Growing Up in UPM
I talked about growing up in the US and moving back to Saudi Arabia. Today I would like to talk about growing up in the KFUPM faculty housing, or what we used to call UPM or al jama’a (the university). KFUPM stands for King Fahed University of Petroleum & Minerals.
As we slowly became a part of the community and made friends, we discovered the joys of living in UPM. I had a uncle who lived in UPM too. It was nice to have family near by. He was always one of my favorite uncles and one of the few uncles that we knew in the US. I remember when he first got married and brought his bride to visit us while we were still in the US, I resented her at first because i thought she was taking away our cool, fun uncle. How i was wrong, now i am so close to her!
We had two playgrounds within walking distance where we would play with the neighborhood kids. UPM in general and our neighborhood especially was filled with magnificent tall trees. Something that has always been important to me. I couldn’t imagine my life without them. I also remember our last road trip in the US when we stopped by the mountains in Pennsylvania and my mother told us to remember the lush green of the trees because we weren’t going to see much of that in Saudi Arabia. I didn’t understand until our first road trip to Taif. It was an adventure for us. I was in love with the beauty of the desert.
UPM is like a small town, we had everything we needed and could go months without leaving. We had a clinic, a school from nursery to high school, supermarket, which we called the co-op. a Shawarma restaurant and the Recreation Center. The recreation center was great. We had a library with a large collection of books and magazines. A cafeteria which had a distinct greasy smell that wasn’t bad but wasn’t good. They did have great french fries. A basketball court, two swimming pools for men and women. They even added a small gym next to the women’s swimming area. There was even a dressmaker who would sew our school unfirms. I remember walking there on crisp cool mornings at the end of the summer with my sister to have our measurements’ taken before school started.
We really were like a small town in the sense that everyone knew everyone. All the kids played together. I could walk to the Rec Center or the co-op by myself without my parents worrying. Everyone looked out for everyone’s kids. I have so many great memories. There was a bazar held at the Rec Center in the fall usually in October my birthday month which made it more special to me. I would save up my allowance waiting for the bazar to see what treasures I could find; jewelry, a one of kind painting by a local artist. Always an apple fritter from a local donut shop and fresh flowers for my mom.
I have a lot of great memories at the Rec center. Having the freedom to go walking by myself was a huge blessing. I used to go with my sister to the library, meet up with friends at the swimming pool. I spent almost every day at the pool during summer breaks. I would walk to the pool in the early afternoon when the sun was hottest but the water was coldest. I’d almost always have the pool to myself because most people preferred to wait for the sun to go down and the weather to be cooler. My friends would come later in the day and we honestly would mostly stand in the pool and chat or play games, so I enjoyed my solo swims. I remember when my youngest brother was almost three my sister and I used to take him to the swimming pool. He was fearless and would run ahead and jump into the deep side, much to our despair. So, we always put his floats on his arms in the locker room just in case. He eventually took swimming lessons and learned how to swim so we didn’t need to worry so much. I never took formal swimming lessons but my aunt taught me the basics and I would try different strokes until I became a good swimmer. Swimming is my favorite type of exercise. There is something so relaxing about swimming. Especially when the sun is bright and the water is ice cold.
The library was one of my favorite places. During finals, sometimes I would go study at the library with my sister, we almost always found a friend studying their too. It was easier to focus in the silence of the library.
The librarians all knew us well. As I mentioned before we are a family of avid readers and we probably read most of the books in the children’s/young adults’ section. The library was also a place to photocopy papers for school, or photo copy interesting articles from magazines.
The biggest pleasure was discovering a new series to read. I read all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books multiple times, Enid Blyton Books, The Box Car Children, Beezus and Ramona, Babysitter Club, Sweet Valley High, Goose Bumps, Fear Street, Nancy Drew, Anamorphs... Anything I could get my hands on.
My school was within walking distance from home and I preferred walking to school instead of going by bus. I would wake up early, get dressed and read the newspaper. I always skipped breakfast. I would leave the house and early and usually be the first or second girl in my class. Most of my classmates were the same from the 5th grade until we graduated. I’m still in touch with a few. Four of them went to college with me. When we were in high school, my class liked rearranging the desks in our class room. While the rest of the girls drew different ideas on the blackboard, I would sit quietly with a paper and a pencil and draw an idea. A it if the time they chose my idea. One day our English teacher complimented us on our new arrangement and asked who designed it? She told me I would make a great Interior Designer, it’s funny how I didn’t take her words seriously. I met her a few years after I graduated from high school. I reminded her of the story and told her I was studying Interior Architecture. Its funny how things happen, isn’t it?
We had an annual gathering at the beginning of the summer when the girls who studied abroad came back home. Since I was the one who didn’t study abroad, I would usually host it. One time I cooked for them an Italian dinner, my brother who helped me get all the ingredients, asked me to cook the same dinner for his friends and I did.
When I was in college, one of the young mothers in UPM started a weekly gathering for high school and college girls. We would gather in a different house every week and she would talk to us about religious topics. She always made it so interesting and simple. Afterwards we would have coffee and simple desserts brought by the girls attending. It was always nice to have day to connect with friends who were going to different colleges and I didn’t see regularly anymore. On rare occasions the host would make dinner. It was always a casual easy going gathering. Lots of chatting and laughter.
Slowly, the group of girls that were close to my age, started graduating from college, finding jobs, getting engaged, married, becoming mothers. We slowly started to drift apart. I got married as I’ve mentioned a year before graduation. I spent a year at my parents, spending weekends with my husband whenever possible. I moved to Riyadh and lost touch with a lot of people. Now, when we go visit my parents, UPM is so different! I barely know anyone. It doesn’t have that one family feel that we had. I am so grateful that I grew up in UPM when it was at its best (in my opinion) I do see groups of mothers meeting at the park while their children play together. It does bring back memories. I know I grew up in a time when UPM was smaller, life was simpler and kids played outside more. I’m grateful I grew up in a time when video games weren’t as popular and no one had a mobile phone accept for a few adults. Where people still depended on land lines, mail, and paper newspapers.
I know the advance in technology has its benefits but I’m glad I grew up during a simpler time. I try my best to give my kids the time to play like kids used to with toys and dirt and slides. I hope they look back to their childhood’s as fondly as I do.