Hello all,

Its been awhile since the last post.. but that is fairly representative of life here as well as a lack of internet speed. So here's a recap on what we've been doing..

We ventured into the older mall and bought my Eid abaya which is pretty :) We went to the Gold Souk and saw all the gold shops too- a definite must see for anyone who comes to visit.

We went to a movie here- the Michael Moore documentary Sicko. It was actually really good and I recommend that all of you go see it (especially my mom, Anisha,and aunt patty). I think it came out early in the summer so it should be coming out to video soon and you guys have to rent it. It talks about the health care system of the US compared to around the world. It seems that almost everywhere in the world the people have the right to free or affordable, competent health care except in the states. Really makes you think...

We've had some interesting political speeches from Ahmadenijad at Columbia which turned out to actually give him some credibility. Despite his previous comments which have made me question him at times, I found him to be on point with his speech. I even got a little misty eyed when he said there were no homosexuals in Iran and everyone laughed at him and he just stood there seeming to not understand what the joke was. In addition to hearing from Iran's president, Zimbabwe's president also delivered an on point speech at the UN summit. From a political perspective things have been getting exciting the last two weeks and keeping Shahin and I intrigued in our disciplines.


Other than that we've been just working on stuff and settling. It seems that we're finally starting to feel like this is our home and we're starting to enjoy life here.
I took some pictures and a video from the Ramadan special the mall was having. It's a traditional Turkish dance that was interesting. Apparently its a Sufi dance that is a trance-like religious experience.

But alas, we miss all of you a lot and still look forward to hearing from all of you!

love and miss you,
Ash