If I worked for Apple and got to name iPhone, I would name it Man-Toy. No seriously! Is there any better name for it? Let me explain.

My husband bought an iPhone on his birthday. (YES and No! He bought himself a birthday gift and didn’t!! It’s a long story.) I don’t want to get into details of what he had to go through to get the phone, from changing his phone company to extending his contract…. Anyways. He finally got it.

As for me, iPhone is just a phone. OK, it connects to the internet. And yes, it can detect motion and has a touch pad and all. But after all, it’s just a cell phone and at most, an iPod.

But for him, it’s a different story. And I am not complaining about his constant engagement with the phone, either surfing the internet or playing one of the 100 games that he has installed on it (or maybe I am! Who knows?!). It’s so much that I cannot complain about his love for his camera or his laptop anymore. Which is not bad by itself, you know. For him, the iPhone is simply the most amazing TOY he has ever had. I kid you not people!! You be the judge:

This past weekend, we rode the skytrain to go to downtown to see a movie. We didn’t get to see the movie, since everybody else was so eager to see James Bond. But I got to witness this: He doesn’t have a data plan, so he cannot use the GPS on his iPhone. But the phone tracked our position and was updating it as the skytrain moved. My husband, a grown up man, was watching the map on his iPhone all the way to and from downtown, staring at a purple point, making sure that the position was correct. Even at some point, the map was not cashed and there was just a point blinking over an empty screen, and he still wouldn’t let go. Isn’t that amazing?

You tell me. Isn’t that soemthing a 4 year old would do with an interesting toy? Am I right to want to call iPhone, Man-Toy?

I had a very long day yesterday. It started with a workshop in another campus, then lecture, some business outside school that had to be done, yoga class. And after all of that, my friend and I had to go for a doctor’s visit. It was about 9:30pm that we left the doctor’s office and headed to the bus stop. That’s when it happened.

We were chatting and laughing while checking the bus schedule. I took one step back when I felt that I am stepping on something. I thought it was a piece of garbage or something. I looked back and BANG! It was right there…. . It was POOP! Not dog poop. Human poop people! Human poop. And lots of it. Right on the side walk. No toilet sign, no warning sign. Just plenty of shit!!!!!

What now? You are disgusted? Welcome to my world. Although I didn’t really step on the thing, I just touched it with my shoe, I couldn’t stop rubbing my shoe on the ground. I couldn’t stop swearing at whoever did this. It was so gross.

Well, I understand that I wasn’t in city’s best neighborhood. I didn’t expect flowers under my feet or anything like that. I expected to see needles, even used condoms. But HUMAN STOOL!! No way.

Since last night my shoe is in quarantine, waiting to be washed (although there is nothing on it!). And I am wondering… what are people thinking? That it’s OK to just pull their pants down and do their business anytime they feel like it? That it’s their right as a free human being to shit on the sidewalk? What about my rights? How about some manners? How about some respect? It’s as disappointing as it’s disgusting.

I didn’t go anywhere. I was here, but at the same time I wasn’t! It’s hard to explain.

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Thanks for your kind words regarding my last post. I really appreciate it.

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I have recently discovered Russell Peters. (Yes! Just recently!) He is an Indian/Canadian stand up comedian. His comedy is mainly about different nations (races) and their accents and traditions. He makes fun of everybody, from Chinese and Indians to English and Jamaicans, even his own father. I love it when he tries to sound like his father with the Indian accent.

This is one of his funniest pieces in which he makes fun of British accent and sex! Or this one about Indians and Chinese doing business with each other. It’s just hilarious! I hadn’t laughed like that in a long time.

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My TA is going well. Very well actually. I am very happy about it. I’ll tell you more about it later.

“…

Dad: How is school?

Me: School is fine. I am quite busy. How are you dad?

Dad: I am fine.

Me: How is mom?

Dad: Mom is not bad either.

Me: Any news?

Dad: There is news.

Me: What is it?

Dad: … It’s gradma… She passed away 3 days ago…

Me: Oh….

Dad: She was very sick, you know!

Me: …

Dad: Maryam?

Me: …

Dad: Are you all right?

Me: …

Dad: Maryam

.

.

.

My husband: Hey dad! Maryam can’t talk any more…

….”

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She was the last grandparent that I had, … alive!

I haven’t posted anything for a week! And I have so much to talk about. It’s just that between TA labs and lectures, Grading students’ assignments, trying to concentrate on my thesis, and lying exhausted and motionless on the couch, I cannot find time to write.

It’s always like this the first couple of weeks of the semester. Everything is crazy and chaotic. Everyone is running around, trying to get things started. New people are always looking for things and places and web addresses and ways to open doors! (Some of my students still don’t know how or can’t open the lab doors using their student cards!) My schedule is full of events that overlap each other or fall directly on each other.

Hopefully, everything will get better soon. And I’ll write more. I promise!

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I attended a TA workshop, “How to give constructive feedback on student work.” Here are some of the things they told us not to do and say:

-Don’t tear apart student’s papers!
-Don’t draw smiley faces on student assignments.
-Don’t write or say the following:
—You are waste of my time!
—You shouldn’t be here!
—I don’t get it!
—How about proofreading?!

Isn’t that something?!!

But seriously! It’s hard to always do it right. To point out their strengths first, then indirectly say where their work needs improvement, and give them a hint on how to improve. Keep in mind not to over-comment, not to attack the individuals, not to discourage them. And all of that should be done for all of them, 24*2 students, at least 4-5 pages of assignment and/or an electronic file each!

Oh boy!

So school started this week. Yeyyy!!

I am back to work, on my thesis and as a TA. If you read this post, you probably know that I was not very happy with my first experience as a TA. And that I was offered to TA for the same course again this year. And I accepted the offer. So here I am! TAing the same course again, hoping for a better experience.

the course has 10 sections, each with 24 students. Last year when I thought the course, I was pretty harsh on those poor students in my sections. And It wasn’t my fault. The instructors of the course (four!), prepared marking criteria for each assignment. I felt obliged to follow those, in order to maintain the consistency among all the labs and the TAs. But the result was that my students ended up getting low marks. Apparently other TAs were not so faithful to the rubric. And it wasn’t fair to my student.

This year, I have decided to work with my own rules. (Shshshsh… Don’t tell anyone!) And I will work with my students to help them learn the material and get a more fair result from the course. And I will try to make friends with them. To be more on their side. To be more helpful to them.

I teach two sections on Wednesdays and Fridays. Yesterday was my first lab with section 1.   24 new students, 24 new faces, new names. I went to my lab wondering if I could change my teaching style. If it would work. How they would react. How the instructor would feel about it.

And it was very good, much better than what I expected. I was pretty confident, on the contrary to last year’s first lab! Of course, I owe it to the fact that I have done it before and I know mush more than I did last year. But at the same time, my mental model was different from last year. I looked at the students differently. They were not just subjects to my teaching. They were people with weaknesses and strengths, with emotions. They were the whole purpose of me being there.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not gonna be too easy on them. I have my own rules. I require classroom etiquette. I made a deal with them yesterday that if they are in my lab it means that they want to listen and learn. If they want to do other things, watch You-tube or giggle or talk, they can simply leave. They are not forced to stay.

But it all went very smooth. Even the instructor seemed to have felt that. He spent most of the 3 hours in the other concurrent lab across the hall. I hope my section 2 and my future labs go as well as this one. I’ll keep you posted on that.

I am also gonna share with you funny or interesting thins that happen in the class. One of the student in my first lab has these huge ear rings. It’s actually the piercing that is huge! It’s like a 1*1 in hole in each of his ears and it’s supported by a big ring. It looked something like this. Honestly, I couldn’t stop looking at his ears. All I wanted to ask him was: “Does it hurt??!! Why on earth did you do this to yourself??!!” Though, I managed not to do so!!

Here is the deal:

I have a head covered with lots and lots of curly hair. I have no problem with hair volume. As a matter of fact, it’s quite the opposite. My hair has too much volume. I always ask for debulking when I get a haircut.

If you have curly hair or you have lived with someone with curly hair, you probably know that it’s not always easy to manage such hair, especially if the hair has a mind of its own, like mine! And a good haircut is probably the first, most important step in order to be able to manage curly hair.

But you see, the problem is that not everyone can cut curly hair. It’s extremely hard. You know why? Because curly hair looks and acts very differently when it’s wet and being cut, from when it’s dry. So the hairdresser has to know this and take it into consideration when cutting the hair. And he/she should know that when curly hair dries, it looks much shorter than when it’s wet. At the same time, a good hairdresser should know that combing curly hair over and over during cutting results in a disaster, involving a huge round head, about 3 times bigger than usual. So combing hair without using any product is like strictly prohibited.

Since I came here, I have tried stylists in different salons with different price range. I have been to a salon in a mall and I got a haircut for $30, which is quite cheap, done by a very young stylist. I was probably her 10′th customer overall. The result of this cheap haircut was one side shorter than the other side in the back!

I wasn’t that upset, cause I chose to get a cheap haircut and I had to face the consequences!

The next time, I went to a big, famous salon in downtown and asked for a stylist who was expert in cutting curly hair. I was quite confident and I was willing to pay about $70 for a great Christmas look! The stylist started by combing my hair. When she finished cutting one side, my head was so big that she wasn’t able to see the mirror!! As a result of that expensive haircut, my hair was ridiculously long at the back and short at front. It was hideous. So bad that I asked my husband to take a photo of the back of my hair, so that the next time I was going for a haircut, I could show that picture to the stylist and warn her.

This time, as a back to school makeover, I went to another salon in downtown. I was going for a $70 haircut and $150 highlights. I talked to the stylist a lot before she started. I showed her the picture and let her laugh at my previous haircut. She seemed to know whet she was doing. The haircut turned out OK (thank god for that!!) But the highlights…!

She used three different colors for my highlights. My hair was getting more and more volume, as she added each foil. At the end when she got to the right side of my head, she was confused about the order in which she used the colors on the left side. After about 1.5 hours, she simply forgot. So I ended up with more blond highlights on the left side and more brown ones on the right, around my face. And you know what? It doesn’t look that natural anymore!

So I am wondering, is it really too much to ask for a decent haircut and even highlights, in exchange for $270 (after taxes and tip) of my student budget? Is it? Really?

I should consider shaving my head then! At least it’s cheap.

What I like the most about being in school is that most of the times it makes me feel young.

There is less than a week left until school starts. Back to school, baby!

You would think that after going back to school 22 times, I should be used to it. It shouldn’t make any difference, especially because I have spent all the summer in school, working on a paper. But that’s not the case.

I am nervous and excited as I was 10 or 20 years ago. Unbelievable! I feel like a child again. I have made a list of the things I should do and prepare before September 1’st. I have spent all day today deep cleaning the house. I will reorganize all my drawers and my closet tomorrow. I want to make sure that everything is clean and where it is supposed to be for the next four months.

And I think about next week. About the new people who are coming to school this year. About my friends, whether we will have the same courses or not. About my thesis that I will seriously start working on, this semester. And about the course that I will TA for. About the new undergrad students that I’ll get to know, and torture for the next four months!! And about the instructors of that course who will probably torture me and them together!!

And it’s all so exciting. I am glad that I like my school and I like what I am doing here. It makes a whole lot difference.

It’s the little girl in me in charge these days. She is the one who used to want to have new backpack or new shoes for school. Who used to spend hours organising and reorganizing her new books and notebooks in her new backpack. Who used to go to sleep the night before the first day of school, thinking about her friends and teachers, excited about the new school year.

And I’ll let her be in charge for a few days. And I’ll enjoy it all, while I can.

I promised to write about my problem with hotels. It is my dirty secret. No one knows about it! Here it goes…

I have a problem with fabric. Fabric that is used by several people, strangers. You see, any other material, glass, wood, metal can easily be cleaned. You can even very easily disinfect them. Just spray some kind of cleaning product on them and wipe. Even toilet seat and shower can be cleaned. But fabric is different. The dirt can go inside the threads and stay there, and it’s usually harder to wash or clean. How many times a year do you think they clean the sofas in the hotel rooms? Or how often do they wash the quilt or the mattress? And yes, I know that the sheets are washed every time a guest leaves, but it feels weeeeyeee. You know? Imagine how many people have used these sheets and have put their heads on these pillowcases. Do you think they all have the same level of personal hygiene as you? Or how many couples have had sex on this same bed and have disposed body fluids on it? Or have puked on the pillow after a drunk night?

Disgusting I know. But those are the thoughts that go through my mind when I am lying on a hotel bed. I feel itchy all over my body. I try not to move much to touch the smallest area possible. And I am very well aware of my body, what my hands are touching and where my long hair is at all time during the night. I have the same feeling when I sit on the sofa. I feel much better in the bathroom though!! Everything is so clean and shiny. I can spend hours in there!

When I plan to go on a trip, I always have this worry that I might feel bad about the bed and not be able to sleep on it. Yes! It has happened to me once, in a family trip before I get married. I felt this way about the bed that I was supposed to sleep on at night and I spent the night in the my dad’s car!! So you can imagine why I am scared. Until I see the bed and lie down on it, I can’t be sure that I can sleep on it.

And showing the bed sheets under the microscope on Oprah definitely didn’t help! The dust mites and bed bugs are not very pretty from very close, you know! And this post in Badass Geek’s blog about fleas didn’t help either!! Go read for yourself.

I have been trying to overcome my problem with fabric. And I have changed a lot. Instead of bringing half of my house with me on a trip, now I only have to use my own towel and pillowcase. I bring a sheet too, just in case, but try not to use it. However, any activity that requires excessive movement on the bed is still banned from hotels, if you know what I mean!!

After weeks of thinking and talking about a vacation, we finally managed to get away this week, since our supervisor was on vacation too. Interestingly, it was our wedding anniversary as well. This is the 4′th year that we go on a trip on our anniversary. It is becoming a tradition!

We went to Whistler, BC. Although Whistler is a small village, as they call it, there are lots of activities one can do there. From nature and wildlife seeing walks, to canoeing on lakes and rivers, mountain biking and helicopter rides, to bungee jumping and zip trek, and of course skiing in winter. luckily the weather was good and we got to do some interesting things.

On our first day we took the gondola to the top of the mountain and from there took the lift all the way to the peak. You could see the spectacular view of the mountains and lakes from up there and see real glaciers on the way up. The next day we went canoeing with a guide on a lake and then down the river for about 3 hours. Because I was sitting in the middle of the boat, I didn’t get to paddle as much on the river. They called me The Princess! And on our third day, my husband went for a bungee jump. No I didn’t go. I chickened out. (Seriously, I am afraid of height. I can’t even climb a ladder!) It was a great trip and a much needed time off for both of us. I am glad we did it.

The Sea to Sky highway that connects Vancouver to Whistler is under construction in most parts, in preparation for 2010 winter Olympic games. The speed limit is 50 Km/h in those areas. One of the best road signs that I have ever seen was a picture of a female construction worker with her 3 kids around her. The sign read: “Slow down. Our mommy works here!” This, in my opinion, was the most effective way of encouraging drivers to slow down. Every time we reached a construction zone and my husband was driving above 50Km/h, I would say: “Our mommy works here.” And he would immediately slow down.

I will write more about our trip in my next post. I will talk about my thing with hotels!