Peace...

These days some weird stuff are going on in my country. Because of this damn nuclear power, U.S threaten Iran that if they don’t stop their nuclear program U.S will attack Iran.

I don’t care about nuclear power … what I am worry about is my family, friends and country mate. I don’t know how long we Iranian are supposed to go ups and down, when we are going to settle down and have peaceful life.

Very quickly after 1970 revolution in Iran, the war between Iran and Iraq started. It took 8 years, many many young people were killed or detained during those horrible 8 years. We still suffer from those hideous memories of the war!

I wish Iran was a place everyone dreams to live in; I wish there weren’t any restrictions on my country mate.

Some time I think if people could see further than their nose then they could understand how funny they are when taking every thing so serious and killed each other for absolutely nothing.

We human beings don’t change at all, if thousands years ago our ancestors killed each other to save their territories with stone now at 21st century a civilized human being fight with more developed equipment for the same reason.

Are we really better than animals ? Is this planet really small for all of us to live in happily?

Get Stuck At Home

Last night we had a strong blizzard with more than 30 cm snow, and 100 km/h gust. Huge amount of the snow was gathered behind the entrance door of my house, so I couldn't open it. Buses and taxis don’t work, and the university is closed.

I got stuck at home. Imagine my friends and I were up to surprise one of our friend tonight for his birthday and now every where is closed, we all have to stay at home today.

There is famous saying here in St. John’s, “if you don’t like the weather wait for 5 minutes” I waited all day, but it doesn’t work.

I am still waiting to see some changes in weather condition…

One Day Ski Trip to Clarenville

Last Saturday (Feb 17th) I went to ski trip to Clarenville, 2 hours drive from St John’s, with a group of students. It was my first time so I took some lessens, first and then started my first experience from the lowest hill. I found the ski equipment so heavy although the size and length of the ski shoes was based on my weight and height.

I fell down 10 times until reach to the bottom of the hill. It was all fun only one thing that really annoyed me was, unhooking my ski shoes each time, standing up and hooking them again which took me 5 minutes. It was really hard for me to keep myself stable; I was like a little kid trying her first step.

I really enjoyed watching 3-4 years old kids skiing, it was so cute.

I started skiing 10:00 am and finished at 4:00 pm which is too much for the first experience. Exhausted at the end, I arrived home 8:00 pm and had a deep sleep.

Where do you wish to be right now??

This coming Monday (February 17th) I have my committee meeting. I need to present what I have done up to now and what I am going to do next. I am so tired, all this week I was busy with making slides and analyzing the results, etc but it hasn’t finished yet. I have to work all weekend.

Whenever I am under pressure, my mind flies to different places that I wish to be on that time and most of the time these places are some kind of intact nature like the photo I attached.
I want to be there right now! Ok go back to work.

Weather Bomb at St. John's

Yesterday (25 Jan), I was working in my office when a friend of mine came and warned me about the snow storm, called weather bomb. I never heard of anything like weather bomb before. It was a fast moving storm with significant snow accumulation.

When I returned home the storm was beginning, but it was not that bad until I decided to go to grocery store near my house, Dominion. I was completely covered in gloves, snow boot, hat, scarf and certainly snow jacket. I started walking toward Dominion but just after few minutes I found my self at the middle of a large amount of snow blowing in every direction, I could barely keep open my eyes since the snow particles could enter into them.

I started laughing at that time, it was all fun. The good thing was that the temperature wasn’t very low (around -3) so I didn’t feel freezing. Finally when I got there, my pants were absolutely soaked. Thanks to the cab I didn’t come back on foot; enough fun for one day.

Check this link, you will find some photos from St. John’s snow, which can give you an idea of what I am exactly talking about!! http://www.bitstop.ca/snow_2003.htm

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I recently came back from my long holiday (about one month) in Iran. I got married there, which was so exiting for me. I really didn’t realized how the time passed. It was so hard to say goodbye to my family and my close friends but life is life.

My husband and I came back together to Toronto where he lives, and after two days we said goodbye and I returned to St. John’s.

We have to be far from each other until I finish my study here and I can join him. Sometimes I find this so hard but it is a kind of experience. Because of this distance, we are always occupied with how to see each other, when, where and how long.

We joke that one day we can write a book about long distance relationships. Anyway, a new year has started and I have lots of things to do: Submitting my proposal, doing teaching assistantship,…

Holiday is over; wake up!!

Halloween Again

What I do like about the people here in St. John's is the way they celebrate their traditions. When it comes to Halloween, most people around the city decorate their houses with things like carved pumpkin, pumpkin light rounded trees… On October 31st People throw Costume parties and kids go door to door for treat.
Saturday night (28th,October) I went to George street to watch the crowd gathered in different costumes. It was kind of contest and the one who wore the most strange and creative costume won 5000$. People where standing in long queue to buy a thicket and get into a club. St. John’s down town was so crowded until 4:00 AM. I didn’t stay that long to understand who won the prize but I heard that the winner was a girl whose custume costed 2000$!!!!!!

Experience of being a minority

One year ago when I left my country for the first time I didn’t have any idea about being a minority. I am from Iran, an old country, full of historic buildings and memos. You can find lots of them at louvre and British museum People more recognize Iran by : Persian cats, Persian rugs, and also oil I should say.

When I arrived here at Canada for the first 5-6 month I was pretty busy with getting used to my new environment, where to buy grocery , how to rent a house, how to deal with my thesis and supervisor and above all how to deal with being so far away from my family.

I think it took me a year to settle down, look around my self and see what’s really happen. What did I miss? What did I get?
In Iran we celebrate the first day of spring (21st of March) as a new year. It was the first time in my life that I started my new year far far away from my family. When everyone is working on 21st of March and it doesn’t have any meaning to the most of the people around you, gradually you understand “I am a minority”.

Yes, I got that, it’s a strange feeling to be a minority. I am not nagging about this at all. All I try to do is just to explain this kind of feeling. Maybe it’s the same for all minorities, around the world but I believe when you migrate to another country with a different language and different customs you sense this feeling more strongly.

For me I learnt that everything is temporary like friends, the city you leave in, your job...
Every semester new people join or leave our small Iranian society. I am doing my best to learn how to enjoy every moment of my life. It doesn’t matter if my friends leave, I want to enjoy hanging with them right now. I should learn to be ready to leave at any time. It’s exciting in a way and I can say I like it.

Welcome to NewFoundland

It took me a long time to convince myself to post this. Hmm, let me see: about a year!
Maybe the main reason was, I insisted to write in English which is not my mother tongue but gives me a chance to communicate with more people.

About the name of this blog I should say, everyone has his(her) own book of life and if we consider the childhood as chapter one and teen years as chapter two of this book the adulthood will be chapter three, which I am in. I like to write my life story, it gives me a chance to look back sometimes and see how I spent my years.

Anyway, it’s almost one year that I’m here in Canada, among maple leaf people. Continuing my study, I’m going to school here at St. John’s, the oldest city of North America, located in Newfoundland.

I like this small, harbored, rocky city with its great views. I am used to watch Cabot Tower every day, located on Signal Hill, on the way home.

Once I read a list of one hundred activities that you MUST DO in Canada. One of them was pub crawling in St John’s. You can get pretty puzzled in George Street(The famous downtown street) and find several bars at both side of it.

St. John’s is also famous for its long and harsh winte and strong blizzards which cause the entire city to shut down occasionally. Sometimes the gusts reach 80 km/h or even more. All of on-campus buildings are connected to each other through underground tunnels.

Any way, I survived the first winter and the second one is not that far away. Seems lots of fun ha!