Photodump: April 2024

 Once again I find myself having not posted anything in several years & really needing to get on top of that.  I figured this month would be a good place to start, because I have some good & interesting pictures, but not so many that captioning them will be overwhelming :p

Sunsets in Samarkand are often so-so, but April 2nd's was very aesthetic.

April 2nd sunset from another angle

Continuing our language study

Sometimes I take pictures of the board to remember what I told the students, lol

"When Cultures Meet" workshop, feat. attendees from China, Cameroon, Iran, Kazakhstan, S. Korea, Tunisia, & of course the USA & Uzbekistan--all but two of us work with SIUT in some capacity.

Cute lamp I saw on April 11th

We were invited to a private dinner at a very fancy restaurant on April 16th

Another angle of the restaurant

The view

Some official pictures as we left

Going out into the night

Lol, they put RGB on the ancient e-mail enclosure (carrier pigeons)

Another view of the courtyard

& the pigeons

The moat around the Eternal City of Samarkand

We were supposed to celebrate Pi Day on 3.14, but since that was during Ramadan we moved to April 17th & made it more a "Slice of American Culture" event.

Then I took some leftover pie to a friend who missed the event & we met up at Shah-i-Zinda...

Shah-i-Zinda is necropolis where, supposedly, a cousin of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is buried

The domes of the associated mosque

In addition to Shah-i-Zinda himself, there are many smaller chambers with various important people

All beautifully decorated with tile

The moon on the way out was very pretty

But difficult to get exactly the shot I wanted

Using an 0.5 lens

Trying yet another angle on the moon

This shot was mostly for the moon, but also this octagonal well is apparently rare: usually they're round

Another crypt

More information about Shah-i-Zinda & his coffin

Wall decorations in his burial chamber

Other crypts (we didn't really take the time to read all the signs)

Walking back towards the exit

I like the way this one actually shows its age

Most did not have paintings, but this one had a few

Looks kind of like the sun/moon, but is just a light.

Dramatic wind

I like the way her outfit matched the sunset (also the cool effect of her taking a picture of the domes while I'm taking a picture of the mosque in the background)

Some last views as the sun disappeared

& the moon rises higher

A quick rest

Something about the angularity & colours here I really like

& just the imposing beauty of it

It does not look as impressive from the outside

But still has its beauty

Darkness begins

Shot of the Bibi Khanym mosque--for much of the 1400's one of the largest mosques in the world

Even after almost 1 year here, I still haven't been inside

Passing the Registan on my way home

Someday I will have to go back & post more of last year's pictures of the inside.

Here's a historic photo (I did not take this one)

A really bad word problem but I like my picture :p

A new boba place opened up.  The lid says "Use a smile to tell others who you are today: stronger than yesterday" (according to Google Translate--while I can recognize about 1/3 of the characters my Chinese is no where near good enough to read it yet)

Award ceremony for the students of the Korean Department

Duolingo being Duolingo

& that brings us to midterms--halfway through semester 2