Almost Didn't Get to Snorkel the Red Sea

Steve and I have only been out on the Red Sea once since we got here.  That was in October during Eid.  Last week, I got another chance to go out on the Red Sea, this time as part of a WEP class I was taking about Marine Science.

Unlike the first cruise, which went very smoothly, this snorkel trip resulted in a very long wait at the Coastguard station while the inefficiencies of work flow showed themselves once again.  So, why did we get stuck waiting over an hour just to get permission to go out in the open water?  Lack of paperwork.  Boating here isn't quite the same as it is back home.  Everyone who wants to go on a trip must be pre-approved, including a passport/iqama check.  While this isn't suppose to prevent anyone from going boating at school, apparently it's become a greater problem in the last few months.

From what I've heard, the problem they've been having stems from the fact that single women aren't permitted to go boating as it would require non-familial mixed company.  Again, this isn't supposed to be an issue here on campus, but apparently the Coastguard didn't get that memo.

As a result, we ended up eating snacks and tanning, hoping that somehow all the necessary paperwork would manage to move quickly enough so we would actually have time to get in the water.  However, we did manage to have a funny/awkward moment while waiting; sitting in the harbor with "When a Man loves a Woman" just feels awkward knowing there are a bunch of Saudi men inside the office determining the direction the boat will go.

By 11 or so we finally got permission to continue our trip.  On the way out, I even saw a dolphin surfacing in the distance.  By the time we got to the dive site, we got about 30 minutes of snorkel time, for what ended up being a 4 1/2 hour trip.  Go figure.

However, the snorkeling we did get to do was awesome.  I saw parrot fish, clown fish, angel fish, big groupers, a dog faced puffer fish, two sting rays, and much more.  Sadly, most of the coral where we were ended up being dead.  The summer bleaching was apparently especially harsh across the Red Sea, and the Pacific areas so the instructors thought that might have killed the coral.  Despite it being dead, we still got to see a wide variety of corals such as brain coral, branching coral, mushroom corals, and more.

A Red Sea nemo! We saw a lot of clownfish while we were snorkeling.  Did you know that male clownfish turn into females? (source)

Angel fish, although ones I saw were much more blue than yellow. (source)

Surgeon fish, which actually have a small blade near their back fin that is pretty sharp. (source)

A large clam, we saw so many like this.  They were definitely my favorite part.  The colors were pretty varied too.  Lots of purple, blue, and green clams all with different patterns.  The clams would actually snap shut if you got too close! (source)

The school runs snorkeling trips every Thursday which are six hour trips, so maybe that will give us more time to snorkel in the future.

Beginning of WEP

Athens updates have been sparse around here simply because the Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) has started here on campus.  To those who don't already know what this is, it's a 2 1/2 week period of short courses, lectures, symposiums, and various fun events that is intended to expand our learning beyond the scope of our specialized engineering curriculum.  While I applaud the intention of the program and imagine that it has been successfully implemented at other universities, it has so far seemed to fall short of it's desired goal.

While in my opinion, the selection of topics in the last few days hasn't done much of a job expanding the general knowledge of students, due mostly to some pretty specialized courses, the biggest flaws still seem to be on the organizational side of the program.  There have been various schedules floating around campus since December, and in the past week alone three different schedules have been emailed or mass distributed.  Along with this inconvenience, is still a significant possibility for last minute changes to the scheduling, so each day we have to check the official white board listing the courses and times offered.  Today alone, one of my courses has changed three times!

The organizational problems behind the program would be a minor inconvenience if we only had to show up to lectures at our pleasure, but since this is a graduation requirement, we're required to attend 40 hours of lecture.  So if the schedule changes on a near daily basis - and sometimes multiple times daily - how can students ensure the hourly requirement is met?  It's been stressful to say the least, but so far the two great lectures I've been to have almost made up for the three mediocre ones.

Looking forward, tomorrow is definitely going to be the highlight of my WEP.  Snorkeling in the Red Sea the morning as part of my Marine Science class, Jay Shafer's Size Matters lecture in the afternoon, and Hans Rosling's Fact Based View of the World will no doubt impress.

Field Trips are Fun even in Saudi

For my membranes class this fall, we had the opportunity to take a tour of the Desalination plant and the wastewater treatment plant.  I think it's pretty cool that we get to drink the same water that we can go swimming and boating in.  It's a pretty big win for science and the desert.

The plant just opened last year and it was so sparkling clean.  The plant I worked in this past summer has been in operation in various forms since the early 20th century, so a lot of it was filthy dirty, even though they were making soap!

Exterior pumps!

View of campus from the RO plant

Large strainers inside the plant.

Membrane units in the plant

Exit side of the membrane modules.

Since membrane units are modular, it's really easy to expand in the future.

Exterior of the Wastewater Treatment Plant

Sinky poop water being aerated.

Aerators, seen because this tank wasn't being used.

Cooling towers off in the distance.

All in all, my membranes class was pretty interesting, and I learned a lot about something I didn't really know much (anything) about.  Sadly that wasn't the case for most of my classes.  I'm not really sure if anything I learned will be directly applicable in the future, but you never know right?

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We're leaving tomorrow for Greece, but we'll still have some posts that will go up automatically while we're gone.  Since they'll go up automatically, we won't necessarily be posting links to them on Facebook.