Damien and I finally met. We have been cyberchatting for a while now. He seemed like a very cool person online, but I had no idea he was THIS cool! He came over to our apartment and we had a one hour chat which was way too short. He is a very smart and broad-minded boy who (like me) is trying to pick the best out of every culture and improve his character and (not so like me) make a difference. Another cool thing about Damien is his interest in technology. He has this super-laptop and he was telling me about the new technology implemented in it. To begin with, his laptop has a blue-ray-disc drive and an HD monitor! If you don't know what they are, ask Damien! He's the answer!
Peace Bro!

General Knowledge Question:
In which self-governing country do the locals feel insecure on the streets?

It's here at last! ADSL connection! It's not really as fast as I thought it'd be, but it's way faster than the dial-up connection I used to have and gives me lots of new options on the net. This is a picture I took of Sara on a wharf in Kish. I like it a lot, cause I think there is a special feel about it.

We're back! I felt terrible when the plane descended into the usual smog and there appeared thousands of appartments and streets. I was wondering: "What, are we nuts? Living here?" I thought God was laughing at us Tehranis for living such sucky lives!
I have two other pictures added to my previous entries.

Oh my... We're having tho much fun here in Kish! We just biked to a hotel for Sara to do her e-learning thing! It's pretty cool in evenings and biking around from mall to mall and from one cafe to another is like the best thing I've ever experienced. J'adore Kish!

We're leaving for Kish island and I'm pretty excited about it, partly because it's my first time visit. It's gonna be me, Sara and Sara's dad. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon and we'll be back by Saturday noon. It was a late decision and we thought we might not be able to get tickets. But for some weird reason, some travel agent went the extra mile for us! Sara called the place and introduced herself as Movahedin and the operator was like: "Holy Shit! You are our regular customers! Consider it done Ma'am!" What the fuck! We? Regular Customers? Last time I remember a Movahedin get on a plane to kish was... 1932?

Last night, Hamed Y, Safaneh, Sara and I got together at a cafe on Gandi street. It was a great chance to catch up and just chill out after a tiring week. We then had a cool slow-mo drive in Hamed Y's Peugeot 206. He's a very careful driver. We decided to spend the rest of the evening at our appartment. We watched a British romantic comedy called "love actually" and had dinner together. It was a great get together.
This morning, Sara and I went to Chitgar Park. We took the Karaj subway and got off at Chitgar station. It was very convenient to get there actually. The cool thing about the park is that it has a cycling track. You can easily rent a bike and have a cool ride on a long winding track. I hadn't ridden a bike for ages. It felt so cool. This is a picture I took of Sara by her cell phone camera. The green place behind her is where they rent bikes.

I'm so excited about Sara Cotton's new Album "Never Got a Chance". I've been listening to "Al You Suck" over and over again on my car stereo. It's amazing!

Ham Z and I had quite a day! We had some fast food at a place in the west of Tehran and we spent the rest of the day waiting in line to take gas! We just realized that waiting in line to take gas was a great entertainment in Tehran! We got to have a good chat and listen to all sorts of songs by just "waiting in line"! Besides, the sense of "achievement" you get after having filled the tank is so worth the wait! Viva Iran!

The class party last night rocked. Everybody brought some kind of food and drink. There was macaroni salad, mexican corn, potato chips and a lot more. I put James Blunt on for background music. We were eating, speaking, playing games, telling jokes and taking pictures for almost four hours! Close to the end of the class, two of my colleagues sent their students in too! And that's when things got really wild! At the end of the class, my students gave me a quality book of Khayam's quatrains. It contains the Persian text and the Fitzgerald translation plus fascinating Persian miniature paintings. My students have signed the first page of the book. It's the most valuable gift I've ever been given.

Sara's got a cold and has been staying at her parents' for the last couple of days. I haven't seen much of her really. We had lunch together though yesterday at a pizza place close to SBU. It was very enjoyable, especially because of the snow. We also listened to a famous song for the first time. It's called "Hey there Delilah" and it's by Plain White T. It's a good song for a snowy day!
The picture on today's entry is that of Alicia Keys. I've been listening to her "no one" a hundred times. It literally rips my heart out!

It was a wonderful day today at Farhikhtegan. For one thing, I told my students about the end-of-term party. They were "booking" excited about it and helped brainstorm some cool ideas on the board. I also used the ideas Sara and Ali Sheikholeslami had suggested in my previous entry and now, we know exactly what we're gonna do. There's gonna be food and drink, music, conversation and lots of games! Oh, and jokes too! I'm so looking forward to Wednesday when it's all gonna happen. The other cool thing about today was that I sang! In my class! We were talking about favorite singers and when the conversation lead to my favorite singer, Bryan Adams, (love'im!) they asked me if I could sing one of his songs to them. I sang them "heaven" and got a big applaud in the end! And no at all! Well, I've won a Hammy Grammy afterall! That should count for something, shouldn't it?
The picture on today's entry is taken from the music video of Katie Melua's if you were a sailboat. I love that song!