Patterns of Darkness and Light
Last year, on the summer solstice, my parents flew home from Istanbul. On the day of the year with the most light. It had been a good trip for them. They were o...
Year: 2011
A few more thoughts on Objects
Sitting on a park bench in the shade near Tunel, in Istanbul, finishing Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence and visiting the site where it is still being finished...
Rambling thoughts
I’ve been thinking for a while about the age of facebook. The world of status updates, relationship statuses, of tagging photos, and the world of “bar pho...
Weekend on the road
There was a gathering in Tbilisi a few days ago, as one of the volunteers had a birthday and his girlfriend wished to throw him a surprise dinner for Saturday n...
Lost in Translation
It’s odd living in a place where extremely few people speak English. I’ve spent a lot of time in Eastern European countries, but there, many people ...
The Old Apartment
There’s a building next to the school I work in that is, like many of the buildings here, just a skeleton. There are quite a few buildings around here tha...
Adventures with the Nightwatchmen
A few weeks ago, the Expert and I, tired of sitting in the dormitory all day, decided we’d head across the street to the khinkali restaurant, or as weR...
Express Mail
I’ve found that one of the most common things that people who travel a lot complain about (or share in laughter over the frustration) is experiences in th...
Mr. President Visits Kutaisi
For a few weeks, there had been talk of President Saakashvili coming to Kutaisi for a visit. He was purportedly coming to check on the professional education ce...
Birds of Fortuity and the King’s Gambit
On my recent holiday I spent a few days in Sarajevo, and stopped by to watch the games of chess, which had given me the inspiration for the title of this blog. ...