Travels

You’re watching the Lakers fall pretty flat against the Pistons in Game 3 and they interrupt the broadcast for a tornado warning. Well, I’m in Chicago until Sunday with my Iranian grandmother, brother and parents for the AIA 2004 National Conference where my Dad is getting a fellowship tomorrow night. And then there’s a black tie dinner on Saturday (Alex, my bro, says it’s $180 a plate?!?!?) Taking the El in from Southside, we headed up the Sears Tower (I’ve…

Ed: Well, my Tales of a Toubaab catching up didn’t really happen at the pace that I had hoped. But hopefully I’ll fill out all the stories that didn’t make it into writing yet this summer. This is Part IV of the Mali trip, continued from here. This episode describes the arrival into Bamako and our first day. Takes Place: March 31 2003 Written: January 15 2004 & June 3 2004 Bamako. The final destination on the fabled railway that…

So the Chinese bus lines really do exist. Comprehensive list FAQ for Fung Wah (unofficial) (Round-trips) NYC-DC – $20 Hartford-Boston/NYC – $30 NYC-Philly – $20 NYC-Albany – $40

Well, my trip to New England is coming to a close. Tomorrow, I’ll head back to what is often referred to in these parts as “The Left Coast.” In a nutshell, Hartford seems like a calm quiet New England town with occasionally things that come up that rock the boat (like their corrupt governor). It’s unique place, roughly halfway between Boston and New York makes it possible to take day trips into either place. New Haven (home of the world’s…

Well, I made a day trip into Boston today. Walked around, had a good time. I’m going to go to bed early tonight, and tomorrow, I’ll fully blog our trip into New Haven, and my trip into Boston — both almost entirely for food reasons. Tonight I made aloo khoresh for dinner. Quite tasty. This trip has been full of great chow.

Today, I made my first trip back to The Big Apple since I was 13 years old — and even though it was sorta relaxed and chill, it was definately fun. I could easily see myself living there one day. We left the house at about 9:15 am, and were in the Upper West Side before 11 am. We parked near Columbia and hopped on the subway — believe it or not, my first time on the subway! I’ve been…

I’ve been in Hartford only a few hours now, after having arrived without any problem at all. I watched some ST:TNG Season 2 while waiting for the plane, and then on the plane until my laptop battery died, and slept the rest of the way. I landed in DC, watched more TNG, got on the plane and slept more. My aunt Heidi picked me up and brought me to the house in West Hartford. The house is a gorgeous two-story…

Category: Architecture/Landscape “Arch in Touba” http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~cfarivar/photos/senegal/touba.jpg This is a photo that I took of the mosque in the religious city of Touba. I feel that the arch captures the scene of the buildings in an interesting way. I was able to visit there one weekend during the spring of 2003. Category: Best Use of Color “Dancing” http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~cfarivar/photos/senegal/dancing.jpg This is a picture that I took from the balcony of my host family’s third floor apartment. There was a wedding celebration of…

create your own visited country map or write about it on the open travel guide create your own visited states map or write about it on the open travel guide

Wow. I sit before my laptop, ready to write about this really interesting Salon article about life inside the Green Zone in Baghdad, and my iTunes playlist pulls up Percy Grainger’s Colonial Song at random. Heh. Even funnier is that this song, written by an Australian, is a slow, lyrical tune which seems to me to express longing and homage to his homeland — which I doubt is much how the CPA employees feel that Jen Banbury writes about. Anyway,…