Little by little, the bird builds its nest.

Last week we spent a little time in the laboratory for the first time. For another project of our supervisor, a few DIC and alkalinity samples had to be measured - so again 'back to the roots' and the good old carbonate chemistry :-)
Also good to get familiar with the equipment, because when it comes to collecting samples for our own projects soon (finally), we also have to measure them.

Felix and Susann measuring DIC and TA

The end of last week was sporty - on Thursday evening we met with friends at the Island Recreation Center for climbing. At first, we had to get a little bit into it - but luckily we had already gained some experience through via ferratas in Austria in the summer. It was definitely a lot of fun and calls for repetition!

By the way, a little intermediate info :) Here in Saudi (and also in a few other Arabic countries) the weekend, unlike at home, is on Friday and Saturday. That means Sunday is the first working day of the week. The Islamic calendar, or Islamic time reckoning, begins with the year of migration (Hijra) of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in the year 622. That means in the reckoning of this time, we are in the year 1438 - almost deepest Middle Ages.. (Without wanting to be a pessimist, haha :) - maybe that explains some things as well..?). Friday is the "Day of Assembly" - the prayer on Friday is the most important of the entire week. So Friday is like Sunday at home for us. Maybe now you also understand why our weekly post always comes on Thursday - namely at the end of our working week :)

And now to this weekend: it was also fully dedicated to the 'Poseidon Star' ;-) On Friday, together with a new acquaintance (Eli) and his buddy (Mario), we went snorkeling at the beach in Jeddah. I got to know Eli via Instagram (the second diver - after Eduardo in Giglio - this year ;-)) He also works here at KAUST - and we took the opportunity to join divers who have been here for a while and therefore know their way around.

From right: Mario, Felix (you already know him :D ), Janna, Elie and Susann

The dives were not spectacular but nice, and all in all it was a relaxed day. Next time, however, we definitely want to go diving from a boat - there should be some great wrecks and even the chance to see sharks nearby. Since these diving trips always strain the budget, this is a plan for the next month.

Underwater impressions from Fal Beach

On Friday evening, the 'Global Expo' took place here on campus - an event organized by 'Graduate Affairs'. Many of the students here presented their home countries - including tasty samples, music, and traditional clothing. In such moments, you realize again how many different nations come together here. In everyday life, this is not necessarily evident, because many working groups are dominated by one nationality. In our case, it would be the Spaniards - which could be due, among other things, to the fact that our professor is Spanish ;-) ..

Also, on the weekend, we drove to Jeddah together with a few other divers from KAUST for the 'Diver's Night'. Since 2005, as many divers as possible have been night diving worldwide on this date. To let Saudi Arabia be a part of it, we went night diving on Saturday evening in Bhadur (also in Jeddah).

Night diving with the 'Scuba Diving Group (SDG)' in Bhadur

On Wednesday, we spontaneously went to IKEA (yes, you read that right - 'welcome to globalization' ). Regarding 'affordable solutions for experimental setups', that is also the first choice of the scientist in Saudi Arabia ;-)

Quite bizarre to sit there, eat Köttbullar, and everything looks like at home, while everyone around you is veiled. It was definitely an interesting outing again :-D

In style - with Köttbullar :)

Speaking of outings - this morning we were already afraid that we would have to spend the weekend indoors - it has been quite windy since yesterday and this morning it looked like a real sandstorm was brewing here. When you had been outside for a longer time, you came back quite dusty :)

Sandy, dusty, yuck

But luckily that settled down during the day - and therefore we can already look forward to our snorkeling trip on Saturday.

In this dusty weather, we also started setting up the mussel incubation - for that, among other things, we assembled the nice pink children's tables from IKEA that we bought last night and sunk them in a large basin :)

Two mussels sitting in the 'raceway' for a test

So things are slowly progressing - and so far it looks like we can finally start the experiment at the end of November / beginning of December.

Already have a nice weekend, everyone

and best regards,
Felix and Susann