Sh!ma

20 Years in Canada

On January 13th, my family and I will have been in Canada for 20 years. My parents thought it would be a short stay, that we would return to Iran once the government changed. Twenty-years later, we’re still here, my parents still waiting. In the next few weeks, I’m thinking of providing short glimpses into our lives from the last 20 years as Immigrant Canadians.

(On a side note: Ram and I are heading to India for three weeks this Saturday. We’re going with Ram’s parents and my dad. It’s the first time that both my dad and I will be back in Asia in 20 years! Perhaps I will be able to see the southern tip of Iran from the airplane window.)

new shimoticons coming

I made new shimoticons over the holidays but I never got around to giving them to Ram so he could perform his magic to make them come alive on my website. I figured if I blogged about them I would remember to do it!

26 is just a number

Since turning 20 I feel like I turn the same age each year. It doesn’t help that I hardly ever act my age. I have a feeling this year will have a lot of life altering experiences waiting for me.

Question: If you don’t use your birthday wish one year, does it mean that you’ll have two the next year? I haven’t decided what my wish should be this year. Maybe this year I’ll make a realistic one that I can make come true.

G'day, mate!

Ram and I are off to Australia for the next three weeks. (We’re going to try to scam our way onto first class! We’ll see if that works or not!)

update: And we’re back. I have been up since 2 am! I don’t know how I will get through a day of work tomorrow…. that is if I still have a job. I have been gone so long I can’t remember what going to work is like!

swimming, swimming, in my swimming pool

I’m really getting into the whole swimming thing and I try to make it to the pool at least three times a week, which usually is when I go to karate. Sometimes things work out beautifully and I can get in an extra swim day during the week. Today is one of those days. I get off early today and I have a few errands to run, some which will take me all the way up to North York (oh, North York, how I love thee). And then it hit me, if I’m at the civic centre, then I can just go to Douglas Snow Aquatic Centre instead of going to the one at the Y. I thought about it some more, did some research and three things have deterred me from going there:
1. 50.0m lanes at Douglas Snow vs. 25.0m lanes at the Y (I’m still not comfortable swimming 2 lanes without taking a quick breather. So swimming a 50.0m length will be a little tough just yet)
2. $3.00 to use the Douglas Snow facilities vs. $0 to use the Y pool
3. no towel service vs. free towel services since I’m staff (and since I didn’t bring my own towel this really was the main reason I decided against going to Douglas Snow)

While I was searching online to see if there was a fee for using the facilities I came across this “Don’t be a fool in the pool” Lap Swimming Etiquette 101. As I was reading through I was trying to figure out if people in countries that drive on the wrong side would swim the opposite way as well. There is a whole section on the website that addresses my question. It turns out that yes, they swim clockwise. That’s so strange!

Trying to beat a little 4 year olds

I know of a 4 year old who can swim 26 lengths of the North York Y pool without stopping. He is my motivation every time I get into the water. All I need are goggles and I’m all set to beat his record. I’m only up to 20 lengths, and I stop plenty of times! (Maybe I need to go to the West End Y. Their swimming pool is half the size of the one in North York.)

Riding to Work Year 2

I finally decided to ride my bike to work today. Last year I tried to map out a route that included all sorts of back streets because I hate riding on main roads. That worked alright, except it was a very convoluted way to get to work. So today I decided that I’d take some main roads: St. Helen’s to Lansdowne, Lansdowne to College, College to Spadina, and Spadina to Camden Street where I work. College Street is actually a really great street to ride your bike. The only hesitation I have is the stretch from mid-Little Italy to Lansdowne where the bicycle path ends. But this morning I didn’t find that stretch that busy with traffic and with no on-street parking during rush hour it shouldn’t be a big deal. I forgot how much I like riding my bicycle around! It’s fun.. Well other than the fact that I’m all sweaty by the time I get to work. Too bad we don’t have any shower at work.

Cherry Jam

Today was cherry picking day/Renee’s early birthday. It actually turned out to be a real nice day which ended with a picnic over looking Lake Ontario.

Ram and I picked a full basket of sweet cherries to make Cherry Jam. I’m actually really excited because it reminds me of when I was a kid and my mom would make all sorts of preservatives! The only problem is my mom isn’t here so I can’t ask her how to do it. I figure I’ll just boil cherry and sugar and see what happens. If I’m doing something wrong, speak now…

Also, if you’d like some [Persian] Cherry Jam you know who to ask!

Post-Pre-Wedding Party

Thanks to everyone for showing up for the Pre-Wedding Party! Ram has promised me he’s going to make a Flickr group, so you guys can add your pictures to that! Do it!

Big Shout outs go to Roshi and all her wonderful helpers! You guys amaze me. I need to learn some mehmoon navazi from you guys!

Roshi and Shima's Excellent European Adventure.

1000 pictures, 20 videos, 2 DVDs = two exhausted people.

I’ve put some of the photos on Flickr.. I think there are some pictures on my camera still from the end of the trip that didn’t make it in yet, but you get the idea.

We're back

Roshi and Shima’s Excellent Adventure came to end last Friday. We had a great time in Europe and I have lots to talk about. But I have “mysteriously” (Read: Roshanak gave it to me) caught a cold and have been bed ridden since the moment I got home, so maybe if I’m feeling well enough in the next few days and not running around like a chicken without a head because of the upcoming wedding (which is unlikely), I will post some of the 5.5 Gigs worth of pictures on flickr. Maybe.

Fly Me to Europe

Roshi and I will be traveling across Europe for the next two weeks, so don’t sit behind your computer desk anxiously waiting for updates because there won’t be none… Need me? Email me.

For the mean time you can look at my Shima is from Tehran picture that Ram took a few weeks back. I think I really capture the I’m living in Iran and I have to wear a headscarf, but I’m going to make it cool look quite nicely. What do you think?

The Great Walk

Last night with the TTC not working Ram and I decided we’d walk from the Distillery District to Ram’s Friend’s house. It took about an hour, but that includes our stop at Solferino for some Gelato. It was a real nice walk. I think we’re going to go for another long walk today. Thanks TTC you’ve made me realise I can walk EVERYWHERE. I don’t need you!

Hello Traveling buddy

We’re off to Europe and I’m REALLY excited!

Your Top Five Places to Visit in Europe

Of you who have backpacked across Europe (yes, I’m talking to you planners), what were your top five places you visited?

I’d like to avoid Italy, Germany, and France as much as possible as I’ve been to all three when I was younger.

Summer 07

Aside from all the craziness during the summer and even though there is craziness promising to happen just around the corner, it was a good summer overall. I’m a few shades darker which is almost the most important outcome of any summer and so I can overlook the near heart attacks and gut wrenching events.

School starts in two days and I am not looking forward to any of it. I think this year will be dubbed “minimal effort”. I don’t plan on going out of my way to be stellar in any way. Mediocrity is so much better once you embrace it.

I’ll try updating more often, specially with Current Issues Paper (CIP) related info. That is if I figure what my topic will be.

the CN Tower burns so bright.. much better in LED lights

I have a theory that 7 minutes passed the hour the CN Tower’s new LED lights go crazy. I’m not sure what the significance behind the 7 minute mark is, but I’m sure someone smarter than me has got that all figured out. Anyways, tonight’s show has been stunning.

There's not enough small east west streets in the City

I’m on a conquest this summer: to find the safest, bicycle friendly route from home to work and back. The only problem is if you want to travel East or West you have to go on major roads and I don’t like riding my bicycle on busy streets. Something like Brock street but going East West. So anyways, I’m left to figure out an intricate route that doesn’t involve too many cars. I think I figured one out though:

Brooke (s) > Florence Street (w) > Dufferine (s) > Waterloo Ave (w) > Gladstone (s) > Argyle Street (w)> Shaw Street (s) > Adelaide (w) > Brant (n) > Camden (w).

There’ll be a little bit of a problem at Adelaide and Bathurst Street. I’ll have to see if there is anyways I can work around it.

You know how some times you become aware of things that before you were oblivious to? Enter traffic lights. I wasn’t oblivious to them, but I never cared too much for them until I started riding my bicycle. You become so much more aware of them! And you realise how important they are when you want to cross a street. City Traffickers, keep those lights coming!

The Summer of Weddings

Ram coined the phrase “The summer of T-shirts” a summer or two ago, but if you know him, you’d know that the summer of T-shirt came and went and no t-shirts were ever made. The Summer of Weddings is going to be different though. In fact, it already start a few weeks ago and things are progressing smoothly.

A little backgrounder for you, the reader:
Not having any extended family outside of Iran, and having parents who’ve found it extremely hard to make many, if any, family friends since moving to Canada, makes it a little hard to indulge in the fun that is weddings. So until this summer: the Summer of Weddings, I had been to two weddings, but neither one in its entirety.

Things are changing though. I now have friends who are in that wedding age and tons are getting married. Sure, I’ve lost touch with a few over the years or consciously have disassociated myself from others, but I hear news of them getting married through the great grapevine (a.k.a facebook). There are a few people though, who either through Ram or are personal friends of mine, that are getting married and that have extended invitations to the future household of the Sivaranjan-Mirkarimi family (i.e. Ram and me.. I’m not changing my last name, and I’m not hyphenating my last name either, but I’ve done here so I can show you how much of a disaster that would be).

Being a born-again wedding-going-virgin (Read: only attending two weddings when I was younger and only going to the reception part of both), I’ve had a lot to learn quickly! I sometimes think I keep subconsciously postponed our wedding so I can learn as much as possible for putting on a ‘perfect’ wedding. Here is a quick list of things I’ve learnt so far. I hope to be adding to this list as the summer progresses…. but so far there is only one more wedding on the list and it’s in early August… so if anyone wants a date to a wedding, you know who to ask!!!

• have a small wedding, it’s more intimate
• pick an uncommon venue
• have your friends help as much as they can
• let your friends know ahead of time if you can’t accommodate for extra people
• serve booze
• have a buffet
• hope for great weather
• have good music
• don’t stress it, it’s just another day!

Ram has posted pictures of the latest wedding we went to, which was absolutely beautiful. Maybe my expectations aren’t that high, but every wedding I’ve gone to has been such great fun and so very well organized.

The more weddings I go to the more I wonder why some brides are so stressed and why they take it so seriously! At one point, I thought I was going to be one of those brides, but I really really hope I’m not. Note to self: it’s a lot more fun when you’re not so anal!

Toronto has hit puberty

Last night Fadi, Laurence and I attended the first night of Luminato :Toronto Festival of Arts and Culture 2007. We were initially going to go to the Chantal Kreviazuk concert, but when we got to Front Street, she hadn’t come up on stage yet. So we decided to explore BCE place instead, since it was all lit from inside. Turns out it was a private function being held by L’Oreal so we moved on. Our next stop was Pulse Front at the Harbourfront Centre. It is a real neat art instillation that can virtually be seen anywhere in the downtown core. Fadi and my heart beat wasn’t all that interesting, but Laurence’s was intense!

We were waiting by the docks minding our own business, and perhaps maybe making fun of Fadi, because that’s our most favorite pass time, when someone off a relatively big and nice boat shouted to grab the line they were going to through overboard. Laurence was closer to the line so he grabbed it and with a little help from no other than me, we pulled the rope and anchored the boat. In return for our help we were given a free tour of the boat! The deck was nice, but the interior wasn’t all that pretty. Anyways, it was neat! I’d never done that before.

Luminato kind of sprung on me. I’d seen the advertisements on the subway, but because we don’t have a tv and I don’t have time to read online blogs/newspapers I wasn’t expecting much. But there’s a whole lot of stuff. Ram and I are going to be missing one in a life time opportunity which occurs tonight: the opening of the ROM a.k.a. the Lee-Chin Crystal. (We’re out of town going to a wedding…) All I can say at this moment is that the Crystal looks good with lights projected on it. I still think it should be more crystal than the grey material. But what do I know!

There are other things happening this week as well, so it’d be nice to spend time exploring the city. I can’t wait to see what else the city has to offer this summer! Toronto is sure growing up quick!

OMG I have sunglasses

Ram almost called me frugal yesterday because I wasn’t buying anything yesterday on Queen Street. In my defence, I am neither loaded nor cool enough to be shopping on Queen street.

Anyways, so what do I do today? I went out and bought myself a pair of Channel sunglasses! I don’t think I have ever spent that much money on any item.. okay fine, my laptop, but it’s a laptop for crying out loud. After I had paid for the sunglasses I did the math in my head, I have to work at least three days to make up for these glasses. God damn it.

Blue Jays Baseball Game

A friend of mine bought some dirt cheap tickets in the nosebleed section for the Toronto Blue Jays home game last night. The last time I went to a Baseball game was with Brenda a number of years ago so I had forgotten how boring games could get.. specially if your team is losing. I was looking forward to seeing the new Japanese baseball player on the field, but I was told that he wasn’t expected to play last night. booerns. Adam was sitting next to me, so he explained quite a bit of the game to me since I don’t really know the rules so well. We ended up killing time by checking out the players… There was one guy that kind of reminded me of Ram but that’s all. I’m trying to get the folks out to a soccer game so they can see how much better looking soccer players are compared to other sports! :P

I think a baseball game is what you make of it. At about the 7th inning we were entertained by all the paper airplanes that were thrown into the field. I didn’t know this is something that happens at games, but it was rather fun watching the airplanes making it down to the playing field. We Everyone got a little bit of a show after the game as well (Read: drunken highschool girl, with barely enough clothes to cover the most important parts having some fun in the water feature out side of skydome… yeah that’s right, I said it SKYDOME... it’s not the Rogers Centre.. ew). All in all, it was a nice night out…I’ve gotten my baseball fill for the next decade!

Riding my old cruiser to school

I took my bike out for a ride to school today. It took about 20-30 minutes from our place to Spadina and College. I was going at a leisurely pace, so I’m sure it could be done in less than that time.

The only thing I can report from my first bicycle ride adventure is that Bloor street has too many bumps. Harbour and Ossington, on the other hand, are a smooooooth ride!

I think I’m going to get a milk carton for the back of my bicycle. I don’t like having all my stuff in the front basket because it makes it a bit difficult to maneuver. I also always have a lot of crap to carrying around so it makes sense to be able to evenly distribute all the weight.

I wonder if I could start riding my bicycle to work from now on! :o

We will return to our regularly scheduled program shortly

Ram is mucking around with my site and I’m super duper busy, so I will be back in a few days.

But for now: if you could, where would you go for christmas break?

Going South

I’ll be spending the next few snowy days south of the normal 43.