Dedicated to Malin!

One of the first days at college back home our professor divided us into groups to get to know a little about our new classmates. This was when I had the pleasure of meeting the very lovely Malin. I'm not going to bore you with details about how this “getting to know each other session” went on, cause I assume most of you have been through one. But I am going to share one simple detail that still warms my heart every time I think about it.

Well Malin and I were deep in the mist of our conversation, when it came up that I'm not technically a Norwegian. I told her that I was born in Iran. I've probably said those exact words to at least 1000 people before her. And never have I got a response like I got from her: “where in Iran are you from”? (Of course fellow Persians have asked me where in the country I'm from, but never ever a Norwegian). I was a actually in some sort of shock modus, and I think I told her, “yeah I'm from Tehran”. She knows how much this means to me, cause I've told her about a million times. But it was a simple gesture that made me so happy.

Dear reader I don't know if you can relate. Put your self in my shoes, you're in a strange country and you tell the people you've met that you're from x-country. Wouldn't you expect them to ask you where in that specific country you're from? This to my knowledge, has never happened to me before. So I've often wondered why people don't ask me anything else after the “were are you from” question? Is it lack of knowledge? Maybe our generation knows to little about other parts of the world? I especially experience lack of knowledge in regards to the Middle-East. Or maybe the answer Iran is sufficient for them. I haven't figured it out, but I'll keep you posted.

Well anyway this one's for you my dear Malin for giving me more confidence in our generation.

Over and out for this time!