07-04-2010

Hey everyone,
Today is July 30th and I am on a 5 hour train ride to Nice from Paris so I plan to catch up on a few enteries on my way. I had a wonderful 3 days spending time with a family who is distant in relation to me but is filled with a ton of love. I adventured out during the day by myself and spend the afternoons and nights with them eating at French restaurants and drinking wine and talking. Totally wonderful. 
 
Anywho, sorry I have been bad at updating my blog the last week or so but it's because I took up reading a book. I'm reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, which if you know Dan Brown you know his style of writting is like pop music, easy to read and understand but kind of empty in substance.

No crazy revalations on this entery before I start. Only thing worth of noting is how much better I have gotten at finding my way around and not getting as lost and more importantly not getting as frustrated when I am lost. If you know me well know you that I loveeee learning and i feel like a little kid who is learnig to ride a bike. I have fallen down quiet a few times but I am getting the hang of it and I'm glad I have three more weeks to work on it. 

Now onto July 4, 2010. The first and most important thing to note here I feel is that I spent the entire day and only at night when I started to write in my journal (fine you can call it diary if you want. Whatever...) and wrote the date did I realize it was 4th of July. I mean I had seen it on my watch all day but hadn't realized it was independence day and all. I donno I thought that was a bit interesting.

Having missed the fourth also reminded me how much I missed 1st world life in general. Although it was fun at first having to deal with 3rd world issues, the constant struggle and lack of luxaries we take for granted in America starts to wear on you here. There is always trouble with either water, electricity, Internet, and phone as those of you who read my past enteries know. Furthermore grocery shopping is its own little hassle as you need to go to three stores to buy bread, fruit, and yogurt. Although this is fun and exciting at first sometimes you are just too tired for the process and want that instant satisfaction. 

This all helped me realize that about 3 weeks in annny country is more than enough to get you a good sense of the culture, the people, and the lifestyle. Not that you'll be a pro at it after but you'll have a good healthy glimpse. 

Anywho back to the day from the beginning instead of the end. Since I was so tired at the end of last night I skipped breakfast this morning to get about an hour of more asleep. The thing you learn well abut traveling with others is that everyone travels different. For example I like to rest once in a while, specially with this knowledge that I have 6 weeks left in Europe once my trip here in Iran end. I don't wanna exhaust myself and possibly get sick. I need my asleep, and therefore I sometimes just disregard what others are doing and become more selfish.

Anwho, after everyone came back from breakfast I got up, dressed, and we went to the bazar in Shiraz. There are soo many beggers, many around 7-10 years old, and they really mak you feel bad for not buying what they are selling. I know I have more, I know I should help them a bit, but I just can't do it for all of them.

Anywho after bazar we went to a museum, well it was an old hamam (public bath) that was turned to a museum. My aunt approached to buy our four tickets and the guy wanted to sell her foreigner tickets cuz thought my mom and sister were not Iranian. I found this very interesting as it showed clearly how America has changed not just our behavior but maybe even our appearance. Anywho, after talking to my mom, who responded with the smart allic comment of "you are right, we are from outside of Shiraz" (of course in Farsi) the guy let us in for the lower price.

The hammams were interestig (we went to two) as they still smelled damp even though they probably had not been used for tens if not hundreds of years.

After our lil adventure of hammams we headed over and saw a number of mosques. The age of the mosques (some around a thousand years old) is a good reminder of the deeeeep religious roots of this coutry. Often I thought about Iran as a religious nation only after it's revolution about 30 years ago but the fact is the empire of Persia was verrry muslim and it left this mark throughout Iran after its collapse. Even though it was a Sunday (for Iranians this is the middle of the week as they only have Friday off), the mosques were full of people praying.

Overall, the mosques were very beautiful, full of stained glass, mirrors, and tile-work. Interestingly it was a library or a hostle for some as more than a few people were studying or sleepig on the floor of the mosque.

We saw a few other things that day too and even though I wrote in my journal that very night I did not make a note of these other places except a little complaint I put regarding the fact thati feel I am seeing too many places and too many things and cannot possibly actually learn anything as it just flashes by as you go but does not really leave an impresssion. 

Othe than this the only two other notes of the day I have is another taxi driver to whom I talked to regarding the hardships of life in Iran. This reminded me of how much people complain here. In America when you ask someone how they are or how is work or how is life you usually get a posiive response. It may be a lie and things may not be well, but in America you usually get a positive response. Here in Iran it seems you rarely get a positive response. As soon as you ask someone how there life is they give you a ton of things that reminds you how many troubles exist here. I'm sure thy are not lying and I appriciate there stories tremendously but it's interesting the contrast in this culture and US. 

The only other note I had was about how I am getting tired of eating here. It doesn't ever leave you feeling healthy and full and always manages to give you tummy ache and make you feel bad. 

That is all for this day,
I am not really in the mood to write more as I just feel a bit down. Traveling alone is suuuch an emotional roller-coaster and currently I miss my life back home. 
I miss my friends, my family, my girlfriend, and my ultimate and currently I feel distanced from most of it and even worst feel the distance growing in some of the areas. I have very few outlets to home, this being one, and outside of here (and gmail and gvoice) I don't really get to talk with people I actually know. That I would have to say is the hardest part of this trip and something I am glad I didn't think too much about beforehand because this was something I HAD to do for myself and I'm going to deal with the consequences as they come. You know in life I have made goals and dreams and strived to achieve them. However it is not till now that I realize there is an opportunity cost, an emotional rather than monetary one in this case, in living dreams.  

Anyyywho, it'll all work out in the end, I'm sure of it, it always has AAAND I can't possibly ever regret travelling and seeing the world AND there was no way I could have waited for someone to do it with me as you ncer know the paths of life. For now though I am hoping a little nap and a night out in Nice will hopefully fix my funk or as with other thugs in this trip I'll learn to get used to it and ignore it. 

If bored please feel free to email me, whatever it is that you are doing. My contacts to back home seem to have dwindled, which is understandable as people are always busy and over time without your physical presence some seem to forget and move on with their lives. However if you aren't too busy do feel free to contact me with emails or texts to my gvoice phone or whatever else form of contact you use.

Love from back home is always welcomed,
-NZ