedEx, 24 hour supermarket, fast food restaurants (such as Burger King, Quiznos, Baskin Robbins, The Coffee Beans and Tea Leaf, etc), the cinema, the pharmacy and the housing office.
This is what it looks like from another angle:
Yes, as you can see, they have many trees. It takes gallons and gallons of water to keep those plants alive, I guess. KAUST has its own water treatment plant. Also, you can see at the picture above, the grand mosque... wayyy behind. It is a beautiful mosque. However, in Saudi Arabia, non Muslims are not allowed inside the mosque, hence I can only wonder what it looks like inside.
Oh, and as you can see, the Discovery Square was decorated with beautiful patterned clothes.
This is just because of Ramadan. Ramadan is a very special month in Saudi Arabia. All shops and services have adjusted their hours. Usually they close at around 3 or 4 pm, and the restaurants don't open until after iftar.
And just for fun, here's a shot of the 24 hour mini market at Discovery Square.
Yep.... Tamimi Markets is owned by the Safeway group from the US. So I could find the exact same Safeway brand flour, brown sugar, etc. But a cereal that looks exactly like the one in the States could cost 3-4 more than the "local" frosted flakes... so I always try to buy "local". :P
Now, some shots of the campus, although there are many of them online.
Let's start with the museum of science and technology in Islam at KAUST.
I had not realized before that there were so many Muslim scientists discovering great things, especially between the golden age of... the 800s - 1800s. I think. Here's some dental stuff from long long time ago. Tonsil scalpel, dental hook, and tongue repressor. I'm just glad I live now instead of 1000 years ago.
Here's a shot of some really cool, obviously very old book at the museum.
And a really cool astronomy stuff....
Geometry stuff....
But they don't only just have old stuff; they have cool, high tech stuff too. In fact, lots of it. Everything is touch screen. I can easily spend an hour there, learning about cool history and feeling like a little kid again.
See this?
If you touch on the sticker on the glass, the speaker above you will actually tell you about the object in the display case. And you have to actually stand at a certain, marked spot to hear the explanations clearly. I think it's pretty darn neat.
Now, let's move on to the another building, shall we? I think it's the most most beautiful building on campus and I'm seeing myself spending hours and hours in it. Donde esta la biblioteca?
It's the library. Which opens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Look at them beautiful Macs, with the view of the Red Sea and the KAUST beacon. Oh, if I haven't mentioned.... KAUST uses LOTSSS of Macs. Even the ones where if you actually look at the screen, it's was running the Windows 7 bootcamp. Funny huh. Nothing "KAUSTs" too much for KAUST. If it's good and pretty, they will get it, whatever it "KAUSTs". (Got what I'm talking about?)
Anyways, the library has very little printed books compared to other universities libraries I have been to. Most of the stuff are online.
But I was very happy to see that they have magazines... (the fun ones are in the Harbor Library, the community library.)
And several newspaper subscriptions... just in case I miss the feeling of reading a real newspaper.
Oh, and since KAUST students love to travel, they have this very cool section of travel books and maps:
There's also a map on the wall, with pins to represents the places in the world KAUST students came from. As you see, KAUST is a very, very global community. Maybe about 70-80% of the community population is international, coming from something like 70 different countries.
Alright, that's all, folks. Whew, this was a long post.
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