In MissLondon's highschool

Today we got up at 6:30,I took a look at the street from Yasi's room window...a rainy day in Tabriz!Yasi was so happy because she adores rainy weather.

She dressed,then we had our breakfast,fried egg with orange juice and Kellogg's Corn flakes In 7:30 we jumped into her father's car,i was at her backpack.
We arrived Ferdows school.Yasi has been studying there since 4 years ago.She has gone to school two years earlier and she was junior to all her classmates!
First she put her bag at classroom and then we went to last floor to take a photo from school's yard

Here's me in class

After a feaw hours i jumped into MissL's pocket we went to 4th floor again,they had a Literature test.

I saw many paper recycling bins in school,i'm so happy that this much paper is being recycled by students in Iran.

After the test all went to class,except me

At 2:30 we came back home.Here's the tower where Yasi's home is.Asseman e Tabriz

means the sky of Tabriz in Persian.I think it's because these apartments are one of the first tallests in Tabriz.

I'm so hungry!Hmmm!!! Lunch is Pizza with beer!

In Asseman With MissLondon

After the postcrossing meeting in ipuenktchen's house,I arrived my second host's house in Asseman-e-Tabriz complex.

Yasi MissLondon is a 16 years old black hair,dark brown eyed teenager girl,living in 14th floor with her family.

as she arrived home she opened the silver box,Here i am!

You can see me in front of my host's photo when she was just one year old!

I was walking around MissLondon's house that i saw a buffet full of dols,i was so excited!Yasi told me,her mother collects dolls from each country she travels.Here is me with some of them

At 11 o'clock we drank green tea with white date(Yasi's favourites).Yummy!I love white date too!It's great!

Tomorrow i'll be going to school with Yasi!i'm so happy to see school and her classmates!!!

Now i'm going to brush my teeth and then sleep,Good Night!

Bye for short time

Today in the afternoon my host asked me to write a postcard for my new host from our trip yesterday!
During these days of sightseeing trips I passed my free time in a nice *handbag-box* in ipuenktchen's hand bag. And I was so surprised when she made me ready to sleep in this box again, put some delicious famous sweets from esfahan beside me, my camera, hat, backpack and walking stick, too, added the postcard I had written, wrapped me with a beautiful tote bag, and then her students arrived!! And I was listening... in fact it was a postcrossing meeting - not a german language class! And there were participating IPUENKTCHEN - LILI_6789 and MISSLONDON!!!!!!!!! - how clever I am, to understand this!

And finally... rumpelpumpel.. somebody changed my place. I'm sooo curious what will happen next!

Another trip to URMIA LAKE and KANDOVAN

then we entered oroumieh! 3o km far from the bridge.

there our guests had the idea to have a look at one
of the churches.. and lucky me, they had a ceremony
for half of Lent and the women of this parish were
preparing a dough for a kind of special bread!!
it was so nice to see them all working together!!!
and the bread - yummieeeeeeeeee!!! they let us try it!
doday we went straight to province West-azerbaijan,
where we first reached the lake urmia with its
peninsula islamic island!! in the olden times ppl
had to go around the lake to reach oroumieh, the
nowadays-capital! later they got a ferry, but
recently in nov. 2oo8 there was after the longlasting
construction of the bridge the opening ceremony for
only one lane! and when we were passing there now,
ipue was very surprised to see the second lane
nearly ready!!! in the middle of the two lanes
there will be later a lane for the railway, too!!!
the bridge is really an impressing building!!!!!!!!!

btw - the lake is very similar to the death sea!!!
the same salty - 32 %, nearly the same size, 1o times
larger than lake constance in DE!! but only 7 to 15 m
deep, and with about 2oo islands! a natural area
with flamingos and pelicans.. (the last shah had kept
this beautiful area for himself as his hunting place....)

(c)akiL

(c)akiL

(c)akiL

A trip to famous UNESCO sites

today we got up at 6 AM, taking breakfast
and got out at 7 AM to pick up the others
from their hotel, after via autobahn up to
marand, 7o km far from tabriz, to pick up
my old german friend monika! as usual she
was ready and we went ahead to one of the
famous unesco-site *armenian monastic ensemble
in iran* near jolfa, st. stephanos monastery!!

on this pic on the road beside the river ARAS
at left side you may see IR and on the right
side of it is rep. AZ situated!
here you can see finally the one part of the
*armenian monastic ensemble in iran*, registered
in 2oo8 as a world cultural heritage site -
st stephanos monastery!!! it's so beautiful
situated deep in the mountains!
ppl are going fishing from the river ARAS,
and the fishing from the aras dam belongs to
the national fishing company!
we passed some fishshops - woooow, I had never
seen such a fish.... CATWELS!!!!! about 5o kg!!!!
and to make ppl curious to buy some fish,
after getting the *fishmeat* out from his place
under the skin, they met the head and skin hanging
beside the road, so ppl could notice they are
selling fishes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!?
and this looks like really a kind of art!
leaving province EAST-azerbaijan and entering province
WEST-azerbaijan, next we reached another part of the
a.m. UNESCO-site: qara kelissa or the so called black
church, st. thaddaeus monastery, which is the oldest
place of christian religion!!

A sightseeing trip in Tabriz

first let me tell you smth about tabriz!!
it's an industrial city with about 2 mill. inhabitants!
the first settlements had been found from 3.6oo years ago!
the city is situated in NW of IR on the way to the turkish border!
it's the capital of province east-azerbaijan,
situated on an altitude of about 1.5oo m.
it has hot and dry summers and strong winters with a lot
of snow! (except this winter now.. when the whole snow
was falling only in europe - it seems......)

today we started our sightseeing tour in tabriz in the
azerbaijan museum!
the bazar of tabriz is the by far largest roofed bazar
in the world, and ppl here are very happy, as it's announced
to the tentative list of UNESCO and you can keep crossed
your fingers hopefully it will be registered as a world
heritage site asap!!!!
my host told me, that ppl are busy to prepare their new year!
and one of the items, nessesary for the celebrations is the
special mix of nuts for *tshaharshanbeh suri*! (you will hear
about later!!) yummieeeeeeeeee!!!!
wow - what they are selling in bazar side by side????!?!?!?
here you can see a special hand made soap, using for everything
- for hair as well as for clothes!!!!!
yummieeeeeeeeeeee again!! I found myself in the middle of
delicious dates!! the BAM dates are the most famous ones!!
another sign of new year is, when they start to sell the goldfishes!
ipuenktchen brought us to constitution house in tabriz.
there are some famous brothers from the olden times:
SATTARKHAN and BAGHERKHAN, who were the leaders of some
military guys who were busy to bring the rules to the ppl!
they had their meetups in the later called constitution
house, it's owner was mr. kouzekonon, who allowed the guys
to meet in his house!
puuuuh - how dangerous my place!!!!!!?!??!
after we got tired and went to relax to a nice
traditional restaurant which was a former HAMMAM!
(public bath)
hehe... how great and delicious - beside their meal
they had a large plate of fresh herbs!! yummie again!!

Travel arrangements

Jippieeeh - my host told me to go to bed
very early, because we have to get up tomorrow
morning in time! There will be some guests from
Tehran, visiting *our* province here...

ipuenktchen is living in the province East-Azerbaijan, and
there is also West-Azerbaijan and on the other
side of the border the Republic Azerbaijan is situated,
which belonged in the golden times, about 25o years ago,
also to Persia. One of the ancient shahs lost it...

They all have the same culture, language *azeri* and traditional
music! People here are very proud of it, and for instance
they insist to speak their own language instead of *farsi*,
the official language allover Iran, although the kids up
from elementary school had to learn only farsi!!!

ipuenktchen told me so interesting names and showed me some postcards
of the sites we will go to explore, that I'm really thrilled
and can not wait anymore........ it's better to go to sleep -
KEEP IN TOUCH!!!