In Iran!

Oh, wow! I'm in Iran! My flight arrived yesterday at 1:15 AM. The best part is seeing my Mother and family members. My good friend Ramin came to the airport with my Mother to pick me up and stayed over for the night. Love the guy. Iran Air is a very good airline and things went smoothly. Mehrabad Airport, though, was a trip in itself! Why do so many people have to come to greet the passengers? After waiting on line forever to have the passports checked, we had to wait again for the luggage. Three airlines had come in and all the luggage was coming through one belt! And to top it off, my suitcase was one of the last ones to come out. Then we had to go through customs. "What do you have in your bags?" the man asked me. I said: "Only books and clothes" but he had turned his head away and was talking to someone else. I didn't care; he told me to go through. I don't know what the most difficult part of the landing was. I had to shove my way through to get out. There was such a crowd waiting at the door. People wouldn't even move to let us by!

The weather is hot and dry, but I love it. I seem to stay cool; my skin is not warm at all. Everyone sweats except me. My cousins Shahrokh and Shahriar came over yesterday afternoon with my Khaleh Fakhri and it's so good to see them. I am very close to them even though I don't see them often. We lived with them at may grandmother's house whenever we came back to Iran from being overseas.

Mom is great. Last night we went for a walk and fed bread soaked in milk to the cats and kittens in the neighborhood. Our nanny, Gorji, is here and it's great to see her also. I have had her as a nanny since I was three years old.

Work: I made my first contact yesterday evening. I called Soltaniyeh to speak to Mr. Ahmadi, the supervisor of Soltaniyeh whom I had met last year and who was very helpful to me. He has been replaced by a Mr.Heydari whom I spoke to instead. Mr. Heydari was as nice and helpful as the Mr. Ahmadi. We spoke about my research and he said I was very welcome to go over and do what I needed to do. So Mom and I are off in a few days. We'll be taking the train or the bus and will probably stay in Zanjan for a while until we find something else (closer). Zanjan is 30 minutes drive away from Soltaniyeh. Mr. Heydari even suggested we stay with him and his family in Soltaniyeh after I told him that I was coming very "khaki" (down to earth) and working very "khaki". Nice!

Zari from Connecticut called me yesterday. She's in Tehran also. We'll see each other soon, I hope.