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.

But if you added a couple of drops of lemon juice the water would turn a very nice pink.

I got so excited to see that red cabbage is actually listed in Wikipedia as a natural pH indicator.

I’m still sick. I thought since I haven’t had a fever it’s just a normal cold and it will go away soon. But I’m getting worse instead of better. For some reason it reminds me of the colds I got when I was a kid. When I tell this to my husband he laughs. I don’t blame him. It’s funny for colds to be like or unlike the ones you had before. Maybe it is because it is a normal cold without being so sever as a flu but one that is making me miserable. I used to get so many of these when I was in school. Not sever enough to stay home but so bad I wanted to scratch my nose off so I could breath a little. And the worst thing was, I used so many napkins that at some point in the day I would run out of napkins and I felt so hopeless and embarrassed. Now that I think about it I had sever flus and colds but I didn’t take time off of school. I remember getting a shot of Penicillin and then going to school right after.

My parents had some home remedies for a cold that I miss nowadays. Like the quince seeds left in a glass of water. They made a gooey liquid which was disgusting to watch but tasted good and felt good for a sore throat. The other thing was steaming under a blanket! My mom poured boiling water in a pot with some bay leaves in it. I would pull the blanket over my head and the pot and then try to breath the steam that came off the pot. It would open up my nostrils at least for a couple of minutes and the heat felt so good.

And the soups and the broths…, O I miss them so much. Although I should admit they weren’t always delicious since everything for a sick person should taste awful, but they were made by my mom, ready and hot to eat. OK this turned out to be such a nostalgic post that I’m gonna mark it as my Memories on Fridays posts. Will write about Obama next time!

Since I am sleepy, with a big chance of being sick (since my husband’s got a cold and I have a funny feeling in my throat) I am going to cheat tonight and instead of telling you a memory I’ll just post a picture of my childhood. I’m not sure how old I was but look at my shirt. It has a Converse sign on it!! I was so fashionable back then :D

How many times have I thought of the first years of my college these days? Maybe for once my generation was lucky to experience a couple of years of excitement. My freshman year was the year Khatami was elected to be the president. I remember the first time I saw him. His first public speech to start his unofficial campaign (the official time to campaign in presidential elections in Iran is less than a month) was in our university. I didn’t know him well, just knew that he used to be the culture minister but had resigned as a protest to how things were handled. Now he was running for the presidency. And there were talks of reform, mostly political. In the speech he talked of free speech, change and hope. But what I remember most was how well dressed he was and how he connected with the audience. He often waved and smiled and people would go wild. And then the real campaign began. It was such intense days. Arguments after arguments, accusations after accusations.

I remember the day after the election so clearly. I had a class in the morning. But none of us could sit still. The moment the class finished we ran to the main building where there was a board with the latest results frequently updated. And finally the number for Khatami passed the 50% threshold and he was officially announced president. The crowd in the building went ecstatic. Good days were ahead of us.

Fridays were always  fun when I was a kid. In Iran the week ends on Friday. Instead of Sunday, Friday is considered the weekend. And although Thursdays are also part of the weekend for many workplaces and also universities, schools (before college) are usually off only on Fridays.

So Fridays was the day off of school. We woke up late. Had breakfast listening to this comic program on the radio full of jokes and skits. We usually had an elaborate lunch. Sometimes we had Kabab barbecued by my dad. Sometimes we had fried fish with rice. Sometimes we had Abgoosht which took all morning to cook in the pressure cooker. In our house we had a room with big windows and a view to our backyard. Especially in falls we had our lunch there because it had a lot of sunlight and it was cozy and warm. After lunch me and my brother watched the tv program for kids which started at 2 instead of the usual 5. And after that there was always a movie which we all watched together.

Fridays are all about memories for me.