Beautiful and Brilliant Shiva

Nov 13, 2015
Shiva, our lovely new Iranian-German friend, made our Iran trip so incredibly interesting that I need to dedicate a post to her and her alone. She was seated next to me on our Vienna-Tehran flight and we immediately hit it off. We talked throughout take-off and dinner and exchanged phone numbers. Shiva was on her way to Tehran to see her boyfriend and invited us to hang out with them.

We ended up spending a lot of time together, staying over at their apartment, taking their pictures, traveling with them and their friends to the Caspian Sea, and re-uniting with them after our various train rides throughout the country.

 

She told us a bit about her childhood: She was born in Shiraz and lived there until she was fifteen. Then, one night, her parents – in an emergency kind of situation – decided to leave Iran and so she and her brother moved to Germany where they’ve been living ever since.

 

But mostly we talked endlessly about modern-day Iran in general: Her analysis of Persian socioculture was absolutely brilliant and so very smart.

 

Shiva told us about her Tehrani girlfriends, how most of them are well-educated but unemployed, living at home with their parents, waiting for a rich guy to marry. She told us how young people date in Iran, and how their parents deal with it. She told us how people buy alcohol (they call a guy who knows a guy who knows someone who sells alcohol (which is, of course, illegal in Iran), and then they meet somewhere in an alley and he hands over a bottle of shitty booze in a plastic bag and they pay an exorbitant price for it) and how to drink in public places (people fill water bottles with clear liquor and go cruisin’ in their cars at night or infuse a watermelon with whiskey for a picknick in the park).

 

In short, basically 95% I’ve learned about Iran in the three weeks I was there, I know from Shiva. And not only was she our interpreter and personal cultural attachée, she also had the biggest heart, organising multiple boxes of cakes and candles for my birthday, taking me on a shopping trip to find something cool and hijab-y to wear, always making sure we had a proper breakfast and knowing where you can get really good espresso.

 

Thank you, Shiva!!! We are so grateful for your hospitality and we <3 you so very much!!!

On the way to the Caspian Sea, October 15, 2015

Bandar-e Anzali, Caspian Sea, October 15, 2015

 

PS. You can re-license all of my Iran pictures through the agency KEYSTONE, or contact me directly if you are interested.
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