Some of the guys in our group got together for a practice session of Farsi late (really) last night. We were able to learn about 15 words and a few basic verb phrases. And let me say this: learning a spoken language is hard, especially for a deaf person who can't speak every English word correctly. While it is helpful to know how to say a few useful words that Turkish people use, it is hard to remember how to say it.
June 25, 2012
Amsterdam and Taksim
It is my second full day in Istanbul, Turkey, and I am still exhausted from my flight a couple of days ago. Since we are on a break for a little over one hour, I decided to write some things that we have done and seen so far. I apologize if it seems a little halting or random, but I wanted to summarize the best I can.
June 22, 2012
Bon Voyage!
I am departing Birmingham in a few hours with a group from Samford University on a 14-days trip to Istanbul, Turkey. After a brief flight, we will hop onto another plane in Atlanta for an overnight flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands (eight hours total). We will have a seven-hour layover in Amsterdam until we depart for Istanbul, Turkey. We expect to arrive around midnight on Sunday, and I think all of us will be exhausted by then!
June 13, 2012
The Soul of Iran: A Nation’s Struggle for Freedom
A little over one week remains until I head to Turkey for a trip, and I am eager to see how dad is using various workers in that country! I am in the process of reading four different books on the countries of Turkey and Iran in addition to Islam. I just completed a book called The Soul of Iran: A Nation’s Journey to Freedom by Afshin Molavi. The author currently holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, reports on Iran for Reuters, is a columnist for The Washington Post, and contributor of several publications. He did an excellent job of integrating cultural, political, economic, and societal aspects of Iran in this book. Since I have to incorporate some of my reflection on this in my paper, I figured I could write a blog post about it and share with you as well! While this is not an official review of the book itself, I hope that some things I will point out here will whet your interest in exploring the history of Iran and how it continues to struggle for freedom.