Thursday, September 22

[soid]

Woke up at 8:45am, the first alarm, then one blink of an eye and it was 9:25. I pushed myself to get up. Remember, I was a kid, and I couldn't push myself to get up? Now I'm a grown up.

10-11:30am Modern Middle East lecture. Religion and social trends in the Ottoman Empire. Then some Iran. Iran was more interesting. They are similar to the Ottomans, but also opposed them in many ways. They are Shia (vs Sunni in the Ottoman Empire), politically very decentralized, and weak in many ways – in the 19th century. Also very large, starting from the Russian borders in the North, India to the East (no Pakistan yet), the Ottomans to the West, and the sea to the South. The name Iran came later; they were called Qajars.

Working on Topology homework, then Office Hours with Prof Kh. He seems nice, and we even spoke Russian. We discussed limit points in I^2 and then I asked some more questions about the homework. He asked if I "was from Soviet Union". I didn't hear this question in this form yet. He looked a bit uneasy about speaking Russian when other students were around.

Then I got a quick lunch: tortas from a food truck on the Broadway. Damn it was big. But kind of nicer than in Mexico. There were tomatoes, and even avocados. Not only cabbage, like the 50 cents tortas in Mexico. But too big. I should rather eat sushi or a cup of soup.

2:40-4pm Topology. It starts getting interesting. The homeomorphism between an infinite product of discrete topologies and the Cantor's set is exciting. I should look into it more carefully. Seems like another way of understanding the real numbers (Dedekind cut is my favorite).

4-5pm finishing the homework. Then reading some Hourani about Politics of Notables. Basically, we don't have good sources to write history from. We write a history about notables. Then it goes into who were the notable of the Ottoman Empire. Quite boring reading.

6:30-9pm Screening a Serbian documentary called the Graduates at the Harriman Institute. The creator Dušan Gajić and the film directory introduced the movie, then we watched the film. It turned out pretty engaging, and reminded my dirt poor childhood in the 90s. I guess Russia was not as politically disturbed as Serbia though.

Then we had a lively discussion with the creators. It's a nice movie, and nice form of telling a personal story; inspired. It generated a lot discussion about how dare you tell a story of a country from so personal perspective, how could you not include this and that. I kind of liked it. It's the kind of story you can hear from knowing a Serbian person; you know it's complicated, but you still value it for its personal touch. Serbia is defined more by resentment rather by anything else; like Russia.

Then we went home with B. I cooked a small dinner cause we both overate at lunch. Leftover portion of soup, bit of couscous, a sausage, quick salad. I was telling her about recent Russian news, and mobilization, and then I looked into my military document and it says "soldier; ready for service with limitations". I was thinking I would be freaking out now if I was living in Russia.

Some Valheim: I just died carrying an egg to the mountain, and I was trying to move the portal. Now need to sail to that location. Damn. Turned it off till later.

Bed around 2am.