Drilling deeper into Saudi culture

In the past few days we spent time in Al Khobar close to Bahrain exploring the biggest company in the world - Saudi Aramco. Heads up, the question on the impact of the attacks was answered by 'check the news, it was all over' (which I did but I wanted to know how it impacted the technologies they use). This discouraged me from asking them more questions. However, I learned a lot on geo steering, geology and petroleum. The fun parts were the visit to ithra, the corporate responsibility initiative of Aramco (and probably one of the coolest buildings I have visited so far), the AI and tech labs and the arts museum.

    

The ithra building:

                       

We also got to know the history of Aramco and how it became more and more a Saudi company. It is fascinating to think about the Eastern part of Saudi that just used to be desert, and now produces hundreds of millions of barrels of crude per day. A country that in the 50s looked like I would imagine Jesus' times discovered this oil and became this rich and diverse nation that it is now. Wow. Every time I think about this and the history of Aramco, it makes me think how the whole resource allocation in this world has happened and how some countries were much more blessed than others.

                                         Aramco's first oil well:

After Aramco we headed to Jeddah where I am based right now. Jeddah is a beautiful city on the red sea which has the flair of a summer holiday. In the morning we visited King Abdullah University of Science and Technology which had one of the coolest campuses I have ever seen in my life. It appeared to be an inspiring place to research for people whose focus is on science. Unfortunately, I would not get very far there with finance, so no fourth degree for me at KAUST I'm afraid.

Once back to Jeddah we visited a mosque at the corniche and then walked along it, enjoying the sunset. It was an utterly wholesome experience with this summer holiday feeling which I very much enjoyed. Many people come with their carpets, chairs and tables to just sit at the corniche and enjoy a nice picnic and some tea. It felt very relaxed. After this, we had dinner outside with a view on the water and the remains of the sunset. My friend wanted to go to a theme park quickly, which to my amusement was for women only. From what I have gathered, a few years ago it was impossible to have dinner together at a table with both genders and I believe there has been a lot of effort with this regard. However, I still find it very peculiar to see things like this park or female and male smoking lounges. Interestingly, no one cared that we were a mixed group always sitting and laughing together so I guess maybe for visitors the rules can be bent a little bit.