When Firoozeh turned fourteen, she began to worry that she would be unable to afford college. In order to make some money she began babysitting. One family she sat for offered to pay her five dollars an hour, which was far more than the dollar per hour she was used to. The catch ended up being that the 8-year-old girl refused to let go of Firoozeh the entire time she was there.
The next job she worked was watering indoor plants. At her first house she heard music turn on upstairs, despite the fact no one was supposed to be home. Firoozeh ran away terrified, and only returned once more for fear there may have been a robber upstairs. In reality, she had just heard the clock radio. She then tried cat sitting, and at the first house she closed the patio door to keep the cats from escaping. The cats got more and more aggravated each day, and it turned out that the patio was their exercise area. The homeowner was upset, but still paid in full.
Another job she tried was cleaning silverware for a lady who estimated at six dollars an hour it would be a 20 dollar job. Firoozeh cleaned all the the silverware as fast as she could, polishing every single inch of each piece. She finished in just over an hour, but instead of paying her the 20 dollars, the lady only paid eight dollars since that's all the time it took.
Eventually Firoozeh stopped working odd jobs and started writing scholarship essays, an occupation that proved to be much more lucrative than her prior attempts.
In high school Firoozeh entered and won a French speech contest, winning a two month trip to study in Paris. Due to all the various languages and tongues she had been exposed to, she had developed an ear for accents, leading to an excellent French accent. It was so good in fact that the judges of the contest assumed she must have been a native speaker, which was against the rules. When it was determined that she had just studied hard, she was sent to Paris.
Despite thinking she would be able to interact with her host family, they simply gave her the keys and then headed on holiday when she arrived. Knowing no one, she went to talk to the concierge, and ended up befriending the woman, Noelle, who was in her early 40s. They attended the Bastille Day festivities together, and Noelle talked to her at length about the men in her life.
When school began, Firoozeh was disappointed by her classes. She did not make many friends since most of the other students were quite a bit older, and the teachers did not seem very interested in teaching. The only highlight to the trip was all the museums she was able to see.
Notes: Firoozeh tells the story of many trips throughout the book, but this is the only one where she goes totally alone. It is also the one where she seems to have a worse time. That further emphasizes how she enjoys the bond she has with her family.
Celis, Christine. "TheBestNotes on Funny in Farsi".
TheBestNotes.com.
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