My experiences at UMASS were great! I really enjoyed being a student there. The campus was nice and had enough activities going on to satisfy people from all walks of life. Huda was attending a private school for the deaf in nearby Northampton for two years while I was at UMASS. Besides studying for my BS in public health, I was also tutoring students in Spanish and working as an arabic translator for a professor in the anthropology dept. All in all it was an unforgettable experience.
After graduating, I got married and moved to State College, PA, where my husband was getting his PhD in Industrial Engineering. My husband is Iranian. After his graduation we moved to Tehran and have been living here ever since. Yes, I have been living here for 14 years!!!
We have three beautiful kids. Yosra (15), Yaser (14) and Mona (2). I teach private english classes at home and spend the rest of my time as a serious home manager. I am very happy here and have made this city my home. My husband is a university professor and runs his own consulting company (AVEC). Who knew that I would grow up in Dhahran but end up in Tehran….. HA HA!!
We live in the northernmost part of Tehran. The beautiful snowcapped mountains are right behind us. This part of Tehran is less polluted and less populated than the other parts but, unfortunately, it’s still way above acceptable standards. We live in an apartment which we bought..200 sq. meters...beautiful marble floors….open kitchen...3 bedrooms...a huge living room with a fireplace and large windows.. I am very happy with it.
We usually make a trip during the summer and a few short trips over long weekends. Our favorite getaway place in Iran is the Island of Kish. It is an hour and a half away by plane. It has beautiful Persian Gulf beaches….water sports.. nice hotels and the best partfamiliar warm weather. We go out to dinner with friends about once a week. We take hikes in one of the many trails in the national parks of Tehran. We order pizza and watch good movies. We play Scrabble and Clue….. that about sums it up.
I correspond regularly with Monica Roppel. Her
parents
were in Iran last year
In the 16 years I have been married, I’ve only been back to Saudi Arabia once. Fortunately, I was able to go with Bahram and the kids.
Saudi Arabia is terrible about their women marrying foreigners. They basically will not renew my passport, so I have to get a visitor’s visa which is sooooooo difficult because of my marriage. Somebody who knew somebody helped us out that one time that we went.
My sister Huda lives in Dammam, works at the Dhahran Dental Hospital and is a mother of four and expecting her fifth. She is admirable!!!
Joe Fernandez, Coco, Phoebe, and Emily Maranjian
Emily Maranjian and her husband Joe Fernandez welcomed a new generation to the world a year ago—Constance ("Coco") Fernandez Maranjian and Phoebe Fernandez Maranjian. Joe was magnanimous and gave the little Filipino-Armenians Emily's last name, as it's much more endangered than Fernandez.
After seven weeks in the hospital on bed rest and ten months of at-home-momming, Emily recently returned to work as a prosecutor in the state attorney general's office, while Joe has just been appointed city solicitor for the city of Providence.
They're enjoying life in Rhode Island, though they're spending less time at restaurants, the movies and the theater these days and more time chasing small people who are learning to walk and reading "Good Night Moon."
Baksheesh
A big shukron goes out to Geoff Korwann, Diedre
Halpin-Ambrose, Rhonda Gadberry-Kaleel, Robin Van Der
Zee-Sego and Mark
Andersen for their generous contributions to the Newsletter.
Please keep them coming. The Newsletter costs about $200 an issue
to print and mail and someone has to pay for it.
