After yesterday’s rain today’s weather is beautifully clear. Driving out of Mamy’s street you all of a sudden have a spectacular view of the snow-covered Alborz Mountains north of Tehran. I am still terrified of the city’s traffic but at least the view of the mountains, glittering in the sunlight, serves as a distraction. Today I meet my sister-in-law Roshanak and her children Golnoosh and Omid, who have arrived by train last night from Kerman. They have been waiting for us impatiently all morning in their apartment in northern Tehran. Meeting them is a very joyous occasion. Though I have only seen them on photos and videos I quickly feel like I have known them for a long time.

Now Ruz, the Persian New Year, is almost here and we still need to go shopping for a few specific New Year’s items. We need a goldfish, for example, and some newly sprouted greens from wheat or lentils. And a flowering plant or a hyacinth. Everywhere around town such items are displayed outside shops. We go to a shopping mall with a small market outside. I am enjoying the colorful stands; especially the buckets, bowls and fish tanks full of brightly colored goldfish.

For lunch we go to a busy restaurant on Valle Asr Street, Luxe Tallah. Women have to wear their long coats and headdresses in restaurants as well, which does not really make dining a comfortable experience. This happens to be the only time I did not like the food in a restaurant. It was prepared in the Kermanshah manner, which means that melted fat from the tail of a sheep has been mixed through the rice, which gives it, for my taste, a flavor of rancid butter.

At night the kids make small fires in the backyard on the occasion of chahar shaanbe soory, the celebration (soory) of the last Tuesday (chahar shaanbeh) of the year. Everybody jumps over the fires, making a wish for the new year, which will start tomorrow.