A very big merry xmas to all of you out there! Boy am I missing the lights, the shopping, the festivities, the secret santas and the FOOD!
Xmas went relatively unnoticed here in Qum. I saw an xmas tree on Boulvar Amin a few weeks ago - decorated with lights and tinsel and the works! But that's about it.
In class today, our teacher wanted to go over 2 lessons, which means double homework. I managed to convince her that it was xmas and she should be nice to us, seeing as we were missing out on all the festivities back home. Not sure how, but she actually bought it!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Iran creates world's largest sand carpet
Iranian artists have created the world's largest sand carpet from the colorful sand found on the country's southern island of Hormuz.
Some 25 visual artists used 70 types of colorful sand to create the 'Persian Gulf' sand carpet, which will be displayed on the island from Dec. 9 to 17, 2008.
The 12000-square-meter carpet is unique in magnitude, pattern and color and its title which shares the name of the forever Persian Gulf.
The previous sand carpet record belonged to 900-square-meter one created on the Canary Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Known for its beautiful red soil, Hormuz Island has witnessed numerous artistic events, including Iran's 15th Environmental Art Festival.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail.aspx?id=77858§ionid=351020105
Some 25 visual artists used 70 types of colorful sand to create the 'Persian Gulf' sand carpet, which will be displayed on the island from Dec. 9 to 17, 2008.
The 12000-square-meter carpet is unique in magnitude, pattern and color and its title which shares the name of the forever Persian Gulf.
The previous sand carpet record belonged to 900-square-meter one created on the Canary Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Known for its beautiful red soil, Hormuz Island has witnessed numerous artistic events, including Iran's 15th Environmental Art Festival.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail.aspx?id=77858§ionid=351020105
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Eggs from Amul!
There'a a place in Iran called Amul that's famous for double yolked eggs. One of TH's friends is from Amul and after one of his visits, brought us a couple dozen eggs. The eggs are HUGE:
Thursday, December 4, 2008
English classes
English classes are going well. We use the Interchange books – i think they’re from Cambridge university. Teaching students from Saudi/Iran/Pakistan has made me realise how different our cultures are. One of the units talks about occupations and amongst the examples is a dog walker. The students found it hilarious that in America/Europe people are actually employed to give dogs some recreation time!
Wedding anniversary
The first of Dhul Hijjah (Last month of the Lunar Islamic Calendar) is the wedding anniversary of the daughter of the Holy Prophet and her husband, Imam Ali – the first Imam of the shias. Since our university is named after the daughter of the Prophet, the students at break time went absolutely wild. They all gathered in the stairwell at break time and started clapping, singing and chanting.
This day is also known as husband/wife day. Although I’m still waiting for my flowers, I was treated to lunch when I got home from school.
This day is also known as husband/wife day. Although I’m still waiting for my flowers, I was treated to lunch when I got home from school.
The Chador
The other day I was waiting for the car to pick me up and take me to my English class. I saw an Indian lady wearing a shalwar kameez (Baggy trousers and long top) and no chador! I was a bit shocked that she was brave enough to hit the streets of Qum chador-less! Its funny how back in England, seeing a woman wearing regular clothes is ok, but here, if you haven’t got 5 layers on, you feel naked!
Anyways later that day, on the return journey, as I was walking home, my chador got caught on a nail. I didn’t realise and carried on walking. Before I knew it, my chador was yanked off my head and there I was standing ‘naked’ on the streets of Qum!!
The chador is a 5 metre piece of black fabric, full length and semi circular. It sits on the head and is open at the front. No hand openings or closures and is held by hands! There are different styles of chador. The Melli chador (or Arab chador) which is closed down the front and has sleeves and also the Lebanese chador , which is similar to the Melli chador.
Although wearing modest clothing is required by law in Iran, wearing the chador is not. Having said that, 99% of the women in Qum wear it as a sign of piety and respectability. I find the chador annoying. It constantly falls off my head or gets trapped in things! The worst thing is trying to do the weekly shopping. Picture this, a school bag, groceries bag, fruit and veg bag – the chador doesn’t stand a chance! Love it or loathe it, wearing the chador makes one stand out less here in Qum.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Today's class
We had the most hilarious class today. We were role playing doctor-patient situations. The book gives a cough-sneezing-cold example. After a few goes at this, the teacher told us to pick another illness. One of the Arab students and myself were picked. The conversation went something like this (in Farsi):
Arab: What uncomfort you have? Che naarahati dareed?
Me: My stomach hurts. Dilam dard me konad
Arab: Do you have a cough?
Me: No my stomach hurts
Arab: Are you sneezing?
Me: No, my stomach hurts (By this point I'm wondering if she's even listening to me!?)
Arab: Do you have a cold?
Me: No, my stomach hurts!!!!
The teacher intervened and taught us some words related to stomach illnesses! Remember that the teacher can only speak Farsi! So she's trying to explain vomitting, diarrhoa and constipation with concepts (e.g. vomiting = food exiting the mouth!). My friends and I just burst out giggling. The teacher thought we were laughing because we didn't understand, so she starts giving an even more detailed explanation, which does nothing to stop the giggles. The rest of the class then join in with 'helping us' to try and understand the new words! One of the girls said something like: once a month my child has poo that is watery. Except instead of using the word 'aab' which means water, she used 'aabi' which means blue! Scary mental image of a child with blue diarrhoea!!
I don't think we'll be forgetting today's new words!!
Arab: What uncomfort you have? Che naarahati dareed?
Me: My stomach hurts. Dilam dard me konad
Arab: Do you have a cough?
Me: No my stomach hurts
Arab: Are you sneezing?
Me: No, my stomach hurts (By this point I'm wondering if she's even listening to me!?)
Arab: Do you have a cold?
Me: No, my stomach hurts!!!!
The teacher intervened and taught us some words related to stomach illnesses! Remember that the teacher can only speak Farsi! So she's trying to explain vomitting, diarrhoa and constipation with concepts (e.g. vomiting = food exiting the mouth!). My friends and I just burst out giggling. The teacher thought we were laughing because we didn't understand, so she starts giving an even more detailed explanation, which does nothing to stop the giggles. The rest of the class then join in with 'helping us' to try and understand the new words! One of the girls said something like: once a month my child has poo that is watery. Except instead of using the word 'aab' which means water, she used 'aabi' which means blue! Scary mental image of a child with blue diarrhoea!!
I don't think we'll be forgetting today's new words!!
School Pics
The walkways within the campus all have names too... Khayaban e Ihsan means Avenue of Goodness. There's also an Avenue of Knowledge and Avenue of Sincerity!!
The corridors were decorated for the birth anniversary of Imam Redha. My classroom is the first door on the left!
The transcript for Dua e Ahad that we read every morning before class.
Corridors decorated for the birth anniversary of Imam Redha
The buildings are named after famous Muslim scholars. The Farsi Department is in the Murtaza Mutahari Building
The library also has a large room in the basement which is used for celebrations and commemorations
Looking out from the Farsi department into the courtyard
Monday, November 17, 2008
School
Every morning, I attend Farsi classes at Jamiatuz Zahra. Jamia means university and Zahra is the name of the daughter of the Holy Prophet of Islam. The campus is HUGE! There are dormitories, classes, day care facilites for the children of staff and students, library, a high school, bookshops, tuck shops....... the list is endless! The campus is still being developed, with a sports centre (with swimming pool) next on the list! The campus is about 5 years old. Apparently, the spot where the university is used to be a park, so the inhabitants of Qum were not too pleased when the park was flattened to make way for the university!
Every morning, the school bus comes to the main road near our house to pick me up. The driver is a little grumpy and he constantly whinges about me - I didn't know that shutting doors with a tiny bit of force is considered extremely rude here. Luckily I have a group of friends who make sure I am not the last one on or off the bus!
The bus arrives at school at 8am and the day starts with a recitation of Dua Ahad on the loud speakers. Each lesson starts at ten past the hour (e.g. 8:10, 9:10, 10:10) and ends on the hour, giving a 10min break between classes. My classes run from 8:10 to 12 noon.
The farsi course is split into 7 books - the introductory book (which contains about 300 nouns to learn!) which is followed by Books 1 to 6. I'm currently on Book 2, which is the grammer book.
Each book has a mid book test and an end of book test, and those who fail the end of book test are asked to repeat the book, or join a less advanced class. The tests are also accompanied by dictation tests. All tests here are marked out of 20.
The teaching session is split into 2: The first 2 hours are devoted to the Books (called Katbi lessons) and the last 2 hours are conversation classes (called Shafahi lessons). The reason for this is that spoken Farsi is quite different from written Farsi - for example, if you think of Katbi Farsi as being a bit like Shakespeare's English - if you go into a shop and use words like 'thee', 'where art thou?' people would laugh at you, but they would still understand you. Some of the conversation classes take place in the "labratoire" which is a really basic language lab! Shelves and cupboards surround the classes and are filled with some of the tackiest toys and props that I have ever seen. However, the Farsi Dept is quite proud of this room and they keep it locked between lessons! The room is quite useful in some ways as it gives the teacher something to focus on. The other day, we looked at the tools shelf (spanners, hammers, screw drivers etc) and before that, the animals and sea life shelves!
One of the hardest things about learning Farsi in Iran is that the teacher does not speak a word of any English, Arabic, French..... nothing! only Farsi! Sometimes its hard to understand what the teacher wants you to do, but luckily, I have a few English speaking classmates who help each other out.
Our class is a bit like the United Nations - there's students from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, UK, Indonesia and even Uroguy! Farsi is really the only language most of us have in common.
We have 2 teachers, one for the book and one for the conversation classes. Our book teacher is a gem. She is a Farsi teacher by profession. Her teaching methods are good and she helps out the weaker members of the class with extra tutorials. The conversation teacher on the other hand is a public speaking and Qur'an teacher. Her expectations of us are a little too high sometimes and sometimes she picks on me a little too much. I am ALWAYS called to the front to read out my work and she has actually told me to my face that sometimes I don't try hard enough in class! :-( Although its probably good for us in the long run. Some of our friends in other classes told us that when they were at our stage, they could barely put a sentence together and here we are conjugating verbs and writing full page matans (passages) and role playing simple situations (directions, buying clothes etc)
Class finishes at 12, after which its a quick dash to say the afternoon prayers, then jumping on the bus to go home.
Coming from the West, I find the standard of teaching very different to what I am used to. The Iranian way is to 'finish the book' and do the test. There is also a lot of emphasis on 'jumle saazis' or making sentences. Almost every lesson we are expected to make sentences from the 30-40+ new words that we have come across that lesson.
Every morning, the school bus comes to the main road near our house to pick me up. The driver is a little grumpy and he constantly whinges about me - I didn't know that shutting doors with a tiny bit of force is considered extremely rude here. Luckily I have a group of friends who make sure I am not the last one on or off the bus!
The bus arrives at school at 8am and the day starts with a recitation of Dua Ahad on the loud speakers. Each lesson starts at ten past the hour (e.g. 8:10, 9:10, 10:10) and ends on the hour, giving a 10min break between classes. My classes run from 8:10 to 12 noon.
The farsi course is split into 7 books - the introductory book (which contains about 300 nouns to learn!) which is followed by Books 1 to 6. I'm currently on Book 2, which is the grammer book.
Each book has a mid book test and an end of book test, and those who fail the end of book test are asked to repeat the book, or join a less advanced class. The tests are also accompanied by dictation tests. All tests here are marked out of 20.
The teaching session is split into 2: The first 2 hours are devoted to the Books (called Katbi lessons) and the last 2 hours are conversation classes (called Shafahi lessons). The reason for this is that spoken Farsi is quite different from written Farsi - for example, if you think of Katbi Farsi as being a bit like Shakespeare's English - if you go into a shop and use words like 'thee', 'where art thou?' people would laugh at you, but they would still understand you. Some of the conversation classes take place in the "labratoire" which is a really basic language lab! Shelves and cupboards surround the classes and are filled with some of the tackiest toys and props that I have ever seen. However, the Farsi Dept is quite proud of this room and they keep it locked between lessons! The room is quite useful in some ways as it gives the teacher something to focus on. The other day, we looked at the tools shelf (spanners, hammers, screw drivers etc) and before that, the animals and sea life shelves!
One of the hardest things about learning Farsi in Iran is that the teacher does not speak a word of any English, Arabic, French..... nothing! only Farsi! Sometimes its hard to understand what the teacher wants you to do, but luckily, I have a few English speaking classmates who help each other out.
Our class is a bit like the United Nations - there's students from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, UK, Indonesia and even Uroguy! Farsi is really the only language most of us have in common.
We have 2 teachers, one for the book and one for the conversation classes. Our book teacher is a gem. She is a Farsi teacher by profession. Her teaching methods are good and she helps out the weaker members of the class with extra tutorials. The conversation teacher on the other hand is a public speaking and Qur'an teacher. Her expectations of us are a little too high sometimes and sometimes she picks on me a little too much. I am ALWAYS called to the front to read out my work and she has actually told me to my face that sometimes I don't try hard enough in class! :-( Although its probably good for us in the long run. Some of our friends in other classes told us that when they were at our stage, they could barely put a sentence together and here we are conjugating verbs and writing full page matans (passages) and role playing simple situations (directions, buying clothes etc)
Class finishes at 12, after which its a quick dash to say the afternoon prayers, then jumping on the bus to go home.
Coming from the West, I find the standard of teaching very different to what I am used to. The Iranian way is to 'finish the book' and do the test. There is also a lot of emphasis on 'jumle saazis' or making sentences. Almost every lesson we are expected to make sentences from the 30-40+ new words that we have come across that lesson.
Sorry...
I got a bit carried away last time I posted - so excited to finally have high speed internet!
The first picture is of the entrance to the exhibition, which is the zeer zamin (basement) of the Holy Shrine. The second picture is an exhibition with couplets of poetry celebrating the life of Lady Masuma.
I'm not sure why the other pics didn't upload, so I'll try again in a few days!
The first picture is of the entrance to the exhibition, which is the zeer zamin (basement) of the Holy Shrine. The second picture is an exhibition with couplets of poetry celebrating the life of Lady Masuma.
I'm not sure why the other pics didn't upload, so I'll try again in a few days!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Roze Karamat
The days between the birth anniversaries of Lady Masumah (who is buried here in Qum) and her brother, Imam Redha (the 8th Imam of the shias) are known as "Roze Karamat". The streets are decorated with banners, flags and lights and people are generally in a good mood! When we went to buy rugs last week, I told the salesman that I wanted a good discount because it was Roze Karamat, but he wasn't giving in!
At school today, lessons stopped for an hour to allow everyone to get together for a lecture, sing song and most importantly - the shireeni (sweet pastries)! The Farsi section usually has separate gatherings from the rest of the schools, as our lectures tend to be in simple Farsi. Having said that, my Farsi is still not good enough to understand lectures, so I spent much of the hour catching up with homework!
The mosque complex where Lady Masumah is buried had an art exhibition during Rose Karamat. I dragged TH there last Thursday. While most things here are below the standard that I'm used to, the same CANNOT be said for the art work! Even TH (who hates art exhibitions) was impressed. Most of the pictures were based on the Prophet's family. Some of the exhibitors were demonstrating their skills by working on new pieces in front of live audiences. I've attached a few pics, although I apologise, I was the only one taking pics, so I didn't take too many (didn't want to stand out as a tourist). and I'm still not sure if its acceptable to take pictures of strangers.
(sorry... tried to up load pics, but the upload keeps cutting out due to the slow dial up :-( will upload them as soon as we get high speed internet!)
At school today, lessons stopped for an hour to allow everyone to get together for a lecture, sing song and most importantly - the shireeni (sweet pastries)! The Farsi section usually has separate gatherings from the rest of the schools, as our lectures tend to be in simple Farsi. Having said that, my Farsi is still not good enough to understand lectures, so I spent much of the hour catching up with homework!
The mosque complex where Lady Masumah is buried had an art exhibition during Rose Karamat. I dragged TH there last Thursday. While most things here are below the standard that I'm used to, the same CANNOT be said for the art work! Even TH (who hates art exhibitions) was impressed. Most of the pictures were based on the Prophet's family. Some of the exhibitors were demonstrating their skills by working on new pieces in front of live audiences. I've attached a few pics, although I apologise, I was the only one taking pics, so I didn't take too many (didn't want to stand out as a tourist). and I'm still not sure if its acceptable to take pictures of strangers.
(sorry... tried to up load pics, but the upload keeps cutting out due to the slow dial up :-( will upload them as soon as we get high speed internet!)
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Today...
The weather here has really taken a turn for the worse. It rains constantly (not that I'm complaining - it reminds me of home!). But I'm learning the hard way that long skirts and dresses are NOT suitable for this weather. I came home today absolutely drenched!
Today, I was enjoining a hot cup of tea in one of the admin offices of the university where I'm studying Farsi - a privilege not shared by other students! As I was making my way back to class, one of my fellow students came and said that classes for the day had finished and could we share a taxi home. It was slightly annoying, as we had only had an hour of class, as opposed to the usual 4, but when you're balancing work, school and a home, every extra hour is a bonus.
Today has some special significance in the Modern Iranian calender (something to do with the revolution?!) So instead of classes, they were taking people to the Shrine of Lady Masuma. I decided to come home and prepare my class as I'm teaching later on today.
About 3 weeks ago, I had a phone call from one of the bozorgies (big people) of the post graduate centre at Jamiatuz Zahra (Jamia means university, Zahra is the daughter of the Holy Prophet of Islam - this is the place where I learn Farsi). They had recently started an English programme for their MA and PhD students to enable them to go to the West and be able to give lectures in English. They had run out of teachers and asked if I (as a native speaker) could come and help them out. I jumped at the chance!
My class has 8 students from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. 5 of them are postgraduates and 3 of them work in the university. (n.b. one of them is the VERY scary head of the dormitories!) It's the first time I'm teaching adults, but its really good fun. The students are eager to learn and they help me with my Farsi too! The books we follow are very politically correct and sometimes a bit American, but I'm hoping to supplement the book with role plays, CDs and kids cartoons. If anyone has any teaching tips for me, please post them!
I teach 3 afternoons a week, and because I'm a teacher, they send a car to pick me up from my house :-)))))
Today, I was enjoining a hot cup of tea in one of the admin offices of the university where I'm studying Farsi - a privilege not shared by other students! As I was making my way back to class, one of my fellow students came and said that classes for the day had finished and could we share a taxi home. It was slightly annoying, as we had only had an hour of class, as opposed to the usual 4, but when you're balancing work, school and a home, every extra hour is a bonus.
Today has some special significance in the Modern Iranian calender (something to do with the revolution?!) So instead of classes, they were taking people to the Shrine of Lady Masuma. I decided to come home and prepare my class as I'm teaching later on today.
About 3 weeks ago, I had a phone call from one of the bozorgies (big people) of the post graduate centre at Jamiatuz Zahra (Jamia means university, Zahra is the daughter of the Holy Prophet of Islam - this is the place where I learn Farsi). They had recently started an English programme for their MA and PhD students to enable them to go to the West and be able to give lectures in English. They had run out of teachers and asked if I (as a native speaker) could come and help them out. I jumped at the chance!
My class has 8 students from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. 5 of them are postgraduates and 3 of them work in the university. (n.b. one of them is the VERY scary head of the dormitories!) It's the first time I'm teaching adults, but its really good fun. The students are eager to learn and they help me with my Farsi too! The books we follow are very politically correct and sometimes a bit American, but I'm hoping to supplement the book with role plays, CDs and kids cartoons. If anyone has any teaching tips for me, please post them!
I teach 3 afternoons a week, and because I'm a teacher, they send a car to pick me up from my house :-)))))
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Internet Saga...
Apologies for the long gap between posts. We're having an on-going internet saga right now!
High speed internet is on our 'must have' list - dial-up is so 1990s!
Getting internet here is like most other things (a huge headache). Firstly, you have to be Iranian in order to get a phone line. Our phone line was in some unknown person's name. Interestingly even the telephone company did not have his name, so The Husband (TH) rode up an enormous phone bill calling friends abroad! TH's friend had a spare phone line at his office which he offered to give to us so that in the future, if we have any problems with the phone line, he can sort it out for us.
So eventually the Mukhabirat (the phone people) get their act together and transfer the new number to our house. Once the new line was in place. TH's friend - who is also the representative for the internet company realised that our new phone line is not ADSL compatible! (n.b. I never knew there was such a thing, but this is Iran!)
He told us that our only option was to find a neighbour with an ADSL compatible phone number and offer to swop! LOL
Eventually, we discovered that the Indian family in the basement had an internet-friendly phone number, so TH called the electrician and got him to connect our new number properly and also patch one phone socket with the neighbour's number. How he managed to explain that in Farsi I will never know! It took the poor electrician 3 trips in order to finish the work! Well, it was poor me too, as I had to clear up the mess he left behind each time too! Also, it was 3 days without internet and a phone line!
So now, we're just trying to located the owner of the neighbour's phone line so he can write us a letter allowing us to get high speed internet!
Anyways, lots of other things have also happened since I last posted (started school, started teaching, made more friends!) and hopefully I'll write about them all soon. Have some pictures to upload too... but you'll have to wait until we get high speed internet before I can post those!!
High speed internet is on our 'must have' list - dial-up is so 1990s!
Getting internet here is like most other things (a huge headache). Firstly, you have to be Iranian in order to get a phone line. Our phone line was in some unknown person's name. Interestingly even the telephone company did not have his name, so The Husband (TH) rode up an enormous phone bill calling friends abroad! TH's friend had a spare phone line at his office which he offered to give to us so that in the future, if we have any problems with the phone line, he can sort it out for us.
So eventually the Mukhabirat (the phone people) get their act together and transfer the new number to our house. Once the new line was in place. TH's friend - who is also the representative for the internet company realised that our new phone line is not ADSL compatible! (n.b. I never knew there was such a thing, but this is Iran!)
He told us that our only option was to find a neighbour with an ADSL compatible phone number and offer to swop! LOL
Eventually, we discovered that the Indian family in the basement had an internet-friendly phone number, so TH called the electrician and got him to connect our new number properly and also patch one phone socket with the neighbour's number. How he managed to explain that in Farsi I will never know! It took the poor electrician 3 trips in order to finish the work! Well, it was poor me too, as I had to clear up the mess he left behind each time too! Also, it was 3 days without internet and a phone line!
So now, we're just trying to located the owner of the neighbour's phone line so he can write us a letter allowing us to get high speed internet!
Anyways, lots of other things have also happened since I last posted (started school, started teaching, made more friends!) and hopefully I'll write about them all soon. Have some pictures to upload too... but you'll have to wait until we get high speed internet before I can post those!!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
THE KHOJAS
You gotta love them. They have got some things right! Like the concept of the mother and baby room! Ok, so before you judge me and say things like “wait till she has kids” I’d like to defend myself and say, yes I don’t have kids and while I don’t have kids, I want to make the most of the time I spend in the Holy Shrine.
The other day, it just so happened that I ended up saying my congregational prayers between 2 mothers with young daughters. Girl 1 extended the hand of friendship by giving girl 2 a piece of her cake/toast. Girl 2 was a bit shy and refused to take it. After a few minutes, girl 2’s mother realises and gives her daughter a biscuit to exchange with girl 1. It takes girl 2 another few minutes to overcome her shyness and actually exchange the treats. All this is happening over me, so I end up with a lap full of crumbs. During the first prayer, girl 2 is constantly asking girl 1 to come and play with her in the loudest possible voice. Girl 1 by this point can’t be bothered to play, as her mum has given her toys to play with. Instead of concentrating on my prayers, I’m being made to watch 2 little girls have mini-strops.
Neither mother was remotely interested in keep their daughter quiet, but luckily, in the gap between the prayers, the girls saw an infant they could go and annoy, so they left me in peace for the rest of the prayers.
I’ve also noticed that the women’s section is very noisy (Mosques in Arab countries seem to have a certain serenity to them – why are Iranian ones like fish markets?) and it takes them at least 5 minutes to settle down after the start of a prayer! Women are all too happy to break connections in congregational prayers and constantly talk. The stewards of the mosque berate you for reciting prayers out loud (e.g. when you’re in a group of people and want to recite things together) but they say nothing to the people who talk during prayers or supplications.
All this really makes me appreciate the lengths the volunteers go to in Stanmore to keep the crowds quiet during lectures and prayers. And yes, you can message me and disagree, but I’m still going to say it - long live the mother and toddler room!!
The other day, it just so happened that I ended up saying my congregational prayers between 2 mothers with young daughters. Girl 1 extended the hand of friendship by giving girl 2 a piece of her cake/toast. Girl 2 was a bit shy and refused to take it. After a few minutes, girl 2’s mother realises and gives her daughter a biscuit to exchange with girl 1. It takes girl 2 another few minutes to overcome her shyness and actually exchange the treats. All this is happening over me, so I end up with a lap full of crumbs. During the first prayer, girl 2 is constantly asking girl 1 to come and play with her in the loudest possible voice. Girl 1 by this point can’t be bothered to play, as her mum has given her toys to play with. Instead of concentrating on my prayers, I’m being made to watch 2 little girls have mini-strops.
Neither mother was remotely interested in keep their daughter quiet, but luckily, in the gap between the prayers, the girls saw an infant they could go and annoy, so they left me in peace for the rest of the prayers.
I’ve also noticed that the women’s section is very noisy (Mosques in Arab countries seem to have a certain serenity to them – why are Iranian ones like fish markets?) and it takes them at least 5 minutes to settle down after the start of a prayer! Women are all too happy to break connections in congregational prayers and constantly talk. The stewards of the mosque berate you for reciting prayers out loud (e.g. when you’re in a group of people and want to recite things together) but they say nothing to the people who talk during prayers or supplications.
All this really makes me appreciate the lengths the volunteers go to in Stanmore to keep the crowds quiet during lectures and prayers. And yes, you can message me and disagree, but I’m still going to say it - long live the mother and toddler room!!
HMMM....
Funnily enough, today I was told that my house was completely out of the way from all the major landmarks. I would just like to point out that my house is in Daur e Shahr, which is a 15minute walk from the Holy Shrine (5 mins by motorbike) and Dar al Zahra is a 10-15 minute walk too!
GETTING INTO SCHOOL
The application procedure here for getting into school is quite long-winded. I was fortunate enough to have a contact who kept pestering the clerical office to process my application as soon as possible. The form was some 6 page headache, which asked all sorts of questions like where my father got his degree from!
Luckily, my interview was arranged for a week later. On the phone, they told me not to bring a translator as there would be someone there to translate. I would advise anyone going through the application process to ignore this and take a translator. When I arrived, it took my half an hour to find the woman’s office as it had recently moved and everyone I asked kept directing me to the old office! So i got a grand tour of the university! Finally, I ended up in the Farsi department, where the head of Farsi called out to a fellow British student and told her to take me to Khanum Yusufi’s office. Not surprisingly, there was no translator available. So I had to wait over an hour for them to run around trying to find another student who didn’t have a class to translate. The pants thing was that the student who they found had been free the whole morning, so instead of sendin her over straight away, they told her to go over at 11, even though Khanum Yusufi was free. Five minutes before the translator arrived, another couple of students arrived, so I had to wait another half an hour.
As we sat down at Khanum Yusufi’s desk ready to start, the woman at the desk behind her said “Khanum Farzaneh ney aamad?” meaning “hasn’t Mrs Farzana arrived?” Had it not been my entrance interview, I would have turned around and slapped her. I had been there from 9.20 in the morning and it was now 11.45!!!
So, the interview starts. Khanum Yusufi was slightly more concerned about her new mp3 player than my interview and wanted the translator to translate the instructions for her! So they asked me the usual questions like:
*Why did you come to Iran?
*Why do you want to come to this school and not another school?
*What my parents do
*How I will cope with studies and housework
*Extra curricular activites (e.g. Teaching at Hujjat Workshop)
So those were the kinds of questions I was expecting. Then she went on....
*What are my opinions on Imam Mahdi? Is he coming or not? What do the people of England think about Imam Mahdi? (like I’m supposed to know ?)
*If I was president of a country (e.g. Tanzania), what would I do? (I was really not expecting this, so I hesitated while I thought of a sensible answer. The 2nd interviewer asked me if I was hesitating because I didn’t think a woman was capable of such a task!)
*What are the problems faced by Muslims in England? What are the solutions?
*She then asked me if i had heard a certain piece of news that had happened in the last couple of days. I hadn’t heard of it, so I told her that (A) I don’t have a TV and (B) even if i had a TV, the news is in Farsi, so I can’t understand it.
*She then asked me about political interests, to which I replied that I prefer to concentrate on personal development. You’re probably thinking that this is a cop-out, but I didn’t think it was any of her business!
*She asked me if I had any questions (not specifying if it was religious questions or questions about the university). Since I’ve spent most of my time here bored and at home, I asked her how long it would be before I can start! Khanum Yusufi then went on about her mp3 player for 5 mins before she came back to me and asked me that if I went to see a religious scholar, what would I ask them. The recycled some of the questions that the camp kids had asked the scholars when they were here 2 months ago!
*As she was completing the final bits of paperwork, she rejected my passport photos and told me to bring more. I’m still not sure why. Luckily, I had some with me (you need like a million passport photos here). The ones I had sent with the application had me wearing a printed scarf, while the ones I gave her had me in a black scarf! Someone told me afterwards that a friend of theirs had their application rejected as he was wearing a tie in his pictures!
So in short, if your applying to an Iranian university, be prepared for a long wait and take a translator with you! I’m told that my experience has been short and relatively pain-free (even though it didn’t feel like it!)
So, I’m due to start school tomorrow (Sat 11th Oct), but before they let me into the Farsi class, I have to read a page of Qur’an. (I guess to make sure that I haven’t lied on the form)
The next step is to figure out the bus service that will take me every day! I’m sure that will be another drama....
EID IN QUM
Most people think that spending the month of Ramadhan in a Muslim country is lively and exciting. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Qum. Ramadhan here was quiet, apart from the few invitations we received, and the 3 iftars at Dar al Zahra (the World Federation office in Qum). Eid was like any other day. The only indication that it was a holiday was that the streets were empty and the shops were closed. Next year, I’m definitely spending Eid in London!
(BELATED) EID MUBARAK
Apologies for the long gap between blog entries. I’ve had problems logging onto blog from home. I’d like to wish you all a belated Eid Mubarak.
"Oh Allah! Bless Muhammad and his household.
Cause my faith to reach the most perfect faith, make my certainty the most excellent certainty, and take my intention to the best of intentions, and my works to the best of works" Dua Makarimul Akhlaq
May you and all the members of your family be blessed with the Divine Grace of Allah on the occasion of this glorious festival.
EID MUBARAK
with love, Qumgirl and The Husband
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)