Summary

In Part Five, "A Trip to the Motherland (Fatherland?)," the girls quit their jobs to travel overseas. They want to visit the countries from which their parents emigrated. They meet up with their friends to tell them the news. They tell their families, too. Some of their "loved ones are confused" (122). The girls say they are leaving to find themselves (122).

When they land, they realize they are doing "everything wrong" (123). They have packed all of the wrong things. When their extended family loans them clothing, the girls look like alternate versions of themselves (124). In some countries, the girls are regarded as "Loose American women" (124). In other countries, the girls have trouble navigating the currency, the cities, and the language. Though they have been their "parents' translators [their] entire lives" they do not know their ancestral tongues (127). They feel different in these...