Personal

Crazy to believe. Our one-year anniversary of arriving in Bonn was on Friday. I’m trying to run through a mental list of all of the things that we’ve done, seen, eaten, traveled to, and people we’ve met since we first set foot in Bonn on March 25, 2010. (Reviewing my Twitter posts helps too.) Departed Oakland. Arrived, bags in hand. First stayed: Hotel Ibis. First dinner: Mediterraneo. Bonn puns. First apartment (danke, Thomas and Couchsurfing!) in the Bonn Altstadt. Cherry…

Since earlier this year I’ve wanted to change the theme of this blog. I felt that it was time for a change — after all I’ve had this blog on WordPress for around five years, and mucked around with Moveable Type before that. Way back in the day I started blogging on LiveJournal — heck, I didn’t even hear the word blog for the first time until Fall 2000. And so now, with major help from Chirag Desai I managed…

Yes, we were married one year ago today.

“Hallo, mein name ist Cyrus. Ich komme aus den USA, aus Kalifornien. Ich spreche Englisch, Französisch und ein bisschen Persische.” And so began our first day of German class yesterday at the Institut für Sprachvermittlung und internationalen Kulturaustausch, just next to the Deutsche Post Tower and Deutsche Welle. Our class is small — just five students, including Rebecca and I. This is a very beginners German class, and is conducted 100 percent in German. The first lesson? Introductions. (“Mein name…

Given that we’re moving to Germany in five days, and didn’t set one up this year, I thought I’d share a photo of my 2007 haft-seen. I’m lucky to be spending Nowruz, the Persian New Year holiday with my brother, father, extended family and other longtime family friends down here in Los Angeles this year. That said, I extend my wishes along with President Obama, Sen. John Kerry, and the U.S. House of Representatives in wishing everyone a happy, healthy…

As I alluded to earlier, after much discussion between Bex and I, we’ve decide to bump our move to Bonn up by about three months, which means we’re leaving our beloved Bay Area in about four weeks. The reason? Largely so that we can take part in intensive German classes prior to our starting work — me at Deutsche Welle English and her, hopefully at the University of Bonn. Since mid-December we’ve been taking private courses with Frau Dr. Marion…

So it’s a new year, another birthday, and vacation is sadly over — time to get back to a regular working schedule and real life. But this year is different, given that five months from now, my wife and I will be moving to the birthplace of Ludwig von Beethoven and the former capital of West Germany: Bonn, Germany. Late last month, I accepted a position as the new host and producer of Spectrum, a weekly 30 minute, international English-language…

Last night, I had the sudden urge to make pumpkin scones, so Bex and I hit the new Berkeley Bowl West for supplies, before getting drinks at Marc 49. By the time we got home, I decided that they were obviously they’re better over breakfast. So I woke up this morning at about 8:30 and went to work. Within an hour, this is what came out of my oven. They were shockingly easy to make. I used the recipe from…

My good friend Sarmad Ali recently left New York to visit his family in Baghdad for the first time since he first arrived in the United States in August 2004. Since then, his life has been full of astonishing (and sometimes amusing) triumph: he graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with a Master’s in journalism with me in May 2005, got a job as a reporter with the Wall Street Journal, and now has a green card and…

I’ve announced this in other places, but I don’t think here on the blog. I’ll be teaching a crash course in radio for a few weeks at my alma mater, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism starting next week. My time there is booking up fast! I arrive in town tomorrow and already have a research day trip to Philadelphia planned as soon as I hit the ground early tomorrow morning, as well as an evening meeting back in Manhattan.…