My last blog :(

Hello everybody,
It is Sunday night now. I was watching the hockey match between the Calgary Flames and the San Jose Sharks. What a wonderful game it was. A great came back for Flames after 3 early goal in the first period. They did a great job and won the game 4-3 finally.
All right, I think it is my last post for EAP 3. We did the writing exam and tomorrow is the reading exam. Actually, I am not worried about tomorrow and the day after because writing was the most important part of EAP 3 and and reading and listening/ speaking are not really important. We just need pass these courses and we Will do it! I mean I don't care about my marks anymore.
Well, I think it's time to say goodbye to all of you guys. EAP 3 was a unique and considerable experience for me. I could make a huge improvement on my writing. I wrote 1000 words term papers tow times for the first time in my life! We all had great moments together in class. I hope all of you be successful in your life. I also hope that we will see each other in the future.I wish all the best for you.
Finally, I want to say a big thank you to our instructors. Scott was the best English teacher who I have had in my life and Murray did his best to help us learn some new ideas. Thank you teachers for all your great efforts.
Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, good luck and bye.

My homeland trip

Hi guys,
As you know, I am going back to my country, Iran, next week. I feel really excited and a little bit worried about it. I feel excited because it is the first time I am going back since last June I left there. The main reason of this trip is my girlfriend. I have not seen her for 10 months. It was very difficult for me to leave her alone. We have the chance to be together again for at least 2 months but, I am thinking about after that. I must leave her again. It would be the down side of it. Anyway, we are going to make a perfect plan to take advantage of these days. We promised each other to stay together as much as possible. We promised that there will be no argument and conflict! I am also concerned about my time. I have a lot of different things to do and I should manage my time properly. To be honest, I sometimes wish that she was here so that I was not supposed to go to Iran. I am very happy for this opportunity but, side effects and other consequences of this trip make me worried. Maybe it is better to forget about it and try to enjoy a nice trip. We can make it enjoyable ourselves. I mean we are in charge for our time and we have to manage everything related to that.
What am I saying? I am sure it is boring for you to read this post but I had nothing else in my mind to write about. Sorry about that.

We are very close to the end

Hello Everybody,
Well, the writing final exam is coming tomorrow and there are a few days left up to finishing EAP 3!
We just presented our final presentations a few hours ago. It was really impressive for me to hear your presentations. It was clear that all of you worked hard and prepared yourself for a great presentation. I also learned many new things from you guys. Almost all of the topics of the presentations were new for me and I had no idea about most of your topics. However, I know something even just a little now! For example, I know what the difference between Chinese and Western dragon is! I have a general Idea about the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. I found that which company started to produce hybrid cars first. I also understand the relationship between art and basketball by Jason's perfect explanation! Seriously, I am really happy for the opportunity of hearing your presentations.
I am just a little bit sad because I am going to miss my classmates after finishing our exams. I know that EAP was just a bridge for us to enter the real university but, we have been together for more than 7 months. Can you believe it? It was a fabulous experience for me. I could improve my English skills especially in writing and I also could find some new friends. When I started EAP, I did not think it is going to be such a kind of memorable experience with all its goods and bads! Do you remember our last semester fights and arguments with Dr. Rihani !!!
Finally, the only bright side of finishing EAP 3 for me is that I am going back to my country in April 24th. I feel really excited about it!
I hope all of you get high marks and what you really deserve in your exams. Good luck :)

21

I went to a movie last weekend with my friend, Amin.
The movie's name was 21. It is about a group of young students of MIT University and their professor. All of them are really great at mathematics. They practice some tricks based on math to be the winner of a game called blackjack. They go to Las Vegas and win a lot of money with their especial way. The relationship between them and their professor who is the leader of the team is the main theme of the story. The basic rule and the most important rule of their team is playing based on mathematics and statistics, not based on chance and sense.
The most interesting part of the movie for me was the leading role actor decision. He was studying at MIT and his dream was studying at Harvard Medical School. I know that MIT is the best technical university of the world. It does not make sense for me why a person in this situation wants to change his major or even his life. He needs a lot of money in order to pay Harvard Medical tuition so that he joins the team to earn as much money as he can. It was also interesting for me to know that studying in Harvard would cost $300,000. Can you imagine that? This is a huge amount of money.
However, I enjoyed watching that. An attractive story besides watching one of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey, acting in a movie was enough for me to relax and enjoy my Friday night.
We also went to an Irish bar after the movie and made our weekend night perfect!

"The Research Project #2" side effects!

Hello everybody,
Today in the reading class, Murray gave us our research project marks. Nothing especial happened. As I expected, my mark was 12 and because of 1 day delay I got 11 on that assignment.
I did not spend appropriate amount of time for that but, you know what I was thinking about it after comparing with the first research project?
For the first project, I did lots of research. I read several different articles. Then, I chose 3of them which I thought are the best ones. I read them carefully. I wrote that annotation and glossary and abstract parts very carefully. I proof read them 3 or 4 times. I even tried my best to went beyond the surface! But, I got 12 on that assignment.
However, I did the second research project in less than 30 minutes! I chose the articles by chance. I even did not read them completely. I wrote the annotation and abstract as fast as possible. I did not have time to read them again for any grammar mistake. Believe it or not, I got the same mark as the first one.
Now I have a question for you guys. Do you know why should I work hard and spend a lot of time for our next assignments?
Just don't tell me I should not care about marks, learning is important or such and such. I have already forgotten anything related to my Listening-Speaking and Reading marks. I just need pass them and I will do that.

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!