Most of the people in Firoozeh's family have names with multiple syllables and letters that are not prevalent in common American names. Many of them have meanings as well. Due to the difficulties Firoozeh faced with people attempting to pronounce her name, she decided to adopt an American middle name and go by that. Since her last name began with a J, she brainstormed names that begin with a J and eventually settled on Julie.
After changing her name, the Iranian revolution occurred. Since Firoozeh had light skin, spoke without an accent, and was now called Julie, many assumed she was an American. This meant she was privy to the true thoughts those around her had about Iranians. Later on, after spending three months searching for a job as Firoozeh, she added Julie to her resume and then began to get job offers. Once she was married her name became Julie Dumas, which was as far from an Iranian sounding name as she could think of. The problem was that some of her friends still called her Firoozeh and her co-workers called her Julie.
Notes: A large problem many foreigners have when coming to America is the stereotypes people will develop due to their non-American sounding name. While that may be less of a problem today, it was something that was a major problem for foreigners, especially of Middle Eastern descent, in the 1970s.
After Firoozeh's immediate family moved to California, Kazem's siblings also settled in southern California, all living within a half hour of each other. Her father is proud that they all followed his lead, but what he's most proud of is his ability to teach everyone in the family how to swim. He would have had a perfect track record, if it was not for Firoozeh. He tried to get her to swim for an entire summer, but the whole time Firoozeh was so afraid she was going to drown that she just clung to his leg.
When she was 8, the family visited Aunt Parvine in Switzerland. Parvine was a doctor there, and that made her a deity in the family. She told Kazem that she would be the one to teach firoozeh how to swim, and one afternoon she simply dropped firoozeh into the pool. The result further confirmed that Firoozeh was incapable of learning how to swim. firoozeh did not learn how to swim until she taught herself how in the Caspian Sea.
Dumas starts this chapter by talking about her family's Thanksgiving traditions. While they do not particularly like turkey or the other Thanksgiving food, they still eat it and say what they are thankful for in order to participate in the tradition.
For Kazem, the land of the free does not just refer to the freedom to vote, it also refers to the abundance of free samples available in America. He would go to the store and have an entire meal off second and third helpings of free samples. He also would seek to gain as much free food as possible on airplanes. One time he gave Firoozeh and Francois fourteen mini jars of jam that he got on the airplane. He only was given two by the airline, but he asked all those around him whether they were going to finish theirs.
Kazem's taste for free food extended to restaurants such as Denny's that give away free breakfast meals. He did not know his actual birthday, so he just chose March 18th, which was the same as his wife's.This made it awkward when they would go to Denny's for the free birthday meal and the waitress would gush over how cute their shared birthday is. To avoid this, Kazem started going to Denny's on his own for his birthday meal. He also went to timeshare seminars in order to get his free food.
Celis, Christine. "TheBestNotes on Funny in Farsi".
TheBestNotes.com.
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