I was invited to a birthday party of one of my Persian friends'. This is always an exciting step, when they begin initiating and inviting you into their circle of friends and into their community. When I arrived at 10:00pm (yes, they are definitely university students), I heard the Persian music blaring from outside of the house, and was welcomed into the house by meeting at least a dozen Persian students that I hadn't met before. There were an additional dozen or so that I had met before. They were so excited that I had come! They felt honored that I was willing to spend my time at their party. They had some entertaining traditions (some Persian and some that this group has developed on their own, including smearing cake in the face of the birthday boys). It was really a great time getting to interact with these students outside of the school atmosphere, playing foosball with them, and getting to deepen these relationships.
