happy new year 1319!!

SO a few weeks back I went to the Bulgarian embassy here in Brussels to get a visa for my friend Said who is coming as one of our leaders on service project. He attempted to come last year but at the last minute(literally 2 days before) we realized that he needed a visa and we did not have enough time to get it. So this year we were on our A game! and got to the task months in advance. It was quite a little adventure. First of all picking up Said on the side of the road:) after trying to find him by the statue only to figure out that there were 2 statues and we were each at different ones! Then finding the front of the embassy and trying to buzz ourselves in. I ended up talking into one of those intercom things and NO ONE was on the other end-yes I looked a little crazy. Then we drove to the back entrance and were greeted by a Bulgarian guy who spoke no French, Flemish, english or persian(all languages that between the 2 of us we could have functioned in) so we proceeded to wait in line only to be told when we got to the front of the line that we needed to fill out a bunch of papers. Problem was that the 1st guy did not speak and of our languages so he could not give us the appropriate paperwork. SO we got out of line and I got right back in line while Said filled out the papers. When we got back to the front of the line the guy was checking Said's answers. He pointed out a mistake- Said had put the wrong year down for his birth year. I looked at him and was like "what! how could you not know your birth year?" and he proceeded to call me out on my ignorance and tell me that in Iran(where he is from) they are on a totally different calendar and thus when he moved here the people who issued his documents had to count backwards to figure out the year that we would use.

So fast forward to this past saturday night when I get a call from Said asking me if I wanted to come with him to a Iranian New Year's celebration. Well regardless of whatever else I had planned the answer was YES!! I would love to ring in the year 1319!!! and eat amazing Iranian food and try my hand at reading and speaking persian! SO Sunday afternoon I joined him and his family at their church for a New Years celebration. I sadly did not take any pictures but it was quite an event! But I wish you a very happy 1319!!