“How was your leave?” “Where are you planning to go on holiday?” While the day-to-day workplace can be similar anywhere in the world, one of the favorite pastimes for ExPats living abroad is to discuss, seek advice, reminisce, and plan for their holidays.
I would like to start off by noting that the utmost privilege I have in writing these articles is the conversations I get to have with other Aramco Brats who lived in the Aramco towns at very different time periods.
With COVID-19 still limiting travel, migratory birds tease us with the purest symbol of what’s been curtailed for so many of us—the freedom of movement. Yet one unexpected gift of the pandemic-era lockdowns has been a renewed awareness of the wonders of the natural world around us.
Since my gasping, near-death introduction to smoking a hubbly bubbly in Jeddah on my first camping trip in Kingdom in 1989, I had been on a mission to purchase one of these pipes - not to smoke, but for what they represented...
I was deeply saddened at news today of the death of Cliff Peterson back in April due to complications from advanced Parkinson’s Disease. I never met Cliff in person, but he became an important online friend during my first year in Saudi—the loneliest year when I was away from my family and often out left exploring by myself.
The beautiful thing about holidays is that it means something inimitably different to us all. While we all coalesce and come together during holidays, certain traditions and sentiments are unique to each person or family’s story.
Retirement, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is the act of leaving your job and stopping working, usually because you are old. It's a rather frank definition and may ruffle a few feathers among Aramco annuitants who find they don't think of themselves as old at all.
If you've ever peered out from your window or stepped out of your back door for the sole purpose of gaining a better view of a bird, you may have a touch of birder in you. On more than one occasion, Gregory Askew found himself doing just that.
When we go to a post office, it is usually to mail a letter, buy stamps or maybe pick up a package that has arrived. Few of us give it further thought. Particularly nowadays, when we can easily communicate with our families and friends...
I appreciate Saudi Aramco management for their continuous support of their employees' development towards achieving the required communication and leadership skills by allowing them to not only form a Toastmaster club within the company but also permitting them to attend its meetings during working hours.
ExPat life in the Aramco communities is full of contradictions — within all the complexities that surrounded us, from geopolitical turmoil to the rules and regulations that we had to abide by, life was abundantly simple...
Sean, an Aramco brat, has been named Dean’s Scholar by Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada for outstanding academic performance by the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science for the 2019-20 academic session. Sean graduated in Mechanical Engineering with a 3.5 GPA.
Beneath often vivid blue skies and surrounded by the crystal-clear waters of the Aegean lies Porto Heli, Greece, a small fishing village a short ferry ride from Athens. Known for its protective coves and bays, it is a frequent mooring...
Jonathan Way, his wife Shirley and daughter Cynthia were in Dhahran during the last stages of Desert Shield. In response to a recent request for photographs from the Gulf War, Jonathan submitted this photo of Shirley and Cynthia...
That evening we dined at a magnificent Moroccan restaurant next to Beit Al Nassif with a horse-drawn carriage perched outside the entrance. It was opulent to say the least. We felt like we were in a royal palace and the food...
Stories often have the power of bringing dormant feelings and faded memories back to life. The words ricochet off of some figment of our experience and take us back to a very special place, where nostalgia wakes up and finds itself in a portable home.
Through hard work and perseverance, Aramco retiree Dr. Azzam Eltarahony, badge number 139844, recently celebrated the grand opening of Alnahar General Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. As the photographs show, this is a top-rate facility.
When we left Mada’in Saleh, our next destination was Jeddah. That is a long road to Jeddah and having since traveled all the roads of the Kingdom, it is still the one road I do not enjoy traveling. I avoid it with a passion...
Aramco annuitant and current resident of Japan Eiichi Nakamura was recently featured in these pages. The highlight of that article was his account of a traditional tea ceremony performed at his home in Yokohama for top executives from Saudi Aramco and their key customers in Japan.
Saudi Arabia has taken dramatic steps in recent years to open its borders to foreign tourists; to restore, maintain, and protect its many important natural and man-made attractions; and to spread the word of these astonishing sites...