Oh how the years fly by

I'd like to speak for a bit if I may about the girl I met in Iran.

I was there with the junior national team back in like 2003, which seems crazy to me but that was like 8 years ago now. wow. old. but our short interaction stuck with me.

Basically we were there two weeks for the world junior championship (I'm assuming were allowed to host since it was one of the few tournaments the USA didn't qualify for), and a week after we were eliminated because we couldn't get flights out of the country. Needless to say we got bored and got into trouble with the local quasi-authorities involving Mark Dodds getting tapped head to toe, us busting a bed, and our translator getting thrown against a wall by security. but thats another story for another time.

Anyways, like I said our interactions were short, we met in the hotel lobby where there was a coffee and cake lounge which most of us went to everyday cuz there was honestly nothing else to do, we were locked in our hotel for a week. I'm guessing this girl and her friend saw us play on tv and figured we had to be staying at our hotel since it was apparently the nicest in town. so I believe what happened is I was walking through the lobby and this girl must have seen that I was plastered in CANADA gear and figured we should talk, so she and her friend asked me if I went to college in Canada, and I said ya, and asked if I wanted to have coffee, and although I was carrying a busy schedule of watching the bbc news broadcast 20 times a day, I obliged them and joined them in the lobby.

Basically then asked me what school was like in Canada, and if I could help then make Canadian contacts so hopefully they could go to school abroad. So I helped them as much as I could. Basically we exchanged emails (I think), I showed them some websites that might have more information and what not.

so we spoke about this stuff for about 15 mins, and then there was an odd pause in our dialog where in 5 seconds of silence I felt the mood change. One of the girls looked away from me, took a long drag from the cigarette she had just lit and said, you know Canadian boys are so different from Iranian boys, and it was at that moment that I realized why these two girls had stopped me and what they really wanted to talk about. Not so much that they wanted to get married and get the eff outta dodge (well maybe they did I dunno), but it turns out they just wanted to gossip with a North American about the differences between our two cultures.

At this point our conversations got real, and we both learned a lot. Lots of eye openers that actually make you pause, sit back and open your eyes wider and say, whow really? I won't get into the differences between the two places that we discussed; its hard to describe to a westerner without sounding like a dick or just outrageous, but it was nice to share an experience on the other side of the world where you realize, all us folks here on earth for all the differences we think we might have, are all pretty much the same. we worry about pretty much the same things, hope the same things for ourselves and our families... and think about boys... or girls.

Like I said we were stuck there for an extra week or so, so the girl had a chance to come back to visit. If I remember correctly she had someone call up to my room to let me know, her and her mother had come for a visit. now this is where I feel like a poor human being and it moves me now and then when I think about it. I don't know if I got nervous cuz her mother was there, or if I felt weird cuz I had a girlfriend at the time, or if I had a meeting, or I was just being arrogant and couldn't be bothered to go downstairs to meet this girl and her mother, but I ended up missing them, but they were kind enough to leave me a gift. Apparently her father silk screened company logos onto shirts and hats so she had brought me a shirt and hat with whatever logo her father had just printed, I believe it was something "like" an american company so she must have assumed it suited to give to me.

Anyways I missed them. Two kind Iranians had brought me gifts and I couldn't get there in time to say thank you. I guess this is on my mind more recently because well, I'm in the middle east. I've been in the UAE for about a month and now I'm in Saudi Arabia. If you haven't turned on the tube in a while then let me tell you, the middle east is blowing up with revolutions like they're giving out free hummus. and just yesterday, Iran started their peoples uprising. The issue is, as new countries start protesting, the more violent these militaries seem to be acting, and I worry about her and the other people I met.

I wish I could send her an email of support. The only ironically positive thing I can think of is, political unrest is nothing new to the middle east, so I hope my old friends know how to stay safe. Anyways, I gotta go play some volleyball.

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