I just uploaded close to 100 pictures of Tehran, Iran. I took them myself during my trip to Iran last month.

You can view them in the gallery under Tehran Pictures. I have also put some of them in this post.

My family (and I) lived at Apadana apartments (Shahrak Apadana) for 14 years. My best friendes and memories are from that complex. Apadana is located on the west side of Tehran in Iran.

The apartments hadn’t changed since 7 years ago that I left Iran, but the complex had changed slightly. The entrance was moved and the shopping centeres were more developed.

We used to play soccer outside almost every single night when I was a kid, but surprisingly no one was in the playgrounds when I went there over my trip (last month) - not even on Thursday and Friday nights (Iran’s off days). Seemed like kids are not nearly as active as we used to be. The funny part is my dad always used to tell me how me and my brother weren’t nearly as active he used to be when he was a kids….

Here are some pictures of Shahrak Apadana.

I’m in Tehran, Iran now. It is 4:17 pm right now and I’m about to get in the pool soon. I meant to write my first report earlier but haven’t really had much time. Actually I realized the modem on my laptopn doesn’t work so I had to find another laptop to work on while I’m here.

The internet connection here is mostly dial-up. There is DSL connection too (which is called ADSL) but it costs a lot more. The dial up that I’m using is 1500 Tomans (Iran’s Currency equivalent of about $1.60 for 10 hours of internet. The ADSL connection starts from $90 a month to $200 a month.

So far I’ve been in Tehran - the capital. It’s been 6.5 years since I left Iran, so I expected a lot of changes. Before coming here I’d heard all sort of trip reports ranging from how bad Iran has got to how it hasn’t really changed. I personally was impressed by how improved Tehran has become. The road and highways in Tehrna have got much better. There is still traffic but to a reasonable amount.

One noticable change is that there aren’t nearly as many Peykans (Peikan) as there used to be. I mean there is maybe 1/20 Peykans comparing to 6 years ago. For those of you who don’t know, Peykan is an old British car that was being produced in Iran for maybe 30 years. It was old looking and not comfortable by any standards.

The most common foreign cars on streets are Pegeot, Toyota Camry (the newest models), BMW (the newest models), Toyota Pandra (which we don’t have in States), Hundai, and Nissans. There are also some infinities that are imported to Iran in the name of Nissan to save on import tarrifs which is about 100%. For example a Toyota Camry that might cost about $20,000 in States is 45,000,000 Tomans (about $50,000) here in Iran.

I’ve taken a lot of pictures and short videos of the roads, cars, houses, friends, and more. But I’ll post them all when I get back to States or when I get on a ADSL connection.

“Mehdi Akhavan Sales” is my most favorite Iranian modern poet by far. I have great memories with his poems. I used to memorize many of his poems. At some time I will try to translate his poems here.

The other day I was looking around on PersianHub to find some persian songs to downlaod. I came across an album that I had been looking for years. I used to have the album on tape in Iran and never thought I could ever find it again (especially here in U.S.).

The album that I’m talking about is “Mehdi Akhavan Sales” reading his poems with his own voice. Here is the link to download the files: PersianHub Download.

If you want to learn more about “Akhavan Sales” you can read his profile on Wikipedia.

This is a famous poem by Iranian Poet “Ferdowsi”. Ferdowsi is one the greatest Persian poets and is mostly famous for his “Shahnameh“.

The title of the poem in this post is “Mayazar? Moori Ke Daneh? Kesh Ast” in Farsi. The translation would roughly be:

Crush not even the tiny ant that beareth a grain of corn

For she hath life, and sweet life is a boon

I have written the poem in Farsi Nastaligh? (Calligraphy). Feel free to use the image if you want to.