Beacon Rock Hike

Columbia River Gorge

Portland, City of Roses

International Day of Peace

The International Day of Peace occurs annually on September 21. It is dedicated to peace, or specifically the absence of war. The first year this holiday was celebrated was 1981. To inaugurate the day, the "Peace Bell" is rung at UN Headquarters. The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents. It was given as a gift by the Diet of Japan, and is referred to as "a reminder of the human cost of war." The inscription on its side reads: "Long live absolute world peace."

You see, I forgot it was my blog's birthday

Yesterday was my blog's birthday. I landed in America exactly one year ago on September 19, 2008. One year has passed and I have had such wonderful experience that not so many Iranians can have. I have learned so many things in this country. I want to thank everyone who has helped me through out this way and who has tought me something. I'm just happy and I feel I'm older as much as one year. Actually in this one year, I've learned things more than a regular single year. Living all alone by myself in a country far away from my homeland, among people with a different culture than mine, making many friends from all around the world, studying full time and working at the same time, all have been amazing and great.

Still there are several more years for me to go to reach my goals. I hope I will keep posting photos and things about myself wherever I will be in next years. At least I know, I will be in Portland for one more year but after that who knows. Hopefully, things will work out well and I will get into UC Berkeley. If this happens, then I will start my Berkeley Daily Photos and that would keep me busy for four more years. After that, I really don't know what I will be doing. My plan is looking for an academic job somewhere in the world, in Iran, Europe, Australia or in the US. There is still a long way to go.

By the way, happy birthday Portland Daily Photos! Thank you all for visiting, commenting and supporting. The above photo has been taken by one of my friends, Keivan, while he was visiting the city of Yazd, Iran. The photo shows inside of a traditional type of houses in desert regions of Iran.

Happy "Eide Fetr"

Eide Fetr (in Farsi) or Eid ul-Fitr (in Arabic) is a long day feast that marks the end of Ramadan. In the culture of Iran, Eid is a highly personal event. Charity is important in this day. Visiting the elderly and gathering with families and friends is also very common. Typically, each family gives food to those in need in this day. I've heard this year the amount of money that each person should donate is calculated to be $1.5. Let's assume half of the population of Iran (total population is 70 million) pay their donations. So at the end of the day, $52.5 million will be collected for charity.

Happy Rosh Hashana!

I would like to warmly congratulate Rosh Hashana, the new year, to my Jewish friends, specially Dina. I wish you a good year. May peace and love prevail on Earth.

According to Dina, "pomegranates are traditionally eaten for the first time at the Rosh Hashana table." We used to have a pomegranate tree in our garden back in Iran. "Anaar" is the Persian equivalent of pomegranate in English. Dina, how do you say pomegranate in Hebrew? We have the same tradition of eating pomegranate in Yalda night, one of our biggest feasts in Iran.
I took this photo from Flickr by searching Anaar to give you a bowl of Iranian pomegranate. Happy Rosh Hashana!

Good looking grandmoms

I was visiting the Rose Garden a few weeks ago when I saw two "good looking" old ladies. This is always amazing to me that some people, even when they are old, care much about how they look like and they try to wear as nice as possible. In our culture back home, wearing nice clothes is not that important specially when you are old. Of course young people wherever in the world care but not always old people. This is another good lesson from America for me. If you look good, you make other people around seeing you by chance feel good and happy. I hope I will care about this when I get old.

Japanese American Historical Plaza

Mount Jefferson

Mount Jefferson is the second highest mountain in Oregon. It was named in honor of US President Thomas Jefferson by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

My mom is leaving today :(

I think I was sad last night that I wrote such a long post. I may remove some parts of it. Today my mom is leaving back and I don't feel very good. It is as hard as when I was leaving to the US. Ah, I don't like "goodbye"s.

9/11

I was visiting Seattle with mom in the last few days. This is a photo I took from Seattle's sky. Not very related to 9/11 but it may remind the "looking up at the sky and seeing a skyscraper in fire and ash." I say "Rest in Peace" for all the victims of this tragedy and I hope we will never see any other mass killing in any place in the world.

Google's "Unexplained Phenomenon" Logo

Google's latest logo today features an image of a UFO with a link to the search term "unexplained phenomenon". I searched around the web but no one was sure what the story is behind this logo. I thought maybe this photo is proper for today. However, an "unexplained phenomenon" is not always in or from the space. There are many unexplained phenomenons on the earth or even in our social life. Well, maybe this photo is more suitable for July 20, the moon landing annivesary. Anyway, I hope you like it.

Oregon Air Show II: My Mom's Memories of War

An American may be proud of the US Army, the US Air Force, the US Navy and all the other military forces but what about my mom and me as non-Americans? It was the Oregon International Air Show. Many people were there to visit the "strength" of the US. Almost all of them seemed to be Americans. Mom and I were probably the only Iranians there; from the Middle East, a region full of foreign interferences and wars, one after another during its long long history. Sometimes I think this part of the world is a "war zone" for ever.

It was the time for the Air Force Thunderbirds show. I think it was a F-16 Falcon or maybe a F-14. I don't know exactly. A plane was approaching the croud. We could just hear a regular sound as other planes. Then it became closer and closer and its sound became louder and louder. The Falcon passed the croud and that was the time when people were holding their ears while smiling but my mom was holding her ears and crying. I saw tears in her eyes. Our burnt memories were lightened up after many years. My heart started beating faster and mom's tears began falling.

It was April 1988 in Tehran when an Iraqi war plane, a Falcon or a Phantom, dropped a bomb on our back street. Both the plane and the bomb were made in USA. The sound of the plane and the explosion wave broke all our windows. We hided in our underground basement. It was our shelter when we were attacked. Lightless and fearful. I was only 3 and my brother was 7 years old. He was just about to go to school and I was a little kid. We were held by mom's arms in darkness. Her arms were full of love and worriness. Dad was out at work. Phones were dead. After the red alarm went down, we ran out to the street. Mom just took a bag of my "baby supplies" and we were trying to get to a relative's house. People in the street were shouting at mom that why she is out with two kids at this time. We should find a safe place. Less than a month after that, we moved to Mashhad.

This time it was August 2009 in the US. I ask you Americans. Please stop your country exporting weapons, bombs, war planes, tanks, war ships and etc to all around the world. Please stop it, please. You may like your strength. You may smile at the sound of your war planes in a happy show in the US but we don't like them. We couldn't smile at them when they were dropping bombs on us. Please stop it. No one can bring peace to our world with war. Thank you.

Oregon Air Show I

The Oregon Air Show celebrated its 22nd year in 2009. This outstanding community event is one of the largest events in Washington County and draws an average of 65,000 people to Hillsboro each summer to see some of the best in aviation from all over the United States and Canada. Events are planned “around the family” all weekend long! http://www.oregonairshow.com/

Back to Portland: Pink Tower, Blue Sky, White Cloud, and A Dark Green Tree