Family

Another week passed under the bridge.

This weekend was strange, but a lot of fun all the same. I spent Thursday morning trying (unsuccessfully) to get myself organised with work and washing. In the end, I threw it in, jumped into a taxi and headed to Sepehrs.

We ended up going to Halle (Auntie) Zhila's place for a girls night. Sepehr came too, he seems to have a free pass to these sorts of things. So of course I was surrounded by women, doing what women all over the world do best - talk.

All night long, gab gab gab, it was a lot of fun. I met more Aunties, Beji was there, cousins - it was all happening! I can follow the conversation sometimes, but for the most part it turns into white noise, so I sit staring at the telly or mindlessly eating the fruit :P

The cousins took me under their wing eventually, and with Sepehr's help, we ended up having a good old chinwag. We stayed the night there.

Next day we headed to Beji's for breakfast. We had that glorious tribute to Iranian cooking, Kalle Pache (boiled sheeps head). After my attempt at eating that in Shiraz, I baulked at doing it again. I was begged to 'just try' the intestine, but I decided not to! I even got a 'but you're an AIESECer, you should be open to new things' guilttrip, but I stood firm. The smell was soooo bad! I stuck to a more traditional breakkie of bread eggs cheese etc.

Another day spent doing not much. We chilled out for a while, smoking shisha in the backyard. Finaly heading home, we did officially not much until I grabbed a taxi back to Tehran this morning.

Now I'm home, even though it's 1.30pm, because the Faculty internet is being disagreeable, and most of my work needs email today.

I'm missing home a lot lately. I keep closing my eyes and wishing as hard as I can that when I open them, I'll be sitting at Cibo Rundle St with a Grande skinny Latte and Lauryn.

My adventure to Karaj on Sunday was quite eventful, by the way. Once I made it to Engelab Sq, I jumped on the rapid transport bus, then promptly missed my stop. It's so strange lining up at the women's gate to catch the bus, but it's nice to be seperated, as will become evident shortly.

I got to the metro station, found out my card had run out of charge, had a helpful old man assist me to recharge it, had a helpful young man direct me to the right platform, then jumped in the (optional) women's carriage to Sadigieh station.

Once I was there, I had to change to another train, which was fine. I jumped through the nearest doors at sat down. The man opposite me kept looking, looking, looking at me. Finally, he worked up the courage to talk to me. In very stilted english, he kept asking about where I come from, (it's easier to say Sydney in these cases), why was I going to Karaj, what did I do, do we use bicyles in Australia, do I like soccer etc etc. I think any sentence that he knew, he just threw it out there.

I answered in short sentences, careful not to make too much eye contact (if you do, it means, yes, I want you, you big hunk). The other guys in the carriage were rolling their eyes and feeling a bit sorry for me I think.

Finally I arrived at the station, and my new friend followed me. i got on the escalator, only to find his arm around my waist! I took a step up, but he followed. Another step up, but the arm didn't move! Finally I got up to the top and did the bolt. He followed me out to the carpark, where thankfully Sepehr was waiting for me! As soon as the guy saw Sepehr, he did the bolt himself!

Lesson: ride in the women's carriage!!

Rad o Bargh

Thunder and lightening!

Autumn has arrived a week early. I wish you could be here with me right now - I've never heard thunder so loud in my life! It rattles windows and teeth, it makes you feel like you're 5 years old, making a 'nest' out of every doona and blanket from the linen cupboard.

My totally unscientific theory is that the sound echoes off the MASSIVE Alborz mountains, making it doubly loud, but I'm probably wrong.

Two weeks since my last post. I'd say life is going on as usual, but that's not quite right. I spent a great deal of time thinking about how my work is going, how I'm going here in Iran. After some harsh words to myself, I'm doubling my efforts in every area. Near enough isn't good enough here, no Sir.

So work is a lot more intense now, I'm spending a lot more time in the office, and I'm pleased to notice that my output has skyrocketed. Something about elbow grease...?

My personal life is still great fun. I'm (BOOM!!) (Oh gosh it's pouring now!!) I spent the weekend just gone with Maryam and Bahar on Wednesday night, and Mojdeh and Mohammad on Thursday night/Friday. I went to two different parties, chilled out, watched two awesome movies (Go rent 'Before Sunrise' then get 'Before Sunset' - amazing.) All too soon it's Saturday again and I'm back in the office. Tomorrow is Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. Well, actually today is the end of Ramadan, but you get what I mean. It's a public holiday, so I'm off to Sepehr's tonight. His whole family is getting together at Beji's place (Beji is the coolest, most young-at-heart grandma I know). So much Iranian food and fun to be had, I'm sure.

(hehe, I can hear all the Professor's kids downstairs screaming and laughing at all this noise).

My Farsi is coming along, it seems to go in fits and spurts. Some days I trip over how to say 'good thanks' when someone says 'Khoobi?' (Should I say 'khoobam' or 'chetori'?). Other days (and more now than ever) I can sit in someone's kitchen and almost follow the conversation, even if I can't contribute past 'bale' (yes) or 'kheili khoshmarzast' (it's delicious).

hmmm.

Well I just got off the phone to Sepehr-jan, and because it is far too dangerous to be driving in this weather, I am going on a public transport adventure after work. I have to drop in on a girl who lives in the dorm to help with some english stuff, then away I go.

Taxi to Engelab Sq, then BRT bus west toward Azadi. Then Metro to Sadigieh (?) until the last stop, where Sepehr will be there waiting.

(sorry for all the detail - that is mostly there for Bastian and David ;) )

Well, the day's got away from me now, it's 4pm. Just an hour of work left then high-ho Silver...Away!

Well that's another weekend over. They seem to go so quickly!

It's 8.30am, I should start getting ready for work, but I'll get to that in a minute.

This last week has been quite uneventful. After Floor's departure, we settled into a new routine, where the awesome foursome spent the whole time looking around for the missing wheel.

Sadly, Renee goes home tomorrow, leaving the awesome threesome (yeah, it doesn't rhyme) to become the terrible two.

We spent the weekend at Sepehr's place again (I think this is well and truly my second home, and my second family). Our plan was to see the museums etc in Tehran before Renee left, but unfortunately she became quite ill, so we headed to Sepehr's instead.

We became couch potatoes - watching movies allllll day and doing nothing. Was good for the soul :) Iftar was the best thing about the whole day though - I hadn't eaten/had water in about 18 hours (I couldn't sleep the night before, so I had breakfast at 2.30am...don't ask).

I don't know what's going on, but my body-clock is definitely out of whack. We got into Tehran at about 8.30 yesterday morning, which was fine, but I was exhausted because I'd barely slept the night before. So I lie down for a 20 minute power nap before getting ready for work and guess what? I woke up at 1.30 this morning.

That's 17 hours of straight sleep. (And a missed day of work grrr). It was so stupid. So there I am, at 1.30am, wondering what the hell to do! I tried going back to sleep, but it didn't work, funnily enough. So I've been up since then, doing not much.

It's Renee's going away party tonight, so that should be good fun. Then HOPEFULLY I'll be able to get a decent night's sleep.

any tips for getting good sleep is well appreciated.

xoxo Khodafez

Ramadan and goodbye

Ramadan Mubarak!

It's the beginning of the lunar month of Ramadan, the month where Muslims around the world fast between dawn and dusk.

I'm doing it too :) It involves waking up at 4am to eat a good breakfast (called Suhoor), and finishing off a litre of water or so. If you like, you can go back to bed - the more industrial folks start their day from there.

Then it's no food, water, smokes, sex or anything else until after sunset. Then it's time for Iftar - the breaking of the fast. Traditionally begun with three dates and a glass of water, the practice has evolved into big family gatherings with crazy amounts of delicious food.

So what's my experience so far?

This is only the second day, but I'm enjoying it so far. There was a fair sense of community in the dorms yesterday morning, there were a lot of girls all up together cooking breakfasts. The day went well, I didn't do too much, so I didn't notice anything really different. As it got closer and closer to 8.30pm, when I knew I could break the fast, I got hungrier and hungrier!

I bought some dates from a street seller, in preparation. I was still out in the main street of Karaj looking at perfume (of all things, and not for me!) with Sepehr, Floor and Renee. Sepehr asked the fellow if the time was over, and he said it was. Then he called his friend over and asked him to get me some tea!

So I found myself standing in the street, being given tea, croissant, chocolate cream (yum!), bread and dates. It really was lovely, and very unexpected!

This morning's Suhoor was eaten in the car on the way to the airport. We had to drop Floor there so she could catch a 7am flight home to the Netherlands. Floor's an amazing girl, she really had an impact on all of us. Thankfully, she is returning to Iran in about 3 weeks, to continue working with AIESEC, mainly focusing on External Relations. With luck, I'll be sharing a dorm with her, and that will be perfect.

Dear Renee goes home next Monday also. This is the true peril of AIESEC - we send people all over the world in order for them to get to know each other, and then the internship ends and we send them home!! It's a heartbreaker every time, but knowing I'll see most of them again next year in Germany (woot) makes a massive difference.

Well, I'd better drag my thirsty butt back to work.

xoxo

Office Party (we wish)

Saman (my boss) left to Malaysia for International Congress, AIESEC's largest conference of the year. So while he is meeting all these wonderful new people, (including my friends!), experiencing new cultures, and learning a whole bunch of cool stuff (nah, it's cool, I'm not jealous), we are left behind in the office.

Last weekend was spent at Sepehr's place, doing approximately bugger all. It was so good to just chill out. We watched movies, ate food, all that normal weekend stuff. It felt great! I met his parents, his sister and brother in law, his grandmothers and his auntie. Massive weekend of family time, which was really good, because I'm starting to miss my family a lot.

My language skills are improving slowly. I know more words than I can count on two hands, and can put little things together. It's mostly just words though, little snippets. Sara (Sepehr's sister) was telling a story, and I was so surprised to realise that I could understand it! My reading skills are still pretty crap, I just need a lot more practise. It's not at all helped by the fact that the vowels are invisible in Farsi. They don't write them, so you just have to 'know' if it's an 'ah' 'eh' or 'oh' vowel between the consonants.

The daily life stuff is pretty standard. Wake up, go to work, do stuff, go to bed. The evenings usually are filled with coffee shops (yay!) or visits to the park.

This weekend I am planning to lock myself in my room (did I mention my banshee-roomate has gone on holiday for 3 weeks?!) and work on my Training and Assessment qualification. If I don't have it done soon 'bad things will happen'.

That's enough for now. much love.

Another mad weekend

If you had visitors staying with you, and they wanted to see a bit more of the country, would you jump on a bus and go to Melbourne for the weekend??

We did.

Well, the equivalent in distance, anyway. On Wednesday evening we packed our sandwiches and spare undies then jumped on a bus to go to Shiraz, 13 hours away, way down in the south of Iran.

We had a great weekend, the five of us. Saman (Iranian), Sepehr (Iranian), Floor (Dutch), Renee (Dutch) and I.

Shiraz is an awesome little city. It's got the same laid back feel as Adelaide. It made me realise that there is a lot of indirect pressure in Tehran. You feel obliged to have the best clothes and the nicest hair. There are people always yelling, (taxi! taxi! Vanak! Vanak!), trying to stuff flyers in your hands, and you've all heard about the traffic. (I love Tehran and all it's craziness, trust me - I just didn't realise that Iran could be different until now).

So yes. We visited a massive garrison-like castle-looking thing (where's my history book?) of the Zand period.

I think the highlight of the trip was visiting Persepolis. It's the ruins of this kingdom, almost 2500 years old. It really is epic, and the history behind it is amazing. The whole kingdom was built by workers, not slaves. Everyone was paid. The kingdom united 23 different nations. The first Charter of Human Rights was written by the guy that built the place.

Alexander the Great had issues with the Persians, so he came and burnt the whole place down. So all that remains are these giant stone pillars - will upload pictures to FB soon if I have the chance.

The rest of the trip was pretty laid back. Other highlights include:

Eating sheep brain and eye for breakfast. Yep - they have these places called 'head cookers' where they boil sheep heads, and then you get to eat everything. I nearly vomited. The brain had the texture of cream cheese. Sepehr lied to me about what I was eating until after I'd eaten the eye. Bleuch.

Sneaking out to buy breakfast. We missed breakkie at the hotel, so we girls decided to get it for ourselves. (Normally we have our very well intentioned caretakers with us at all times). We found ourselves a bakery and bought fresh sangek (stone bread), then made friends with a shopkeeper and grabbed the rest (fetta, sour-cherry jam, mango juice etc etc).

Changing hotel rooms because there was something seriously wrong with the sewage, which made our entire room stink to high heaven... ugh.

Yes, must history annd hilarity to be had. The only downer the whole trip was on the last day, when Floor and I became terribly sick. We were both just so ill, and the bus trip did not facilitate any kind of recovery at all. But after sleeping it off for most of today, I think I'm good to go.

until next time, Khodafez

Synopsis of a weekend in Yazd

Here's a quick one just to let you know I'm still alive.

I spent the most amazing weekend in a town called Yazd, about 10 hours away by bus. (Would you go to Melbourne by bus for the weekend?)

The list of things we did is incredible - we slept for about 6 hours the entire weekend.

The briefest of highlights include:

-Wandering through a city, thousands of years old, mansions made of mud bricks

-Climbing a mountain with a Zoroastrian Towers of Silence atop them - where the Zoroasters used to leave their dead to be eaten by vultures

-Watching the sunrise over a desert, seeing camels in the distance, climbing and falling up sandhills, meeting my first Scarab (dung beetle)

-climbing the Shaking Minaret of another ancient mud brick city and getting stuck

-visiting the Zoroastrian equivalent of Mecca and being questioned by Muslims to ensure we weren't there to convert

-seeing carpets that are older than Australia as we know it

~~

As I said - I'll give you the run down properly soon. Now, it's 2.45am and I am catching up on all the work that I should have done on the weekend.

Thanks to the dear Dutchies Floor and Renee, and dear Sepehr for the wonderful weekend.