Crisps/Chips

Iranians seem to have a love affair with junk food. There really doesn't seem to be a concept of healthy snacks - everything is crisps or cakes (and the cakes are really nasty and dry)

In most of the supermarkets I've been too (and when I say 'supermarket' I mean the little corner stores), there is at least one wall filled with crisps. You get all kinds of flavours and shapes here. Infact, one of my relatives loved the crisps here so much that she took 2 boxes back to Canada with her!

I'm strictly a Walkers (Lays) girl. If it isn't salt and vinegar Walkers, don't bother offering it to me. Although I am finding a suitable alternative here... Cheetoz lemon flavour are not bad. Sounds gross, but they are really tangy.... a bit like chilli and lemon, but without the chilli. The other alternative is to buy plain crisps and sprinkle chilli powder on them. In fact I have a salt shaker just for chilli powder!

Another Encounter with a Taxi Driver...

This is what happened to me today...

So, I got a taxi off the street as I was out and about. (Don't worry peoples, it was a real taxi driver, not one of those unmarked cars posing as a taxi driver). I asked the driver to stop somewhere along the way so I could rush into a shop to get something.

While I was in the store, the driver's wife called him and started yelling at him. I got in the car and he was really, really angry saying things like "I provide for you every day and just one day I forgot something and you start shouting at me" etc.

So the driver cuts the phone and starts yelling at me about how good a husband he is and how ungrateful his wife is etc. Not that I really care about his martial stuff. I thought the 'smile and wave' Madagascar-film-not-the-country approach was best here.

So this guy is really vexed. We're going towards home and suddenly he stops the car and tells me to wait. I'm thinking he's going to buy an axe or machete to kill his wife. Instead, he picks up a banana peel from the middle of the road and chucks it in the bin. He comes back into the car, a completely changed and calm man and explains how he once saw a motorcycle go over some garbage in the road, have an accident and break an arm.

Random act of kindness, although I wish he'd been a bit calmer with his wife!

Syria

In preparation for our move to Syria later this year, I hopped over there for a week to check the place out. The Husband and I are hoping to learn Arabic properly over there, before continuing our studies in Qum. Thing is, you can learn Arabic here, but you don't really get the speaking environment in which to practise and they really concentrate on teaching the grammer parrot fashion, so off we go to Syria!

I stayed with some friends in an area called Sayyidda Zainab, which is named after the granddaughter of the Holy Prophet, who is buried there. The mosque complex is really nice (if a little small). The surrounding area, however, REALLY made me appreciate Qum. Garbage is only picked up once a week there and the streets are only swept once in a while. Compare that to Qum, where we have orange-clad street sweepers who pick up the rubbish every night and clean the streets.

And not only that, the place is CRAMMED full of Iranians. The shopkeepers all speak Farsi and accept Iranian currency. (Iranians are known to shop, even though the merchandise in Syria is exactly the same as Iran!). Infact on my flight back to Iran, every single person was overweight by at least 10kg. (apart from me - I only had 9kg in total :-) lol!).

But on the plus point, the supermarkets in Damascus City Centre are well stocked up. I saw all the things that I've been missing in Qum (like flash kitchen cleaner, puff pastry and kellogs cereals!)

It was also nice to meet some of the Westerners who are studying out there. The family I was staying with even took me to a place called Maloula, which is an hour away from Damascus. Its the only place where they speak Arameaic (the language they spoke in Jesus' time). Transport is quite cheap, so it cost about a dollar each way. The town is famous for a girl who was supposed to get married, but at the last minute changed her mind and became a nun. The townspeople were furious with her, as her fiance was one of the richer members of the town, so they tried to burn her, chase her away etc. but each time, something happened to save her. It is said that once she was being chased by soldiers and she stopped to pray and the mountain opened up in front of her letting her escape.

Update on the eggs!

We can now buy eggs the same way as 'back home'. They still get sold by the kilo, but now they come wrapped in cardboard and plastic and actually survive the 5 min walk from the grocery store to home!

I photographed the label, it's translation is quite corny...



The bit on the right read "Its yolk is gold in reality"

Only in Iran

Chocolates for change!

One of the really annoying things about Iran is that when you're in a grocery store and you hand over your cash, if the change owed to you is really small, the shop keeper will sometimes give you a small chocolate or sweets instead of giving you the money. Personally, I'd rather have the cash.

Thing is though, the chocolate is usually bi-mazeh (tasteless) compared to Galaxy or Cadburys... so I have a collection of chocolates/sweets in a little dish at home. Chocolate anyone?

Barf

In Farsi, 'barf' means snow.
In other languages, it means something else! LOL

Inna lillaahi wa inna ilaihi raji'oon...

... To God we belong and surely to Him we will return

Khanum Zahra Hajj Khalili passed away on Thursday.

Please remember her and her young family in your prayers.