brothers

One of my favorite things to stumble upon in my time at school is who are brothers and sisters.
This might not seem like an extraordinary task, considering last names usually give it away from the get go, but keep in mind that in the Bulgarian and Turkish tradition, the first last name (which really ends up being the middle name, but for all intents and purposes is the last name) is taken from the father's name. So, I have students named, for instance, Sibel Gunay, Nerjan Gunay, and maybe a Fatme Gunay, and none of them are from the SAME Gunay. Don't even get me started on the last name "Ahmed". Furthermore, these names are sometimes Bulgarianized which consists of adding an "-ov" for boys and "-ova" for girls. Instead of say, Ayshe Sali you get Ayshe Salieva. Confusing.
They are even more confused/not cofused enough as to why my father's name is "Kathleen".

Today I found out that one of my best, cutest, sweetest little boys in fifth grade is the brother of one a clever, beautiful and mischievous little boy in third grade. It was almost as good as the day that I realized Ibryam from sixth (a very sweet child, but fairly slow), Onur from fifth (straight up looks like Howdy Doody!) and Suleyman from first (still does not speak Bulgarian to anyone and generally yells "ANNA! ANNA!" when he sees me) ARE ALL BROTHERS!
I need to start reading the school rosters a little better.

i just called my mom's cell phone and got an answer in Arabic!