home home home

That's right, I arrived at Adelaide airport at 8am on Monday morning.

Happy to be home, but really missing my life and friends in Tehran.

Will update a lot better soon, but at least you know where I am now :D

time is flying

It's the 19th of May - I leave Iran on the 29th of this month for my new adventure. I have decided where I'm going next and what I'll be doing there, but it's a secret :) I'll let you all know what I'm up to once I get there.

Things have been crazy here, as usual. I had a lot of trouble with work, and the trouble ended up with me not working for the organisation any more. But it's no real problem, because I now have a lot of free time for travelling and enjoying my last weeks here.

I went to a place in the east of Iran over the weekend, to Mashhad. Mashhad is a cool little city. It's main attraction is the Harem, a massive tomb complex all dedicated to, and housing the body of the 8th Imam of Shi'a Islam, Imam Reza. My friend and I had to don chadors (an all-encompassing sheet) to cover all of our bodies except our faces. We walked through the rooms and the courtyards, completely awed by the beauty of the place. We walked through the room where Reza is, watching the devout women scrambling desperatly to reach the golden cage that surrounds his body.

Women and men go there to petition Reza and to pray. People everywhere were reading Quran, praying, crying, and reflecting. It was a powerful sight, and it was strange to be there as an observer, quite disconnected from the emotions and feelings of everyone around us.

I'm back in Tehran now, with just 10 days to go. It's a scary thought, leaving here. I don't really want to. Tehran is my home now, I'm comfortable here, but I'm always learning new things about the culture and religion and politics and history and and and...

My next adventure is going to be awesome, I can't wait for that either. But it's best if I keep that one under my hat until I arrive.

Miss you all xo

Update

Things have been running along as per usual here.

I'm really busy at the moment, I'm focussing on training up Shayda to do a similar job to me, but on a different level. She's really capable, and I know she's going to do a great job at it. I still don't have anyone to take over from me, and it seems like it's a global challenge. National teams all over the network are having trouble filling positions.

It makes our jobs a little more stressful, because at the moment, I have no idea what will happen here after I leave.

Our team is having a few challenges, but nothing unexpected. I haven't seen my boss since February - he went away, then I went away, then it was new year. We're now two weeks into the new year and I still haven't seen him - we think he's on hiatus somewhere.

Apart from that, we had a great time the other night at Floor's birthday party. We danced and sang and ate cake. There were just the right amount of people in their tiny apartment - not too crowded, but not empty either. Iranians know how to have a good time :)

There's really not too much to add for now, I just wanted to say hi again. My term finishes in about 10 weeks, I still haven't guaranteed what I'm doing next, but I don't mind. I'll let you know when I do :)

Take care.

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.

Adventures continue!

Life is going alright over here.

I've been the only person on my team here for the last week or so, the boys are in Tunisia for a conference.

I'm taking a holiday in a few days. I'm waiting for an exit/re-entry visa. As soon as I get it, I'm literally on the next bus to Istanbul for a week or so. Some awesome friends of mine are all going to be there by some beautiful coincidence. That's the wonder of AIESEC all over again. The four of us have been in different parts of the world for this organisation (Pete - Turkey - internship, Robbie - Tunisia - conference, Jess - the whole world - everything) and we're all just rocking into Istanbul to say hi.

I need it too. I haven't seen a familiar face in 9 months. It doesn't sound thaat long but I'm a people person.

You might've heard that I was going to Jordan too. Plans have changed unfortunately, so I'm not going now. But that's fine, these things happen.

Other than the upcoming travel plans, things have been pretty quiet. Just getting on with things, watching our LC guys be awesome, we're struggling to find people to take up leadership roles, but I think that's a global problem these days.

Lots of love

Back from Conference

Our National Conference is already over! It came and went so quickly, I can hardly believe I'm back in Tehran already.

The conference was on Kish Island, down in the Persian Gulf. It's a small island with lots of things to see and do there.

We stayed in little villas, less than 5 minutes to the beach. I stayed up one night to watch the sunrise over the Gulf on one of the mornings - it was beautiful!

The conference itself didn't quite go as planned, but we still managed to give the delegates the main training that we wanted to.

Our AIESECers are all brilliant. They adapted to the changes realy easily, and they participated fully in the sessions. I know AIESEC Iran is in safe hands when we leave here.

Speaking of leaving here, I am in the middle of arranging my next two travel adventures. At the beginning of March, I'm going to Turkey to see some Australian friends, and then down to Jordan for an AIESEC Conference (MENAXPROs).

After my term ends in June, I'm heading back to Turkey (I'm in love with Turkey) for my internship. The main thing that AIESEC does is organise these exchanges, and I couldn't spend 4 years in this organisation and not do one myself. So I'll go to Bursa, which is about the distance from Istanbul as Clare to Adelaide, and teach English there until the end of November, when I will finally head home to Australia!

I can't wait. 2010 is already shaping up to be an interesting and adventurous year - it's going to be amazing to see what happens.

It's nice to think that I'll be home in 9 months or so. It's really not that long, and the best part is that I'll be home for Christmas!!

Sorry for the delay, guys, things have been hectic.

I'm in the middle of creating the Iran National Conference. It'll be 2-5 February, held on Kish Island, down in the Persian Gulf. It's going to be excellent. I have to find facilitators, create the agenda, the sessions - everything to do with the content of the conference. All the logistics stuff is being taken care of by our wonderful Organising Committee.

We've also had the MCP elections. (MCP = my boss). The current MCP was the only guy running for the next term, but he was not elected. So now we have opened up a second round, but it's going to be difficult to find someone else who is ready and willing to take the job on.

In other news, I've been really lucky to extend my social circles here lately. I've met a lot of Aussies, Brits and Scandanavians (Norwegians, Danes and Fins). I really don't know how we all met, but it's lovely to chat with people who are, or are almost the same as you :P

Other than that, life is pretty constant. I'm working a lot more because of the load, I'm still quite happy in my little dorm, and nothing else new has really happened.

I think I'm due for a holiday. In fact, I'm going to take one. Some friends of mine (Jess and Pete) will be, by some miracle, in Turkey at the same time, in early March. So we've planned to get together somehow, hang out, and head to Gallipoli while we're there. It's going to be amazing.

After Turkey, Jess and I are going to head down to Jordan, where this epic conference is going to be held (MENAXLDS). Jess is a faci, I'm just going as a delegate this time. I really can't wait. I'm considering going by bus, because it's cheaper, and that means I get to go through Syria, which would be cool.

Still no real idea on what's going to happen when I finish my term in June. I am investigating exchange opportunities in Central Eastern Europe, especially the Czech Republic. I might teach English for a while then head home to Australia. We'll see :)

I'll write some more when something interesting happens. xoxo