In the last post I basically talked about everything that happened to me over the 5 month even though the title was arrival. Now I want to talk about the differences I felt between my life here and back home.
My hometown, Tehran, is a big city with population of more than 8 million which goes up to 12 with commuters. you can find everything in the city, and I mean everything you just need to know where to go or who to call. Most of people drive but the transportation system is good enough to live easily without having a car. the taxi system is way different and doesn't count as fancy and expensive that it is here. Traffic is a huge problem, it can take more than 2 hours to travel from west side to not so west side for example. The city is surrounded with mountains from 3 sides and the south part goes toward desert. we have all four seasons and yes my American friends we do have snow, as a matter of fact we have one of the highest ski resorts in the world right in the north part of Tehran. The main difference is that we don't have just down town in the city, each part of the city has its own down town, shopping center, food courts and parks to go which really helps with the traffic.
You can a photo taken by me from my beloved Tehran and its mountains. You might think the mountains are really close but it is not, from this point you have about 20 minutes driving without traffic to reach to them. Another fun fact about Tehran is that the whole city has lights, the streets, highways, parks and everywhere you go in the nights you have lights. City it self looks like the down towns in the US. We have big shopping centers like Walmart in US but there is still lots of small business shops to cell the goods. Every neighborhood has its own shops for daily life and of course you have the option to go to chain ones. Malls are important, you can find them everywhere and you can find the stuff you want there. some malls have special categories like electronics only and some don't. Tehran is filled with apartments. Depending on the neighborhood and the flat itself the prices differs. Unlike US the downtowns are not the expensive places. It is expensive to own a shop there but no one wants to leave in the middle of because of traffic and all the people go around there. Houses are build using bricks and cement mostly, what ever they use other than theses is not wood.
Well I talked about all of those so I can start to talk about the differences. First thing most of Americans ask me when they hear the Name of Iran: Ohhh it should be very different here for you!! How are keeping up with the weather?? the answer is Yes it is different, unless I go to a city such as NYC no place is close to where I used to live. It is difficult to live in a small town where you have to drive long way and pay unreasonable parking fee to go to a decent restaurant. It is difficult that I have to have drive in order to get a Diet Coke because back home it was walking distant. About the weather: depending on where you in US you will have something: really dry and hot, really cold and dry, really hot and humid, really cold and yet humid. There are places that more normal with all the seasons but I didn't end up there. In NY we have cold weather with snow. I am not unfamiliar with the snow my friends, I even brought my snow board with me from home to use it during snow season. I know there are deserts in Iran as well and some people are coming from there but I don't think it is polite to make a comment like this when you see someone for the very first time.
the streets are dark here, even the houses look dark to me. back home we all used chandeliers with several light bulbs on it and all we cared was to having the house lighten up. The darkness of the streets still is bugging me. the streets gets empty around 10 PM and just downtown (in the weekends) are crowded, this is also very different, there are always people outside back home. Restaurants close the kitchen at 9PM, ours were open till midnight only some fancy restaurants close earlier which still is later then 9 PM. Houses are made of wood. Houses are really old. the people in charge in shopping centers are very nice and friendly in contrary to back home which they get board and angry after 10 minutes. The sky is very beautiful here because of being less polluted. The towers are all in the down town and rest of beautiful and shorter houses are scattered in the city (it is more organized). Having fun here is different from back home. Going to bar and having drinks are not acceptable back home (Islamic Country so the alcohol is a no. no.) so you normally go a restaurant or a coffee place or park or even a mall over the weekend.
In US if you see one mall you know you have seen them all but back home each one is different from the other and you can not find any similarity between them. Streets and everything is different in each city. Driving here is much easier compared to back home and people are more organized.
I know I talked a lot about these and you know probably can know what is like to be US but Iran is the one short on sources. I think we can say both places are good and each one has its pros and cons to be live in, it all depends on what your priorities in life are. If you know what you want from your life you can choose wisely and be happy no matter where you go.
