The Adventures Begin.

Week 2 is now over, and in this short time, I have become quite familiar with the campus. My current ride is a sturdy Trek Mountain bike, which allows me to get from my apartment to lab, without ever breaking a sweat!

Before I get into the adventuring, I will explain how working in the lab is. My supervisor is a really cool and nice Colombian girl who is doing her PhD in the Red Sea Research Center. She works on a group of Bacteria named SAR11, which make up 50% of the ocean's bacteria, are really tiny, and don't enjoy living in the laboratory. Goal is to make these bacteria feel comfortable in a glass beacon, so that they can be studied. My main project is setting up this complicated device called a bioreactor, which would allow transcriptomic studies using continuous culturing. Let's see how that goes.

On a sampling excursion into the Red Sea to obtain water samples (including SAR11) at a 20 meter depth. During this trip, 3 of 6 scientists got seasick. Thankfully, I was spared.

All in all, the lab group I am working in is made up of Chinese, Indonesians, Japanese, Mexicans, Colombians, Kenyans, Egyptians, and me, the German. They are an awesome group and I enjoy working there.

Yesterday was Thursday, which means that it is actually a Saturday and the start of the weekend. All week we had been planning for that day. I had found a blog on the web that described a location in the desert where there were, supposedly, the remains of an Ottoman Castle.

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After seeing that there were actually some features visible in Google Maps, Sou (Japanese Lab Member) and I invited 9 people and rented two cars for Thursday. We started the day off slowly, leaving KAUST at 11 to go get some fish at economic city.

Back on the road, one of the group members said that he knew the location of an oasis, not far from the castle. I think everyone was down for some cooling off, before hiking in the desert, especially with the current temperature of 45°C. 

Wadi (Oasis) from afar.

Upon getting there, and finding it even hotter than at lunch, a swim sounded like a great idea. Oddly enough, while I was swimming, it always felt like there was stuff biting my feet and legs. I asked the other guys whether I was going crazy, but they were feeling it as well...

I could hardly believe it! Upon closer inspection, there were hundreds of fish in the Wadi, and they were hungry! I then had the one time experience of having my feet nibbled by loads of little, and sometimes medium sized, fish.

Enough Wadi, the day was growing late. Half an hour later, covering 5 kilometer of dirt road leading straight into the desert, we finally arrived at this Ottoman stronghold. We parked the cars, and entered the desert heat.

I found it a bit hard to reason out, why the Ottomans would build a castle in the middle of the desert. Where was the water source? They had even made mortar to hold the stones together.

But hey, if Lizards could make it, why not Ottoman horse warriors?

We got back to the King Abdullah University at 1900, tired and satisfied.

!In Shallah!

And I live.

Main Entrance, King Abdullah University

After 5 days of acclimating, I finally found some time to share my first impressions.

I left Germany on Thursday evening with British Airways. With a stopover in London (yeah I know, makes no sense), I landed in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, at 6 in the morning on Friday. And what a sight it was! As the plane descended through a shimmering barrier (which later proved to be thick misty blanket of hot air), I set my eyes upon the desert where Aladdin found the magic oil lamp when he was tricked by Maghreb the Sorcerer.

I can prove this with two statements:

1) Since Aramco claims that all oil comes from Saudi Arabia, magic oil lamps must come from here as well.

2) Only a genie could turn such a wasteland into a country where people not only endure, but prosper and grow.

As far as the eye could see, rolling smooth sandy hills with a speck of dark brown and a dash of lighter brown. And then I saw Jeddah, a remarkably dreary agglomeration of dusty brown cement houses. From my Saudi neighbor (who actually studies in Boston but has never even tried a drop of alcohol) I learned that, contrary to its looks, Jeddah was the most open-minded city in the whole Kingdom with a high percentage of expatriates.

Upon arrival at the Airport, before Immigration, I was greeted by a Saudi standing in front of the King Abdullah University Desk, who must have noticed my lack of direction. He shook my hand, bade me welcome in the name of the King, and took my passport. I was brought to customs, where they fingerprinted each one of my fingers, and then taken to get my luggage. My Saudi friend, who was very friendly and dressed in all white with a red and white checkered head covering, carried my bag and my football, and took me to the taxi stand. There, a guy holding a sign displaying "Tello Schaller" shook my hand and opened the door to his oversized Ford.

An hour later, without ever seeing Jeddah, I arrived in the middle of nowhere. Well, except for a wall and a security house, which is where we were heading. Welcome to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, said the sign in bold and colorful lettering. I had made it.

My taxi driver, who was a Phillipino,  took me to get my ID badge and then brought me to housing. From there, another lady accompanied me to show me my Apartment and to see if everything was okay. A nice spacious apartment that I would be sharing with a Mexicano.

So as I said, I arrived on Friday, which is actually the weekend. For all of you who dont know, which is probably most of you, weekends are on Thursday and Friday, a fact that will probably take me at least 3 months to come to terms with.

Thank god my Mexican flat mate was there, he took me around to all the important places on his little scooter, including the supermarket, the Gyms, the pools, the Marina, the Academic buildings, the other houses.

(By the way, the King had this University built in less than 2.5 years. Over 30,000 constructions workers worked here simultaneously...)

He then asked if I wanted to go play golf. Heck why not? Never hit a golf ball in my life, but can you think of a better location than in the middle of desert?

That evening, we went to a "gathering" (there are no parties here, since there is no alcohol, and having fun is looked down upon) where Edgard (the Mexican), introduced me to 20 other Mexicans! Apparently, the Latinos make up a large portion of the campus (10%).

And finally, I could sink into a well deserved slumber. But not for long! Saturday morning had come, and it was time for my first day of Lab! A story that will be continued soon...

Going from Democracy to Absolute Monarchy... All in the Name of Education

Dear Friends, Family, and other Internet strangers,

after popular request, I want to welcome all of you to my very first internet journal (Fachsprache: Blog). This blog is appropriately named "TeiloInSaudiArabia" as it will try to convey the impressions and thoughts of my very first visit into the Middle East region, i.e. Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is one of 20 recognized and unrecognized countries which make up the area named Middle East. Out of these 20 countries, Saudi Arabia is the largest, yet least densely populated. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 and has remained an absolute monarchy since then. The country is ruled according to Islamic law, meaning that there is no distinction between "matters of state" and "matters of church". The official language is Arabic and the currency is the Saudi Riyal (1 Euro is 4.7 Saudi Riyal). After Venezuela, Saudi Arabia has the world's largest known oil reserves, which accounts for 95% of its exports and 70% of the government revenue (Source: Wikipedia).

Saudi Arabia makes up the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and is bordered by both the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The country is almost completely covered by desert and shrubland, and there are virtually no rivers or lakes in the country. The capital Riyadh, is located centrally and is the ancestral home of the royal family, which still governs from there today. 

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In 2009, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia founded the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). KAUST focuses exclusively on graduate education and research, using English as its official language of instruction. It is located on the coast of the Red Sea in the city Thuwalt, which is 1 hour away from Jeddah (see map above).

In 2012, I sent Assistant Professor Ulrich Stingl, principle investigator at the Red Sea Research Center at KAUST an application for an internship position. You may already know this, but I got it! By the way, Ulrich Stingl is German and graduated from the University of Koblenz.

On June 7th, I will start an internship in marine microbiology under supervision from Ulrich Stingl. Main focus of the project will be the characterization and cultivation of the world's largest bacterium, called Epulopiscium fishelsoni. This bacteria can grow up to 700 μm in size, larger than any cell in the human body (disregarding the axoms of neurons). Actually, it is so large that it can be seen with the naked eye! However, more details to my research project later.

I invite all you to read this journal of mine so that you may learn about two things: the giant bacterium Epulopiscium fishelsoni and the country, culture, and people that make up the holiest of all Islamic countries, Saudia Arabia. I hope I will be able to share this information, while still adhering to all of the Islamic rules.

Feel free to share this journal among your friends.

Enjoy,

Teilo