License to Go

It’s a while since my last post. Unfortunately, there was nothing exciting going on. Once you settled, everything becomes same ol’ and even new things turn out to be boring. Root beer floats turned out not to be as amazing as people here told. I should show Americans how Germans mix things up and give them some Spezi (Cola + Orange Soda) to try.
To fill a gap in my blog I’m going to tell an old story. It’s from the time I got my driver license. I was driving for the first time with my license, my dad and mom where passengers. I reached a traffic light which just turned red, and while we were waiting my dad told a story. My dad heard that story from a cab driver, for simplicity let’s call the cab driver Jan. My father told: “One day, Jan was waiting in his cab for costumers when he saw a shady man passing his cab and going to the first taxi in the line. The shady man and the driver from the first cab started to discus. The discussion became more and more heated. Soon, it didn’t looked like a simple discussion but a dispute. Jan thought that he had to do something or else that will end bad. He went to the two and said to the shady man:. Go - go”. I was wondering if the shady man will go or if he will pull out a big knife. My dad said: “Go, ... Soroosh go”. At that moment I realized that the traffic light turned green and the “Go - go” was not part of the story but my dad’s desperate attempts to make me drive. The traffic light had a perfect timing to make a fool of me.

PS: I don’t remember how the story with the shady man ended but he didn’t pull a knife.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying about Them Loving the Bomb

I have to think about the New Mexican people being proud on the nuclear bomb test in their neighborhood. In Germany, people wouldn't be proud if next to them nuclear weapons had been tested. They would be worried about all the radiations they would have. I read that on July 16, 1945 the first nuclear bomb was detonated in the "Trinity Site" and that was the beginning of the nuclear age in the United States. People here are proud of being at a place which marks the beginning of a new age instead being worried about radiation.
The beginning of the nuclear age in Germany was December 17, 1938 when Otto Hahn proofed nuclear fission in a experiment. It's interesting that to enter the nuclear age an experiment which fits on a table is enough in Germany while in the US a nuclear bomb, named "Fat Man", has to be detonated. Maybe, the reason for that is that the United States is bigger and has more population than Germany. I guess, after Otto Hahn performed the nuclear fission experiment, he told his college by speaking with him through the window: "Fritz, I have split nuclei. We are now in the nuclear age." Fritz answered with a simple: "Cool". Later that day, Fritz told everyone he knew the good news and so Germany knew in which age it was.
Here in the US, you can't let everyone know by speaking through your window. Here, you need something bigger, something much louder and something glaring like the sun - you need "Fat Man"

New Mexican

On tour again. This time a road trip to New Mexico. I drove with my housemate and two others. All with a PhD or at least in a PhD program and the four of us with a combined IQ of: don't know, don't care.
Our first stop was Santa Fe. There are a lot of historic buildings with the same look as in wild west movies. More interesting for me than Santa Fe is Los Alamos with the laboratories and supercomputers. Los Alamos is known by a lot of people because of the Manhattan project, the development of the nuclear bomb. Unfortunately, we did not have time to go to Los Alamos. Most probably, we wouldn't be able to see anything anyway. I don't think, they give a guided tour for someone with Iranian background.
Instead Los Alamos we hit the road to Carlsbad in south New Mexico. It was already dark and there was no light to shine our way - except the lights from the UFO over Roswell.
In Carlsbad we went to the "Caverns National Park". Last summer, I read Jules Verne's "Journey to the Midpoint of the Earth". I wondered if the caves would remind me that journey. The entrance to the cave is in front of an amphitheater and is not at all like the entrance on "Sneffels Jöckull" in the book. Even after going 700 feet down into the earth, it did not felt like in the book. Mostly, because the cave was full of people. Nevertheless, the huge cave is impressive.
Later that day, we went to "White Sands National Monument". Close to this monument is the "Trinity test area", the place where the first nuclear bomb was tested. People from that area are proud to have it in the neighborhood.
I wrote again too much. Therefore, I am going to shorten my report on the way back. Here, what we saw: Route 66, Las Vegas and snow storm.
Usually, I do not bring back souvenirs. This time I got a lot. Besides all the memories I got a lot of white sand on my shoes from the monument and after we passed out for more than 10 minutes in Roswell I got a mysterious implant in the back of my head. The implant feels weird again - I better stop now.

PS: Apparently, I need to made this post appropriate for general audiences (rated G; Altersfreigabe: ab 0) because of new German laws: After the aliens "invited" us on their space ship, we played hide and seek. It was fun.

L.A. Exposed

Yet, another report from the road. This time, I was in the beautiful city of Los Angeles. A friend of mine asked me to visit him in California.
LA has a lot of nice beaches. Although, the weather was perfect for someone from Germany, I decided not to swim. Because, I saw the pacific the very first time and it was the first ocean I saw in my life, I tipped my toes into the water. For the pacific, my toes were not enough, so a wave made sure that also the rest of my body felt the water.
Beside the beaches we went to UCLA, Hollywood, hiking. We got kabab wasted and I got a first class coma-i soltani afterwords.
At the end I almost stayed in LA. I arrived at LAX less than 30 minutes before my flight and almost couldn't check in. But, with a lot of running I caught my flight. Looking back this was maybe the most funny part, at least it was the most exciting.

That's it for today from Uncle Soroosh :)

Identity

People keep asking me if I have settled in Denver and how life is in US compared to Germany. Well, as I said before, life is still life except it is totally different. I get more used to the habits of the people here.
The official stuff is almost all done thus I don't have my driver license yet. But, I got my instruction permit and it has a heart on it. In the US they have the name directly under the photo in contrast to German passports where they have the name of the state which issued the passport under the photo. In my case it is "Freie Hansestadt Bremen". My bank counselor didn't realized that. That is why he wrote instead my name "Freie Hansestadt". Yeah, that is the story from the time I became a free hanseatic city.
At work, I changed my desk. It is still in the basement and I still don't have a window but now I have a telephone. The only problem now is that people don't understand what I am talking about - and I don't understand what they are talking about. Fortunately, that is not always the case.
That's it for now. I will try to keep my blog updated. There will be a lot more to tell.