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.

A lovely reading week!

Hello everybody,

I have not written for a long time and I thought I should write something today!

To be honest, my plan was to write at least 3 entries in reading week but, a terrible disease ruined my week. I think it is not bad to share some parts of my lovely week with you guys. It was the harshest and the most unpleasant illness which I have had in entire of my life. You may laugh, but I was thinking that I can not see tomorrow morning on Tuesday night. I mean I was in my bed and I could not even seat down or go to washroom. The most terrible part of that sickness was a killing pain in all my muscles and bones! Add this pain to a high fever and cough and imagine what a wonderful weak I had. However, It has a bright side also! I lost almost 4 kg in one week. I think it is impossible with doing exercise. It happened because I could not eat anything for 5 days!

In all these fabulous days, I was always worried about just one important task to do. My term paper! I could seat and work on Saturday afternoon, so I started to write it just on Saturday! I am not happy with what I wrote in my paper at all but I did not have any other option. It is 15% of our final mark!

Thank God that let me stay alive and do my paper. :)

My weekend report

Well, it's Sunday now. I'm in the university library and I want to write something in my blog.
What should I write about? I don't have any new idea! my mind is going to ...
I can write about what I did in last weekend. Maybe you don't like to read someone's weekend report, but I try my best to make it interesting for you! It is my duty to keep you interested as readers in English. I should be clear and try to avoid being confusing. What the hell is this ... English writing like?
Last Friday I went to a movie. Its name was Atonement. This movie is produced in Britain so their accents were British. It was a nice movie I think. I just couldn't understand a few parts because of lovely British accent. It was different in some areas that I always saw in different movies.
First, in spite of telling a story about the World War II, Americans were not mentioned as heroes and patriots in that movie. In fact, war scenes were just about British soldiers in France.
Second, it was different and interesting for me because it was a new mixture of a romance story and war. I always prefer to see romance movies which are made besides a second story or theme. So, I enjoyed a new romance movie that war was included in it. Also, the main actor playing was wonderful in my opinion. I think he deserves to win the Academy Award for his great role.
That was about Friday night. On Saturday night I stayed at home and watched hockey match between the Calgary Flames and the Dallas Stars. What a terrible game it was. They could win the game easily if they just were more careful and didn't waste their opportunities. Flames players tried hard and did their best, but Dallas was a very strong team and had a strong defence and goalkeeper. The final result was annoying and disappointing. Stars 2:1 Flames.
And finally this is Sunday night. I came to university library to study. What a hardworking and fabulous student I am! Don't worry. I have been here for 3 hours and I have not done anything useful and valuable. Just wasting time!

learning a new language

I think the best way of learning a new language is living in the society that people talk in that language. "That means immersion" (Scott Douglas).

But, about being in class or not, I believe class is more useful and appropriate than trying to learn a language alone or at home. In class, you can share ideas and do teamworks with other students. You can also experience being in a place that everybody talks in that language(at least for 4 or 6 hours per week). In my own experience, I learned most of my knowledge about English in classrooms. Especially when it was not a formal and academic session(not like EAP). When I involve in teamwork and I need to ask questions or search for specific information, I think I learn more than any other situation. As i said in the beginning, living in a foreign country is the best way of course. In my opinion we can not write, speak or read in a new language like native speakers if we don't live in that country. In this immersion style we are forced to learn daily and usual words and slangs to do our jobs. We must learn how to talk to a cashier for example. We should learn how to take the bus, go to school, shop, and generally live. So, in this situation learning a new language is the fastest way ,I think.

I also think registering in EAP is the best way to learn English academically! Especially when Scott and Murray are your instructors!

Happy EAPP III !!!!!

Hi guys,
We have just started our last EAP level(hopefully). I want to say I hope all of you will have a great and wonderful semester.
Good luck everybody!

Hi,

Well, I am going to follow Amin's way. I spend three or four hours for my each entry and always try to keep it interesting for readers. I also try to write something new and maybe helpful or funny. However, it seems I can’t keep doing it anymore because we have only 3days to the due date for our blogs. As a result, I do not know to write about what now, but I just want to write! Maybe it might be good to write about weather. It is snowing outside and I love snowy weather. So, I am happy that it is snowing outside now. Whenever it is snowing, I become happy, so you can imagine how much I am happy now. Since I am happy now, I don't want to make you unhappy now. So don't read this entry and don't waste your time with reading it now. I think that is enough for this snowy day entry now. I am happy and I wish I could be happy everyday like this. I hope all of you get great marks on your final exams. So, good luck and bye now!!!

Imposed War

Hi everybody,

Have you ever heard anything about the Iran-Iraq war? I want to tell you a little about that terrible war today.

It began on September 1980 and continued until August 1988. It means 8 years of war. It also means killing a lot of people and destroying many infrastructures. The war started just two years after the revolution in Iran when Iranian government and army were not well organized and prepared. In a summer day of 1980 Iraqi army attacked Iran through our long borders. This war caused many difficulty and troubles for Iranian people. Some of these problems can never be removed.

Moreover, It was not an equal war at all. Iraq was supported from many countries like USA and France by financial supports. Chemical weapons, which were used against Iranian troops for several times, were made mainly in Germany and France. At final years of war US Navy troops helped Iraq directly to overcome on Iran.

However, the war finished and Iraqi troops were forced back by Iranian army and they could not take even 1cm of the Iran’s territory. They were introduced as the beginner of the war and the guilty side in a UN resolution. But, its effects are still remaining in my country. Before the war, Iran was a powerful and influential country in the Middle East region. After the war, add terrible effects of 8 years war to a variety of sanctions imposed against Iran and imagine what is going on there.

Persian Gulf

This is Persian Gulf. It is located between Iran and Arabian Peninsula. This gulf is a highly strategic place for many reasons. The main reason is that the biggest oil and gas resources of the world are there. For example, South Pars is a share natural gas resource between Iran and Qatar which is the biggest one in the world.

However, my purpose of writing this entry is not introducing Persian Gulf to you. I think most of you heard this word at least one time in your life! Something which is very important for me made me to write about it.

As you know, in every country and every nation there are some concerns that is very important for them. I mean everybody is worry about it in that country. The name of Persian Gulf is one of these main concerns for Persian people. The name of this gulf has been Persian from the beginning of the history and it has been known as the Persian Gulf in any official documents. But after 1960s our kind and lovely neighbours have tried to invent a fake name for it. “Arab Gulf” is the name that they try to use it in their countries and in international documents. Even they are trying to change this name in The United Nations documents. Maybe you think that so what? Why we are this much concerned about this topic. But, it is a national issue for all Iranian people around the world. We don’t want to let them be successful in their target.

We are not enemy of the Arab people and don’t have any problem with them. Even we are friend nations and we have the same religion. Iran and Arab nations have many similar viewpoints together. So, this is not a battle or a clash. We are just trying to keep our identity alive.