Holidays

Last Thursday was Thanks Giving (Rooze shokr gozari) holiday. We are off on the day after Thanksgiving as well so we had four days weekend. That is one of my favorite holidays. We were invited at my husband cousin’s house for Thanks giving dinner. This is an American custom but all Iranian that I know here follow that as well. The dinner should include Turkey (Booghlamoon) and other side dishes like mashed potato, corns and different sauces. Some people add other foods to it. Any way I am not a big fan of turkey but I like the get together and celebration. The day after Thanks giving is a big sale and most of stores are open from 6:00 am. I went with my Mom for shopping and made some financial damages! You know how much I love shopping!
On Saturday we were invited to another wedding. A friend of my husband, it was a nice wedding and bride and groom were so cool. This must be the last wedding for this year!!

Today is exactly seven years that I have moved to US. My life has changed so much in last seven years. It passed so fast! When I first moved here I was not even sure that I would stay!

The other news is that my Mother-in-law will come in early January and will stay for six months this time! Since they are three brothers every body’s share is two months. I think we will take the first two months and get over it. This way is easier for me, other wise if she comes and goes like every 3 or four weeks there will be more arguments between brothers and the other two will try to pass her to us every holiday or long weekend and bring all sorts of excuses to make us take care of her more! The thing that bothers me is that she is so rich in Iran and she can buy an apartment for herself here and make it easier for every one or just moves to US. She wants to have here and there and she does not want to spend any money from her own pocket! I know I should stay cool and don’t stress about it but when she is in Iran we are all peaceful but when she comes the brothers are fighting all the time, every one get stressed and too much gossips goes around and she is the source of it. God helps me to be patient for these two months. I am sure that you will hear more stories about her here soon!!!!!!!! Just bear with me!!

Citizenship Oath

Today I went for my citizenship oath ceremony. It was a very long line of people who had come for their oath and their family too. My husband wanted to come with me but I told him not to take off time from work and I was comfortable going alone. The line moved fast and we were all headed to a very big room. They started with national song and then every body stood up to swear. For a moment I got shiver. It was amazing that people from all over the world, they said from 81 countries were swearing together. This is the hope land for every one. You don’t see such a thing anywhere else. The interesting part was when they called name of countries and people from that country would stand up and wave their little American flag. The biggest group of people were from Mexico, Philippines and China. There were about 10 Iranians. They were people from Africa, Asia, Middle East, Australia and Europe. I would not think that much Europeans would become US citizens but there were people from Germany, Italy, England, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. That’s amazing.

Any way I enjoyed the ceremony and I got my citizenship certificate. When I was leaving the center there were boots of Democrat and Republican parties that would recommend people to register to vote. I registered as a democrat. I am a liberal democrat now! I love it.
I think United States is a great country although I don’t agree with their foreign policy but it is a great country for it’s own citizens. For people like me that come from a country that people don’t have much rights and as soon as they say something against any government member or write any liberal article will end up to jail, This freedom means a lot! The other lovely part is the rights that women have in this country, when I read news or web logs and sees how much women go through for simple human rights I really get upset. I wish Iran became a free land some day soon. But no matter what I still love Iran and care about it so much.

When I got back to work from the ceremony my co-workers surprised me with an American flag hat, re, white and blue balloons and also a delicious cake that was decorated as American flag. I loved it and enjoyed it a lot. I have such nice co-workers.

This was story of my citizenship!!!

Citizenship

Yesterday I went for my citizenship Interview. I passed the test and was approved to become a US citizen. Next week I should go for my oath and then I officially become an American citizen! That was a strange feeling to be actually a citizen of other country, the good point is I can still keep my Iranian citizenship. Thank god Iran accepts dual citizenship and United States too. Other wise may be I would never do it. I cannot imagine giving up my Iranian citizenship. I remember that when me and my husband were dating I told him once that there are three thing that I would never give up: My own last name, my Iranian citizenship and my religion.
He is not happy about the last name thing, it is very common here that women change their last name to their husbands after marriage but I did not do it. Although my husband really wants me to do that but besides all the hassles that some one should go through for name change every where and in all official documents I really did not want to do it, not because I don’t love him enough but because my last name is my identity like my nationality, I am born with it how can I just change it? Any way may be I sound selfish but there are things that you want to stick to until the day that you die. I have my own things!!
Any way the best part of being a US citizen is being able to travel with US passport. God knows how much hassle is to apply for visa every time we want to go to a trip with Iranian passport. But I don't mean just having the passport is important. I like to be able to vote and contribute to the society as much as I can. I think that's a great privilege to be accepted as a citizen. I appreciate it a lot!

A good news

I had my annual check up 3 months ago and after about a week I got call from Dr office that the result was abnormal. This was the first time ever that I had an abnormal result. The nurse said that I should take the test in three months again. Any way the second time result was abnormal too and I got so worried. Dr said that I needed biopsy. I got my Biopsy last week and the whole last week I was very worried. I even wanted to write about it here but I didn’t. I thought may be it’s too personal or may be I was scared to talk about it. Anyhow I called my Dr this morning and he said that every thing is fine and the biopsy result, which is a very precise procedure, shows that I don’t have any problem.
Oh god it was like some one took a way a heavy load from my back. We really don’t know how much important is health until some thing really happens to us.

I am so happy and thankful that it was nothing and I am fine. God knows how much scary thoughts came to my mind, I thought may be I had cancer although Dr had assured me that it is not cancer but I still was very worried! I hope every one’s test result to be normal and nobody suffers from any disease! I know that is not a realistic wish but hope that god bless all of us!!

**One of the readers of my last post, Zahra asked me how long I have been in US. I moved to US exactly seven years ago Zahra jaan. I wish you good luck and if you have more questions let me know.

An Expensive condolence

My co-worker who lost her child about 2 months ago and I wrote about it here is still very sad which has every right to be sad. To me she is very strong and most of the time she does not show any sign of grieving although you can tell that deep in side she is sad. In general she is very reserved but sometimes she just opens up to us and tell about her sadness. Today was one of those days that she told me that she was very sad. Our office in just next to the mall (big shopping center) and sometime we just take a break and go to the mall and check out new cloths and fashion which is one of my favorite hobbies. Today I told her if she wanted to take a short walk to the mall so she would feel better. We went to Macys, which is a big popular department store in US. It was a good sale (most of the time stores have sales in US but sometimes the sales are very big). Any way I needed winter coat and raincoat. I ended up buying a Rain coat and a fancy winter coat for very good deal!! If you think $257 is a good deal for two coats!!See, going for a walk with my co-worker to make her feel better cost me two coats!!
I am a crazy shopper. I tried to make her laugh with my crazy comments about shopping.

I really wish I could do something for her. I recommended her to start writing a blog. I told her how much I feel better when I write about my emotions, feelings and etc in my blog. She said may be she will start one soon!

Another wedding!!!

We went to another wedding last night. All the Iranian weddings in California look the same. All the same set up, dinner almost same menu and the arrange of every thing (flowers, fruit, the reception salon, …) is same too! I remember that in Iran every wedding was different and that would make it more interesting and more exciting. Here if you go to one wedding is like you almost have gone to all of them.

Any way the couple looked very good together. We know the groom very well he is about 44 years old but the bride is in early 30. Most of Iranian men get married very late here. It seems that they want to settle their lives in every way and then get married which is good but getting married late makes it more difficult when you have kids. The older you are the less patience you have for the kid! I believe the best ages to get married for girls is between 25 to 30 and for guys 30 to 35. In this way they are both graduated, have started work and usually know what they want from life! My Mom had my older brother when she was 17 years old and by age 27 she had 3 kids. I don't know how she could handle it. Poor young people in old days especially girls would jump from teenage hood to adulthood before tasting the real teenage life and young life!
I myself got married about 26 almost 27 and my husband was 37 almost 38! but I think it was the right timing for me I was ready for marriage and was tired of single life! may be it really depends on the situation and every one is different some people will never feel ready, in that case they shouldn't risk it at all because marriage is one of the most challenging things in life and is not easy at all!!!!! I hope I have not scared a way any ready ones!!!!!!!!!

Another Halloween

I cannot believe that time flies so fast. It is already November! They say if time goes fast means you are having a good time. I hope so but I think most of it is because I am very busy and that makes it so fast.

Yesterday was Halloween. My son’s costume was traditional Persian dress. He looked so cute with that and got so many compliments. In US the custom is that on Halloween kids go and knock on other people’s door and say trick or treat. Trick is when the person that opens the door making them scare away. I don’t think any one do that to little kids and treat is when they give them candy. Usually kids have a big bag and by the end of trick or treat tour they have the bag full of candy. My son was enjoying it a lot when he started eating candies; my husband and me started stealing from him! Any way he had so much fun! We had lots of trick or treat visitors ourselves too, after opening the door several times I just put the bucket full of candies outside so they could help themselves. By the end of night all candies which was a lot was all gone!

I really wish all the kids all over the world to have nice days full of fun. Every kid deserves to have a good life and memorable childhood but unfortunately almost half of the kids in the whole world do not have a nice standard life. We should all try our bests to help them in any way we can!