How do killer traffic and gorgeous scenery coexist peacefully?
Today I went to Mofid to check email in AliBob’s office and to check email for the first time (because frankly the internet at home connected and then didn’t open a single one of my pages, email or otherwise) and it was quite a walk. I can’t believe he does this walk every day. Or maybe I'm just a wuss. It took 35 minutes of brisk walking to get to the building. It’s 20-30 minutes to get to the University gates, but then it’s a 10-minute walk from the gates down the meandering drive to the building. The drive last time with the Khanum hadn’t seemed that long. I was sweaty and my feet were hurting by the time I got to the building. So much for bundling up in the desert cold.
Anyway, after I risked my life trying to cross the road just to get to Mofid’s grand gates (no really, I almost got hit by a pickup truck, then a motorcycle, then a car, consecutively because as usual there were 6 cars trying to drive side by side in 2 lanes and when I started the walk across, they appeared around the bend at high speeds and honking at me like their inability to drive properly was my fault), I walked on through and waved at the guards like I saw other people ahead of me do. But then, as I walked past, I heard a “Khanum, Khanum!” and of course I knew what was coming. I was stopped at the gates because the guards didn’t recognize me. I tried explaining that my husband is the American and his office is in there. I can’t speak Farsi though so all I managed to say was “my husband office there” and “my husband Robert Tappan, American.”
The two men conferred and figured out that I was the American’s wife. One said, “Mr. Robert?” and I said “yes!” and with a bebakhsheed (excuse me) and a salaam from them, I was on my way.
Email checking was not so fantastic because his connection was slow as molasses and I had lots and lots of emails and so I think I may have sent an email but I didn’t accomplish much more than that.
We decided it was time to go home and eat. I took a few quick pictures of the view from the 4th floor, the campus, and the driveway.
This is the picture from the corridor outside AliBob’s office.
I zoomed in on the hill and land to get a better view:
Here is the view from the 4th floor window facing straight out onto the campus and long driveway. That first mountain peak in the foreground (in the series of mountain peaks back there) is where our apartment is:
Along our walk back to the university, on the driveway, I took these two pictures. The second one shows how the trees are lined up so they can be watered easily.
Here is the view of the driveway facing towards the campus:
And here is a picture looking back at the Mofid gates:
Anyway, after I risked my life trying to cross the road just to get to Mofid’s grand gates (no really, I almost got hit by a pickup truck, then a motorcycle, then a car, consecutively because as usual there were 6 cars trying to drive side by side in 2 lanes and when I started the walk across, they appeared around the bend at high speeds and honking at me like their inability to drive properly was my fault), I walked on through and waved at the guards like I saw other people ahead of me do. But then, as I walked past, I heard a “Khanum, Khanum!” and of course I knew what was coming. I was stopped at the gates because the guards didn’t recognize me. I tried explaining that my husband is the American and his office is in there. I can’t speak Farsi though so all I managed to say was “my husband office there” and “my husband Robert Tappan, American.”
The two men conferred and figured out that I was the American’s wife. One said, “Mr. Robert?” and I said “yes!” and with a bebakhsheed (excuse me) and a salaam from them, I was on my way.
Email checking was not so fantastic because his connection was slow as molasses and I had lots and lots of emails and so I think I may have sent an email but I didn’t accomplish much more than that.
We decided it was time to go home and eat. I took a few quick pictures of the view from the 4th floor, the campus, and the driveway.
This is the picture from the corridor outside AliBob’s office.
I zoomed in on the hill and land to get a better view:
Here is the view from the 4th floor window facing straight out onto the campus and long driveway. That first mountain peak in the foreground (in the series of mountain peaks back there) is where our apartment is:
Along our walk back to the university, on the driveway, I took these two pictures. The second one shows how the trees are lined up so they can be watered easily.
Here is the view of the driveway facing towards the campus:
And here is a picture looking back at the Mofid gates:
posted by Irfan Ali at 4:07 PM
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