Posts about my time in Iran
I was scrolling through Facebook the other day, and as some readers know, I have a lot of Iranian friends and colleagues from my undergraduate days when I conducted research in Tehran and Esfahan. Well, one of them happened to post a deal that is simply too good to not share with you: a website dedicated to Iranian cinema has a special deal making all its films free for 90 days. Continue reading “Iranian Movie Night: ALL OF THE MOVIES!”
The cafeteria is lively and buzzing. Kyrgyz music videos blare out of a nearby television as a few ofitsantkas run back and forth to the kitchen carrying plates overflowing with lagman, mastava, samsa, and pirozhki. I sigh heavily as I pour another cupful of green tea into the small bowl called a piala that is used as a teacup here in Osh. People come and go as nearly every table remains full, people wrapped in faux fur coats and hats, with several pieces of luggage by their side, each carefully wrapped several times in plastic wrap.
It’s 2am, and I’ve learned a very important lesson about flying in Central Asia: your flights are scheduled at the airline’s convenience, not yours. Continue reading “Midnight At A Central Asian Airport”
When you study Farsi as much as I have, you end up reading a lot of poetry. And I mean a lot.
But wait a minute, Farsi? Don’t they speak Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan? Yes, you’re right, but today, while I was musing on the theme of global citizenship, I kept finding myself drawn back to one of my favorite poems that I read during my four years studying Iranian culture, Farsi, and Persian poetry. I’m looking forward to adding some new information about Iran on Monday Bazaar in the future, and this is a good first step. Continue reading “Global Citizenship: An Iranian Perspective”
Something I’ve come to love over many years living near mosques is the “adzhan,” or call to prayer. It’s an omnipresent sound and inimitable piece of the landscape in many countries with large Muslim populations, and serves to help Muslims pray at the proper times of day. Let’s dive in a bit to learn more about this beautiful tradition. Continue reading “Adzhan: The Call To Prayer”
Any visitor to Central Asia, Iran, and a bunch of other places has probably noticed that just about every road is flanked on both sides by channels that flow with water or fill with trash. They’re everywhere. And even though they have a name, very few locals know it, let alone dictionaries, and despite their ubiquity, almost no one has researched or written about them. But given that falling into one is one of my funniest stories from when I lived in Tajikistan, it’s about time that I educated myself! Behold, let’s learn about the famous aryk (арык)! Continue reading “What Are Those Concrete Ditches?”
This year, some website somewhere decided to spy on us all to check and see which of our photos were our most liked on Instagram this past year. But, since the number of likes doesn’t always correlate to the best photos, I’ve decided to curate a list of what I think were by best shots that went up on my Instagram this year. Continue reading “My Favorite Photos Of 2015”
This is a piece of travel writing I wrote in 2013 about my experience traveling in Esfahan, Iran in the fall of 2012. Because of the way rights work with The Crimson, I can’t publish the entire text here, but here is the opening part:
There is something both timeless and eerily beautiful about arches in Safavid architecture. The elegant ogees appear in both two and three dimensions across the city of Esfahan, forming façades and domes, lining bazaars, and crisscrossing the Zayandeh Rud in the form of four stone pedestrian bridges.
Stepping onto a pedestrian bridge is always a thrill. I still remember when I first walked across the Weeks Bridge, looking at the cars on both Soldiers Field Road and Memorial Drive and thinking to myself, “I bet you wish you could use this bridge.” Where else in Boston can you see people dancing Argentine tango beneath the full moon in the spring, jumping into the river in the summer, cheering on the rowers in the fall, and quickly running across in a bundle of down in the winter?
Continue reading over at The Harvard Crimson!
