home to Tehran

I've been away for just over a month, and today's the first day back at work, ouch!

I spent about a week in Istanbul with the friends that I mentioned, and it was just the best thing that's happened to me in a very long time. Being able to speak my own language without consideration for the ability of the listener was something that I didn't know I missed. It turns out that my accent has changed - my r's are more American I'm told. I guess it comes with modifying my every day speech.

We went to Gallipoli, and that's something I won't forget. You grow up hearing about this place, you read books about it, watch the movie etc. I always knew I'd go 'one day', but I didn't expect it to be now. I'm so, so glad I went. I'll try to write some more about that later on.

Suddenly the week was over. I packed my bag and headed off to the bus station (the right one this time) and started the looooong journey home.

I arrived in Tehran at about 5am, went home and crashed for a dew hours. I cleaned up and then I got a phone call from a girl who lives in the dorms. She asked me to go with her to stay with her family over the persian new year period. So I picked up my backpack again and jumped on a bus at 6pm for another 12 hours on the road.

Piranshahr is a Kurdish town about 10kms from the border of Iraq. In fact, I can say that I've seen Iraq now, but don't worry, I didn't go there. Strangly enough, it looks just like Iran. Who knew?

I saw a Kurdish wedding, which is a whole lot different to a western wedding for sure. I dressed in Kurdish clothes, and danced Kurdish dances to Kurdish music. I'll try to get the photos and show you all. I stayed with the family for 2.5 weeks. By the end of it I was going a little crazy because it's a lot more conservative out there. I was covering a lot more often and I only left the house 5 times or so in the whole time I was there. Only the girl spoke english, so I was very isolated.

My friends ended up driving to come and rescue me. They picked me up and we spent a couple of days travelling some more through western Iran and then finally back to Tehran again. I spent the last week of the holiday at their apartment, which was wonderful.

And now here I am. It's the first day back at work, and of course the office is empty. I think the boys will be back tomorrow.

It's not long now til I finish up here in Iran. I don't know what I'm going to do next, although I have some ideas. I guess we'll see. But for now I'm just settling back into the routine of everyday life here.

Miss you all.