Thursday, July 19, 2007: Arriving in Tehran

The view from my mother's balcony looks onto the Alborz Mountains


I arrived in Tehran this morning at around 6:10 AM. I was the second person to go through customs! My flight from New York to London via Virgin Atlantic was very good, and the flight from London to Tehran with British Airways was even better. The vegetarian meal was very spicy, but I survived.

Mom was waiting for me and we took her car back to her apartment. The weather wasn't that hot, so we stopped on the way to buy some freshly made Barbari bread from the baker. We had it with butter, jam, and tea as soon as we got home. Yummm!

A delicious Persian breakfast



I called my cousin Tus who came to visit me right away with a lovely bouquet of flowers. We had breakfast together. The view of the city of Tehran from the living room balcony is very nice. There is a blue mosque in the park in front of the building and the call to mid-day prayer filled the air as soon as it was noon.

Tomorrow is Friday and I'll not be able to visit any of the craftspeople. I will go to the bazaar instead. I'll visit the craftspeople on Saturday when work resumes.


My mother and her nephew, Tus, who is only a few years younger than her



The mosque and the view of Tehran from the balcony



My cousin Tus always brings me flowers when I arrive in Iran


I called Ostaad Elahi and Ostaad Finastian. I will be visiting Ostaad Elahi at his glassblowing studios in downtown Tehran on Saturday morning at 7 AM. Ostaad Elahi was melting glass and couldn't talk to me himself, so I spoke to Ali, his son. Ali is a young man the same age as my son, Bijhan. He was very happy to talk to me. I then called Ostaad Finastian on his cell phone. I asked him if I could come and video him some more and interview him again; he readily agreed. What a pleasant man. I thanked him for the lovely engraving he made for me. I am going to his class on Sunday morning at 9 AM.