Welcome to the year of the Snake. Happy Lunar New Year

Welcome all, youngsters and hipsters, English illiterate, and motivated procrastinators!

(Advice for the elderly: click on a picture to make it bigger. Link to my journal website: www.teilointheworld.blogspot.com)

The Hebrew, the Buddhist, the Hindu, the Burmese, the Tibetan, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Vietnamese, the Mongolian, and the Korean all celebrate their new year based on the lunisolar calendar. The lunisolar calendar is based on the moon phase and the time of the solar year and, after looking at the mathematical calculations, is quite complicated (source Wikipedia). 

That gives a total of 2.8 billion people that base their life on the lunar calendar. That is is 41% of the world population! (Calculations done based on information from WolframAlpha. Counting of individuals twice due to population overlap cannot be excluded).

This year, the Lunar New Year (also called Chinese New Year) falls on February 10th and will be the official start of the year of the Water Snake.

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"Welcome to Year of the Water Snake! Snake is the Yin to last year's Dragon Yang. That said, Snake does not settle for mediocrity, either. We're likely to see significant developments in the area of science and technology this year. Research and development are apt to flourish. This is a Water year as well, the element most closely associated with education and research, making 2013 a very special year for scientists and scholars. Snake is a great sign, a positive one, with energy that can help us face all of the challenges ahead of us. Let's take advantage of this vibrant influence to improve our lives -- and our world!" - Bill Hajdu

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And it just so happens that I am currently living in the ethnically Chinese country called Singapore. As this is the first culture that I have noticed in Singapore, I am paying special attention to the proceedings and am happy to report of my sightings.

First of all, it is important that I convey the Chinese New Year feeling. Different from the Western world, the people look toward the new year as a chance to increase their profits. Instead of wishing someone a "Happy New Year", everyone wishes you a "Prosperous New Year". This is well received by various companies seeking to boost sales, including McDonald's current promotional "Prosperity Burger", "Double Prosperity Burger", "Prosperity Drink", and "Prosperity Fries".

Numerous ancient Chinese traditions surface during the New Year, including a requirement to wear brand new clothes by February 10th, going to watch the dragon dances, listening to strange traditional music, and carrying around two oranges. The orange tradition is actually very fascinating. Since New Year Festivities last for over a week, every time you go to a New Year's party or gathering, the unmarried people bring two oranges and get to exchange the oranges with married people for envelopes full of money (8-10 dollar each). It does not matter whether these people are related, friends, or complete strangers. I myself am invited to join one of the festivities by a Chinese person I met at University and have been instructed to bring two oranges. o_O

To give you an even better feeling for Chinese New Year, I present you two Traditional Chinese Videos. One is the Dragon dance (I made this video in Singapore) and the other is the strange traditional music (I made this one in Malaysia). Can you guess which one is the Dragon dance?

These videos can be viewed in large either by clicking on the square at the bottom right of each video or by clicking on these links: Video 1 and Video 2.

Oh, and people, you must ALWAYS watch out for FALLING COCONUTS!!

A year without Christmas and New Years, but with a lot of other things...

Young Rice

Welcome imaginary friends!

(Advice for the elderly: click on a picture to make it bigger. Link to my journal website: www.teilointheworld.blogspot.com)

2013 is here and 2012 is gone. The Mayan Calendar has ended and the apocalypse has spared humanity. The USA will be independent of foreign oil reserves by 2020 and the western world is fighting real and imaginary terrorists in Mali, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Palestine.

And during alllll this turmoil, I made new friends and went on vacation in Bali and Vietnam.



To Bali:

My Christmas present this year was that my favorite person came to visit me from America. May I introduce Ashlee, a young, intelligent, and beautiful American. In return for this pleasant visit, I decided to take her on a short trip to Bali and show her the Asian countryside.


A brief history is required here: Bali is part of Indonesia and has been inhabited for a long time by people that call themselves the Balinese. Originally, all the tribes in Indonesia had their own form of religion (aka animism). However, at some point Hinduism, then Buddhism, and finally Islam were spread throughout that region of the world. While the rest of Indonesia accepted the Islam as the whole truth, Bali has remained devoutly Hindu, with a distinctinve Balinese twist. This has rendered a unique culture that all visitors seem to enjoy. Bali was discovered in the 60's by the hippies, and it soon became renowned on the secret hippie trail as being the best spot for surfing, eating mushrooms, and visiting immense and unique water temples. Sadly (or luckily), one of the hippies revealed the secret to the rest of the world, making Bali one of the most well known and most visited locations in that region.

Ashlee and I spent 5 days on this not-so-little Island that has been called "paradise" for the past 40 years. And I must concur, the island is comprised of beautiful beaches, superb waves, sheer rock cliffs, numerous volcanoes, endless rice paddies, and over 500 temples. I will let the pictures do the talking:

At the beach

Left: Dancing at the Reggae | Top Right: Alcohol or 
Gasoline? Both deadly.
Bottom Right: Our Bali Friend, hiking in flip flops

A normal sight in Bali, but one that still takes my breath away

To Vietnam:

Cat Ba Island and Surrounding Islands

Over Christmas I had the joy of seeing my whole family, you could call it a family reunion... in Vietnam! In total we were 7 people: my family, Ashlee, and Jonah. And we all met in Hanoi (all those who don't know where that is, look at the map below).



A brief history: Forgive more not being very knowledgeable on the history of Vietnam, but I do remember the most important points. The Vietnamese are direct descendants of Chinese groups that immigrated south and eventually developed their own language. They are a very nice people that have never been conquerors, trouble-makers, nor mean people. You could argue that the only mistake the Vietnamese ever made was to adopt communism during the cold war, but more on that later. 



Sometime in the 19th century, France decided that the Vietnamese needed to be colonialized. By 1885, the French had taken control of the whole country. I must admit that there were some positive aspects to the French ruling: they introduced the baguette and the wine making industry, two very unique attributes in this region of the world that are still practiced today. 

In the 1940's, there was a communist liberation movement and the French were thrown out. But alas! America did not like the spread of communism to Vietnam (it had something to do with Cuba, but the details escape me, ask Ashlee) and decided to attack Vietnam to set up a puppet democracy. Long story short, 50,000 Americans died and 6 million Vietnamese died over the course of 10 years during the American war. The Americans committed countless illegal war acts, including the testing of Napalm, phosphor bombs, chemical weapons such as Agent Orange (effects still seen on people walking around today), and the killing/torture/etc of prisoners of war.

Die Lange Kanone

- For the motivated, an article about the American War Museum in Vietnam detailing: War Atrocities in Vietnam (Click Here).

Nonetheless, the Vietnamese beat of the Americans, who left defeated, and have kept their communistic government through today.








Anyway, our group of 7 adventurers spent 17 days traveling the 2400 kilometers between Hanoi and Saigon, stopping at numerous cities and interesting sites along the way. Our favorite transportation vehicles were nightmare-overnight-not possible to sleep-sleeping buses and tiny bed-cockroach laden-three story-sleeping trains. But we endured and thrived.


Again, the pictures will do the talking:

Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park: located within is the worlds biggest cave (above water), the "Infinity Cave"

Left: Fishermen at work | Bottom: Just a normal day in the Jungle

Is this a 6 bed compartment on a Vietnam night train heading South? Why yes, I believe it is.

 Top Left: Strong Kids need a big breakfast in the beach city of Mui Ne. | Bottom Left: The plural for dragon fruit is? .... Dragon fruit! Right: Ashlee reading a book and taking care of our humongous backpacks.

Caron the local! Doing local things! Making local friends (from Korea)!

To Singapore: 

And last but not least, I wanted to share some of my research findings, the reason for receiving my monthly paycheck ;).

And no, I have not solved world hunger, nor AIDS, nor the global water shortage, nor Angela Merkel's election problems. However, I have at least made progress on the development of an ocular biofilm (lens) that will provide a steady controlled diffusion of medication into the eye for patients suffering from the Herpesvirus Cytomegalovirus, a secondary disease that is highly likely to develop in HIV patients. We have finished constructing 48 sample biofilms and are in the process of testing the matrix-assisted drug diffusion using fluorescence measurements. The experiment simulates the conditions in the eye (medium, temperature, darkness) in order to provide an accurate reflection of in-vivo drug release.

Pictures from lab!

Left: 60 glass tubes filled with chloroform and biofilm, about to be measured using Gel Permeation Chromatography Top: Organice solvents used to dissolve the biofilm

Dinner in Singapore: Lemon Chicken (3x) at a Hawker Center (Food Court)

Singapore Impressions and a 20 Minute Ferry to Indonesia

[Link to Website: www.teilointheworld.blogspot.com for those of you who want to view/share it] [Click on the Pictures to make them Bigger]

Disclaimer: This post is supposed to be informative and has therefore been designed to give YOU, the reader, a LOT of information using FEW words. (May require an adaptation of your reading style; I suggest reading this to a friend out loud, if you are experiencing any problems.)

Onto Singapore!

Singapore City Center Police Station

Four weeks are over, time flies, and I’m still kicking. I have adapted to the Singapore lifestyle:

•         I live in an extremely small room
•          I eat rice for lunch and for dinner, Monday to Sunday.
•          I ride the MRT and stare at my Smartphone the whole way
•          I don’t eat food in train stations or in the trains (Fine $500)
•          I carry around an umbrella because I know it will rain every afternoon for the next two months
•          I have removed all dairy products from my life and have moved on to improved (and less expensive) soya products (Full sugar, half sugar, or no sugar, depending on my mood)
•          I have accepted the fact that the shoes I brough to Singapore, will have to last for my whole stay here (6 months), as the maximum size sold is 45.
•          I chew no gum, as fines exceed 500$
•          I now consider Potato’s to be a vegetable that is used sparingly

Singaporeans Waiting for the Release of Halo 4 (a computer game)

  However I am still working on a couple of points, including:

•          I do not play loud smartphone shooting games without headphones on the MRT.
•          I do not eat rice for Breakfast.
•          I just cannot stomach fish balls in my meals.
•          I turn off the air conditioning when it gets cold.
•          I go to work before 10:00, and leave before 20:00
•          I do not know all the rules and fines by heart (most likely requires years of work).
•          My smartphone is only half the size of the average Singaporean’s
•          I do not own bright red Beats headphones
•          I do not drink ice coffee out of a plastic bag.
•          I went to the national park wearing my hiking boot, expecting an exhausting day, only to find out that walking the longest trail possible takes less than 1.5 hours.
•          I find Singapore’s tallest mountain at 163 meters to be very small (but I may be wrong)
•          I consider 800$ rent for an apartment that I share with 5 other people terribly expensive.
•          I always thought that living on the 2^nd story in Germany was quite high, whereas the average Singapore Apartment Building has over 20 stories.

Good Singaporeans standing in Line at the University waiting for Food (1 person = 1 square)

My Multilevel University Building and the Department I work in.

Any questions?

Onto Indonesia!

Little girl practicing her strutting at a Local Beauty Show

However, as great as Singapore is, the city does seem to make you a bit claustrophobic. In order to counteract this feeling, Tobias and I spent the weekend on an Island 20 kilometers south of Singapore. The Island is called Batam, and belongs to the Riau Archipelago of Indonesia. It is a Free Trade Zone [an area within which goods may be landed, handled, manufactured or reconfigured, and reexported without the intervention of the customs authorities - Wikipedia] and has therefore experienced an extreme industrial and shipping boom, drawing workers from areas far far away.

Nearing the Port of Batam, Indonesia

Anyway, we came up with the trip idea on Friday, and took the ferry on Saturday morning at 8 o’clock, meaning we didn’t do any planning (very very un-german). Arriving on the island, we were greeted by a horde of Taxi and Motorcycle drivers all vying for the privilege to drive Tobi and me around. Unfortunately for them, we walked into the city…

After walking around long enough to get a sunburn, we found a hotel and paid 7 EUR per person (not bad for no planning, eh?). However, our grand plans for touring the island and finding hidden beaches were ruined when we found out that this town doesn’t ever get any tourists, so there are no motorcycle/bicycle rentals (only with drivers). Too bad. 

Oh by the way, we saw no other white people that weekend.

Being driven around by our new Friends

Nonetheless, I learned a very important lesson on this trip: how to relax like an Indonesian. To give you a taste, let me tell you about an Indonesian’s perfect weekend:

Fire Thrower at Kampung Bule

Karaoke Club

1. No work at all
2. Wake up at 15:00
3. Go to the mall and shop for fake Louis Vuitton bags and cheap flip flps
4. Go to the game center and spend hours playing various money-losing games such as “Shoot the Fish”, “Beat the dinosaur”, “Drop a coin”, [take a nap on the bench], and end strongly playing a shooter game with a life size machine gun.
   
5. Subsequently, while still at the same huge mall, watch the newly released movie “Breaking Dawn” or any other chick flick.
6. On the way out, buy a box of 12 doughnuts, buy 2 Liters of palm oil and 30 packs of “Mie” Noodle Soup
7. Just before the long ride home, get a foot reflexology massage just outside the Mall doors.
8. At home, meet with your friends at an outside diner.
9. Drink coffee and eat the "Mie" Noodle Soup
10. End the night by singing along at a Karaoke club where everyone has an average height of 1.50 meters.
11. Drink more coffee while waiting for the sun to rise.

Making Friends

Now I must admit, that Tobi and I, being the culturally adaptable people we are, tried to live the perfect Indonesian Weekend. We were successful in doing 10 out of the 11 points I listed above!!! I leave you to guess which one we skipped (feel free to send me an email with your guess).

Here are some of the pictures from our check list of being a perfect Indonesian: 

Game Place

Little People Playing Big Games

Chapter 2: Welcome to Singapore, Singapore

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Good Evening, Fine Sirs and Madams! 

I would like to welcome each and every one of you to the next installment of "In The World". As some of you may have guessed by the title (please don't feel bad if you didn't!), I have decided that since the Near East just doesn't serve as a permanent home, I need to experience the Far East...

Singapore is a city-state located 1 degree north of the Equator, making it highly tropical and subject to monsoon rains. Singapore is surrounded by water on four sides making it an? ... (Yes kids, an ISLAND country :) 

Brief History: Singapore has been inhabited since the 2nd century CE. During the exploratory age, it became a sovereignty of Great Britain, who lost it to Japanese occupation during World War II. Singapore then declared independence in 1963 and united with other British territories to form Malaysia. It separated from the rest of Malaysia two years later and has since risen far, to become an international financial powerhouse with massive wealth increase, massive rain forest losses, and massive space problems.

It is this country that I have chosen as my next location to work in.  Specifically, I am employed as a Research Staff at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) for the next 6 months. My supervisor is Asst. Prof. Terry Steele, who has a laboratory group in the School of Material Science and Engineering.

An extensive survey after Saudi Arabia showed me that people are actually interested in the research I do, so I will increase writing activity in that sector:

My project at NTU is in the area of biotechnology and aims to develop a therapy against a common complication in immunocompromised (people with bad immune systems) patients, particularly HIV/AIDS patients. 

I will start slowly: In this bad bad world there exists a group of Viruses called Herpes. The most important characteristic of a Herpes Virus is that once you have it you cannot get rid of it, as it will lie dormant in long-living cells such as neurons. There are 8 types of Herpes, and the common adult has between 3 and 4 types lying dormant in their body, kept under control by their functioning immune system. Cytomegalovirus is the name of a Herpes Type V virus and is present in 50% of all European Adults. In most adults this virus will never be noticed at all. However, the medical world is concerned with the that subset of people that experience an activation of this virus. This subset is mainly comprised of immunocompromised people. In my project we are concerned about HIV (= human immunodeficiency virus) patients whose immune system is being decimated slowly by HIV. In these patients, CMV is likely to activate and become a widespread secondary health problem. Activated CMV will enter healthy cells and cause them to grow to extremely large sizes which then burst... Just like everyone has a preference for different types of food, CMV also has a preference to which healthy cells it attacks. In this case, it is the cells of the eye, which first leads to a complication called CMV Retinitis and then to blindness. 

Treatment of CMV is done with a drug called Ganciclovir, which is a nucleoside (building block of Virus DNA) analogue and works by being mistaken by the virus during reproduction as the real nucleoside causing reproduction inhibition. Sadly, Ganciclovir has a number of side effects, including liver damage, headaches, hallucinations, and neuronal damage, making it a very delicate drug to use. An idea to reduce the risk of Ganciclovir for the treatment of CMV Retinitis is to only apply the drug locally, instead of injecting it intravenously. 

My project at NTU is aimed directly at this dilemma: we are trying to develop a thin biodegradable film that incorporates the drug Ganciclovir can be placed directly on the eye and release the drug at a constant rate over a long time period.

I start with laboratory work next week, so wish me luck.

On the other hand, I have been in Singapore for a week now and have managed to settle myself into an Ueber-expensive concrete hole that these people call apartments. Although I have done more paperwork than sight seeing this week, the city is kept very tidy, and contains a number of impressive buildings. The public transportation network is fantastic and very modern. The food is cheap and very Asian, although all other goods are over-priced.

My favorite excursion has been a trip to the Singapore Orchid Gardens, where they manage to display an impressive 3000 different types of Orchids.

That's it for now. More Updates soon. Thanks for reading :)

Grand Finale: The Black and White Volcanoes of Saudi Arabia

My Time in Saudi Arabia has now come to an end. I have returned to Germany to soak in all the rain, coldness, and incredible greenery that has been lacking for the past 3 months.

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However, there is one more adventure that I did in Saudi Arabia and found super interesting. I hope you enjoy it.


In the middle of Saudi Arabia lies a 12,000 square kilometer field of pure lava, named Khaybar. The whole area is elevated to an average height of 1500 meters and is extremely dry. In the middle of this lava field lie three great Volcanoes, named Jebl Quidr (Black), Jebl Bayad (Male White), Jebl Abyad (Femal White).




Extremely interesting is the high density of ruins that can be found adjacent to the Khaybar lava field. According to research I did, the Arabian peninsula used to be much greener. Especially the area around Khaybar was a hub for early tribal groups. This lushness seems to have lasted well into the neolithic age, an age that ended around 4,500 BC.

On our way to the volcanoes we passed a number of these ruins, and with a lot of imagination we attempted to to imagine the way these late stone age hunters and gatherers lived their lives.

Picture on the Left: Historic ruins left by tribes that once inhabited the fertile lands of Khaybar. Picture on the right: Me climbing around in neolithic (around 6000 years ago rock formations that were once thought to be part of a graveyard road where these ancient people buried their dead. These graveyard roads could stretch up to over one kilometer in length and were always perfectly straight. 

Ancient vehicles once used by indigenous folk to transport goods from one area to another. Note that this vehicle makes use of the invention of the wheel.

The Whole troup of 14 people, all fitting in two Yukons (that is supposed to be impressive).

The next step in the itinerary: the actual volcanoes. However, after leaving the pavement, it took us over 5 hours to get to the base of the volcanoes, where we then set up camp for the night.

The White Volcano we scaled can be seen in the background. The (not)-road we drove is in the foreground.

We spent that night camped out at the base of the volcanoe, some of us in tents, others in sleeping bags, and the rest laying on towels or jackets to bear out the night on the hard rocks. Thankfully, I had brought my sleeping bag.

The next morning we managed to get up at 0500 in the morning, in order to beat the midday heat and scale the Volcano.

Picture on the Left: An inside view of the Crater of the White Volcano, spanning over 1 kilometer in diameter. Picture on the Right: The strenuous climb up to the white volcano, which can be seen in the background.

View from the top of the volcano over the Laval Field. Our camping spot is the sandy area in the middle of the lava field (top left corner of picture)

It was an incredible adventure. We spent three days in one of the remotest areas of Saudi Arabia; an area where even the sight of Bedouins was a rare sight. We saw rare archaeological sights and immense lava fields, experienced the cruel Saudi Heat of 40+ degrees, and managed to see a geological colossus.

We returned to KAUST safe and sound, happy to be back in civilization, impressed that a country which is 99% covered by desert, has so much to offer. Seek and you shall Find, habibis.

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This concludes my narrative of my travels in Saudi Arabia. I hope you have all enjoyed the stories. I will be leaving for another country soon, so stay tuned...