Personal

So if you’re not going to Chaharshanbeh Suri with me on March 13, maybe you’d rather hear Stephen Hawking give a lecture at UC Berkeley? I’ve got two tickets for sale if you’re interested. 10 percent discount for blog readers. Update: Been sold! Thanks!

The following piece was written by Sarmad Ali, one of my very good friends from Columbia. When I first met him, I knew I had to be friends with him, as I knew that he must have surely felt very much out of his element upon first arriving. He’s spent more than one holiday with my family both in California and Connecticut and we are always welcome to have him and to serve as his surrogate family in the US.…

Well, my trip is basically half over. In two and a half weeks, I’ll be on a plane bound for the US. Next Saturday morning, local time, I’ll be on a plane bound for Paris, with a stopover in Casablanca airport, the beginning of the last leg of this journey. I’ll spend 10 days bouncing between Paris, London, Tallinn, Berlin, Geneva and then back to Paris on Feb. 14. How’s it been going so far? To be honest, pretty rough.…

There’s a walk that I’ve taken in three different places, in three different cities at three different times in my life. In 1997-1998 it was at Bossey, just outside Geneva. In 2002-2003 it was at UGB just outside Saint-Louis. In 2007, it’s been here, in Yoff, on the edge of Dakar. This is a walk that I take alone, completely alone. I don’t talk to anyone. The walk takes me from my comfort zone of being on the Internet, to…

The good news is I made it on to Senegal safely. The bad news is I never managed to meet up with the guy (“Max”) who was supposed to take me to my host family, which was arranged by Mamadou Gaye. The other bad news is that the airport’s ATM wasn’t working, so I couldn’t withdraw money. (Fortunately, I had $20 and 15 euros, which I was able to exchange.) But, the good news is I was able to crash…

It’s almost 4 am, but I really wanted to get these photos and text out. I arrived at Casablanca airport with no problem. The train station is downstairs from the main baggage claim/terminal area. A ticket to Rabat is 65 dirhams ($7.50) for about an hour and 40 minute ride. Train was on-time and clean and easy to navigate. I chatted up a guy on the train who was going to Oujda (way northeastern Morocco, on the Algerian border), who…

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in Paris with a laptop and I’m happy to report that you can buy Net access for six euros for 30 minutes (or 10 euros for one hour, or 15 euros for two hours). The nice thing about this is that the credit lasts for a whole week and doesn’t count when you’re not using it. So I bought it just to use it for two min in Charles de Gaulle but can still…

I’ll be on the road (West Africa, Europe) until February 14. Until then, I’m best reached by email or Skype (cfarivar ; 510.931.5564). I’ll be getting a Senegalese number and an Estonian number as well. Ask me if you need it. See you guys soon!

25 years ago today I was born at Santa Monica Hospital. During my quarter-century on this Earth I’m fortunate to have had many opportunities to grow up in a loving family, to have been educated both here and abroad, to have learned to play musical instruments, and to have been trained as a journalist. I’m not really sure what the next 25 years will bring, nor where my exact place in the world will be, but I’m hoping to land…

And thoroughly destroyed the first four opponents, which was an awesome feeling. The entire concept of the Wii is a lot funner than I had thought it would be.