Roya’s Life

Writing again?

I should definitely start writing again. I miss it so much. So I promise promise to start again. And I have some big news which you have to come back to read about :D

Thanksgiving

I haven’t written here for a while and that makes it hard to start, but now sitting in a coffee shop drinking my usual mint tea is the best time to start.

- We had two of our old friends visiting us for the thanksgiving week. It was really fun. I remember once one of my friends quoted from Gone with the Wind that meeting an old friend is like taking off your dance shoes after a long dance. It truly feels that way.

- For thanksgiving we went to Hartford to another friend’s house. I had the best turkey there. Unlike most turkeys I had before it wasn’t bland, but very tasty. We then went to Boston for another day-after-thanksgiving party. A lot of good food, music and good company.

- When we got home after the Boston trip I found out that I had left my backpack there. The backpack was not important but my laptop was in it. So I was without my laptop for a whole week. I was lucky that our hosts were visiting NYC and I got my laptop finally.

Our frogs and their not so little friend

I think I haven’t talked about it here (or maybe I have!) . We have two little frogs. They are African dwarf frogs. We bought them from a Hallmark store, originally intended for a friend but then we decided they were too cute to let someone else have them! They are in a very small aquarium which is a complete ecosystem. They have a bamboo stick for oxygen and they have a snail that cleans their enviroment. The snail was a little black one originally. But from the beginning we never saw it come out of its shell. Once in a while it moved so we thought it probably comes out whenever we are not around. But a couple of days ago I thought the aquarium is not getting cleaned. So I checked the website and it said if the snail is upside down it is dead. And our snail was upside down. So we went to PetSmart yesterday and bought a new snail. This one is 3 times the size of the previous one. And it is definitely alive. It moves, goes up the bamboo, goes up the sides of the aquarium and when sitting on the stone that is in the box, it brings out its tentacles and looks at its surroundings!

The frogs are still curious about it. They go and pick at it once in a while. But so far, no incidences. I hope it is the right kind of snail for them and they become good friends!

Being brave

- Today I joined Social Workouts for their Emergency Holiday Challenge. The plan is to workout 20 times in the 37 days remaining till the holidays. The thing is I have to blog about them to count.

- I think I haven’t said it here that I am currently reading Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. I’ve read 200 pages (less than half) and like it till now. I will write about it in more detail soon.

- I sometimes think that I should have gone to journalism. I love writing and I love gathering information and I like telling them. But I lack a very important feature in a journalist that is being brave. I’m not brave at all, specially if it’s about how people think of me. When somebody is not polite with me whether because I was in fault or not I get a really bad feeling and I keep blaming myself for putting myself in that compromising situation. Should stop doing that and take risks. Even if I never become a journalist I prefer a more braver me.

American or European

I hate it when I cannot respect my own promises. But this time I’m not going to give up. Although only a couple of people read this blog I will keep writing because of me.

Yesterday I went to the knitting group meeting. It is always fun. It makes me feel good to talk girl talk and more than that, to talk with non-Iranian people. After any of our meetings I come to the conclusion that we are more influenced by Europe (mostly by France) and are closer to taste to them than Americans. I am sure this will change in future because of the internet and TV.

For example we learn the continental style of knitting while in the US they use the English style. European clothing (the cut and the design) is more popular with us than the American ones.

Since Reza Shah started sending people to France to study, the influence of France especially as a sign of progress was undeniable in Iran. In everyday speaking we use a lot of French words like ascenseur, abat-jour, lustre and many many more.

Although Britain has been very influencial in Iranian politics in my opinion they haven’t had the same effect as French did on people’s lives. Britain has always been considered a very strong power that cannot be trusted and is behind every controversy that happens in Iran. BBC has made a very good documentary on the subject (+) which you can find illegally uploaded on youtube! The famous satirical book My Uncle Napoleon shows this ongoing belief in its extreme.

The relation with America is more complicated in my view. Because of many things that has happened in the past , the 1953 coup d’état being the most significant, there is definitely a lot of mistrust but at heart many people are in awe of this country. The movies, the music , the politics is on many people’s radars constantly. So that’s why I think this cultural influence will change eventually toward being more American.

My Library Card

When we lived in New Haven I discovered the concept of a public library. Like many things in a new country it took me some time to know how to use it. For the first couple of times I would go to the library and then think to myself OK, what did I want to read? Umm, how about The Unbearable Lightness of Being? Then I would go the shelf but the book wasn’t there. Somebody else had borrowed it. So I would get frustrated. But then I found the online catalog, so I would check beforehand and make a list. As time went by and I started a book club with friends I started to be more comfortable with the library. I could go and choose a book from the shelves. I even started to go to their book readings.

When we came to Princeton I immediately loved the large, new and clean library. I borrowed books and audio-books. I attended their book groups. Although there usually was nobody in my age group in the groups I liked them and I felt a part of the library.

But then a while ago they told me that my card is expiring and I should renew. And when I went to renew it they said since I’m not a resident of the city I cannot become a member. This residency thing is also very confusing. Although our postal address is in Princeton and we have the same zip code as the library and we live in university housings apparently our house is not in the same tax district as the library. But my husband can become a member because he is a faculty in Princeton University but I cannot. On the surface it could seem rational that since I don’t pay Princeton tax I shouldn’t be able to become a member (which honestly I’m not sure which city tax we are paying) , but then when you think about it library cards are not an individual thing. I can use my husband’s card anyway. He can borrow books for me or I can swipe his card for myself. If we had two cards our library usage wouldn’t go up. I think it’s the same with families with kids. Library cards are something the whole family uses. I think it would have been more logical to have family cards like Costco in the first place.

So then why am I upset? Because it doesn’t feel comfortable for me not to be a part of the library. It feels like cheating to use my husband’s card and feels humiliating. So I am a bit irritated with the library for now. And since I am reading the books that I own for now the library and I are on a break for a while!

Halloween

Recap of the past couple of days:

- For Halloween we had planned to go to New York to watch the parade but then the weather forecast was all rainy. So we canceled going to NYC and went around Princeton with friends. There was this alley that was apparently famous for the Halloween designs and it was full of people in costumes and kids trick or treating. One even had a haunted house which was fun and gave us candies at the end.

- I finished my 1000 cranes. All done and now I have to wait for my wish to come true. I wish I had found a better fitted vase for them.

Starting a Blanket

Tonight is the first session of our knitting group after a break we had for the summer. For a long time I had planned to make an afghan with granny squares. But choosing the colors seems really daunting. And I wasn’t sure about the yarn. I could go to the local yarn store and ask for help but usually their yarns are more expensive. And with my reputation in leaving projects undone I couldn’t risk spending a lot of money. I could search online for a pattern and buy the yarn online. But that would take long and I wanted to have something exciting to do tonight.

So I went to a JoAnn store and chose an acrylic yarn, Vanna’s Choice by Lion Brand. For now I chose 3 shades of purple and 3 shades of blue.

I haven’t decided on the frame color. White? Black? Yellow? Cream? Should decide soon.

Carter’s Book

On the list of the books that I own but had not read I checked one more. I finished Jimmy Carter’s book: Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.

It took me so long to read, since I’m not a big fan of non-fiction in general. But this one was good. In the beginning especially when he is talking about all the neighboring countries and how they are involved in this conflict, I was thinking that the book is too shallow and doesn’t go deep in the complex feelings of these countires toward the situation. But then as the book progressed I started to like it more and when I thought about it, the name of the book is Palestine …. So everything that comes in the begining is just background. The main analysis of the book is focused on the Palestinian situation and it is very enlightening in that respect.

The Palestine-Israel situation is too complex to write about in a single post and it’s certainly out of the scope of my personal blog. But I certainly want to know more. At least for myself to know how to think about it. I know that I don’t have a fair judgement about it and maybe I can never have a fair view. Living in Iran constantly hearing one side of the story, but at the same time not trusting the government that is feeding you these facts makes the issue very complicated for all of us.

Science Experiments at Home

Last week while I was chopping a red cabbage for salad I remembered an experiment I loved when I was a kid.

My dad had taught us about pH and the different ways we can measure that. We had different kinds of pH indicator papers at home and I was so fascinated by them. I can’t remember exactly if it was my own discovery or my dad led me to see this fact that red cabbage is a good pH indicator. My mom used to wash all vegetables with a detergent and in the first rinses when the detergent was not completely out, the red cabbage made the water blue.