A fun few days

Hi all,

I'm working on the last of the postcards, so if you ordered one, they'll be in the mail by Saturday. Other than that, we spent a wonderful last couple of days doing things college kids do here in Iran. Turns out that means basically the same stuff as home--movies, restaurants, museums, and random outings. It's been really great. We went to an Americanish coffeeshop that ended up being more French than American. It was nice, though. The guy gave me the weirdest look when I asked for a coffee latte with a shot of espresso. What things I take for granted in the U.S... We then got in a bit of a fender bender that was more exciting to see how the system works there than anything else. The police that came to check out the situation had a cracked windshield. Then the guy who hit us was all like, give me your drivers license--to which we were like, aw-hell-nah. Anyways, no one was hurt, but the police were sketch.

The day after, we bummed. The day after that, we went to the national jewelry museum. It was legit baller. I don't know if there are pics on the internet of the swag in there, but it's worth an internet search. 96% of the jewels there are precious stones = diamonds, rubies, and emerald. I didn't know that things that aren't those three things are not considered precious stones. I guess it makes sense. I just never thought about that.

Yesterday, we (my cousins, sisters and I) went to see my first Iranian movies in Farsi. The movie was really depressing, but I was proud of myself for understanding it. The movie theater was also super chic and had the equivalent of $2 a ticket (expensive by their standards). The movie, Dahr Bareye Ellie, (About Ellie) had some actress who was also in a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio or something and everyone I guess made a big deal about it. They also have popcorn at movie theaters, according to my cousin. We got there late (those who are familiar with the Ghadiri family know this is usual) so we didn't have a chance to get snacks, but you can also get things like fries and hamburgers there. We did get dinner at this delicious restaurant that was really classy.