In front of the National Museum. Left to right, top row: Oscar, Chad, me, Nathan, Gareth, Zoe, and Dave. Left to right, bottom row: Calvin, Nina, Cynthia, Anna, Jing, and Evan.
Yesterday morning, I finally got to meet the rest of the group.
The over-all organizer of the trip is Gareth, who is British but lives in Beijing. His company is called Young Pioneer Tours. Most everyone, except for me and the Chinese-American contingent (save for Calvin), has joined Young Pioneer’s North Korea tour at some time or another – which they highly recommend, by the way. Gareth arrived the other night and Dave, Zoe and I had dinner with him after our afternoon in north Tehran.
I’ve already introduced you to Dave and Zoe from San Francisco. Zoe is actually from Beijing, but moved to San Francisco some years ago.
Jan, I met the other night too. When he arrived, the only extra bed was in my room, so he’s been my roommate for the past two nights. He’s Dutch and looks like Gary Busey. He also likes to walk around and sleep in his briefs.
Chad (DC) and Oscar (London) are British. They arrived at the same time as Dave and Zoe but I only met them yesterday because they’ve been partying with their Iranian friends and, last night, they gave dinner a miss to meet up with some girls, hoping to get lucky. Go, Chad and Oscar! (It might be tougher for Oscar since his luggage is lost in the friendly skies and he’s been wearing the same shirt since he got here, and is, most likely, to be wearing it till the end of our trip.)
Mark (London) is also British. Nathan is a student and lives in Sheffield.
Evan (DC) is from Minnesota and took up Persian Studies. He speaks Farsi.
Then there are the Chinese-Americans: Calvin, Cynthia, Nina, Anna, and Sonny – all from New York City. Jing is from LA, and Andrew now lives in Berlin.
Anna is in the same boat as Oscar, not because her luggage has gone roaming, but because she thought hijab only referred to head covering. She didn’t know it also meant “modest dress” and didn’t bring shirts long enough to cover her bum. She will probably be wearing the same shirt that I lent her for the rest of the trip.
Completing the group is our good-looking tour guide from Shiraz, Mustafa. (He says the most good-looking Iranians are from Shiraz.)
Dave, Jan, and Mustafa.
Nina, Calvin, Cynthia and Anna.
Evan, Andrew, Jing, Sonny, Zoe, Oscar (eating the sandwich), Nathan and Mark.
Aaron, from Seattle, but who now lives somewhere in northeast China, arrived early morning today.
Including Gareth and Mustafa, we are 19 in total.