06-28-2010

Hello everyone.

Today is 07-07-2010 and about 9:30a.m. We are going to rasht later today and I cannot make the internet work I am going to write a few entries. It is really hard to catch up on all these days because on top of finding time to do it I simply don’t feel like writing all the details of a day. I have a feeling this may be something that I fall about 10-15 days behind over the course of this vacation and will have to finish when I get back to U.S of A.

Woke up on the 28th with the water saga continuing as the water seemed to be off again. However, it came back and was on the rest of the day (for as long as we were there at least). We were leaving our villa and heading back to Tehran. I noticed my stomach pain and diarrhea were gone and I was a happy camper.

I took a moment to take in the place one last time because I honestly am not sure when I will be back again, and with what company. There was a constant chatter of crickets in the air, an occasional sound of rooster (I know it has a name that noise they make, I just don’t know it nor have internet to look it up), and the constant hum of water pump and a/c unit inside. Of course these noises were constantly being drowned out by the sweet voice of the people talking there and preparing breakfast. I was right as a child, this place was perfect.
We closed the big iron red door and head back toward Tehran. As you’ve learned from my previous explanations of a car trip in Iran, this was no dash to home. Overall we stopped six times during the 80 or so mile trip back home. That’s one stop every 13 miles if you are not good with the math.

First we stopped for my sister to buy a Persian basket to find that the stores that used to sell those things now sell all types of Made in China junk instead. Then we stopped a little farther along to buy fruits. Apparently these fruits are better and cheaper than the ones in Tehran, alllrighty. A bit later we stopped to get tea at this nice little tea-house in the woods. I was told we used to stop here all the time on our way to our villa but I did not remember it. The only thing that rang a bell was the fact that I was told they have horseback riding here. As a kid I remember riding the horse in a jungle somewhere and I guess this was it. A bit later we stopped at the tallest point along the way. My grandpa started the tradition of stopping here. There is a mosque at this place and even though we are Jewish, my grandpa always donated a few dollars to the mosque up here. We stopped once again to by a vase and I bought 5 mini vase looking things to use as shot-glasses. Total cost of $1. I have NO CLUE why I did not buy an even 6 though to make a complete set. DUMB move. We went a bit more and we stopped one last time and ate Persian ice-cream. It was raaather good. The trip, it took 10 hours total. That’s an average of 8mph if you are not good with the math. Yeah, I can run faster than that (obviously not for the entire 80 miles but you get the idea).

During the trip we passed by mount Damavand, the mountain my uncle climbed before he died of ALS. It was very interesting to see and brought more emotion than I thought. I feel like one day one of my cousins (or I) will climb that mountain again in his name. It’s just suuuch a rational thing to do to try to get close with him in a spiritual kind of way thing.
After I finally got home and had a moment to sit I realized how tired I was from everything that had gone on the past week or so. I started to miss home and certain people…It was really the first time in my life feeling home-sick I think but I could not help it. Vacationing in a 3rd world country, although VERY interesting because of the culture you are thrust into, is a lot of work. Overall the stress level of this country is orders of magnitude higher than in U.S. We have been constantly either doing something or going somewhere or visiting with someone this entire time and I’m close to exhausted.

(For the first time I will quote you straight from my diary and not summarize/expand. As I was writing about my day and how tired I was from everything we done I came to a reallllly weird/obvious conclusion and I want to share that word-by-word.)
“Soo tired from this trip. I feel I can’t enjoy things as much as I like to because stress here is sooooo high. Everything is fun but has stress also. During vacation to shomal I was terrified of the drive there/back and so very stressed. Then we were doing something 90% of the time. I rather relax/rest also as part of vacation. It is worrying me for my Europe trip I think I need one day of complete rest per week.”
Now if you know me you know that I am not religious AT ALL but this was a weird conclusion to come into in my exhaustion. I will continue a bit more.
“What a realization. I was nothing thinking that is the point of all religions. Religions were created during periods of really high intensity and stress life and it seems like you need at least one day of rest a week before you can continue on or you will burn out. I just wonder though if this was a top-down or bottom-up realization”
The last sentence just means I wonder if I subconsciously came to this conclusion (that you need rest once about every seven days) because of my knowledge of how religions are or really because of my fatigue. Either way it was an interesting little bit I thought I had to share from my journal.

Anywho, I will now go on two random tangents here but they are both from my journal of that day. One, I am getting exponentially better at speaking Farsi. It was REALLY tough for me to speak full Farsi here at first. Even though I grew up here for 9 years it was 12 years since I was in the country and had to speak full Farsi. It’s not as easy of a transition as it would seem because in America all the Farsi I speak is mixed in with English words when I cannot remember something. These less often used words over time completely leave my mind and now having to dig for them is both challenging and sometimes funny. For example sometimes in my search for the right word I say the right sounding word but it has an extra “r” or “d” or whatever. Since I cannot exactly remember the word I just say it and people burst in laughter because for example I add a “d” to the word talk and said tadelk. Yeah. It is a bit embarrassing but it is also funny. However, over the first week I have gotten sooooo much better at this. Another aspect of the language I have gotten better at is reading. I left here in 3rd grade and was a proficient reader but the Persian alphabet has left me a bit. I mean they have 32 letters, three “s,” two “z,” and a host of other letters not even represented in the English alphabet. To top it off, Farsi has no written vowels. So for example my name “Navid” is really written “Nvid” but that “I” can be a “EEE” sound or a “v” sound depending on the situation. So the context of the surrounding letters changes the sound. Now not having read Farsi for 12 years, I forget some letters and some context things and whenever I get bored I start reading the road signs out loud to everyone. It is a GREAT comedic show actually as I read like a R-tard.

Second rant is about the question I get asked almost daily here from anyone I meet for the first time. “Is Iran or America better?” For me it is a really simple answer, “America.” I am more comfortable there and I am more used to the way of life and the people. However, I cannot say with certainty one is better than the other. Millions of people still live here and life in Iran is so different (in terms of priorities and standard of living) that it is not fair to even compare. It’s like apples and oranges. Iran is not like other modernized European countries where the differences with America are language, tax-rate, free-market laws, weather, and some logistics that one can decide which one they like over the other. Iran is fundamentally different. I don’t know how to explain it. If you are asking me to apply modernized standards of living I am used to in America to answer this question it be like asking if an anorexic or sumo wrestler is fatter. What’s the point of asking? You know the answer. It’s a question that bothers me when I’m asked because I know they are just making small-talk but I cannot bring myself to just give them a straight answer of yes or no. I have to explain to them that there are a lot of differences in styles of life in the two countries that make the comparison really irrelevant and I feel like a dick.

-NZ