I am sitting at a desk in our 7^th floor apartment that overlooks the snow-capped Elburz Mountains. This picture shows the snow already melted off from when we first moved in. We are on the 8^th floor really because they don’t count the ground floor. Noah is napping and Taylor is doing school in her room. We are getting settled and learning our way around here. We have been making trips up the hill to the little bazaar that has two little stores and a fruit and vegetable stand in it. By little, I mean little. The stores are about 12ft x 12ft, and stuffed to the ceiling with all sorts of products. There are things piled on the floors and spilling out into the hallway beyond. Interesting and eye-catching. If you don’t take in everything you just might miss something you needed. The Reimers found a big supermarket and told us about it so we were able to go to that 2 nights ago after we had dinner with them in their new place. So, now we have food in our fridge, and some in the pantry, but I still need some basics and need to plan some menus with the food we have. Lunches are the hardest to plan for since there isn’t much in that department. I think people just have leftovers or go to fast food for lunch. We will probably have leftovers too, once I start cooking. We have pasta in there now, but no microwave to heat it up with. I will have to do it the old-fashioned way – on the stove or in the oven. Sheesh….what is this world coming to. J My Scottish friend, Eilidh, is probably laughing at me right now because she has never had a microwave and is used to this. One great thing about the shopping is that there aren’t a whole lot of processed food options. No easy fixes for dinner, which is both good and bad. Good because it is healthy and we will be better for it, bad because I will be in the kitchen a lot longer. I am going to get a food processor though, and that should cut down on some of the chopping time, and I will have it for when I make baby food later. I am looking forward to my garlic press to come with our stuff. In fact, life would be nicer with our stuff, especially in the kitchen. Some day soon that will happen. In the meantime, we make do.

Yesterday we went for a walk up the hill about 20 minutes and found a wonderful little Italian restaurant to eat at for lunch. The whole meal cost us $11 and was the best pizza we’ve had here in Iran, and the ambiance was great. Afterwards we walked another 20 minutes or so and arrived at a park and walked around there for awhile. I took some time out to feed Noah, which was my first experience in a public place in the daylight. It went well and no one seemed to think it odd. So far, I have done so in taxis at night while going from here to there and back. Kind of crazy, but it worked out well, even with the way people drive here. The park was beautiful and the weather was wonderful yesterday, blue sky, with the sun shining down. It was much warmer than the day before, but still had a slight chill in the air. It sure was a shock to arrive here and the weather is still cold and rainy, having just snowed the day before. In fact, it snowed again two days ago, but just up on the mountains, with only rain coming down on us. It left a fresh layer of white on the mountain peaks, which is just breath-taking to behold. After the park we walked back through the neighborhood and went to some little stores for some more things we didn’t get at the big store the night before. It is hard to shop here with a clear head. It is overwhelming at times and especially with the crowds it was harder to shop. All the prices and descriptions are in Farsi, so sometimes unless there is a picture, I am lost and have to ask the nearest shopper for help. That works sometimes if they speak English or if I know what to ask in Farsi. For example, the meat department has some packages of ground beef mixed with ground lamb. I have no idea how they mix it, but it is there. It looks like ground beef, which is what I was wanting, but the Reimers had warned us of just such a package. So I asked this woman that was getting some and she told me in Farsi that it was both. I then asked her if there was some that was just beef (“only cow, where?”) and she smiled and helped me find some. There were two packages and so I grabbed them both. Now I need to write down on my grocery list what it is in Farsi so I will remember for next time. At least the chicken was pretty self explanatory! One thing we are missing is cheddar cheese. I asked for some at the little store and they brought out a container with 8 tiny wedges of processed cheddar and told me that was all they had. I did find some gouda and we may just have to get used to that on our Mexican food and in everything else we eat with cheddar. We eat a lot of cheddar so this should be interesting…

Well, I need to go get Noah. I hear him waking up. He and his sister are napping on her bed. I will blog again soon and keep you informed of what is going on. Tomorrow is Easter and that will be interesting to celebrate here in Iran. Reza may be coming to Tehran on Tuesday so we might get to see him again. He hasn’t seen Noah yet, since he moved to Kuwait before Noah was born. He is looking forward to meeting him and we can’t wait to introduce him to his godson. All for now, I am being beckoned. Grace and peace to you all.