Yoohoo! I am finally posting a post the day that it actually happened! Now maybe I’ll actually be able to remember things… Though don’t get your hopes up.

We begin the day by exploring the Underground City (which probably has a real name but you know me and names…). It was SO COOL. Basically we were crawling through all these tunnels and exploring all the rooms of this gigantic underground city palace thinger. There were many rooms and whatnot, but it definitely wasn’t for the faint of heart (i.e. the claustorophobic). All I could think of was how cool I would have found this place as a kid, seeing as it is the perfect place for little midgets to scamper around a explore. The only problem? It’s a giant maze and a nightmare for parents who wish to keep their children. The occasional random holes in the floors also provide some minor obstacles.

Anyway, very cool. We then go to this other valley where we get to go climb around and in some of the nearby cliff cave dwellings. So much fun, but again, not for the faint of heart (i.e. the acrophobic). I left covered in dust after crawling up tunnels and through windows and butt-sliding my way down the mountain (the preferred method of mountain descent for the experienced nature hiker).

For lunch, we head back to the same place we ate yesterday, but this time with our whole group in tow. The best part about this restaurant is the tree house like sitting area lined with cushions. In fact, we liked it so much that after lunch, a couple of us just leaned over and took a refreshing nap. At this point, we were supposed to be on the bus on our way to the pottery demonstration, but a few of us instead elected to stay behind and hold down the fort. You know, in case the cushions were to blow away or something. Humans = great cushion weights.

It actually turned out to be a great afternoon. Several of the people from the restaurant came a played music for us, recruiting the help from a few people from our group. After everyone else left, Stephen, Omid and I just ended up lounging about at this table for several hours. Actually now that I think about it, we were there 5 hours. Wow. But yes, we chillaxed and had deep conversations. We (and by we I mean Omid) befriended the restaurant owner and he ended up giving us a ride back to our hotel. What a great and relaxing afternoon :).

Once back at our place, we go to read some more of the Mesnavi before class/discussion. Unfortunately, my face is a bit of a pillow whore and forced me to sleep with the closest pillow victim.  So yeahhh, got about 4 more pages read. Whoops. Class lecture was once again very interesting as many of Rumi’s poems were explained in context.

After dinner, we all head back to the carpet shop where Ali, the verbose history lecturer of yesterday, graced us all with his bountiful knowledge and interpretations of the carpet designs. However, since the carpet market and my wallet do not operate on the same scale in monetary units, Ellen once again left the carpet shop empty handed.

Well, that concludes today! Not super eventful but very enjoyable, which is all that really matters, no?