Today it rains almost all day long. Everybody is happy about that because it hasn’t rained much here in years. Some of the fruit trees in Mamy’s backyard have died of the drought. In spite of the rain, which should make me feel at home here, I do not feel the least at home. I sit half-frozen in the backseat of the car when Farhad drives us through Tehran. I have never seen such traffic! Thousands of cars crawl through the streets and over the traffic circles. When there are 3 lanes there are 5 or 6 cars next to each other on the street. Left and right cars jump into traffic unexpectedly. In the middle of major intersections taxis are waiting for passengers, or passengers for taxis. Traffic lights seem to have given up the battle and are permanently on orange blinking light. And among all those cars pedestrians cross the streets. I wonder if everybody has a death wish here. Why else would one participate in such near-suicidal traffic? Still, we witness few accidents in the coming weeks. Traffic may be chaotic, but it is slow too.

We visit the palace of the former shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, in the rain. The interior of the square building with the high ceilings is a mixture of classical European furniture and everything that was fashionable in the 70’s. The most fun to see are the childrens rooms and the shah’s wardrobe. The rest is pretty boring. We drive back over Pahlavi Street, where tall sycamores bend over the pavement. They are just starting to turn green. It is still raining. In the deep gutters on the side of the street water runs by like a small river.