Today is Char Shanbeh Soori. That means it's the last Tuesday night of the Persian year. The most important event of today is when we set up fires and jump over them saying: Zardieman az to, sorkhee eh to az man. That means "give me your red color and take my yellow pallor." It's how we rid ourselves of the pains of the previous year and gain strength for the year ahead. The rest of the night we eat nuts. In Iran, this is like Halloween. Kids go door to door doing "ghashoghzadee". They grab a spoon and bang it against a pot at each house asking for candy/nuts. I say "/nuts" because back in the day (6000 years ago), there were no Hershey's. Candy wasn't prevalent; people ate nuts for snacks. Of course, we can't do that stuff here (or can we?) Every year my dad sets up 3 small fires in our backyard and we jump over them saying the words above. And yes, I do eat lots of nuts. Today this guy came into the lab I TA. He told the prof that he couldn't make lab at 7 because tonight is Charshanbeh soori. So I had to explain to the prof that it was a legit holiday. Then that started the ball rolling as to "who the hell are your people and how come I've never heard of these crazy ass words?" So I started explaining to her that our holiday is coming up and she asked what we do and yada yada yada. I even played her my Persian ring tone. Well, my Persian student decided to come out of the closet and proclaim his heritage as well. Apparently, it suddenly became "in" to be foreign 'cause everybody started saying "I'm Columbian, I'm Russian, I'm Pakistani..." Soon, the stereotype of the "typical SMU student" was shattered, and I turned westward towards home feeling...well, I don't really know how to describe how I felt. Are we more divided or closer as a people? Hmmm...