I had this email in my mailbox, I'm going to answer it here.

>Hello
>
> I am an italian boy who visited your blog and i would like to tell you that it is really well done! my congratulations!
> Then i would like to ask you some question about iran because i am going to make a trip before university(if my mother let me come because she thinks iran is like afghanistan)
> 1)is this a good period for making a trip? how police behave with foreigners?
> 2)how is the life in tehran in terms of money?i am italian and here in italy life is not cheap!
> 3)is it true that young people, if they see a foreigners, start making a lot of questions about his/her country and what she/he thinks about iran?
>
> i hope u will answer. thank you very much
>
> matteo

Hi Matteo,

1. Police behavior is good. But you can not have sex, alchole,

2. Lets talk in Euros. A sandwich is 1 Euro, A good laptop is 1400 Euros, A bus from Tehran to another city is around 8 Euros. A shared taxi for transporting in city is 0.5 Euro. A book is 3 Euros. A luxury meal in a good restaurant is 20 Euros. A t-shirt is 5-15 Euros, A pair of shoes is 15-50 Euros, One kilo of meat is 8 Euros, One Litre of milk is 0.5 Euro, A bread is 0.2 Euro, One kilo of orange is 1 Euro and the best part: one litre of gas is 0.08 Euro ! ... enough ? :) I don't know about the hotels' price but you can check them on the internet (i wish!)

3. Difficult question ! For sure younger generation is interested to know more and more about other countries and if you start to talk with them, they will have many questions. I think many of them will ask "What do you think about Iran ?" I think the reason is something like this: We believe that we have a good country and we are afraid what other people think about our country in this situation. So they want to ask to be sure that YOU know the difference between our government and our people. This is one theory, the other theory is "This question is simple and everybody knows how to ask What do you think about Iran so they ask it :D"


Jadi

p.s. If you are coming to Iran it's better to be here 6 months later; In the SPRING. Nowadays Tehran is cold and if you are coming to Iran in the fall or winter, it's better to visit south of Iran which is warmer.

I am addicted to the net. I've found it in the recent couple of weeks when I did not had access to the Internet from my house and did not went to job (because the government had shut down our NGO). In these two weeks I was war driving trough the city to find a free WiFi zone and "borrow" their Internet :">

I am going to have my internet from April 21th and I am going to use this one week period to STOP my internet addiction. So I will not be online till Apr 21th. Thank you all and return back in a week :)

---

Oh ! And thank you Monozygote for all of your great English lessons :) I will learn and apply. I promise!

Persian Fonts are a good tool for Typography. Specially when enriched by our culture and it's poems. I saw this link today. I think it is good to have a look at this article.

The past few years have been quite exciting for Iranian graphic designers. As Iran’s design gains more international attention, the graphic designers face new challenges and rewards. In winter 2002 a poster exhibition by Iranian graphic designers called “Un Cri Persan” (A Persian Cry) was held in the city of Echirolles as a part of the Month of Graphic Design in France. The exhibition exposed a wealth of works that somehow escaped the spotlight for almost two decades. Ever since then Iranian graphic designers, many of them already internationally known, have been sharing more of their magic with the rest of the world.

In the last few days, I did not have (and still do not have) a reliable access to Internet. So I - despite your emails - did not blog about the British Sailors. I do not know if they were in Iran's territory or not. My TV and Radio are controlled fully by the government and say "They were in Iran's waters" all the time. CNN and BBC says "They were not" and both of them show "Proofs" !

I am not going to judge about it as I do not have the proper info and knowledge on Maritime Laws(?) or international laws. No doubt they are complicated :)

But I want and I have to tell my opinion on this issue. I think all of this problem was degrading for me as an Iranian. Many Iranians were concerned about "300" movie and says "It was defacing Iranian people". I think it did not. It was a movie and it did not claimed to be accurate. I think this Ahmadinejad is defacing us. In his silly gestures. When he orders some detainees to CONFESS on the TV. It is a routine. When they arrest you in Iran you have to confess on the TV and say "I hate what I did" and "Yes! I was wrong" and ... He did the same thing with the soldiers. I think there is no need for this.

My TV also lied a lot. My controlled media did it too. They told me "All the Britons confessed and thanked Iran for its hospitality" and "England sent us a letter and apologized for entering our territories". I did not check this news yet but it is unlikely to be true.

Ah.. and fuck us because of our hospitality! We arrest people. Do not allow them access phone lines or lawyers. Make them be a part of a show on TV and make them wear those silly suits and scarves. Then we announce "They apologized" and "we forgave them" and give them some gifts and CheloKabab and then release them. Is this Hospitality? Not In my opinion. I think this treatment is defacing.

I am sure in the next months whoever hears the name of "Iran" is not going to say:
   - Iran? yes! I know them from the "300" movie. That ugly faced, poorly organized army.
but they probably will say:
   - Oh ! I remember them. The issue of Britons! The silly nation who thinks being polite is a good meal and some souvenirs.

I do not like it. And I am sure there are a lot of Iranians who think like me but there are also a lot of them who heard the story like this: "The Britons were in our territory. We captured them. The world accepted that we were right. England apologized to us. We were hospitable and forgave them and even gave them some good meals and souvenirs." and they are proud of it.

Moral: I have to work more and more for the freedom of expression in this country.

One good friend (Saleh), emailed me about the usage of Farsi vs. Persian, I liked it and found it useful.

I've just read your most recent post in your English blog about Iranian flag,
beside my view about the post I have a comment about word"Farsi" (but not Persian) that you use several times in your article and also in your blog's sidebar please take a look at this post of my English blog and please follow the links at the end of the note, I don't say that I'm right about it
But I just wanna say that take a look at this articles links and then use whatever you want.
http://blog.salehoffline.com/2007/03/13/persian-or-farsi/