Navruz Muborak

Author: Ben <benk@tilde.team>

Sun Mar 20 11:40:48 AM +05 2022

It's slightly early but I thought I would wish everyone a happy equinox, also known in Persian as Navruz (spelled in various ways, but this is the Tajik spelling). The equinox is set to occur several hours from now, which will be evening here, so tomorrow should be the first day of the Persian calendar.

I won't say too much about the holiday because you can Google a wealth of information about it. It's springtime in the northern hemisphere, which makes it a very pleasant time of year.

I've now been in Dushanbe for over a week, and so far I have gotten settled in nicely at my in-laws. I have my documents in order and mobile Internet and everything. The prices are crazy given how poor Tajikistan is, so it all feels extremely exploitative. Like, US prices for mobile Internet? Who can afford that?

I am still planning on visiting the US soon to see my parents, who I haven't seen in five years. That doesn't leave me much time to do anything else here other than relax. I reached out to some former colleagues but they are either busy or have disappeared, but hopefully I'll have some job lined up by the time I return, most likely teaching as I did before. Teaching is a safe bet because it only needs to be for this year before we move again probably. Then again, you never know when a good career opportunity will pop up, but my overall goal is to relocate to the US to take care of my elderly parents.

I would like to resume the gemcast, but I haven't got any microphone that's good enough. My analog headset for my phone is too noisy on my laptop to be usable, but I might test again later just to make sure. A USB headset like my old one probaly can be found in some shop in the city, so I will keep an eye out. Until then I'm trying to make up for it by writing to my gemlog more.