Hobbies

Outside of research, I’m into hiking, picking up new languages, watching all good movies under the sun, diving into history, experimenting and burning down the kitchen, and squeezing in some badminton. A short thesis about them:

• Movies. I’m a total movie fanatic—so much so that I dive into the Wikipedia-IMDB trivia for every film I watch. It’s a time-consuming hobby, but I love it, especially when I can drop movie references in conversations or “talk in movies.” I’m also smitten by the art of filmmaking and try to learn about different techniques whenever I can. Here is a list of my movie recommendations (needs updating!) across Farsi, French, German, English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Turkish, Italian, and more.

• Hiking. Back in the US, hiking wasn't really my thing. But Switzerland turned me into a full-blown hiking junkie. With trains that actually run on time and endless breathtaking Alpine trails, I've been completely spoiled. Now, I'm outdoors every weekend and currently clocking 22 hikes. My goal? To tick off 50 by next year and explore every Swiss canton along the way.

• Learning languages. As a matter of fact, as I dove into more and more movies, I found myself falling in love with different cultures and languages. This sparked a passion for learning new tongues, with French captivating me the most for its sheer elegance and mellifluence. Now I'm at a comfortable B1-B2 level being able to confidently chat with native speakers and aiming for full fluency by next year. After that, I'm setting my sights on Farsi and Italian.

• History. Just like with movies, I'm a total history buff. Why? Well, as the clichéd saying goes, history tends to repeat itself, and diving into those patterns seems to me like uncovering hidden treasures. I might sound like a hopeless romantic—because I am! Lately, I've been deep into Middle Eastern and American politics, but now I've caught the Roman bug. My next reads: SQPR, Caesar: Life of a Colossus, and Rubicon.

• Other. While I’m pretty skilled at Indian dishes, I’ve recently been testing my luck with Italian and Persian flavors. To balance out my love for this overindulging, I play badminton and volleyball. I’m a huge tennis fan (Federer is the only GOAT!), but truth be told my tennis and football skills are pretty hopeless!