TRAVELOG We were on the way to north. The sun poured down on the fields. The air made you sleepy. The sky was of the deepest blue. Everywhere you could see a rich greenery of grass and trees. we couldn’t take our eyes off the sceneries. My sister was driving the car faster and faster, the trees rushed past at great speed. It was a distance of twenty or thirty mile on a narrow road to Masoleh. Unfortunately one of my nephew, Meisam came down with the flue. I made a suggestion, I wanted them to go to a hospital and left Mohammad (another one of my nephew) and I at the beach. We stared at the calm sea and the horizon. Mohammad was taking and I walked on a few steps in a dream. He talked on, not noticing my lack of attention. Gradually he fell into a fast asleep beside me. Suddenly he awoke from his dream to noise. Mohammad held on to me. A well dressed young man had slammed the car door and ran towards the sea soon his father caught up with him and stopped him. The boy shouted: “I want drown myself I don’t want to be alive any more. You always break your promise, you said so yourself if you play your cart right you appoint me as a boss in the factory. Do you remember? Do you? I have enough honor not to tell lie, father you are a liar”. It needed all his father’s courage to reply. His face was dry and pale, he said: “don’t accuse me of that”. Tears was pouring down his mother’s cheeks. She said through her tears: “ Ahmad for God’s sake, it’s fat round your father’s hearth he might last one year”. He yelled: “ God I had not asked to be born at all. I wish I had never been born”. Then his father rose to the occasion and slapped him. This made a difference to the boy’s view of the situation, after a moment hesitation he returned to the car and drove away. After that nobody passed by for a long time. When my family retuned from the hospital we broke the news to them.

Life would be better if... Life would be better if we took a fresh at everything in the world. This would change the face of the world. Let’s do a test, You’ve worked by noon in the summer day. You are under the weather. You’ve waited for a bus for ages finally the one show up. You get on it sit by the window with close eyes. A man with two children gets on the bus next bus stop. Both of children are crying. They are getting on your nervous and the man makes no effort to silence them and this drives you crazy. What’s your reaction? 1. You look at him angrily and say “please take care of your children they made me mad”. 2. You get nervous and keep your feeling to yourself. 3. You murmur something like “he is very inconsiderate …” 4. …………………………………………………………………. Make a u turn. Let me tell you the story of the man. They were returning from a hospital. His wife was dead. He couldn’t do anything to make them quite. What’s your reaction now? 1. You will forget your tiredness and say “God have mercy on him”. 2. Certainly you rummage in your bag to find a candy or chocolate for children. 3. You can see your blessings. 4. …………………………. There is so many examples to mention in our daily life. A driver who drives so fast. You can imagine his child is alone at home and… . In this way you are kind and relax all the time.

Story After divorce he buried himself in his work. His only daughter Sama lived with him. She was the apple of her father’s eye. He prodded Sama into studying medicine like himself thereby a source of pride for him. Their days were all the same. One day while driving home they stopped in at bookstore. He couldn’t find his book but Sama bought a magazine. She leafed through the magazine and fell to reading a biography of the first Iranian woman who biked around the world. It was a pleasant change from listening to classical music as her father used to. To her surprise the woman was a college dropout her major was computer and one day she wound up wishing she’d never chosen this major. Her heart’s desire was traveling. After that they both fell silent. She sighed deeply and stared blankly through the magazine. Sama rolled a window down she felt the force of wind on her face, felt jealous of the freedom of the wind. The practiced eyes of her father could see that Sama wished to be able herself to travel around the world. He said: “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. I hope before long we establish our clinic and your mother would come back to home of her own accord. You are on the right track so follow your nose.” But none of what he was saying made much sense to her. Dusk was falling as they arrived home. She went to her room connected the Internet and browsed through websites. Tried to get some sort of clues to how start to travel. She figured out it needed some paper works, buy a bike and enough money to support herself. That time she never thought about the fact that she was the sophomore college student. She told her father about her decision the next day at breakfast. He felt a pang in his heart because when she determined to do something no one could stop her. “The story made a deep impression on you. But what a hasty decision you still a sophomore so we can talk about it two years next.” He said, his voice was tinged with sadness. Sama got up, adjusted her clothing and said: “ I know but I don’t want to follow your dream anymore I want to pursue my heart’s desire. Both, you and I need to get out of the rat race life. I can’t pass endless hours between sunrise and dusk at desk or at clinic. They are tight cage for me”. His father’s face looked like an old man, she was his only world. “ Give me some time to think over it.” Curse the moment we bought that magazine. He mumbled.

Carpet and Iran Making carpet was a family business in Tabriz. Tabrizean sheared sheep and made wool. They learned to make use of the natural resources at hand to paint wool like, different type of plants. Family members sat beside each other to weave the carpet under the direction of a head carpet maker. People made carpet first for the household and second for the market. Over the years carpet have served many purposes, obviously one of the most common uses of carpet is for covering floor because carpets are thick, soft and durable. A small size of the carpet with the picture of nature or portrait has been using as a sign on the wall. At one point in history carpet was a luxury item. Using as curtain in the winter and packsaddle. The size of carpet varies. A small one is less than a meter wide, while a large one can be over six meter wide. The number of people assisting to weave carpet also varies. A small carpet have just one carpet maker and take a few days while large one may require five or more and take more than six months to finish. The invention of machine for making carpet introduced an entirely new and quick way to produce carpet. Unlike the handmade carpet which consist of many knots, machine made carpet are threads which are glued in to a plastic surface. This is certainly a clear indication that handmade carpet are big ticket items.

Razieh Let me first tell you about my self and my dream. I'm 27 graduated in Persian Literature. I love it because it's filled with wise and knowledge, it forces me think about myself, the world, human. It's like a journey within myself, my own world, my heart. I thought that all literature have this characteristic so I started to learn English so that I immerse in to new world. Gain knowledge + action is my dream. I'm working in kindergarten. I laugh, talk, walk, eat, sit ... every day with the most innocent existence in the world. In Bostan of Sadi (Bostan means garden in Farsi and Sadi is one of the greatest poet in Persian Literature) there is a very beautiful verse about companion, he say " the greatness of my company effected on me other wise I was nothing". کمال همنشین در من اثر کرد وگرنه من همان خاکم که هستم I'm dealing with children that's why they effect on my talking laughing, thinking etc. I'm a kid in the shape of an adult

First notebook entry: Introducing myself I am learning English language because it's important skill to find a good job and of course get familiar with other cultures. my native language is Farsi.