Amin

The last ...

2008-04-13T14:58:00.001-07:00

EAP stands for English for Academic Purposes and we are done with that. It is now about 7 months that I personally started this program. Most of the student have the same condition while some started earlier and some starter from EAP 3. It does not matter when you start this program, the important issue is we finished it together now and that is the end of our story. I am very happy, not for finishing this program, but for meeting all of you guys. I now know many people from China (neehow!) and Korea (anion!). I know people from Russia and Ukraine (privet!). I know people from Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Syria (Asalamon Alaikom). I know people from Niger and Quebec (saloot). I know people from Netherlands (Hallo) and many other countries. I also found people from my own country (Salam) that I did not know before. This is an experience of a life time. We had many wonderful moments and lots of great memories. We had many wonderful teachers and we learnt a lot. Now, on this moment we have to choose our own way in life. This bridge, EAP is going to end. This chapter of our life finished and we need to pass it. I enjoyed being with you guys. I hope the best for all of you and hope to have all of you as my friends after this program. Take care. Khoodenakh, Poka, janjan, ma3al salam, khodahafez and goodbye.

How Much I Learnt in EAP Program

2008-04-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

Maybe the most important question about EAP program is how much we have learnt. How different you think your level of English is since you started this program. For me that is a though question. For answering that question, first I better answer in each category separately. In the Listening and Speaking, for sure I am more fluent and my understanding improved but I do not know how much because I have nothing to compare now. The same thing is true about the Reading. I know more words and more important than that, I know more useful strategies now, unfortunately again nothing to compare with. In the writing, I have a lot to compare. Let me bring some evidence for you.
It is the introduction of my first essay in EAP 2.

There are many different things that a human looks for in life. Maybe one of the most important things is good living. With the purpose of having a good life, successful business could help a lot. A successful business in my opinion is a business that could survive in long term and turn a profit. In order to achieve this, the business needs many factors such as money, appropriate skills and a business plan.

This one is my introduction for the second term paper in EAP 3.

Air pollution, global warming, high price and decreasing reserves of fossil fuels, along with the world’s growing energy needs, have encouraged efforts to develop alternative energy sources. Due to these efforts, nowadays, many new energy sources are being used such as tidal power, hydroelectric power, pumped storage, and geothermal power. Although each of these new sources has its own strengths and benefits, none of them is capable of becoming the alternative energy source since they are hard to access and not efficient in comparison to fossil fuels. The most likely energy source that is capable of replacing society’s dependence on fossil fuels is solar power because of its prized advantages. Solar power is non-polluting, cost effective, and abundant. According to the Solar Energy Society of Canada “The Sun is a powerhouse, showering the earth every hour with more energy than the entire planet consumes in a year”. These points make solar power the energy of the future.

I guess my point is clear now. In the writing, considering the differences between my first essay and my last one, I can see how huge I changed my skills in English. I think if you have doubts about your improvment in English, you can compare like me, I am kind of sure you can see what I saw.

First Final

2008-04-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Today we had our first final exam- writing. Before the exam, I was not stressful. However, after I received the questions, time passed extremely fast. I managed to write a 5 paragraphs essay but when I looked at my watch in the middle of exam I realized that I do not have enough time, so I combined my two last paragraphs into one. First I wanted to write about the entrepreneur topic, then I thought since I wrote my term paper about energy, I can write about energy stuff better. As a result, I changed my mind and wrote about least likely energy to replace fossil fuels, which in my opinion is wind power ( it is not cost effective and efficient). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find enough time to proof read my essay. I only could find some words’ spelling in dictionary. After all, how much I learnt is the main point, and I learnt a lot. I wish you good luck for your other exams (but as Murray said, you do not need it!). For me, being done with writing is a big relief. Have a nice weekend.

I do not know if you belived me or you think it is ... ;)

2008-04-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

Today we had our second and last presentation for this semester. For the last recent days I thought with myself it is not a big deal, I can be very relax and natural. The audience are my friends and I know them for many months. Well, it is true, but today in the morning the exact opposite happened. I saw some friends of mine practicing their presentation in the library of education. The thing we did was giving our presentation to a small group of students. I did it twice and especially the first time was awful! I forgot what I wanted to say and my mind became out of words in some moments. The second practice was better but still not satisfactory for me. Anyway, we came to ST 141 and I did my presentation in front of all of you. The real presentations, of course, was not perfect or even anything near perfect but was satisfactory for myself. I believe the practice that we did really helped me today, otherwise I would probably give my awful first practice as the real one! :)
The Last but not the least, I would like to mention Jason’s presentation, I mean the last sentence!!!! It was the best moment of all the presentations- ever! Jason was there when we were practicing our presentations and he did not finish his presentation with “I do not know if you believed me or you think it is …” :D otherwise we could give him some recommendation, like I do not know if you believed me or not! Anyway, thank you Jason.

Calgary

2008-04-08T14:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we had Scott for the first time since he came back from his trip to New York. As you all know we discussed about his trip during yesterday’s grammar class. Well, we talked about ground zero, food, especially different kind of bread, and the appearance of the ESL teachers. All those topics were interesting for me, but we discussed something else as well that was the most attention grabbing part for me. Scott said in New York they do not even know that a place like Calgary exists, while in New York you feel you are in the middle of every thing. That is true, Calgary in not very famous. I personally never heard of it before my family decided to come here. However, I am kind of like that. Calgary is not very big, it is not well known, but still we have everything here (almost) and there is no pollution, it is safe and many other advantages of a city with this size. I lived most of my life in a city like Tehran, a really crowd and huge city so I am familiar with living in big cities. Living in big cities has its own advantageous. You have more facilities, there are more places to go and have fun, the city as alive day and night. Anyway, I am happy with situation of Calgary, it is a new experience and I like it.

Small/Big World

2008-04-07T22:05:00.001-07:00

Have you ever heard that people say “it is a very small world?” they usually say that when something strange with a very low probability happens. Few days ago I was in service stop of our university. As you all know, you need to obtain a ticket before you can go in. I was sitting there waiting for my turn when I saw a very familiar face who was getting his ticket from that special device. I went closer and kind of stared at him! Then he saw me and I saw the surprise in his face and became sure. He was my friend in high school and I have not seen him for more than 5 or 6 years. Then suddenly we saw each other thousands of kilometers far from home in Calgary! It was really strange for me and I got to the point that it is a small world.
Another thing that I would like to talk about this time is, Calgary is a small place! It is very rare that you go out on Friday or Saturday and you do not see anyone that you know, especially if you use C-train. If you want to go out with someone secretly and no one see you, you better forget about most places in downtown. I will talk about this subject in future. For now, that’s all.

O & O

2008-03-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

Oprah Winfrey’s support of Barak Obama in the next presidential election of the United States of America is a very attention grabbing issue. Oprah Invited Obama to her show to give him a chance of advertising for his campaign and also to show that she personally supports Obama. In that show Oprah has talked about Obama’s abilities and gave him a great deal of credit as a good leader. By that she tried to encourage people to vote for Obama in the election. Many people believe Oprah’s support is very essential for Obama and can help him to win over Hilary Clinton, the former first lady, inside democrat party’s election.

I personally believe both Oprah and Obama did many breakthroughs during their lives. Fpr example, about Oprah, “She was a poor black girl who came up from the very bottom and has led a good life and helped so many people.” In addition, about senator Obama, “Mr. Obama was a man who stood with clarity and conviction against the war in Iraq.” I knew that Oprah supports senator Obama in the presidential race of the Democrat Party but it seems it is a very important point for him. In fact, Oprah Winfrey is the only female in the United States more famous than Hillary Clinton -- and possibly the one woman with the power to stop the former first lady returning to the White House. It is interesting for me because she has no political power, but still she is able to affect something as important and critical as presidential election. I think it shows she has earned people’s trust by her great background.

Poker

2008-03-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

Have you ever played Poker?!? Well, I know it is gambling and not a good thing to do but I really like it. Among card games it is my favourite game. In Iran, we usually play 5 cards draw, while in Canada people, mostly prefer Texas Holdem Poker. In Texas Holdem poker, each player receives 2 cards. Then they start to bet for the first time. After that, dealer shows 3 cards. The players bet again, of course some of them might fold. Then 1 card is showed again, another betting and finally the last card from dealer and final bets. I know it sound strange and complicated, but it is easier than it sound. I do know if you know the order of hand or not. In Texas Holdem it is like this: (from worst to best!)

- nothing!! It is none of the below so it is nothing. In this situation the high card wins.
- Pair. 2 from one thing, for example two 10 or two jacks.
- 2 pairs. Two set of pairs. For example two 5 and two kings.
- 3 of a kind. For example three 8 or three queens.
- Straight. For example 7,8,9,10 and jack.
- Flash. All from a same sign. For example all heart or spade.
- Full house. It is the combination of 3 of a kind and a pair. For example three 2 with two 7.
- 4 of a kind. For example four aces.
- Straight flash. Be straight and flush at a same time. For example 10,J,Q,K and Ace of Spade. ( this hand is the best hand, it is called royal flash)
I do not want to encourage anyone to gamble, but I think this game is really enjoyable. Anyway, cya.

Friendship

2008-03-22T02:45:00.000-07:00

My computer clock shows it is 3:43 now. I just came back from one of my friends place and I am kind of drunk now. Guys, try goose berry, which is a nice kind of vodka!!!! Anyway, first, I thought I better sleep now, then I thought it is better to watch 1 or 2 episode of Friends show first and then sleep. I really like friends, as I think most of you know, and I strongly recommend it to watch. Anyway, I decided to write a blog, before watching Friends, and the reason is my previous blog. As you can see, my title is friendship. I am happy that we can choose our friends, and it is not like relatives, which is settled and there is no choice on that ;) there is a picture for this entry, which is taken on the last night before I left Iran. There are some of my best friends and that night was kind of my goodbye party. I really like spending time with my friends. I feel happy and secure when I am with my friends. I miss my friends back home, but I am also happy that I found new friends here, in Canada. It reminds me a part of Friends show (season 9), which a male nanny (manny) said what is the boat which never sank?!? The answer is FRIENDSHIP!!!!!

Blogging

2008-03-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

I used to look at blogging as an assignment and also a way of communication with other students in EAP. Last semester the communication part was more interesting for me because we didn't know each other and blogging was a neat way of knowing each other. However I know you now, so this semester blogging did not interest me that much. However ( I know I used however earlier, but I need it again and that's a free writing and that's my blog, so I use it again!) after we went to lab and I read that article which Scott wrote, my point of view about blogging has changed completely. It seems it is more important and more effective that I assumed earlier. Therefore, I decided to write more blogs. I won't pay attention to every small detail and make perfect, but I will write more and more. I just want to make my thinking into written English. So (I know it's the beginning of a sentence but as I said it is free writing) I will only write and write. When ever I can find some time, I will write. Well, I have nothing more to say for now, so .... Take care, cya.

P.S: There is a video below. I really enjoyed it, hope you like it too.

The Bucket List

2008-03-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Bucket List

“The Bucket List” is the name of a movie which I saw about 2 weeks ago. It is a new movie and I strongly recommend it to other people to watch. To briefly go through the story, there are two guys who understand they are going to die in about 6 months. One of them is a very rich man, with a special character. He is kind of selfish, picky and doesn’t care about other people. He is divorced and has a daughter that hasn’t seen for few years (Jack Nicholson). The other guy is a guy from a poor family. He has worked all of his life very hard to create a good life for his wife and children. He helps other people as much as he can and finally he loves history (Morgan Freeman). Generally, two guys with lots of differences. However, cancer and death kind of put them on a same boat. They meet in a hospital which belongs to the rich guy. Many things lead to another and finally they decide to a journey and fulfill the wishes they have before their death. That's the story of Bucket List. They write many different things in that list and plan to do the. For example, they want to go to Egypt to see the pyramids or China to see the great wall. In addition to that, they write some unusual task as well such as sky diving, driving a race care or a high speed motorcycle. Moreover, they decide to experience many different things like, laughing till it makes them cry or kiss the most beautiful girl in the world. Anyway, when they accomplish a task, they delete it from a list. I won't say the end of story, but it is not just doing the task and finish! Many different things happen during the movie. Although it is a funny movie, there are many nice messages carried by the movie. I think it is worth to watch.

J.K

2008-02-16T18:23:00.000-08:00

A person can be creative in many different fields such as science, business, education and etcetera. In the same way, a person can be creative in writing. In fact, creativity is an important part of success in writing. We had many creative writers and novelist during history which I think J. K. Rowling -author of the Harry Potter series- is one of them; because her books have gained commercial success and world wide attention. J. K. Rowling’s books have gained commercial success. She is the 136th richest person in world, 13th richest woman in Britain. the total value of her books was estimated 4 billion dollars. She has a new record in book’s market. Her books were sold near 350 million copies. In fact, they are the fastest selling books in history. Additionally, J. K. Rowling’s books attracted attention all over the world. Her books has been translated into many different languages and were published in many different countries. Commercial success of J. K. Rowling’s books and the world wide attention that her books gained shows how much creative she is.

Exploring!

2008-02-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

This week’s subject is exploring. Maybe the first thing that comes to our mind after hearing this word is people who explore the world like that guy who climbed Mount Everest. Despite of this fact, I would like to look at this subject from another point of view. For this, I better explain from a bit earlier.
Last week, after we got our grades for our first essay, I was upset. I expected a better mark than what I got and as a result I was thinking this semester I might not be able to achieve 85% that we need. Well, I was thinking with myself about this issue that night. Then, I got to this point that I want to live the rest of my life in this language. My ultimate goal is way beyond this 85%. I want to explore English and learn it not only for university but for living in this language. So, from that moment my perspective about the whole EAP program has been changed. Now, I am here to learn and enjoy and as long as I am learning I do not care about anything else. That is my point of view about exploring!!! ;) That would be nice to know about your opinion guys.

This is a funny video that I hope you enjoy,

How Long can you Hold your Breath?

Editing!

2008-02-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

Editing is a very useful! It is good to edit and to be edited by others! I mean our writing not ourselves of course. However editing is not a good subject for writing blogs, therefore I am not going to write about that for the rest of this entry. I wish I could but I don’t want to!!! Friends show’s fans probably could remember that line from Phoebe. (Season 1, episode 1)
I would like to write about two new experiences that I had last week. Wednesday, after classes, I was going to Mc hall to work. I had like 30 minutes free time before I start my job so I decided to smoke before going to work. Okay, I know smoking is not a good thing to do but that’s not my point here! Sometimes when some people smoke outside a building in campus they make a conversation. In that day, I met a nice guy and we started to talk when we were smoking. After we finished our cigarettes he told me that he is hanging out with some friends and asked me to join them if I like. I had around 30 minutes and that was a good chance to see how Canadians hanging out, besides he seemed to be a nice guy so I accepted. Well, to cut to the chase we became friends and Thursday he invited me to Den, as he said for knowing Canadians better! I went to Den that night with Behzad and I really enjoyed. They were friendly, hospitable and kind but as Murray say speaking English after third beer is a hard thing to do! Maybe not third but after 6th or 7th it is hard, especially with that loud music. It was like one of the Murray’s exercises that we do during Listening classes when we all shout our sentences for our partners. Well, hanging out with Canadians was my first experience that I wanted to write about.
The second experience is about dreaming in English!! I finally dreamed in English and it happened Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights!!! I usually do not dream that frequently but maybe after language changing it started to happen more! :) It was kind of funny and weird but generally I like it.

LOVE 2008:

EAP 3

2008-01-27T22:50:00.001-08:00

Well, well, well, finally EAP 3, and that’s it. Not bad, fair and square! I heard that expression but I do not know the exact meaning and if I used it in a correct place or not! Okay, about EAP3’s impression. Let’s begin with its blog! I prefer the way we used to write our blogs last semester. We could choose our own topic which makes our blogs more interesting to read. I can guess most of lecture 2 students for this EAP3 entry (which is chosen for us) probably complain about the bad schedule. Oh, that reminds me my first impression to EAP3! Anger! I was mad, really mad. It is the worst schedule EVER! Now after 2 weeks I somehow get used to it, but I still do not like it. About our teachers, they are good but I do not want to say more because its look like I wanna spoil my self for them which I hate about students who do that! Another thing about my blog, I may put some video at the end of each entry which probably have no relation with the entry, I hope you like them. Cya.

P.S: things I wanted to say are on the main part, but I still need 50 more words for this entry! Another thing that I do not like about this semester’s blogs is 250 words for each entry. 250 is way too much. It makes it harder to read for others but that’s the way it is.

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2007-12-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

On the one hnad, tdaoy we took our wirtng eaxm and on the oehtr hnad I am wtrniig bolg so sleplnig is not vrey iptnmorat aetfr tihs mneomt. At laset tlil the EAP 3, if I psas of crusoe. That’s why you are rdniaeg tihs etnry lkie tihs! In fcat, if you can read it! Bcuesae smoe popele can’t. If you can, it deos not maen taht you are a guiens but at laset you are not sptiud taht mcuh! Let me use smoe caopmilectd and mroe porbmliaetc vcauborlay to mkae it hrdaer. How was taht? Slitl albe to raed? Good. Let’s try smoenhtig else. Alan dige os shodi! Aha, you can’t udnerasntd tihs one, huh? That’s buescae it is not Egnilsh, my bad! I have a sutggeosin as well. We can keep this blog thnig as a way of cmmoiucniaton drunig hdolaiys, that wluod be ncie. Ok, that’s it. Finally, that was great to be with all of you guys, we had lots of fun. Best wishes.

Judge

2007-12-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

Is first impression important for you? For example, if you met someone for the fist time, would you feel like I want this person to be my friend, or maybe completely opposite, you think with yourself that I hate that guy! In fact, I usually do this but not exactly like above. For example, when I came to EAP program I did something like that. I liked some of you at the first time and I did not like a few! :) Do not be mad, at least I am honest! Of course the good point about my weird habit is I change my mind after I know the person without any prejudice. If I like someone and then I realize that person is not what I thought I will change my opinion easily and obviously same for the opposite situation. I know we should not judge people by their appearance but that’s the way I feel. I found a nice article which is somehow related to this topic. I hope you like it.

TWO TOUGH QUESTIONS

Question 1: If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?
Read the next question before answering this one.

Question 2: It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates.
Candidate A: Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists.He's had two Mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10martinis a day.
Candidate B: He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.
Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

Which of these candidates would be your choice? Decide first, no peeking,then scroll down for the answer.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler!!!
And, by the way, the answer to the abortion question: If you said yes, you just killed Beethoven!!!

* Source:Ethical Question's website

Blog!

2007-12-05T20:26:00.000-08:00

Till a week ago I really liked this blogging assignment, but for these recent days it is more like a nightmare! It seems there is no word as “blogging” in English because Microsoft word drew a red line under it but you know what, I won’t change it because you can understand me and that is the purpose of the language. If you can not understand it, you better use some of the strategies we have learned during our reading classes. You can break it into two parts and after that you will notice there are a blog and an ing, so you nailed it finally. You are almost on fire!! You know what the problem here is? Microsoft word did not accept even the blog itself, so you are in trouble again. That strategy didn’t work for this one. As a matter of fact, since blog is not a word, no strategy can help you out here. See where the problem is? Then, what can you do now? In fact there is not much you can do now, but you know what shouldn’t you have done? You shouldn’t have started reading my blog at the very beginning, because of the reason I explained yesterday in the previous post! Sorry for wasting your time, take care.

Assignment!

2007-12-04T18:09:00.000-08:00

I noticed something today!!! Since I have 9 blogs so far and our final date for blogging is December 7th, I have to write a new blog everyday till that day to finish this assignment! In my previous blogs I usually tried to write something interesting but from this moment I just want to write in order to do my blog assignment so do not look for something interesting! Well, I have to keep writing because it is not 200 words yet but you can stop reading right now. Wait! Don’t go! Do not leave me alone! …. Ok… I can understand, there is nothing for you here, so that’s it, have a nice day or night, see you tomorrow and bye. Let me see what I can write about now. I can write about … HEY YOU!!!! You are not supposed to be here anymore! What if I wanted to write about something personal?! I didn’t expect that from you!…. But that’s all right, you are here because you are a good friend and you didn’t want to leave me alone. But you know what, you should have gone because you just wasted your time! Wait, You can’t claim now, I warn you ahead that there is nothing interesting here. Guess what? I counted my words, I mean I used word to count it for me and now this is more than 200 words. You can stay here if you want but there is no reason for me to stay so I am leaving. Come on, I think we both better go together. I do not like to leave you alone, because you didn’t leave me alone before and you read till the end of this useless blog entry! ;) Have fun.

Poor Birds!

2007-12-03T18:40:00.000-08:00

Could you imagine a world with one gender?!? I mean (not Amin!) if all of us had same gender what would happen? How do you feel about that?!? Do not think about that specific issue for a while! I think that world should be very boring. In my opinion, men and women complete each other. The differences which different genders have, make the world a better place for living. For example, boys are smarter so they can make fun of girls! In result, there is more fun! ;) Just kidding! I suppose the reason of marriage is that completeness. I saw a picture- a sad picture!- in the internet which I used it for this entry. It seems one bird missed its partner. I think it is a very sad sad situation. Since the result of my older poll is obvious :) I am going to create another poll with a strange question! I know none of us like to be in such situation, and I hope that never happen to us, but.... just answer it if you like. That would be nice to know your ideas.

P.S: For going to Paul’s blog click on his link in my page. It is different from the one we had.

Perfect Couple

2007-11-30T15:16:00.000-08:00

Hello every one. In my previous blogs I usually tried to write about different topics. However in the two of my recent blogs, I had a topic which was somehow related- men and women. Regarding to your comments, it seems that topic is somehow interesting for my friends. In result, I decided to continue this topic in another entry. I read this short story this morning and I thought it is by some means associated with this topic. I would like to share it with you. Here it is:

Once upon a time, a perfect man and a perfect woman met. After a perfect courtship, they had a perfect wedding. Their life together was, of course, perfect.

One snowy, stormy Christmas Eve, this perfect couple was driving their perfect car along a winding road, when they noticed someone at the side of the road in distress. Being the perfect couple, they stopped to help.

There stood Santa Claus with a huge bundle of toys. Not wanting to disappoint any children on the eve of Christmas, the perfect couple loaded Santa and his toys into their vehicle. Soon they were driving along delivering the toys. Unfortunately, the driving conditions deteriorated and the perfect couple and Santa Claus had an accident. Only one of them survived the accident.

Question: Who was the survivor? (Scroll down for the answer. Trust me, it's worth it)

Answer: The perfect woman survived. She's the only one who really existed in the first place. Everyone knows there is no Santa Claus and there is no such thing as a perfect man.

**** Women stop reading here, that is the end of the joke.

**** Men keep scrolling.

So, if there is no perfect man and no Santa Claus, the woman must have been driving. This explains why there was a car accident!

Men keep scrolling ….

By the way, if you're a woman and you're still reading, this illustrates another point:

Women never listen!!!

I hope you like it. ;)

Amin.

The Meaning of "ABCDEFG"

2007-11-28T17:21:00.000-08:00

For these recent days, we had lots of homework and assignments. In result, most of us didn’t write that much in our blogs. Fortunately or unfortunately, this semester is going to end and in couple of days unfortunately, we have to have 12 entries. This is my 7th entry, so I need to write new blogs every 2 or 3 days to get the job done. Today, I saw a funny picture in internet which might be interesting for you as well; accordingly I decided to put it here. What do you think about that? Do you agree with that? Personally, I think that might happen in some cases. In my opinion, we better try to know that person first, and then put energy, emotion or whatever we want to put in a new relationship! Otherwise, we might regret. To go off the topic for a while, I remembered a quote from Newton. I couldn’t remember the exact words, but I try to paraphrase it. If you love a girl, let her go. If she comes back, she is yours. If she doesn’t, she never was! Anyway, as I was saying, be careful!!!

P.S: Thanks the guys who voted on my poll. The result shows one or both of these possibilities. Boys are smarter or boys participated more!!!

Shall We Dance?

2007-11-22T08:20:00.000-08:00

Dance, dance and dance! I think most of you know that I like dancing very much. I really enjoy dancing and even watching others dance. In my opinion good dance is some type of art. There are many clubs in our campus which teach different types of dancing, such as Latin and ballroom dances. If you are interested in dancing I really recommend those clubs. The other thing is some dance movies. In these movies the whole story related to dance, such as “Shall We Dance”, “Take the Lead” and “Saving the Last Dance 1 & 2”. I like those kinds of movies as well. Finally, I would like to write about different type of dance in different cultures. Every culture has its own special dance. I tried to find some different type of dance in you tube (maybe they are not the best of their own type, but tehy are the best that I could find), and I will put their links here for some of my friends who might be interested.

P.S: Go and see Behzad’s blog about Tehran!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ913L-ABeQ Salsa (Latin dance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGbzsVJlHRM Persian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHPIyW23TZk Lezgi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Ki_yAWTkE Hopak (Ukrainian)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBsN_sxbWYw Arabic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KZgCJDQQPM Techno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLVRQCjh8c Ballet (Very emotional)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYFDYX4i2EY&feature=related Break Dance

Women Vs Men

2007-11-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

Once, during one of our reading classes we had a discussion about gender differences in creativity. Considering that, I did a little research on the internet* about gender differences in intelligence. I would like to share that with you.

It seems that most of the studies show no significant difference between men and women in that area; however there are more man than women in very high and very low IQ (intelligence quotient) groups. Also, men are usually perform better on spatial and mathematical abilities test while women perform better on tests of memory and verbal. I also found a reason for expecting higher average IQ tests for men, and that is the advantage of bigger size of men’s brain. What is your personal opinion? I will create a poll about this, here in my blog, but that is much better to vote and also write your opinion. That would be interesting! ;)

*Wikipedia

Good Old Days

2007-11-15T16:08:00.000-08:00

We had taken this picture the last night before I left Iran. In this picture you can see my two best friends. We used to go everywhere together. I have lots of great memories with them, happy and sad. Well, maybe you think sad memories are not great but I think sometimes sadness and difficulties make a friendship more powerful; I believe we can recognize our true friends in hard days. I hope I could meet them soon.

Shaghayegh

2007-11-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

If you want to understand my reason for this entry -of course besides doing homework!!- you can read Behzad’s and Oksana’s blog! Well, her name is Shaghayegh and she is a remarkable!! Iranian singer; however, she lives in US because in Iran it is illegal for women to sing!! Based on Islamic rules of course. I can not understand why, but that’s the way it is!

Sports

2007-10-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. This is my second entry but before going through that I want to thank all of you who leave comments in my blog. In this entry I would like to talk about sports. Which kind of sports do you like? What are the most popular sports in your own country? If I want to answer those questions myself, soccer would be my answer for both. I like soccer a lot and it is my favorite among sports. After soccer I would choose horseback riding which I like very much as well. About my country, as I mentioned soccer is the most popular sport and after that wrestling is somehow popular in Iran. I would like to know about your choices and also about your countries.

Friends!

2007-10-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how should I write in my blog. Do I suppose to write like an essay, for example do I need to have a Topic Sentence for beginning or it is more like a free writing?!? Anyway, I do not have one so do not look after it! As you can see my title for this entry is Friends. Maybe you though I want to talk about my friends. Well that’s not my reason but I could talk about them for a while. Actually, I have two kind of friends, the first group is in Iran whom I missed so much, and my new friends here, you guys! But that title refers to a TV show called Friends which I like so much. As a matter of fact, I am a friends fan. I do not know if you have ever seen any part of it, but I strongly recommend it. Watching Friends is so much fun and on the other hand it could help you a lot in your English, especially in your Listening skill. For now, that’s it!

The First One

2007-09-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

Just to see what would happen!!!