Clik here to view.
The beginning
Dum de dum...Here comes my blog. Figure this is the best way to write my impressions of my trip. I can come back to it and anyone who is interested can read it. So why have I come to Iran, and why am I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2 Weeks in Isfahan
After a 6 hour drive through the desert (beautiful scenery but I slept most of the way), and a couple of pit stops to buy yogurt I arrive at my grandmother’s house in the centre of Isfahan. An Ameh...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Assimilation
The day I no longer receive odd, quizzical looks from people in my daily transactions will be a happy one. I can usually get through the little ones- like buying bread or milk, without too many raised...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tis' the season to be jolly
The past few weeks have been full of festivities. It has been hard to find many signs of Christmas or New Year, but I've been participating in some Iranian ones.First we celebrated Shab-e Yalda on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ashura in the Snow
Last week was Moharram, the 10 days in which Shia's mourn the death of Imam Hossein, the ultimate day known as Ashura. During Moharamm I was warned that the Basiji stop more people, so I should make...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Things I've seen and heard
Conversations I've had and places I've been to over the past few weeksView of the Zaiandeh Rood (the river running through Isfahan)In the bank (served by a young woman):Ah yes, I remember you, you came...
View ArticleClik here to view.
3 Months
I have been in Iran 3 months today. I feel it is timely to give myself a 3 month review, like a good boss should give you in a new job (no, I didn’t get one in my last job). Have I set out to do what I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Sa-ma-nu! Sa-ma-nu!
Every year my dad's cousin Nosrat cooks up a big pot of samanu and invites all the family over while she is cooking it. Samanu is a wheat pudding, made from wheat grain, water, hazelnuts and almonds...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Queen's English
My favourite students (Grandad in the middle with the hat)Before coming to Iran I was adamant that I wouldn’t teach English. I didn’t want to spend my time doing a ‘boring’ job, or speaking English too...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merry Noruz
It has been the new year in Iran for over a month, but I have been distracted and haven't posted for awhile. Here is my slighlty out of date story of my first proper Noruz (from start end) in Iran.It...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Show me Shomal!
I have just returned from 3 days in Shomal, the north of Iran. Shomal means North and is a generic term, pretty much describing all of the regions around the Caspian sea, north of Tehran. To be more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How many arches are there in Iran?
A friend from England just visited. We hung out in coffee shops in Tehran, bargained our way around Isfahan, and were awestruck in Shiraz. She studied art history and archeology and has a penchant for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hi, my name is.................
I’ve experienced my entire life as someone with an unusal and somewhat long name. Ordering things over the phone is always a time-consuming ordeal as I have to spell out all three parts. Introductions...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Returning...
Bye Tehran!Coming back to London is odd. The strange familiarity, the feeling I may have changed, although I don’t know how yet, but that everything around me most definitely has not. I thought that I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Returning...again
I’m back in Iran. In Tehran. It’s weird.Same, same, but different.The weather is amazing, not as unbearably hot as it was when I left in July, but still so beautifully sunny with a lovely cool breeze...
View ArticleLeave/ Return/ Leave/ Return
When I was in Isfahan, to pass the time, and to spend time with my cousins who work ridiculous hours, I occasionally joined them at the internet café they run at the top of a small shopping centre near...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mummy dearest
My mother recently came to visit me in Iran, her first visit in 3 years. Making the thoroughly un-original observation that Tehran is both a huge building site and parking lot, she proceeded to take a...
View Article
