well my last days in france have come to an end. arrived in iran last night and have been pleasantly surprised by some rain, which has thankfully cooled it off quite a bit...wasn't looking forward to the heat;) my last few days in france were very enjoyable....went to see the conciergeri and sainte chappelle...managed to get in free-I'm currently a eu student from england:) speak in french and then don't have to worry about the british accent...just lovely;) it made visiting museums very economical;) could skip the conciergerie..wasn't anything too special just the prison where mary antoinette and louis the 16th were held captive. but sainte chappelle was beautiful...has stained glass windows all around telling the story of the bible...unfortunately the tour was in french but Anne told me it is a very worthwhile tour. went to visit laetitia in nantes and then we drove through the beautiful loire valley to her new home in tours. it was a beautiful drive and thankfully the sky cleared up into a beautiful sunny day. stopped at a few castles (including one that gave the idea for sleeping beauty and which I had seen when I was about 5 years old during my first visit to france). I can see why so many people love to go biking through the loire valley...for the most part its flat with gently rolling hills and a river and greenery and trees everywhere...top it off with castles and wine and what else do you need??

spent my last night having dinner in a delicious french restaurant with jamileh and anne...the perfect way to end my trip:) salad with roquefort cheese and a delicious lite sauce, salmon with some sort of green veggie on top in a buttery sauce but the kicker is the side dish-mashed potatoey dish but with a special white cheese that made it gooey and creamy and downright heavenly...very healthy:) and filling but delicious. wish you were there arman...the guy at the table next to us reminded me of you...there was a bowl for three people and they finished that and he asked for another and he ate it all alone! it was a huge bowl too and very filling. stick thin too, which made me very jealous. then we shared three desserts which were out of this world....I definitely appreciate french culture....good food (especially cheese and dessert and bread;), good wine, and great company..what more could you ask for? plus the music and theater/opera scene and literary scene is very tempting.

when I arrived in iran I noticed something that I really enjoyed in france.....upon entering a store, you always say hello, and upon leaving thanks, bye. you wait your turn in line and are respectful to the others. in iran, it was like a mashpit with everyone shoving to get in "line" and off the plane, their bags, and then into the elevator...my aunt got into a fight with the man behind us in line as he claimed we "budged" but we had clearly been waiting there longer than he, but one of the elevators was out of order so we side stepped in front of him. even though he knew we had been waiting longer than him, he still continued to btch and groan a bit. i realize it's a different culture and all, but this, quite frankly, I can easily live without. I hate confrontation. and I hate rude people. and I hate people telling me what to do. but I guess that's just the way they are brought up. On the plane, I met a nice old lady who enjoyed talking but I was entertained so it was fun to listen. but the kicker is how i met her...I was putting my bag into the overhead compartment and when I got done and was going to sit down next to her, she says, "why don't you put your bag into this one" pointing to the bin above her head. thinking complacently in my head, "does it really matter where my bag goes lady??" I decided I wasn't in an argumentative or explainative mode so without saying a word I moved my bag 6 inches over so it would be in the "correct" compartment and proceeded to sit down. after that I learned she had quite an interesting life. however, she claimed she wasn't like the rest of iranians and was more westernized which quite frankly, she was extremely iranian in my opinion ( i mean, what westerner tells a complete and total stranger to move their bag over 6 inches when there is clearly plenty of room??)....ok she may be a little more open minded about western culture, like by listening to jazz and she certainly wasn't too keen on Iran, at least present day Iran. she has 4 kids, living in england, germany and canada, but currently resides in france (where the family moved from iran, but all the kids ended up marrying off to various nationalities) and spends part of the year in iran. given the fact that her kids married non-iranians who know english, german, and french, she still is unable to communicate with her son/daughter inlaws and grandkids as she knows only farsi and they know none! how sad. she said she studied english when she was younger but as they moved to france, she forgot it all after many years and the french was too difficult for her to learn and her husband (who died recently) knew french and did all the talking usually. like me, she had her notebook full of words;) I tried to convince her that she really should learn at least english and to get a tutor in iran...bc heck the poor lady is so depressed she has no one to talk to. oddly enough, she kept talking about how "galbam dard migire" her heart hurting, which is what I did my paper on in my anthro course.....iranians tend to express their social problems and unhappiness through problems with the heart, and it was so cool to hear the expressions she used to express her unhappiness. apparently one of her grandkids (who's really little keep in mind) talked to her in english and she didn't understand so he told his mom his grandma had something wrong up there...how horrible. the poor lady. apparently she took it in stride though and one time went to talk to him all in farsi and when he looked at her blankly because he couldn't understand, she told him the same thing back! anyhoo, back to her iranianness...we were on a plane chock full of iranians and she's talking loudly in farsi about how she hates the hezbollahs and how she saw about 20 of them on the plane...then she started pointing them out to me (one of them was the guy my aunt argued with at the elevator on our way out of the airport, and although he was in front of us, he was obviously straining to hear everything we said...which didn't bother her, she continued to point him out) and how "hezbollahi" he looked. then she pointed out this lady and man right next to us who were chatting it up and how they were probably hitting on each other and cheating on their spouses (they were both middle-aged) and they did get each others numbers at the end of the flight. she said iranians cheat on each other a lot and she'd prefer they get divorced, which I'm in agreemement with. the guy was weird...never seen a middle-aged man reading elle and glamour magazine before, actually, no man for that matter. then she talked about how much she hated the chador, and the lady next to us proceeded to put one on as the plane landed. then she talked about how everyone changes as soon as the plane touches the ground, and they suddenly become good little muslims. but the kicker was as everyone was walking off the plane (she was waiting for her wheelchair so I stayed with her) she commented on EVERYONE, right as they were walking by and could clearly hear her...some of them were even looking at the things about other people she pointed out. she would say "oh that lady is so fat, she shouldn't be wearing that" or "look, that guy is probably cheating on his wife" or "look he's a hezbollah, look at how he looks at women." entertaining but boy did I just shrink down into my seat and hope no one remembered my face;) I mean, for crying out loud, if you are gonna talk about other people right in front of them, at least lower your voice!

but it was funny, as I got on the plane the flight attendant started directing me to my seat in english, but when he saw my iranian passport he got all excited and said oh your iranian, I thought you were french, you look french. which I will take as a complement;) it's fun to pass as every nationality (ok not every one) but the one you are:)