What's going on in KSA?

We haven't been in touch for a long time - and a lot has happened! (Why am I not using 'ä's, 'ö's, and 'ü's? I have received a laptop from the university, an Apple thing, and of course with an English/Arabic keyboard... those letters don't exist)..

But now onto something completely different ;-) What has happened?

Let's start with the unpleasant things. Although our apartment initially seemed good, now, almost 2 months later, we unfortunately notice a lot of problems. The worst is that due to construction defects and a few exterior stones being broken on our balcony, we have pigeons in the gap between our balcony cladding and the partition wall to the upper floor. Two weeks ago, ceiling panels of our balcony detached because of this, and about 20 kg of pigeon poop, eggs, pigeon skeletons, and whatever else has accumulated over the last 9 years, poured onto our balcony. The panels are now reattached and the poop has been removed, but the holes through which the pigeons enter have not been completely closed - so the problem is not permanently solved. Additionally, a mold problem has become apparent, especially in our bathroom. It was "professionally" painted over, and since the air conditioning unit in the ceiling space happily drips (imagine nice warm, moist air ;-) ), the mold spores naturally had a big party. That's why we had various craftsmen here all weekend - briefly our bathroom looked like this yesterday:

In the long run, however, this is not a solution and we are currently making intensive efforts to change the apartment. Hopefully, that will work out soon so that we can finally fully furnish it (buy terrace furniture and such).
Inside, we try to do as much "do-it-yourself" as possible. Partly because it saves money, but also because the selection or availability of decorative items is naturally limited compared to Germany. The good thing is that we can simply throw away the things at the end of our time here J Current project: flower pots for our plants:

Colored duct tape is my new friend. Haha

But now for some more pleasant information.
Last weekend, for example! We were on a very nice multi-day diving trip to the south of Saudi, to the Farasan Banks.

That's already at the level of Eritrea! We were there with colleagues and friends from the institute - a total of 14 people. In 3 days, we made 9 great dives, saw a lot of sharks, turtles, and even dolphins and rays!

Since we didn't have any time for "real" honeymoon after the wedding, this might have been a little foretaste. (Maybe in the spring of next year, there will be a real honeymoon, just the two of us ;-) )

By the way, we can now also be reached by mail! (If you want the address - just let us know!) We have already made a test purchase on Amazon US. It surprisingly worked very well and the items arrived in just under 2 weeks!

In addition to a lot of work - Felix is currently mainly taking care of the apartment, making all the calls, and dealing with the craftsmen, I am at the institute, writing my paper manuscript and planning the first and next steps of my doctoral thesis - we also try to take advantage of the offers here at the university as much as possible.

For example, last week I attended an "acrylic painting" class (it wasn't very successful yet, but it takes place every other week, so I have plenty of chances to practice)

Furthermore, last Thursday we watched "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," the 1954 Disney version.

If you manage to make time and motivate yourself in the evening, you can take advantage of incredible offers here! We immediately joined the photography and underwater photography clubs (I am now even Vice President of the latter.. haha,.. as always, because no one else wanted to do it J )
Unfortunately, today is already Saturday again, which means our weekend is coming to an end - as a conclusion, we will go to the cinema today J Before starting the new week at full speed!

For now, many greetings from us!
Felix and Susann

P.S .: We have one more anecdote to tell - last week, we were in a hardware store/furniture store/garden center thing here in Jeddah. Because of the bus timetables, we are forced to spend quite a lot of time there, so we took a break in a fast-food restaurant (like McDonald's) to grab something to eat. Immediately after ordering, the cashier asked if he could take a photo of us in front of the store logo and immediately sent the picture to his boss. So, we were kind of "celebrities" ;-) In the end, he even gave us ice cream as a gift - so there are always moments where WE are the exotic ones who stand out and look so different from everyone else ;-)