Kananaskis

I went to Kananaskis a few weeks ago for a hiking with my brother and one of my friends who came from Toronto to stay with us for the Persian New Year celebrations. It was a great day for me and I really enjoyed. The hiking path was extremely beautiful. In fact, it was an exquisite work of art!( to show of I am learning some new vocabulary)! after about 2km of hiking you reach to a water fall. It was frozen and that is the reason of I said it was beautiful. I could not imagine that a fall may freeze! I went there once last summer and a frozen image of the fall was totally unimaginable that day for me. We really enjoyed being in the nature in a wonderful and sunny day. There were only a few people there so that we were almost alone. we took a lot of wonderful pictures, ate a light dinner and came back. We also enjoyed the road beautiful landscapes. There is a lake on the right side of the Kananaskis road which was frozen too. You know, I think we should be really happy to be so close to this amazing nature because my friend was absolutely shocked! He has never seen such a kind of scenes in his life in Ontario. He told me that he just heard something about wonderful beauty of the Canadian Rockies and the nature of that but, he did not consider he was going to see what we saw there.
We made a perfect spring day right after starting the new year. I strongly recommend you guys going there just once to see there. It is not too far from here!

Persian new year, " Norooz"

Hey guys,
As I said before, I ma going to write about the Iranian new year celebrations and ceremonies.
The Iranian calender is based on spinning of the earth around the sun. The first day of this calender is exactly the first day of spring. There is a long, long history behind that.(thousands of years)
Haft Sin
This is the most famous tradition of "Norooz" (new year). A Haft Sin table includes 7 different things that start with letter "S" in Persian language. Each of these 7 Sins has a symbolic value in Iranian culture. We always sit around the Haft Sin with our family a few minutes before the new year begins and start the new year besides it. You can easily find a Haft Sin in every Iranian family's house a few days before new year and they usually keep it until the 13th day of new year.
4Shanbe Soori
In the previous night of the last Wednesday of the year, people usually go out and make fire. I love this night. This is the celebration of the light (the good) winning over the darkness (the bad). We have a lot of fun there; we drink and dance. I will post some of this year's pictures of "4Shanbe Soori" later!
Ceremonies
Actually, new years ceremonies start couple of weeks before the new year when people start to clean their house and get ready for the new year. They cook some traditional cookies and buy whatever they may need for celebrations. In first days of the new year we usually visit our relatives and give presents to each other. I always went to my grandparents' house ,but I can not go this year because I am here in Canada. :( In Iran, all schools and universities and most of offices and work places are closed until that 13th day. At that day which is called the Nature Day in Iran people go out for picnic and spend a day out with their family outside the house.
In fact, the regular life starts from th 14th of the first month in Iran. These two weeks and a few days before them are full of fun and happiness for us. I really like our new year ceremonies and anything related to them.
this year, we will start the new year on Thursday, 9:18:19 am, in Tehran time. I am really excited and happy about it. I hope 1387 year will be a year full of success and happiness for all Iranians around the world.

Let's blog more seriously guys!!!

All right,
We are all in the Tri-Lab in the basement of Social Sciences building now. I don't know to write about what! I mean I have no idea to write about! I thought I am not good at blogging because I don't write in my blog regularly, but after looking at other students blogs I found that I am awesome! I have written 7 posts including this one. I don't know why some of our classmates have not written in their blogs since January! Scott always tell us that blog is a great tool to improve our writing skills in English. He also always mention that students who do good jobs in their blogs can expect bonus marks at the end of the semester when all of us might need these bonus marks. As a result we should be concerned about blogging and we should not leave it just for the last week. I should be more serious about it myself. I must make a plan and do blogging regularly. I did it just whenever I had extra time before, but I should spend a specific time for doing it each week.
A big problem for me to write in the blog is lack of interesting and appropriate topics. However, I think I should not be worry about that too much. Like today, I have to just start writing and following ideas will come automatically. I am sure that our topics and our grammar are not really important for Scott because he would like that we just write.
As a result, let's think more seriously about blogging guys! We just need to specify about 30 minutes for each entry. I think it is not impossible to do that. :)

What I miss about Iran

In this post, I want to tell you what I miss about my country. You should change and reverse the meaning of my sentences! I want to write about some parts of Iran that you can not find anywhere else in the world.
First of all, I miss my home town- Tehran. I miss wasting 1 hour (at least) every morning in the traffic jam when you are going to work. I miss the clear blue sky of Tehran especially in winters when you can feel the pleasant sunshine on your skin and there is no air pollution. I miss the best driving style of the world which lets you enjoy driving and you can be sure that other drivers respect your rights. I miss my city when a heavy rain or even snow does not interfere daily life of people and you should not be worry about anything because city management system is always ready and prepared for anything expected or unexpected.
Moreover!, I miss my university. I miss taking courses about "Islamic Behavior" and the "History of Saudi Arabia" in the engineering school. I miss my "History of Iran's Revolution" instructor because he was the most honest instructor who I have ever had and he did not tell us nonsense about our revolution in the same school. I miss registration days of my university when I could register my courses online without any stress exactly like the U of C!
And finally I miss rules and laws of my country. Laws that provide freedom and equality for every one, especially women. Laws that let us go out with our friends, have fun, enjoy our lives or even drink and dance in the bars! I miss participating in a free and competitive election.
However, with all I said above, Iran is still my beloved country. Like all Iranian people, I love this land. :)

A happy Behzad !! :)

Hello everybody,

I am really happy now :) In fact, I have been seriously happy since Wednesday!
Why? Because my parents came back from Iran Wednesday night after 3 months. You may think what a little kid I am. But, I do not care about that, heh. I am happy and I decided to share my happiness with you guys. The best part of their return is definitely their presence here with me and my brother; I am also happy about what they brought for me from Iran. A large package full of gifts and cards and presents from my girlfriend :) my favorite books and movies, and a lot of Iranian snacks and sweets and of course Iranian Pistachio.
I am also really happy that we can celebrate the Iranian New Year all together with my family members. It is very important for us to be together in New Year celebrations. I think I should write about these celebrations and our ceremonies in one of my next entries. We have still two weeks to the New Year and I promise here that I will write and describe our new year for you, so wait for that!
All right, finally, I am happy because I am sure now that I will go to my country after finishing EAP 3. Only 5 more weeks are remained and after that I will go there and see my dear girlfriend who I have missed her too much. Just 5 weeks, how exciting it is!
However we should keep studying hard the rest of the semester guys. Don’t give up and don’t think that it’s done. We have still more five important weeks and we should do our best if we want to get good marks. With all my happiness I hope all of you will be successful at the end of the semester, good luck.