Welcome!
I’m so glad you’re here! This site is about discovering new places or revisiting old spaces with “new eyes.”

​What does it mean to have “new eyes”? To me, it means
​

• Seeing things from a new perspective
• Changing how we view something or someone
• Looking at something in a whole new way
• Being enlightened by a new insight
• Having new understanding of something or someone we thought we already knew

The French writer Marcel Proust talked about it when he said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not of seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
 
But “Having new eyes” doesn’t necessarily happen when we’re on a voyage, traveling to new places, or crossing cultures (although it often does). It can happen wherever or whenever we try to maintain an open spirit, a teachable heart. And sometimes it happens even when we don’t!
 
In any case, it can be pretty amazing, exciting, or surprising to develop a pair of “new eyes,” It happened to me when I left America and lived for a period in Iran. I invite you to read on and follow my story and personal journey of discovery. I wrote about it in case you’d like to know!

Meet the Author Side of Me

who has written
Road Between Two Hearts: A Black American Bride Discovers Iran

(To be published soon: Stand by for details)

Falling in love with a man from Iran, marrying him, and following him to his country was never part of “the plan” that I—an American, Black American, and Christian—had imagined for my life. Had you told me in my young adult years that I would make such a choice,
​I would have laughed in utter disbelief.
 
And yet that’s exactly what I did.
 
Those four years in Iran filled me with a lifetime of memories: experiencing my husband in a new light; coming to know his family and people; learning the language, landscapes, and local customs; teaching at the university; raising small children.
 
Some parts I remember left me uplifted; others left me shaken to my very core. But I feel privileged to have experienced the things I did—to have been touched, or challenged, or changed by them— and excited to share my journey with you. You can read about it in my blog, my newsletter, my social media and my upcoming book. Hope you'll decide to join me!
 
​ --Leslie Powell Ahmadi

Finally, this website is for anyone interested in reading or learning about the following topics:

• Intercultural understanding
• Understanding cultural differences
• Crossing cultures
• Cross-cultural understanding (or intercultural understanding)
• Cross-cultural communication (or intercultural communication)
• Cross-cultural relations (or intercultural relations)
• American/Iranian relations (or Iranian/American) relations
• Interfaith relations
• Interfaith communication
• Travel memoirs
• Memoirs of Americans living in Iran
• Travel memoirs of Black Americans
• Memoirs of Black Americans traveling abroad
• Traveling Black