Friday, February 23, 2007
The Chestnut Towers
Tonight I had dinner with one of my students from Berlitz: Narges (NAR-guess). She is Iranian and very awesome. She has two children in high school, and her husband travels back and forth between Iran and Boston, but mostly works and lives in Tehran. She made me a delicious meal and we drank uncountable cups of Persian tea! I'm going to be wired all night!
She confessed to me that she is pretty lonely here. She is a gynocologist, but she can't work here in the U.S. and seems completely bored. She is really intelligent, and my general impression is that she prefers her profession to parenting. I don't mean that in a negative way, but rather that she was a very dedicated doctor. She had her own practice in Iran, and now she's a housewife with a husband who lives out of the country!
Many times she has told me that I am the best teacher she has ever had (yeah, she's really sweet!), and she told my boss that she will sign up for another set of classes only if I am teaching them! However, she is teaching me so much. I think she'd really like to spend some time together outside of class--just being friends.
When I told her about Lent last Tuesday and I mentioned all the junk food I'm giving up, she immediately said that she would, too. So today instead of dessert she had huge bowls of fruit at her house--I mean EVERYTHING! Apples, peaches, nectaries, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries. She wished she had raspberries... =)
We agreed to be workout partners, too. At her apartment they have a pool, gym and tennis courts. Tomorrow I'm going over there to have a swim with the family. Her kids are great and I feel really comfortable around them. It helped that they were asking and asking to meet me! It seems like I get along well with all kids I meet here, except the ones Tom's family. That's annoying.
Some of the things she said that interested me most tonight:
Re: her country. The Iranian gov't are corrupt, but harmless. They are just playing up the nuclear weapons to scare us and give them more power and control in the world. She thinks I should come see for myself this summer.
Re: her family. She had an arranged marriage!
Re: her lifestyle. She gives her children $50,000 every summer to spend how they like. (No typo there--but I almost choked on my blueberries when I heard that.)
Another funny note from the night. I've been a little sick the last few days, but didn't have any ear problems until I rode the elevator down Chestnut Towers. They've been plugged ever since... oh, the woes of living and dining in the penthouse.
She confessed to me that she is pretty lonely here. She is a gynocologist, but she can't work here in the U.S. and seems completely bored. She is really intelligent, and my general impression is that she prefers her profession to parenting. I don't mean that in a negative way, but rather that she was a very dedicated doctor. She had her own practice in Iran, and now she's a housewife with a husband who lives out of the country!
Many times she has told me that I am the best teacher she has ever had (yeah, she's really sweet!), and she told my boss that she will sign up for another set of classes only if I am teaching them! However, she is teaching me so much. I think she'd really like to spend some time together outside of class--just being friends.
When I told her about Lent last Tuesday and I mentioned all the junk food I'm giving up, she immediately said that she would, too. So today instead of dessert she had huge bowls of fruit at her house--I mean EVERYTHING! Apples, peaches, nectaries, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries. She wished she had raspberries... =)
We agreed to be workout partners, too. At her apartment they have a pool, gym and tennis courts. Tomorrow I'm going over there to have a swim with the family. Her kids are great and I feel really comfortable around them. It helped that they were asking and asking to meet me! It seems like I get along well with all kids I meet here, except the ones Tom's family. That's annoying.
Some of the things she said that interested me most tonight:
Re: her country. The Iranian gov't are corrupt, but harmless. They are just playing up the nuclear weapons to scare us and give them more power and control in the world. She thinks I should come see for myself this summer.
Re: her family. She had an arranged marriage!
Re: her lifestyle. She gives her children $50,000 every summer to spend how they like. (No typo there--but I almost choked on my blueberries when I heard that.)
Another funny note from the night. I've been a little sick the last few days, but didn't have any ear problems until I rode the elevator down Chestnut Towers. They've been plugged ever since... oh, the woes of living and dining in the penthouse.
