In March of 1993 I came back to Stamford, CT from college and went to a McDonald's at the intersection of Broad Street and Bedford Street while waiting for my uncle to come home. Once I ordered and sat down to eat a woman with her hyper son entered. They spoke Persian although the mom seemed very beaten down and tired. The son enthusiastically told his mom in Persian that he wanted french fries and the mom in Persian responded that she would get them for him. She placed her order using her broken English. I should have spoken to her if only to enable her to communicate in her mother tongue so far away from home. I don't know why I didn't.
"My parents, brother, and I left Iran in 1980, shortly after the revolution. After a brief stay in Italy, we packed all our belongings once again and headed west to the exotic and the unknown: Vancouver. We had recently been accepted as landed immigrants, meaning Canada graciously opened its doors and we gratefully accepted; we arrived at Vancouver International Airport on my 10th birthday, three suitcases and one sewing machine in tow. After respectful but intense questioning at immigration, we were dropped off at a hotel on Robson Street, which was then still a couple years shy of becoming the fashionable tourist hub it is today. We were jetlagged, culture shocked, and hungry, so that first night, my father and brother courageously ventured out into the wild in search of provisions. I fell asleep before they returned. The next morning, I woke up at 5 a.m. and ravenously feasted on a cold Quarter Pounder with cheese and limp French fries that had been left by my beds...

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