Happy Nowruz!

-Our Nowruz was fine. We took off early from work on Tuesday and were home by 3:00 PM. The New Year time by our time was 5:07 PM on Tuesday Mar 20th. I and my husband started praying about half an hour before the start of New Year and we asked my son to join us in praying. He was so funny and cute when he was trying to pray with us! Right after the New Year, he asked for his presents (Eidi)! He was so happy to get his presents!
We were invited by my husband’s cousin for New Year’s dinner; she always invites close family and relatives, which was fun!
We took off Wednesday to relax the first day of Persian New Year!
I called my brother, grandma and all the aunts and uncles in Iran and Europe ! I always miss Iran in first couple of days of New Year, especially Shomal (North of Iran). When I was in Iran , we would always go to Shomal with family and friends and we had so much fun!

-I watched the movie “ Babel ” over the weekend I think it was a very good movie, it was kind of thought provoking. It started from a village in Morocco . I have heard that Morocco is a beautiful country but they had chosen a very poor village of that country for this movie! I don’t know why when they want to film a movie in a third world country, they usually choose, the poorest worst area! Do they do it on purpose? Do they want to show other countries in such a bad condition so the super power looks greater???
I know sometimes because of the concept of story, like this movie they should have picked a poor village, but I guess they purposefully pick the ones that are more dirty and poor! Any way I recommend this movie very much.

-We hear lots of different news about Iran ! The latest is arresting English marines by Iranian forces! God knows what will happen, people ask me at work, that what is my opinion about all this and do I think there will be another war with Iran ? I really hope not! And I say that to them.
I really want to travel this year to Iran , I am thinking to go early in September, or late August. I really hope nothing happens and I can go for visiting, I really miss all my family and relatives. I do not have any close friend left in Iran any more. All my close friends moved out in last few years and they are spread all over the world, but mostly in Canada !
One of my New Year’s prayers was not having another war with Iran , Amen.

Nowruz

_I really cannot believe that another Nowruz is just around the corner!
Time flies and we age so fast! I don’t like it! I wish I was just 22 years old!!

-We celebrated another Charshanbeh soori on Tuesday night, in the same park on the beach that Iranians celebrate every year. This year the mayor of San Diego Showed up and congratulated Iranian community for upcoming Persian New Year!
I and my son jumped over the fire and he liked it so much and wanted to jump few more times!!
I have bought him Edi (the specific present for New Year) and have hidden it in the garage! I am trying to explain the Nowruz to him, the other day he was telling me: “is Nowruz, Christmas??” that was so funny! I said “No, we have two New Year; one is around Christmas time and one in spring. This one is an Iranian event, since you are Iranian and American, you celebrate both and the bonus is that you get two set of presents!!”

-I wish every one a happy Nowruz and I hope this year is a good year for Iran and Iranians with peace and freedom!

-By the way, recently, I have sleeping problems; although there is nothing special on my mind but when I go to bed I have hard time sleeping, even if I am very tired. I try not to think about anything and relax but sometimes it does not work at all. If you have good tips let me know!

Cultural Differences!

-When kids pass age 2 , 3 or more here, parents arrange some play dates for them. That means parents of the kids that are closer at school or get along better invite their kid’s friend to their house so they play together. The other day I saw a note in my son’s lunch box from mother of his friend that had asked me to call her so we could arrange a play date for my son and hers. Any way although I really rather have my time with him and my husband over the weekend and we do our own family things I though I should call her back and arrange the play date. I called and we met for Saturday at 3:00. Like most of Iranians that go to somebody’s house for the first time, I felt obligated to take something with me so I bought a book and puzzle for my son’s friend, which was a total surprise to the MOM! Any way she took us to the back yard and said that she was planting and we should wait until she finished!! It was kind of chilly and windy!! Kids played a little in the back yard while the other mom was running around planting but it was getting cold and kids wanted to go inside and play!! My son’s friend had a younger brother whom was complaining to the mom because he needed a dipper change and Mommy wanted to finish her planting no matter what!! Any way we were in the back yard for more than 1 hour and then she took us inside to the kids room so they could play!
I was really hit by her actions, which is normal here! People do whatever works for them and most of Americans are concerned more about themselves than others, if she felt she should finish her planting she did not care that we were waiting in the backyard chilled for her! This is the big difference between our cultures and westerners ( I talk more about Americans here because I don’t have that much of experience with Europeans). If we invite someone to our house, we make sure we serve them nicely and we do every thing to make sure that our guest is comfortable! But here people always consider themselves first! Mentality of majority of people is I should care for myself and my feelings first and every one else including their kids and their family comes second! On the other side majority of us, are more concerned about any one else rather than ourselves. Some times we make ourselves so miserable and uncomfortable just to make some one else happy which is not really healthy either! I think something in the middle would be nice. We should care about ourselves and our comfort but at the same time consider other people around us and make sure that our comfort does not have a bad impact on them!
Any way I think we are living in the world that selfishness is becoming people’s culture every where and that make us human beings more and more distant from each other and lead us to wars, ruin each other’s lives and …

When I left my son’s friends house I thought to myself, that thank god we have Iranian friends and family around us! What if we had to just have relationship with Americans!!
I should say that Americans in general have lots of great cultural characteristics too, like they are very honest people (most of them, may be some politicians are excluded!!!!)
They are polite (I know some people in other countries think opposite but Americans are the most polite people in my personal experience) and they are nice and usually smile at you!! But we as first immigrant generation here still should struggle to digest the cultural differences! I am sure it is a lot easier for the second generations!

_Nowruz is near and I can smell the flower in the air already, I always feel home sick ( if I still can name it home, although it will always be the original home but my current home is here with all the cultural differences!!) at this time of the year! Although Iranians try their best to have Nowruz parties and every thing but it is not same as Iran! I loved to go Tajrish bazzar in the last day of the year and watch people running around and buying New Year’s stuff! You know some times I wish, I could have all these opportunities, freedom and comfort in my original country! But this is our destiny and I am not complaining about it! I am just opening up my inner feelings! And I just do it here in my blog!

Where we were and where we are now!!

Check this out. it is very interesting:

http://www.spentaproductions.com/cyruspreview.htm