Had been traveling a lot and my wife was going to school. Decided to make her happy by going to Cancun, Mexico. She had studied Spanish and French and Mexico was a lot closer and more fun. She could practice her language skills and I could practice my eyes.
We went to our neighborhood travel agent and got our tickets.
I had just gotten my American citizenship and had my brand new passport and did not need to go for interrogation, as previously with my Iranian passport.
What a suffering to travel with an unholy passport to a hostile country.
Close to the end of the shah era, we Iranians had been elevated to the level of a half human, but not close to a camel.
Finally we had our tickets and were waiting at the airport, the chartered airplane arrived.
It was a second hand plane with peeling paint, it reminded me of my 1978 Chevrolet Nova.
I was afraid that its roof might come off like the Hawaiian air line.
There were the mayors of the neighboring towns in Illinois.
They were expertly and politically correct dressed, the wives had white hair with shiny little beads in the tragic points.
We said hello and got acquainted. The flight was kind of shaky and my wife who is very talented in getting sick on the planes was getting ready to fill up the barf bag.
We were driven by the charted bus to our hotel. I told my wife to give a few dollars to the young man who was assigning the rooms and ask him for a room facing the ocean with a large balcony.
We got our ideal room and were happy.
Later, we met the mayors. They had been given rooms at the back of the building, facing the new construction area.
They were surprised at our luck, We explained that luck had nothing to do with it and all was based on the politics as they surely were familiar with.
We suggested to arrange for a similar arrangement for them, but they did not agree.
Even proposed for a contribution to their election fund.
It is said that there is a good reason why the hair dose not grow on all heads.
We discovered the refrigerator in our room, stuffed with all kinds of drinks and goodies, but it was 10 times the prices of the supermarket.
We started borrowing from the refrigerator and replacing it with the stuff we bought from the supermarket.
It is not easy to overcome 2500 years of genetic planning with a brand new passport and a fistful of dollars in just a few years.
