Gleeba!

Here's a video of Rosha speaking her own language! I can hear a 'baba' in the middle! :D

Busy Weekend!

It was a nice weekend with many good things happening. I got my cell-phone back from the police. They have removed the memory to get rid of its contents, which is pretty stupid as they could have simply formatted it. But anyways, everything else is fine with it and I'm happy I got it back and won't have to go there or call them anymore.

On Thursday, I booked a tour for Syria. It's a typical religious tour, with a one week stay at a three star Tedmor hotel; I say "three-star", but the truth is Syrians give as many stars as they "wish" to their hotels! We'll leave Saturday October 3rd and have the interview on Monday. I've heard the interview is mostly in French which is not a good news, and I've also heard that the interviewers can be pretty mean. Our biggest concern is not the interview, but where we're gonna leave Rosha when attending the interview. I plan to call the embassy on Monday (when they're open) and see what they recommend. I've called them several times before, they speak Arabic and very poor English, pfff!

Thursday was so busy, I also took our identifications and my military card to a translation office to get them translated once again, this time for the 'federal' file that we will open right after the interview; that is, if we pass the interview! We also took Rosha to a clinic for a vaccination; she has a slight fever now and Sara puts ice on her leg and washes her hands and legs with cold water. Our thermometers don't work properly, so I'll have to buy one on my way home. It's so strange we have three thermometers and neither of them shows anything! It's as if there is no mercury in the tubes!

Thursday afternoon, we went to Hyperstar. It was my fourth time as I've been taking our family members there one by one to show them the place! It was awfully crowded this time and we decided never to go there again except on a weekday morning.

Yesterday was the Quds day; the day protesters had long been waiting for to get out on the streets again. I'm not gonna write much about it here, suffice to say Iran became first headline on CNN, BBC, Aljazeera and France 24!

Here's something else about this weekend: The weather turned so nice! We had a heavy rain on Wednesday and the weather's been cool and autumny eversince. Last night, we thought we'd go out with Rosha for some fresh air. We chose to go to Velenjak and the small parks to the north of Shahid Beheshti University which were quiet and very nice. Tehran looked so beautiful from up there, but did it make us reconsider our immigration? Hell no!

Learning About Québec

I just downloaded the guide to Québec immigration from Québec's official website at following link:

 

http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/publications/en/divers/learningaboutquebec-dynamique.pdf

 

This is an essential tool for all immigrants to Québec.

 

Trip to Damascus Ahead!

Our interview at Canadian embassy in Syria is October 5th. We'll book an Iran Air flight this week and get a hotel room there for three nights. We wanna have all the "federal" documents ready, so that we submit them after the interview. I've heard we can also pay all remaining application fees (federal charges, medical charges, landing fees, etc) at the embassy. This will be a big relief as after we've paid these charges (which is not little either and something over $ 2,000), we have almost completed our immigration requirements and will then have to wait for the medical papers, get our medical check-up and then, hopefully receive our visas. From information on the internet and Iranian bloggers' experience, I can assume we'll have our visas in 10 to 17 months from now. My future posts will probably be more focused on our immigration process.

BTW, I've been watching some french programs on TV5 and France 24. I noticed some of the comedies on TV5 were Quebec productions and with Canadian accent; these comedies have french subtitles too! At first, I couldn't understand why they would put french subtitles to a french program. Can you guess the reason? Correct! Canadian french is haaaard! It's more correctly, a "dialect" of french with differences in all areas of grammar, vocabulary and of course accent! Hell that's a big challenge!

Blogueurs!

Today, I've found numerous weblogs written by Iranian immigrants in Canada. I've added them to my page so I can follow them regularly. This is my best and most reliable source of information so far as the writings come from ordinary people like us. Some of the bloggers are in Quebec and many of them are there as a family with small kids. So many challenges have they faced and are dealing with, but I think the biggest challenge is, as I always thought, finding a job. My impression is, once you have a job, no matter how low your salary is, you won't have much to be worried about anymore.

This goes to all the Iranian bloggers whose posts I'm reading:
Bonne Chance dans Votre Nouvelle Vie!
:D

Damien's Best Day in Life!

Just received a call from Damien who said he's got permanent exemption from military service. He was so excited and I was so excited for him. I know this is the best day in his life, cause I remember the day I got my exemption I was gonna fly! Congrats Dude! :D

NRJ Montréal 94.3 en direct!

Cool! I'm listening to Montréal's NRJ radio at work! I'm using my ADSL connection and a tiny headphone.

iPlay

Damien came over to our place last night. It was so nice catching up and getting updated on latest technology! :D He'd brought his myvu gadget and his Sony DVDirect that let us transfer Rosha's videos from VHS onto DVD. Thanks Damien!

Here's something funny he did with his iPhone:

Signal Available!

I wonder where the satellite noises are! Is the government out of budget? Did the noises interfere with other devices? Did they cause the recent airplane crashes? Is the government simply giving up? I don't know what the answer is, but it's good that this one thing has actually got better for the people when everything else in the country is getting worse and worse.

Carrefour in Tehran?

Rosha cried a lot last night and kept touching and beating her ears. We assumed she might have got ear infection, so took her to the doctor's this morning. It was nothing serious though, just the beginning of a cold. We've got her some medicines and will be wrapping her up in blankets for some days until she gets well. We also asked the doctor about her stroller and she said it was a little early for Rosha to use it yet. Think it's better to wait for another month until her backbones are stronger. The doctor also said that her developement is fast and she will probably start walking early.

Tonight, we're having my family over for Iftar. We've planned to go to Tehran's Hyperstar afterwards. It's a hypermarket built by the French and I think it's in fact a branch of the famous Carrefour hypermarkets as the logo resembles that of Carrefour. If it really is Carrefour, I don't know why they've had to change its name in Iran. The hypermarket is large and based on international standards; the prices are good too. It's a new thing for Iran and most people don't know about it yet. We've visited the place twice and we noticed it'd got more crowded in the span of a week.

I recommend everyone visit the place at least once. The address is as follows:

تهران - بزرگراه شهید ستاری - بلوار فردوس غرب - خیابان بهار جنوبی - خیابان ارم شرقی

Stroll'er!

Last night, we went to Bahar street to buy Rosha a stroller. As far as I know, strollers are for babies between 5-6 months until just above 1 year when they start walking. I've also heard they are banned in Canada and perhaps some other countries for safety reasons. So it's important to keep an eye on your baby when she's in it. It wasn't easy to choose a stroller as they came in so many different types and colors. The shopkeepers weren't helpful either as they enthused over their own products and sometimes their lower quality products that would gain them more profit. This is the case with most stores in Bahar street and I've heard other people complain about it too. Anyway, after we had seen the items in all the stores, we asked one of the shopkeepers if we could put Rosha in their strollers one by one and see how she would feel in them. This way, we would know her opinion in a way! It was funny how she prefered one to the rest. As soon as we'd put her in it, she started playing with the musical buttons and seemed to be having a good time. Here are some videos and pics of her in her stroller. Her toes can barely reach the floor yet so she moves in sudden short bits!

Roll Over! Roll Over!

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Here's one of Rosha's favorite songs!

There were ten in the bed and the little one said:
"Roll over! Roll over!"
So they all rolled over and one fell out!

There were nine in the bed...

and it goes on like this until there's no one in the bed!

She usually falls asleep to this song. When we see she's being naughty and wouldn't sleep that easy, we start counting from a higher number! Like:

There were eighty-nine in the bed!!!

Anyway, here is a video of Rosha herself rolling over! She could do it from when she was 3 months old.

Rosha, August 2009!

'
Recent pictures from Rosha:




And a video:

Pictures from Rosha when She was 3 Months!

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Here's Rosha in different moods:

Sleepy!

Excited!

???!!!

Here is a video of her being tickled by mommy!