Made it to Tehran, sans problems a few weeks ago. Things have been going well and the weather is great…I’ve been doing a lot of swimming lately, and my favorite place is the Simorgh hotel. They have the four nicest ladies working there…always asking if I need anything and making sure I can make it back home ok. There isn’t hardly anyone there during the week and I pretty much have the place to myself. Which is sweet, cuz once you get one other Persian in the pool, the order goes to the sky;) The other day I was swimming laps, and this one girl comes in and starts swimming perpendicular to me…unawares, I ended up running into her. Then a third girl came in, and the genius started swimming diagonally across the pool. Mumbling wonderful words under my breadth, I started swimming in circles;)
Went to school with my aunt one day..she teaches chemistry to high schoolers. The girls were adorable and absolutely went crazy when I came…I spent the morning in the gym talking and playing badminton and ping pong. As soon as I’d walk out into the courtyard, the girls in the classrooms would see me and start screaming and run out, grab my arm and shove me into their room…at which point the teacher would shoo me out. It was pretty crazy…I couldn’t stop them they literally shoved me along. Nice girls though and we had a long conversation where they questioned me about the US and what I thought about Iran. It’s an all girls school where they have to wear chadors to school, and even though there are no men in the place, they still have to wear scarves in class (I was told to get them used to it??) They told me it wasn’t a big deal for them at all though and they were really used to it. They were very curious about school and hw in the US, how much make up girls wear, what movies/music I like, and which place I thought was better. I had a lovely Eman moment while playing badminton where I did a skillful fall flat on my face after going after the birdie and tripping over some box on the ground and crashing into the wall. Not bragging or anything but I think it would have earned me a 10 at the Olympics. They were pretty worried about me after that and didn’t leave me alone much;) After one of the other chem. teachers found out I was also a chem. major, she went off on a 10 min speal really fast in farsi about chem. in Iran, and then she asked me if it was the same in the US, and I was like “uhh…ozmikham?” she was a little annoyed, so I just said “are are, chemie tuye amrika mesle injust”…she wasn’t very satisfied. She then asked me to read some chemistry paper in English, and then had me sit and listen to her try to read it, which was hilarious and I was biting my lip very hard trying not to laugh. Another hilarious thing is how they pronounce IBprofen….I made my aunt say it about 20 times the other day and I was rolling on the floor crying my eyes out….”ibb booo pruuuu feeeeen”said really fast and with a thick accent. I have to capture it on video for yall. Ridiculously hilarious. My aunt then said, “eman jan, man sarma khordam, maghkse man kar mikone uncorrectly” which sent me back rolling on the floor. I can’t be too harsh though, my Persian is nowhere near to perfect. I’ll leave the details out=)
Today is the first day of Nowruz, or Persian New Year and I’ve never seen Tehran like this before. It’s amazing….a city of roughly 15 million with horrible traffic/drivers, is deadly silent. The streets are empty and it’s so peaceful. The weather is beautiful sunny and in the 60-70s, and you can look up the tree lined vali-e-asr street by my aunt’s house and see the snowcapped mountains. Gorgeous. The past week has been full of people scrambling around shopping like during xmas. Wednesday night was chahar shambe souri which is where people out in the streets explode fireworks and jump over bonfires in the streets. A few days before I saw a boy no more than 5 warming up with one that shot fireworks about 20 ft….he was kheyli shaytoon and instead of shooting them into the air, started shooting them off horizontally and almost hit two girls walking farther down the sidewalk.
After the past month and half of horrid nescafes, I am spoiled with one of the best coffee shops I’ve ever been to. Amazing espresso that without fail keeps me up to 4 am. It’s soo good, and those of you who know me will be shocked to know that its so good I can drink it without adding sugar;) yes, it’s quite a feat;) anyhoo, my dad comes in a few days, and it’ll great to have my laptop finally…and see him of course=) hope yall are doing well…send me some emails…and for those of you wondering why I’m ignoring your facebook messages, facebook is blocked in Iran, sorry;(
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Cairo
After arriving in Cairo, Louise and I headed to a koshary place…it’s a popular dish here that isn’t too bad. Rice and lentils on the bottom with some macaroni noodles added on top, covered with a tomato sauce and fried onions. You can add hot sauce or a garlicky vinegar to it. Interesting combo that is actually quite tasty. Our hostel is on the roof of this old building and there are chairs/tables right outside our room to sit outside and enjoy. It’s nice to get away from the crowded, noisy streets below. Like Tehran, car horns are an essential for driving here;) We’re right in the center of town and have lots of fun crowded streets to walk around at night. Tons of coffee shops, cheap restaurants, pastry shops, and Louise’s favorite-yummy ice creamJ
Headed to Giza and the pyramids one day….amazing. A guy named Mohammed (surprise;) helped us get there and back super cheap. He invited us to the tourist shop where he works at after we were done at the pyramids. The pyramids were huge…it was crazy how the city just sprawled out all the way to the foot of the pyramids practically. The sphinx was cool also, though not as big as I had envisioned…at the base of the pyramids it looked rather puny. Considering they were built around 2000 bc though, they were incredible. There were lots of locals there when we went, and surprisingly we had tons of people coming up asking if they could take their picture with usJ weird…we even had girls taking their boyfriend’s picture with us, which was just downright creepy. I credit it to Louise’s beautiful blond hair, and kept telling her we asked for a small fee, we would be rich=) Met this absolutely adorable little girl selling souvenirs, and it turns out her name is Eman also!! I told her we had the same name, which she got a kick out of….she got a huge surprised face, then a ginormous smile and then started giggling. Cutest little girl….her friends came up too and started talking and they were super cute kids….took some pics with them and ended up buying some stuff from them. Cute as a button;)
Kept getting asked if we wanted a camel/donkey/horse ride…finally I started joking with one of the guys and told him I was just a poor university student. He cut the price in half, and I told him sorry but I have no money expecting that he would leave us alone. He then told me he would give me a ride as a gift. After I ditched all my stuff off on Louise and ensured that it was a free gift, I hopped on the horse. Started galloping pretty fast and I got freaked….he then offered to take me over the hills to get some drinks and make me happy….yeah, pretty much flipped out at this point and was like “crap, what did I do?!” I kept rejecting this idea profusely and finally he took me back to the road. He then asked what gift I would give him….I literally had nothing on me and told him I had nothing. He pointed to the ring on my finger and said, “what about that?” The guy had balls….I lied and told him it was my wedding ring and my husband would kill me if I gave it away...he laughed at this and after trying a few more times he finally gave up and rode off dejectedly. Man, it’s gonna suck traveling when I’m older and can’t pull off the poor little student thing;)
Went over to Mohammed’s shop afterwards and had some tea. Turned out to be a really nice kid and told us a lot about Egypt and his life and such. Told us not to buy anything in the store as it was extremely over priced;) He helped us get on a local bus back to our hotel. The next day we went to the Egyptian Museum which is absolutely packed full of stuff….and tourists;) pretty cool to see all the stuff they have…the cute little knick knacks were my favorite, and they even had cloth that was preserved pretty well. They had a room full of animal mummies which was pretty crazy as well. Egyptian script is sooo cool. At night we met up with Nathan (who we had met in Petra) and Mohammed. We tried to get into the Cairo Jazz Club, but found probably the only place in Egypt that has rules that they actually stick to…apparently you have to be 25 to get in. Took a felucca ride along the Nile, then headed to an excellent restaurant for dinner and walked back near to our hotel and had some shisha and an amazing yogurt/honey/milk drink called Zabadi. Talked a lot to Mohammed about life in Egypt and it was cool to hear his views on life…..he got a degree in mechanical engineering but can make more money working in the tourist craft shop. He told me about how most Egyptians didn’t support the government and wished it would be more like Iran in terms of sticking up to the west. He also told me that most Egyptians were aware of a lot of corruption in the government, but didn’t want to do anything drastic so they didn’t do anything about it. We walked by the building where an Egyptian writer wrote the books that he won the Nobel Prize for. He also told me about how he wouldn’t drink any alcohol but he had tried drugs “because the Holy Quran doesn’t say anything about not doing drugs.” I love his logic…of course Allah would approve of us getting wasted; it’s soo much better than drinking a glass of wine.
The next day we walked, and we walked, and we walked…saw Abdeen palace, the citadel, al-azara park, and khan-el-khalili market. You could see the pyramids at giza from the citadel which was pretty cool. Al azara park was beautiful…it was like a little mini US park in the middle of Cairo. It was clean, (with garbage cans!!), lots of plants and well groomed, quiet and clean air with a few restaurants with good food. Had a young guy as our waiter who was really nice at first and was trying to teach me Arabic and wanted to learn English. Things got pretty bad though after he kept trying to get us to hang out with him after work and we (as in Louise bc I played the “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say role) kept refusing as politely as possible. He came back about 4 times and kept saying “so I’ll see you at 5 when I get done?”..the kid would not take a hint. Finally we had to flatly refuse him, at which point he got pissed and was really rude to us. The kid had it coming.
There is one thing in Egypt that I find absolutely appalling/intriguing. They get people’s attention (whether it be a waiter, or a girl passing by) by hissing. It is extremely and amazingly effective…I have no clue how it came to be so prominent. But it infuriated me after a few days bc walking by guys and getting hissed at isn’t necessarily the best feeling. Walking the streets in tiring, as you have to pay attention to the crazy drivers, uneven side walks, and avoid eye contact with guys. Louise and I had fun roaming the streets and laughing at the horrible fashion sense. The girls were wearing the most hideous outfits known to man. Lots of ugly patterns with pinks and purples and sparkles and fuzzy fringes and weird triangular cut shirts….as Louise put it, any one item of their clothing was way over the top, but they made it 100 times worse by have crazy shoes, pants, shirts, scarf and purse at the same time. We’re talking like striped bright colored shirt, with leopard print pants, huge silvery shiny purse, bright pink patterned scarf and funky shoes….hideous. It was good though, because at least it kept us from spending money on clothes;)
My last day in Egypt we went to Ma’adi and met Nathan and he showed us around town. Ma’adi is a nice suburb of Cairo where most of the expats live. The place was full of French people. There was a little grocery store that had tons of stuff from home like Nature Valley bars, gushers, and cereal. Louise and I were amazed. Gave Uncle Abby a call and he had his driver pick us up and we met him at his office. He then took us out for an amazing dinner in a restaurant on the Nile, where we ate tons of delicious appetizers and he sneaked in a few crazy ones like liver and friend brain….He was kind enough to let us crash the night at his place. It was great seeing him after so long…had me thinking of the good old days of driving around parking lots in my saab and *somehow* busting the engine, Arman “driving” Gina’s stick shift golf and looking like a fool in front of the police, sleeping from 5 am to 11 am and playing sims, going to the grocery store and making chocolate dipped strawberries at 1 am, driving crazy uturns in florida, the “bouncy ball” breaking the glass oven and walking through the drive in at Taco Bell at 2 am. Ahhh, good times.
Headed to Giza and the pyramids one day….amazing. A guy named Mohammed (surprise;) helped us get there and back super cheap. He invited us to the tourist shop where he works at after we were done at the pyramids. The pyramids were huge…it was crazy how the city just sprawled out all the way to the foot of the pyramids practically. The sphinx was cool also, though not as big as I had envisioned…at the base of the pyramids it looked rather puny. Considering they were built around 2000 bc though, they were incredible. There were lots of locals there when we went, and surprisingly we had tons of people coming up asking if they could take their picture with usJ weird…we even had girls taking their boyfriend’s picture with us, which was just downright creepy. I credit it to Louise’s beautiful blond hair, and kept telling her we asked for a small fee, we would be rich=) Met this absolutely adorable little girl selling souvenirs, and it turns out her name is Eman also!! I told her we had the same name, which she got a kick out of….she got a huge surprised face, then a ginormous smile and then started giggling. Cutest little girl….her friends came up too and started talking and they were super cute kids….took some pics with them and ended up buying some stuff from them. Cute as a button;)
Kept getting asked if we wanted a camel/donkey/horse ride…finally I started joking with one of the guys and told him I was just a poor university student. He cut the price in half, and I told him sorry but I have no money expecting that he would leave us alone. He then told me he would give me a ride as a gift. After I ditched all my stuff off on Louise and ensured that it was a free gift, I hopped on the horse. Started galloping pretty fast and I got freaked….he then offered to take me over the hills to get some drinks and make me happy….yeah, pretty much flipped out at this point and was like “crap, what did I do?!” I kept rejecting this idea profusely and finally he took me back to the road. He then asked what gift I would give him….I literally had nothing on me and told him I had nothing. He pointed to the ring on my finger and said, “what about that?” The guy had balls….I lied and told him it was my wedding ring and my husband would kill me if I gave it away...he laughed at this and after trying a few more times he finally gave up and rode off dejectedly. Man, it’s gonna suck traveling when I’m older and can’t pull off the poor little student thing;)
Went over to Mohammed’s shop afterwards and had some tea. Turned out to be a really nice kid and told us a lot about Egypt and his life and such. Told us not to buy anything in the store as it was extremely over priced;) He helped us get on a local bus back to our hotel. The next day we went to the Egyptian Museum which is absolutely packed full of stuff….and tourists;) pretty cool to see all the stuff they have…the cute little knick knacks were my favorite, and they even had cloth that was preserved pretty well. They had a room full of animal mummies which was pretty crazy as well. Egyptian script is sooo cool. At night we met up with Nathan (who we had met in Petra) and Mohammed. We tried to get into the Cairo Jazz Club, but found probably the only place in Egypt that has rules that they actually stick to…apparently you have to be 25 to get in. Took a felucca ride along the Nile, then headed to an excellent restaurant for dinner and walked back near to our hotel and had some shisha and an amazing yogurt/honey/milk drink called Zabadi. Talked a lot to Mohammed about life in Egypt and it was cool to hear his views on life…..he got a degree in mechanical engineering but can make more money working in the tourist craft shop. He told me about how most Egyptians didn’t support the government and wished it would be more like Iran in terms of sticking up to the west. He also told me that most Egyptians were aware of a lot of corruption in the government, but didn’t want to do anything drastic so they didn’t do anything about it. We walked by the building where an Egyptian writer wrote the books that he won the Nobel Prize for. He also told me about how he wouldn’t drink any alcohol but he had tried drugs “because the Holy Quran doesn’t say anything about not doing drugs.” I love his logic…of course Allah would approve of us getting wasted; it’s soo much better than drinking a glass of wine.
The next day we walked, and we walked, and we walked…saw Abdeen palace, the citadel, al-azara park, and khan-el-khalili market. You could see the pyramids at giza from the citadel which was pretty cool. Al azara park was beautiful…it was like a little mini US park in the middle of Cairo. It was clean, (with garbage cans!!), lots of plants and well groomed, quiet and clean air with a few restaurants with good food. Had a young guy as our waiter who was really nice at first and was trying to teach me Arabic and wanted to learn English. Things got pretty bad though after he kept trying to get us to hang out with him after work and we (as in Louise bc I played the “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say role) kept refusing as politely as possible. He came back about 4 times and kept saying “so I’ll see you at 5 when I get done?”..the kid would not take a hint. Finally we had to flatly refuse him, at which point he got pissed and was really rude to us. The kid had it coming.
There is one thing in Egypt that I find absolutely appalling/intriguing. They get people’s attention (whether it be a waiter, or a girl passing by) by hissing. It is extremely and amazingly effective…I have no clue how it came to be so prominent. But it infuriated me after a few days bc walking by guys and getting hissed at isn’t necessarily the best feeling. Walking the streets in tiring, as you have to pay attention to the crazy drivers, uneven side walks, and avoid eye contact with guys. Louise and I had fun roaming the streets and laughing at the horrible fashion sense. The girls were wearing the most hideous outfits known to man. Lots of ugly patterns with pinks and purples and sparkles and fuzzy fringes and weird triangular cut shirts….as Louise put it, any one item of their clothing was way over the top, but they made it 100 times worse by have crazy shoes, pants, shirts, scarf and purse at the same time. We’re talking like striped bright colored shirt, with leopard print pants, huge silvery shiny purse, bright pink patterned scarf and funky shoes….hideous. It was good though, because at least it kept us from spending money on clothes;)
My last day in Egypt we went to Ma’adi and met Nathan and he showed us around town. Ma’adi is a nice suburb of Cairo where most of the expats live. The place was full of French people. There was a little grocery store that had tons of stuff from home like Nature Valley bars, gushers, and cereal. Louise and I were amazed. Gave Uncle Abby a call and he had his driver pick us up and we met him at his office. He then took us out for an amazing dinner in a restaurant on the Nile, where we ate tons of delicious appetizers and he sneaked in a few crazy ones like liver and friend brain….He was kind enough to let us crash the night at his place. It was great seeing him after so long…had me thinking of the good old days of driving around parking lots in my saab and *somehow* busting the engine, Arman “driving” Gina’s stick shift golf and looking like a fool in front of the police, sleeping from 5 am to 11 am and playing sims, going to the grocery store and making chocolate dipped strawberries at 1 am, driving crazy uturns in florida, the “bouncy ball” breaking the glass oven and walking through the drive in at Taco Bell at 2 am. Ahhh, good times.
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