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
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| Sunsets in Samarkand are often so-so, but April 2nd's was very aesthetic. |
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| April 2nd sunset from another angle |
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| Continuing our language study |
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| Sometimes I take pictures of the board to remember what I told the students, lol |
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| "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. |
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| Cute lamp I saw on April 11th |
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| We were invited to a private dinner at a very fancy restaurant on April 16th |
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| Another angle of the restaurant |
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| The view |
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| Some official pictures as we left |
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| Going out into the night |
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| Lol, they put RGB on the ancient e-mail enclosure (carrier pigeons) |
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| Another view of the courtyard |
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| & the pigeons |
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| The moat around the Eternal City of Samarkand |
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| 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. |
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| Then I took some leftover pie to a friend who missed the event & we met up at Shah-i-Zinda... |
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| Shah-i-Zinda is necropolis where, supposedly, a cousin of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is buried |
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| The domes of the associated mosque |
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| In addition to Shah-i-Zinda himself, there are many smaller chambers with various important people |
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| All beautifully decorated with tile |
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| The moon on the way out was very pretty |
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| But difficult to get exactly the shot I wanted |
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| Using an 0.5 lens |
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| Trying yet another angle on the moon |
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| This shot was mostly for the moon, but also this octagonal well is apparently rare: usually they're round |
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| Another crypt |
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| More information about Shah-i-Zinda & his coffin |
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| Wall decorations in his burial chamber |
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| Other crypts (we didn't really take the time to read all the signs) |
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| Walking back towards the exit |
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| I like the way this one actually shows its age |
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| Most did not have paintings, but this one had a few |
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| Looks kind of like the sun/moon, but is just a light. |
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| Dramatic wind |
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| 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) |
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| Some last views as the sun disappeared |
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| & the moon rises higher |
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| A quick rest |
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| Something about the angularity & colours here I really like |
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| & just the imposing beauty of it |
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| It does not look as impressive from the outside |
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| But still has its beauty |
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| Darkness begins |
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| Shot of the Bibi Khanym mosque--for much of the 1400's one of the largest mosques in the world |
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| Even after almost 1 year here, I still haven't been inside |
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| Passing the Registan on my way home |
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| Someday I will have to go back & post more of last year's pictures of the inside. |
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| Here's a historic photo (I did not take this one) |
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| A really bad word problem but I like my picture :p |
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| 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) |
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| Award ceremony for the students of the Korean Department |
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| Duolingo being Duolingo |
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| & that brings us to midterms--halfway through semester 2 |
