Spring 2012

The Lecturer and I are sitting on the front porch, drinking chai sulemani, and blogging while Goozie plays across the street. We're WAY behind on our blogging, because we've been desperately busy for a long time at work. And, well, because we would rather go do stuff than write about it. And we hope our friends and family are forgiving us for not being very communicative lately. But many more posts to come about travels (Germany, Austria, India, Ladakh, and Hong Kong), about funny little stuff that happens here, and about whatever comes to mind. Because we miss our peeps, and maybe faintly because someone would be interested, but mainly as a record for later so we don't forget about the amazing things that have become part of our experience.

But today it's dry, about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, with a light wind blowing and not as sand-stormy as it has been recently. It could be the last humane weather before the furnace gets switched on by the man upstairs.

Last night I was at dinner with a group, all originally from Iran but having lived in the US for the last 30+ years, and who kept lapsing into Farsi until they realized it and switched back to English for my sake. All in all a lovely dinner and very lovely people. We talked about Iran, and the Caucuses, and how beautiful Isfahan is in the springtime. About how my latest travel desire is to take a riverboat up the Irrawaddy in Burma and see why Kipling felt compelled to write "The Road to Mandalay." I had Makhlhuk for dessert (a funny sweet ramen noodle looking sweet with fresh lemon zesty sauce, very lip-puckering, and pistachio ice cream on top - with just a hint of rose water) aka Bastani-e Za'farāni and faludeh- it has become one of my favorite things.


It's the little things that sometimes make me pause and ask myself - is this real? Am I just dreaming all of this exotic mess and it's just a fantasy? Did I just order in Arabi to a waiter who speaks 7 languages?

In the words of the Talking Heads: "This is not my beautiful house."

We blog so when we eventually wake up we can remember the dream.