Class Cancelled


Morning Walk to Metro Station
MONTRÉAL, Canada
February 13, 2015

-10℉ = -23℃

Whichever the scale, it is so unpleasantly cold now in Montréal. The skies may be clear and blue with no threat of snow. But it is simply too frigid outside to make any commute into campus pleasant, even when I opt to make the journey by metro.

My afternoon course was cancelled today though not on account of weather. The professor is away attending a conference. It's nice to be able to return home early. Though, as I enjoy the subject matter (art and architecture of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires) I would have been happier to have stayed on campus for another lecture after my morning Persian course had that class not been cancelled.

The afternoon session that was cancelled is an art history course that focuses on works and architecture of the Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman Empires. From the Powerpoint presentations the teacher has presented yet far this semester I'd guess that I've seen in-person roughly 90% of the buildings depicted. Slides presenting Rumi's Tomb in Konya, the mausoleum of Hoja Ahmed Yasui in Turkistan, at least half of the city of Bokhara, and well over half the old city of Isfahan have all flashed up on the screen at the front of the classroom.

I wish I'd taken this class before traveling to those sites so would have had a fuller understanding of their background before I visited them all.