Is it getting better or do you feel the same?

I haven't been able to write a post with a political theme recently. As I can't find enough time to write in all my blogs I have transferred my more personal posts to here so my posts about trying to criticize our world have been overshadowed.
But yesterday, after Bush and Ahmadinejad gave their speeches in UN general assembly and after reading an article in our campus's newspaper in today's issue I thought to go back to what this weblog used to be.
I'm thinking about writing an answer to this article. Unfortunately I started by reading it with a prejudice. I can bring excuses that I don't see any other views other than attacks on Muslims but that doesn't make me to lose my independence of mind and judging every thing by what it really is.
Anyway, I'll try to put up something related to that opinion but as I'm simply an engineering student and I don't have any real journalistic experience specially in writing in English so I would just write some babblings in here.

Eternal sunshine of a ...

It is weird how a simple email can change your day thoroughly.
This morning for me began with checking my emails in the main library of campus( I don't yet have a computer of my own and as I said before for the time being I'm broke ). An email kept me smiling for two hours, then that changed to thoughts and worries on how to reply to it and then excitement on how the outcome will be.
It is weird.

Newyork, Newyork

Start spreadin' the news, I'm leavin' today










I want to be a part of it, New York, New York










These vagabond shoes are longing to stray











Right through the very heart of it, New York, New York














I wanna wake up in a city that doesn't sleep










And find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap











These little town blues are melting away

I'll make a brand new start of it, in old New York

If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere

It's up to you , New York, New York

Fallaci

This morning while browsing the news, the first thing that hit ny eyes was the news of the death of Fallaci.
Oriana Fallaci in my opinion was one of the greatest journalists of the last half a century and her interviews with famous political figures had brought her world fame.
But for me, she was more known by her book "A letter to a child never born" although I never read the whole book. The only copy of this book in our library in our house was a very old book with papers so old and yellow that it was hard to read the book without damaging it. But my mom was a big fan so I got to hear a few of her quotes in this book and later came to read some others. Although, due to the recent images of Islam she was criticizing Islam in a very radical way but her intentions to make a world a better place should be appreciated.
The surprising thing is I don't see anyone so conserned with her death and the her news of death is just one among the usual daily news which come and go without anyone noticing them.

Broke

Nothing much to say.
Most of the days because of the internet I remain on Campus until late at night. For the past two days, I got home at 1am. But the reason wasn't studying at all! Wednesdays is the European Students Club nights and we gather in a bar and just try to have a drink and have a good time. And yesterday while shopping at 9pm with my very dear friend in Penn State, we were invited to join some other iranian friends, again in a bar. It was really fun. Although I love hanging out with my french friends but my level of connection is limited due to my lack in French language, but with my iranian friends every thing is much simpler and so having fun gets much easier too.
And the last bus going from downtown(where all these bars and the campus is) to my apartment leaves at 00:30, so now the last bus driver knows me as I am his only passenger and it is just like having a personal ride. He even drops me just in front of my apartment as the last stop.
I was a bit frustrated with the way things work in here, comparing for example with France. I haven't been able to get a cell phone yet because first they were saying they need SSN otherwise I must put a 500$ deposit and now that I have my SSN it is the same thing with my credit history. What do they expect from a newcomer?!
And even worse is the fact that I won't be payed until the last of this month. So when somebody like me comes here who has to find an apartment and buy a lot of essential daily needs and has to stay on his own for almos 45 days, he has to be like a millionaire! What do they think? Am I sitting on a gold mine? I just hope(fingers crossed badly!:D:P) that I can manage it somehow until the end of the month.

Karaoke

Now I'm settled in a three bedroom apartment with two other guys occupying the other two bedrooms. We hardly see each other( in the order of once every few days) but the guy whose room is just opposite mine is a bit weird. In this two weeks he has hardly come home sooner than 4 in the morning. During the first week he was bringing his friends too making a lot of noise at that time early in the morning(or late in the night?). He has placed one of his friends' stuff in the kitchen making it virtually unusable. But I'm a person who can live with all this and never even mention it(and I really don't know even mentioning it here might be a good idea, but I do it just for shere fun of it! so see it as a funny situation). I can sleep while someone else is listening to the music, or doing a noisy job, or working with the lights on. Even being untidy can be bearable until a certain point, as long as he is aware of the situation.
But how about this? To wake up by your roommate's sound, singing along a Karaoke, loudly in Chinese, 5 in the morning might sound amusing but adding it to the fact that it is not an even voice so that I can tune my self to it and go back to sleep and this happening twice during this week can make it a little annoying. Maybe I'm getting old, who knows!

For now...

For now, I'll just put some photos of my current surroundings. When I find time and get out of excuses for not writing anything, I'm going to tell you about my new Electromagnetics course and how it is with the new professor.


French Friends:


Persian Friends:


Unfortunately my Indian, Chinese, Turkish and some other french and Iranian friends are missing in these photos. So that is it for now!

Start the engine

The classes have finally and officially started. Today, I decided to write my observations from the somewhat strange experiences I've had in these three days, beginning with the most strange and craziest of them, the Advanced Engineering Electromagnetic which there is no escape from.
I believe that Electromagnetic is the toughest course in the whole EE courses. It is so vast and deep that it should be put in several course(which it has been actually) but still, looks scary. The teacher is an Indian professor with a very thick nice accent and an strange sense of humour. Just in the first class he called us a brave lad to have taken this course with him(I already was scared, guess how I felt afterwards). The Digital Communication course has also a very humorous teacher. I always get a good laugh in his class. He is an American professor which makes fun of every one in the class but in a very pleasant way. The third one is the most crowded one. The stochastic processes course is every one's either major or minor in the coming candidacy exam. And the candidacy exam which is supposed to be in the end of this semester seems a bit frightening. I have to be well prepared.
And just like the good old undergrad days where we used to do a tough homework for every course every week, this has started again for me in my PhD studies! Actually it felt really good when I sat down on Sunday and managed to solve the electromagnetic problems.
Another good thing which has happened to me is that for the first time during my long period of studies I managed to make it for the very first day of schedules (most importantly the orientation). I remember going two days late to school in the first year of elementary. Then showing up two weeks late for the registration in the university. And three weeks late in my masters because of visa delays. But this time everything went well and I got here on the first day of orientation and did most of the paper work done in the first week, got acquainted with the campus and most importantly met lots of good people and made friends with them, specifically among them my french friends, and some Indian and Chinese students I met. And the fact is as they are in different areas of study I would have never met them or even walked pass them in this huge campus if I had missed the orientation.
But the only thing which made me a little worried was the housing problem during the first week. As it seems a huge number of students have applied for Penn State and they have accepted a great number comparing to previous years, so almost everywhere on campus and off campus was full by the time I got here, and as I didn't know anyone it took me a few days to realize that the situation is harsh. Fortunately on the fourth day by the help of Orkut(which can actually be of a great help some of the times) I found a familiar face which was in the same year with me in university in Iran but in a different major, so we only had a physical education course with each other during which didn't quite get to know each other. But as soon as I sent him a message he treated me like an old friend and saved my a.. by helping me find an apartment using his car.