From my journal:
Chicago:12:56 AM
Tehran: 10:26 AM

Sorry that I can't seem to get everything down at one time. The longer it takes the more bound I am to forget stuff. Back to where I was when I was writing on the plane.
I got to the car around quarter to or ten til nine. Ame Farideh got to the car around nine. Bababozorg was a little unhappy that we'd lost so much time. We were going to Firouz Abad, which was about two hours from Shiraz. At the time I had no clue what Firouz Abad was or what we were going to see. It turns out its a town and near it there are a bunch of different ruins with names I can't remember. We went to [Kakhe Arde-Shir]. It was really cool. I liked it more than Persepolis even though I'd never heard of it before. There were parts where it was all worn away, and there were parts where you could still see the orginal molding, as well as aread where dirt and dust had settled and hardened, but you could still see the top of indentions in the wall where you'd put things, and they'd had those in other rooms a lot higher up, not under the ground. It was really cool trying to imagine was it was like. I also found a staircase that led down to a wall. Maybe they had a basement. It was really neat, and I didn't get any pictures with my camera. :( I took some with Ame Farideh's though, and she said she'd get a CD so I can burn them to take home with me. If my printer has decided to stop being tempermental, I'll be able to get some pretty good prints from it, if not, well I can always go to Jewel or Walgreens and spend a few weeks allowance to get prints.
At Kakhe Arde-Shir there was a stream, and there were these little fishies in it that Ame Farideh said she used to catch and eat when she was little. They were really small and reminded me of the fish I used to have when I was younger. As in in my fishtank, not to eat. Ame Farideh had a plastic bag (one more thing that reminded me of my late fishies, the bag was like the ones they use at the petstore) and fed me the cookies in it and used it to catch fish. She ate quite a few of them, four or five at least I think. When she took one out of the bag it was pregnant and she freaked out and threw it with such force that instead of meeting its death in Ame Farideh's stomach, it probably met it upon impact with the water. I guess she can't eat live pregnant fishies. Wait, do fish even get pregnant? I thought they laid eggs, wait, never mind. I think some are pregnant. I'm all confused.
After that I was a little freaked out and scared of Ame Farideh, yet I'm the one who got sick. Probably the sight of Ame Farideh eating fish gave me digestion problems.
Then we went to Firouz Abad where Ame Farideh wanted to look at the bazaar. There wasn't much time though because it was closing for lunch. She ended up buying material. I wanted a skirt. They had these skirts there that were long and very colorful, but they were sorta expensive, and I was looking for a subtle one, and Ame Farideh said I wanted it to be cheap, but they were all over 10,000 tomans. I don't see how that's too expensive. I saw one that was black with a colored trimming that was only 9000, but Ame Farideh said not to get it.
Once Ame Farideh was happy with her purchase, we set out to find a place to eat. We found a place about an hour from Shiraz(we decided to look on the way back) arund 3 or 3:30. It was in a town which has a name, but I don't remember it. I ate bread and yogurt and onions because I didn't like the chicken.
We got back to the hotel around 5:20. I took the room card from Ame Farideh because I had to go to the bathroom. By the time she was up to the room, I was in my pajamas. I'm glad I hadn't waited for her. Then I went to sleep. When I woke up, Ame Farideh was gone. I'd heard the telephone maybe ten minutes before, but I thought Ame Farideh was still in the room, so I just rolled over and went back to sleep. The next time I woke up I realized it was 7:20 and Ame Farideh was supposed to be gone, so I tried to call Bababozorg thinking he'd been who called. I waited for about a minute or two before I hung up. I tried a few more times and he didn't answer. I was hungry so I went to the lobby and bought a cookie. Then I went to the reception and asked if when Bababozorg had filled out a litle form he'd left his cell phone number. The person behind the desk didn't understand my stuttery, gramatically incorrect Farsi, so she asked me to speak English. She understood better. She went into the file and looked and said there was only his number in Tehran. I said thank-you. I tried calling his room again. No answer, so I went up to his room. The little light next to "guest in room" was lit, so I knocked on the door. He answered and he had been awake. I'd been calling the right room too. Bababozorg seemed a little confused because his phone hadn't rung. He looked at the phone and it had been off the hook. All my freaking out over being abandoned for nothing! I should've just gone to his room first. We went to the lobby and got strawberry milk shakes. The menu in farsi had them written so they were pronouced meelk sheeks. I found that funny. I woulda thought they would have a name for them. Sheer (milk) something.
Bababozorg and I waited for Ame Farideh. We looked at the shops at the hotel, took a short walk outside, and sat in the lobby waiting. While we had been in Shiraz, I had been looking for a pharmacy, and as soon as we walked outside of the hotel on our last night there, there was a pharmacy. I asked Bababozorg if I could get my tears for my eyes. I think I was calling it eye water in farsi, but Bababozorg knew what I meant, and I got some. My eys felt better. They weren't as itchy. It felt much better after three days of itchy. It wasn't unbearable itchy, just annoying itchy.
When Ame Farideh came we went up to the restaurant. Bababozorg used the regular elevator, Ame Farideh and I went to the lobby and used the elevator we'd recently discovered that took you to the restaurants. It had windows that looked outside. It was a neat elevator.
I don't want to write about the rest of the night. Basically I got sick, and scared of the dark, locked out of the room. Stuff that I guess could seem funny, but since it was barely 32 hours ago, it'll just give me a tummy ache to think about it.
I slept until 9:30 on Monday. Right when I left to go to breakfast, I ran into Ame Farideh coming back to the room from breakfast. She went down to breakfast with me. For once I didn't have bread, cheese, and honey. I had a slice of a persian melon (I think that's what they are called in English. In Farsi they are called harbozeh,I think,) a Shirazi cooloocheh, and tea with honey and milk like I used to drink when I was younger. I really liked it when I was eight. I remember having it for breakfast a few times. I hadn't had it for a few years until I had it on Sunday. Since then, I've had it every day. (1 on Sunday, 2 on Monday, and three glasses today.)
After breakfast we went to the room to pack. We got a call telling us to come downstairs from the taxi driver who we had befriended. His wife was back from her trip to Mashad and Tehran, so Ame Farideh talked to her on the way to the airport.
I got some footage from the plane taking off. But I think it turned out bad because I couldn't keep my arms still.
When we got back from the airport I checked my e-mail. There were five messages from KiKi. One included the carpets her mom wants prices for. I still need to find out the prices and e-mail them so her mom can tell me whether or not she wants them. Hopefully I can find out the prices soon since I'm only here six more days and in 7 I'll be in my room! Or somewhere a lot closer to it than here. Maybe outside my house. I don't know. If my parents are at work I'll probably be seeing one of my friends!
While I was checking my e-mail Shaghayegh, my cousin, came with Ali's(her husband) sister's kids (so her neice and nephew) Golzar is my age, and Nima is six almost seven. I spent the evening with them. Around 9 or 8, I don't remember when, I think probably closer to 8, Ame Farideh took Shaghayegh, Golzar, Nima, and me out. She took us to Kakhe Shah, but it was closed. The palaces closed at 5:30. There was a restaurant there though, so she took us there. From the gate at the entrance a little bus took us to the restaurant. It was a little spooky. At the restaurant we ate at one of the elevated floors that had cushions on the back and a rug. It was like being at someone's house, only outside. The weather was cool, so that was nice. The food was good too. I had bread and maste-mouseer, chelo kabob barg, and some rice. [Maste-mouseer is garlic yogurt, chelo kabob barg is some sort of kabob. I can't think of what type of meat it is right now. But I like it.] It was all very good. I got a few pictures since I'd thrown my camera in my bad. I got back to Mamanzari's close to midnight, I think. Whenever it was I was really tired.
When I went to sleep, I accidentally started the timer on my watch. When I woke up it said 10:12 and the seconds were moving. That must've been how long I slept for.
- salam az Mar @ 12:56 AM