IAmA high school student who's dad works for Saudi Aramco, one of (if not the) richest companies in the world. I have lived in an employee compound in Saudi Arabia almost all my life. AMAA

*whose

Ah, damn it.

Thanks for correcting me, though, hahahaha.

What's the food situation like? Are there any fast food joints on the compound you live at? Or a supermarket or something?

There's a few Aramco fast food places, just known as the snack bars.

There are also two commissaries and a mini-mart. Other than that, we go out for food.

TIL not just military brats know the term "commissary".

Yeah, I was kinda shocked to learn that not everyone calls their grocery stores "commissaries". That was how I grew up.

Who provides the Security for the compound?

Aramco itself, if I'm not mistaken. All the guards are Saudi.

Do you feel safe with only Saudi guards?

Yeah, Saudis are just as good as any other people. There are good guards and there are bad ones. I don't discriminate based on nationality, hahaha.

I used to get Aramco World magazine as a kid. It had some of the coolest photography of any magazine. One month it just stopped coming.

Anyways, do they still make that magazine there and have you seen it?

My family only ever gets the Aramco newsletter, so I wouldn't know, sorry!

But I'm curious, did you go to the Aramco schools? If so, which year did you "graduate" from the middle school? My friends and I found a bunch of super old yearbooks last night and were looking through them, hahaha.

all the "aramco kids" i knew in boarding school had serious drug problems, which started when they lived in compounds as teenagers. how common is it to use drugs in the compound?

Hm...well, you see, most of the kids that go to boarding school are those that are susceptible to such things, you know what I mean? Like, the "cool" kids. It probably stems from their boredom on campus.

However, I wouldn't say that drug usage is very common.

As a recent college grad... is there any way you can help hook me up with a job :D I've always wanted to go to Saudi and would jump at the opportunity to work there

Hahahaha, I'm just a freeloading living here, my dad is the one who works in the company, so I can't do anything for you, sorry!

Just wanted to say hi -- I lived in Jubail (Kemya brat) in the mid-80s.

It seems like your experience is rather different than mine was. I lived in a regular (though fairly wealthy) neighborhood on the outskirts of town. I went to school with both foreigners and Saudis, and most of my friends were Saudis from the neighborhood.

No pork, no alcohol, no Coca-Cola products, no females driving or bicycling, no theaters, no english TV except for an hour or two most evenings. Very little "entertainment" in any organized or formal sense.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying it -- as I look back on it I can say it had an amazingly profound and positive impact on who I am and how I view the world today. I didn't really come back to the US until I was in my late teens -- I'm American but I don't much feel it culturally.

I have several friends who live in Jubail and they are always going on about how boring it is there, hahaha.

Mid-80s, though, so long ago! Just last night, my friends and I were looking through the '87 yearbook for the local middle school. It's like a different world! You guys must have been totally cut off from the US, huh? At least, we have internet nowadays, to see what the modern culture is and stuff like that.

I'm enjoying it as much as I can! Trying to make the best of the situation, but I do realize how awesome of a life perspective it's giving me and I'm glad :)

Good to hear :)

Yes, it was pretty cut off. We had access to Compuserve, but it's not like there was an internet in any form most people would recognize today.

The landscape changes really get me -- I'll go on google and hit the satellite maps just to see. I lived in what was basically the desert then. Sand, some paved roads, and chemical plants. The only real "town" was old jubail, and that had been there for hundreds of years. Now everything is irrigated and there are trees, streetlights, malls, nice roads -- it really blows me away to see that it looks so much more modern and liveable now. Not that I didn't love it, the change is just so shocking to see.

I can't even imagine living like that! I'd be so bored! I'm glad that these changes have occurred, hahaha.

No. I went to school in the states. I can't really remember why I started getting it. I may have seen it in the library and filled out the free subscription.

I just looked online and they still publish it! Just ordered it again! Very cool magazine. It's sort of like national geographic, but shot by Aramco.

Wow, TIL that Aramco has a magazine published outside Saudi!

That's really cool.

Wow, the website lets you go all the way back to 1960 issues. Amazing !!!

That's really cool, I'll check out the newsstands to see if I can get myself a copy to see what it's like :)

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Also, this:

Something uncommon that plays a central role in your life

My compound has the largest population of all the other compounds here, and even then, it's very small, so I'd say that this is uncommon and it DEFINITELY plays a central role in my life.

I have been redditing for about a year now (this is my second account) and someone asked me to do it a few days ago.

I thought why not?

Hey again! Fun that you're doing the AMA.

My company just did an event at the Aramco executives meeting yesterday. 0.0 Talk about wealth. We worked with the wives/female family members but they were all so friendly.

Survive your last 400~ days of school! Find some people to go camping in the desert. I hear it's great and that you can find random artifacts.... or so I've been told from Aramcon alum.

Thank you! I'll see if I can do anything like that :)

We have had bonfires out in the desert before. I doubt my parents would let me stay the night camping there, though, hahaha.

I'll be back in a few hours to ask a shitload of questions.

We look forward to it :)

I guess this AMA will spill over into tomorrow, because of timezone differences.

Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?

Hahaha, so you really are that one guy, huh?

Well, I guess it'd be one horse-sized duck. It'd be too heavy to carry itself, I'm assuming.