Trip to Iran-Part III

It was the third week of our stay in Iran that a cold front took over the country. I remember Nima and I were up to coming back from Shahi to Tehran that the snow begins and all of the major highways in the country closed.
Some cities had a snow up to 1.5m and some had around 20 centimeters. No one was ready for this storm. The highways were closed and several people got stuck in their cars. I heard in the news that several military cars sent to save peoples. Over 50 avalanches happened in two days over one of the most dangerous roads to Tehran (called Haraz road). I heard a number of people died and buried under the heavy snow but this is what I heard from the road drivers not the National news.
But worse that everything was at the middle of all this, several provinces didn’t have gas including ours. There were rumors about Turkmenistan stopped sending gas to the northern province of Iran (where my parents live) Mazandaran. But national TV said because of the sudden increase in gas consumption the pipeline networks can not afford carrying enough gas to allover the country. I don’t know what I should believe. I just knew people didn’t have gas with no previous warning about that.
They couldn’t use shower, they couldn’t cook, bake. Several bakeries were closed and only those who switched to gasoline could still provide bread (and obviously the breads were sold much more expensive). We were lucky since Mazandaran (the province that my parents live in) has almost mild winter comparing with several other provinces with -25 degree during the winter. We were worried about poor people in those areas without gas. It was like we back to the war time. The electric started being cut off periodically. The factories, school and universities were all closed. Even the entrance exam of universities for master degree was postponed to one month later. All international and national flights were cancelled for more than a week. Honestly the country was shut down.
What I learned was that in Iran people should be prepared for any unpredictable events and they should have no expectations from the government for help. When the storm happened everyone tried to save his own family. People tried to find substitute fuel such as oil, gasoline, or wood. There is no plan for emergency cases to help people. It’s just like you are really on your own save your life.
I am serious this is exactly what I learned When the gas went off and didn’t come back until three weeks later. Can you believe that people didn’t have gas for three weeks at the middle of winter? They found a solution themselves to cook to take a shower to warm up their houses without any major help from the government. I was thinking if one day the Tehran earthquake that everyone talks about, the one that should have come 150 years ago but still delayed. If that happen what would happen to Iranian with this government not ready for heavy snow.
Let’s look at the bright side as well. After the storm, snow covered every where when the sun came out many people went to jungles and parks for barbeque. Nima and I went to beautiful Nezami Jungle very close to Shahi city to enjoy the beauty of the snow. The weather was so fresh and every where was so gorgeous with snow. Enjoy the photos. I took these photos in my parents and my granny's garden.

Be Good Again

Do you want to write a message on a beautiful kite and send it to someone you like to receive it? well you can do it here:

http://www.kiterunnermovie.com/begoodagain/begoodagain.php

I found this on the official website of the Kite Runner movie. I read the book and I cried every night. not just because the story is sad but because I knew its sadly true. . .

Trip to Iran – Part II

At the end of the first week, Nima joined me in Shahi. There were two concurrent celebrations this year in Iran. Ghorban ceremony which is one of the Islamic celebrations common in most Islamic countries and Yalda Night which is one of the loveliest Iranian celebrations.
The main idea of Ghorban celebration is to donate food to the poor. The ceremony is a commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son (Isaac), as commanded by god. Some people buy a sheep and donate its meat to the poor, some people buy chicken, some people just donate money and some just do nothing.:)
My grand father was very serious about these celebrations; I never forget how he used to precisely buy the best male sheep and divide its meat between some of the people he knew were poor and keep the rest of the meat for ours. I remember all of us, my aunts, and uncles used to gather in his place and celebrate the all day by eating delicious kebab. When he died (almost 12 years ago) my father continued this tradition in grandpa’s way. I was telling all this to Nima. We gather in my grandma’s place and ate kebab.
And at night we gathered again to celebrate Yalda night which is the first night of winter and the longest one during a year. Almost most of the Iranians are buying watermelons, nuts and pistachio for this night. Reading Divan of Hafez is also very common.Hafez is one of the most beloved poets of Persian culture. It is true that you can find two books in every Iranian house the Qur'an and the Divan of Hafez.
In our house my father always reads Hafez for us at this night. It’s kind of fun; every one of those who are presented in Yalda party make a wish and then my father open Divan of Hafez randomly and read the poet for that person and we all try to interpret Hafez’s poet in response to that person wish.
After the revolution the government tried to put less and less emphasis on Iranian celebrations and put more on Islamic ones. I don’t understand how they could do this to our culture. Iranians have several lovely festivals. It’s all about showing gratitude toward life, nature, and motherland. These traditions are so old and rich. We should really keep these precious heritages and share them with others.
Fortunately many people stick to their national and Iranian celebrations and keep it alive. I know many Iranian who migrated to other countries but still keep their national celebrations such as Yalda’s night and Norouz. I am defiantly one of those.

P.S. The first photo is my husband enjoying lamb kebab.You can also see a photo of our dinner table for Yalda night. That’s right the other photo is stuffed turkey. YAMMY

Trip To Iran - Part I

Nima and I arrived in Tehran on December 16th. Our plane landed in Imam Khomeini Airport (IKA) opened recently.
We arrived in Nima’s parent’s house around 12:00 AM and I was so lucky to see two of my very best friends (Behis) there after one year for only 5 minutes. They kindly came to Nima’s Parent’s house to say hello and goodbye to us. There were on their way to Libya.
Nima and I decided each of us stay with his/her own parents for the first week. Thus the day after, I headed to the North of the country where my parents live, where I grew up, a city called Shahi. Shahi is about 230 km away from Tehran. I was in my brother’s car and the weather was snowy and foggy. We were chatting along the way and catching up. I felt so good, chatting with my only brother, drinking Cinnamon tea, looking at beautiful snow covers both sides of the road and heading home after one year.
I took photos on the way where we stopped to buy hot tea you can see some here. We arrived home and you can guess yourself: Hugging kissing, greeting….
I put my suitcases in a room, prepared for Nima and me, on the second floor. My mother redecorated everything. She put small fridge in the room full of everything you can imagine. It was just like a 6 star hotels. I didn’t know what to say. I love this room. It’s kind of like an attic. You can see its photo.
The weather was perfect for that week I guess it was around 14 degree (oc). Compare with Toronto weather when we left the city which was around -18 (oc).
It was great to be with my family again and feel I am just a little girl in this house. You know whenever I am going home, I mean my parents home, I sleep so well. I fell so calm and secure. You know just like I became a child again and my parents are around to protect me. It’s like I can relax and rely on them with no responsibility.
Last photo was taken in our yard. The pool with those colorful balls was so eye catching.

I wanna live in a land called paradise

A friend of mine sent this video clip "A Land Called Paradise". I really like this video clip. it simply tries to break the stupid stereotype that all the Muslims are terrorists. it's simply wanna say there are many ordinary people who are Muslims; who are humans.
I am sure if we focused on any publicity we can find many flaws. it's not fair to judge all the Muslims based on foolish acts of some ultra Conservative biased Muslims who can be found in any religious and societies. :) :)
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4P5Mvt0fmc

Luggage Door Malfunction

We are finally home after exhausting flight from Iran to Canada. We had kind of bad luck all the way back to Canada. Our check in took more than two hours at Imama Khomeini Airport (IKA) since the lady who was responsible for our line was under training and every 5 minutes called someone for help.

After that long check in we finally got into plane but the airplane didn’t took off until five hours later. It seemed the luggage door had a problem and they couldn’t close it.

I was so tired, I remember how many times I sighed when I opened my eyes and saw we are still on a ground. But it wasn’t that bad until we figured out that we lost our connecting flight from Paris to Toronto because of this delay. Several other passengers lost theirs too. It was a mess at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. We stood for two more hours there in line and finally we got another flight to Montreal instead of Toronto.

We where happy; this was much better than staying for a night. Our second flight from Paris to Montreal had 40 minutes delay and we lost our flight from Montreal to Toronto but the good things was that from Montreal to Toronto there is a flight every hour.

We finally arrived home after 30 hours being in airplanes or airports. We were both exhausted. I barely stayed awake until it got late enough to go to sleep. I fell asleep as soon as I put my head on a pillow and slept like a child.

I am coming back

After one month staying in Iran, Nima and I are coming back to Canada tonight. there was heavy snow during last week in Iran which canceled several flights. It says another Storm is on the way; I hope everything goes well.
There are many things about our trip that I like to write and I will when I arrive in Canada. :)

There is no end to humans stupidity

I was shocked when I read in Globe and Mail about the Muslim father who killed his teen girl here in Mississauga. Poor girl didn’t practice Islam and she didn’t want to wear hejab. It seems his father beat her so hard that ended to her death in a hospital the other day. I don’t know what to say. How someone could beat her daughter for the sake of God’s will. What kind of stupid person thinks the God who supposed to be the creator of all the beauties around us, will be happy to see your teen daughter in her blood because she doesn’t want to wear hejab. I have many things to say but what for!!
Those who are able to do such things are blind prejudiced brainwashed devil. There is no way to talk to them. They know nothing about logic or fare discussion. All they know is this: THIS IS GOD’S WILL. Which means this is what their ancestors taught them not GOD.

I am coming:):)

We are going back to Iran for Christmas. Seeing my family again after one year is great.
How much I missed them god knows. I remember last year when I arrived at Mehrabad airport in Tehran. My heart started beating faster and I was telling myself “don’t cry”. I passed the security section and I saw my older sister (Roja) waving her hands from behind the glasses. Then my tears started falling down I couldn’t help it anymore. It was almost a year and a half that I was apart from them for the first time in my life.
Being among my family became a very old memory. All of them were there my mom, my only brother, Roja, Behis, my mother and father in law and my aunts. I hugged them and tried to stop my tears. Now we are going back again …. I miss you all

Do Anyone Need a Sofa Bed?

We finally moved to our new house last night by the help of some of our friends. The main challenge was a sofa bed, heavy and big. It almost took an hour to move the sofa from floor 17th to downstairs and from truck to the garage of the new house. First we wanted to move the sofa to second floor but finally by looking at the narrow staircase we gave up and now the sofa bed is laid down at the end of our garage ready to sell.
Nima and I are still too tired to open up any boxes or suitcases.
We just set up the internet and turned on my laptop. At this time I am on my knees and the chair is downstairs. It’s better for me to go before my knees go on strike.

Lovely Sun

It’s 3:50 PM. Minutes ago there was heavy wind and snow, with dark clouds cover all the sky. And now the sky is so clean so blue and beautiful sun, shines everywhere and plays hide and seek. I am sitting behind my desk, from floor 17th watching outside, listening to Brother Sun and Sister Moon and enjoying. When heavy dark clouds cover the sky I always think just few kilometers above there would be no clouds, no wind and no shabby sky, only beautiful, cheerful sun. You know it’s like you start running water on ants nest and they think there is a heavy flood out there but it’s just you :)

Say Hi From Mississauga

I am in Mississauga now. I had hectic last few days in St. John’s, packing, cleaning and posting packages. Nima and I will start packing again soon and moving to our new home.
I never understood how many things I have until I packed them. Although I didn’t bring them all but there were still a lot of things to be wrapped up.
I returned my office key, emptied the drawers and finally clear the white board. There was a saying on my board that I wrote before, and I don’t remember who said that but I like to post it here not to forget this simple truth. It says “being kind is more important than being right”. How simple and how deep it is.

And this is My List

My bloggy friend 40tike invited me to this game “ what are your faviourite books?”
Actually I love studying. This is one my geek sign for sure. There are several books that really affected me . I am trying to list some of them. I can’t rank the books I like them all the same:

1- Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, I love the book. Very Very spritual
2- The little prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry and translated by Ahmad Shamloo
3- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
4- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
5- The greatest Salesman of the World by Og Mandino, actually in Persian the book called “bozorgtarin tajere donya". Anyway the book was amazing
6- Follow your heart by Andrew Matthews, very touching
7- The book of wisdom by Osho
8- Animal Farm by George Orwell, amazing
9- Dr Dolittle by Hugh Lofting , I read this one when I wasa kid and god know how many time after reading the book I tried to talk to my dogs
10- The story of my father and I, Part I, II, and III, again I can’t find the real English name and I just translated the Persian name word by word “ ghesehaye man va babam ”.
Ok let me put an end to my list, I also enjoyed many other books but this list should work for now.
I look at the list of the best-selling books around the world, made by Wikipedia. It is very interesting to see that almost all top 9 books are religious book, such as Bible or Quran, but suddenly the 10th book is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Two of my book can be found there: the little prince and Jonathan Living Seagull and also two of 40tike’s: Gone with the wind and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Well now to continue this game I am going to invite Mr. and Mrs. Behi to make a list of some of their favorite books. Anyone else who like to make a list are welcome.

Going with Life Train

In less than two weeks I am leaving St. John’s and moving to Mississauga. I made a list of several things that need to be done before I leave. Changing billing address, mailing address for magazines, wrap up everything at home, getting my driving license, having meeting with my supervisors are just some of the things in my list.

I am excited to go to Mississauga and finally to settle down in my own home there with Nima and on the other hand I am worry a bit about how will be my long distance communication with my supervisors. But let’s forget this part, for a while.

I need to plan goodbye party to say goodbye to my good friends here. This is life, one chapter of my book story closed here and another one just begin. Strangers come into our life and became friends; friends leave in one chapter and became strangers. There are few people who stay along in our life trip and never become strangers.

I had two wonderful years here in St. John’s and I will definitely miss this beautiful city a lot. Nothing is going to stay the same for ever, life is all about change…

What happened to poor sweet creatures?

I got shocked by the news about the mass Dolphins suicide at southern Iranian port. You can read the full texts here.
No one knows what happened to them. During the last month it seems this is the second time that the group of dolphins suicide; the group of around 70 dolphins, my god!!!
According to the news there is no sign of food poisoning or water pollution but almost all of them had bleeding through their nose and mouth which is odd.
It seems local people tried to return the poor creatures back to water but they came back again. I really like to understand what happened to them.
It was always a question in my mind that why once in a while a group of whale came to land to die. If they knew they are dieing anyway and they prefer to be in land? If they confused by the change of earth magnetic field direction? If they prefer to die with their leader who is ill and comes to land to die? Are they aware what they are doing or it is just based on their instinct?
This is really one of the most tragic events of the nature.

Happy Anniversary

Tonight our graduate club on campus, is going to have costume party because of Halloween. With some of my friends we will attend the party. It’s always nice to watch the people in different costumes and dresses.I wrote about the Halloween in my blog last year that means I missed the anniversary of my blog which was in September but late is better than never.
I am happy to started writing again and I am so glad that my blog become 1 year old. Cheers…

Just for one day

I was thinking what would happen if all of us decide to be the kindest of our life only for one day. Imagine just for one day I ban myself from telling any lies. I ban myself from giving anyone, even my enemies, a hard time. Just for one day.

I hope we human beings could make it, all together set a day, call it ‘Just For One Day’ and promise to be the best of our lives just for that day.

Just for one day, soldiers don’t fight, just for one day thieves don’t steal. Only for 12 hours bosses don’t get angry and don’t fire anyone. Just for one day, terrorists don’t strike. Only for 12 hours people don’t hate anyone, even the most evil person. Only for 12 hours couples don’t break up. Just for one day, people don’t betray, don’t break anyone’s heart. Don’t try to get your opponent down. Don’t cheat, only for one day. Don’t hate someone who doesn’t think like you. Don’t wish him dead if he doesn't have the same beliefs as you do. Don’t want the worst for him if he doesn’t practice a religioun like you do. Just for one day, accept that people could believe in different things but still can be loved. Just for one day, racists stop considering themsevles better than others. Just for one day, stop judging each other based on religion, color, accent, wealth, birthplace, the way they dress, if they practice this or that, if they wear veil or bikinis.

For one day and only one day, everyone loves. Every one shows respects to each other. Just for one day, smile and mean that smile. For one day, let your enemies rest. For one day, wish the best for all people. For one day, wish that no one dies from hunger. For one day, be generous to the poor. For one day, forgive those who break your heart. For one day, forget about anything that makes you hate and think positively. For one day, rebel against yourself; for one day and only one day.

Can we really do that? All together promise and keep out word to be different for only 12 hours? Imagine a day, that everyone all around the world wears the most beautiful smile they have ever had.

Just For One Day...

Who really needs cesarean?

I always thought one of the most painful things that nature imposed on women is giving birth. Now days in Iran most of the women don’t give birth naturally and they do cesarean.
For me it was very interesting to see here in Canada almost all women give birth naturally and doctors encourage women to do so. The idea is, women will suffer from extraordinary pain at the moment of birth but after that they will have relief and no pain and they can back to work very soon. But if they do cesarean it will take more time for women to come back to normal life.
I used to think it is not really fair for women to take such a pain until last night that I read about this poor creature sawfish. The most eye-catching feature of the sawfish is their saw-like snout which allows sawfish to detect movement and even heartbeats of buried prey in the ocean floor. The saw is sharp enough to injure the prey.
The point is that, the poor female sawfish give live birth to pups that all have little saw. The pups’ semi-hardened snout is covered with a sheath to help mother suffer ‘less’ during birth. The sheath eventually falls off when the pups come out. Now imagine the mother has around eight pups each time if one or two of these kids let the sheath go what would happen to poor mom.
I read that all species of sawfish are considered endangered or critically endangered and I don’t blame poor females if they stop giving birth naturally. Just kidding :))

Smart Con Men of the History

I received an e-mail about this guy, Victor Lustig, who did one of the biggest frauds of the history. He sold the Eiffel tower. He introduced himself as the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs and invited six scrap metal dealers to a confidential meeting at one of the most prestigious old Paris hotels.
Lustig told the group that the upkeep on the Eiffel Tower was so outrageous that the city could not maintain it any longer, and wanted to sell it for scrap. Lustig took the men to the tower in a rented limousine for an inspection tour. It gave Lustig the opportunity to find the most naïve dealer. He finally sold the tower and the poor buyer was arrested few days later when he tried to scrap the tower. The irony is Lustig came back to Paris few years later and tried to sell the tower again.
Another person who really impressed me was Frank Abagnale, who used to forge cheques and deeds. He made faked identities for himself several times. First he masqueraded as a pilot to get free rides around the world. It took the police two years until they discover this. Then he pretended to be a Physician. He employed at a hospital as a temporary supervisor. He did not find the job difficult because the supervisor does not do any actual medical work. He lived with this identity for 11 months. Can you believe this guy!!
Guess what, after being physician he introduced himself as a Harvard law graduate and got a job at the office of the state attorney general of Louisiana. He resigned after 8 months since one of his co-worker who was a real Harvard graduate suspected him. After that he forged a Columbia University degree and taught sociology at Brigham Young University for a semester working as a teaching assistant. He finally arrested by the police and in 1974, after only serving less than five years, the United States federal government released him on condition that he would help the federal authorities against fraud and scam artists—without pay. There is a movie based on his adventurous life "Catch me if you can". Must be interesting movie!
These guys are con men, undoubtedly but I can’t help thinking they are also genius. :)))

Weekend

Yesterday (Oct. 8th) was Nima’s birthday we celebrated his BD together. I baked a chocolate cake and decorated it with whipped cream and strawberry two of my favorite things.

It was delicious.
With two of our friends we went to Kitchener for oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest is known as the Largest People's Fair in the World. The idea of the festival is simple and nice. It is all about families gathering and having a couple of beer with foods and music. A lot of people were there with their children; dancing and drinking.
I put a picture of the festival and also a picture of the chocolate cake.