First visit to Lebanon with Amy

For the first time ever, I decided to travel with Amy (my GF) to my home country. In Lebanon (my home country), making that step is huge - the way it is usually interpreted is that it's a serious relationships, and introducing your significant other to your family means you have great future intentions of marriage and starting a family together. We flew from Edmonton after Amy's parents dropped us at the airport -

and we landed in Beirut and finally arrived home after flying for over 20 hours

Amy's first day in Lebanon was small tour in Beirut, Gemayzeh and Mono old streets where cultural and historical houses who represent our country's heritage are being torn down, and replaced by ugly commercial buildings with no parkings- We went for a walk near Manara and Rawcheh in Beirut - everyone in the area was staring at her as if she was an alien, I did not have the words to explain to her why they were awkwardly staring at her - I was stared at too!
Same first day, second experience was attending a big fat Lebanese wedding of a friend "Salah El-Chlouk" who was visiting Edmonton in winter 2014, and who has already met Amy.
We left the after wedding party and headed to Lime - a smalll pub in Mono Street, Achrafieh to enjoy a drink in a relaxed atmosphere.

Progression

Why am I writing this post? The answer is Amy ! She decided to stat her own blog and she also decided to blog for both of us

Now my only concern is how much work that involves... I meant "me doing the work" such as being the photographer, the technical support, camera man, editor, etc... I guess we'll know within the next few days :) !

Why is Amy starting a blog? well, because we're going on our first trip/vacation together for 30 days. We're both excited and wondering how crazy and fun this trip is going to be.

2011 kicked my ass, I'm kicking 2012's ass ! :)

It's year 2012, I cant believe it's been that long since I arrived to Edmonton.

I'm at work right now (I know I shouldn't be doing this during work, but I was going to take a 3 minutes break anyways), and I have one of the most amazing views from my windows, beautiful nature, while snow and I can see the sun from the moment it rises till it sets, with all the beautiful colors when it mixes with clouds. It's truly amazing. That's one thing I have never experiences back in my home country.

So I've been working for a Medical Company as a Security Analyst and Software Engineer. My work is fun, and I like my co-workers. I believe being happy at what you do is the most important thing since you have to do it like 8 hours a day, and you can't be frustrated for 8 hours / day or else it'll be hell!

I'm an Adjunct professor at Concordia, and I have soo many funny stories that happened so far. I don't feel comfortable telling them on here :)

Christmas break

It's been ages since I updated this blog, I actually forgot about it :-) !

It has been a nightmare lately as I got used to having 3 to 5 hours of sleep per night; howveer, the good news is that next Thursday, I will sit for the last exam in this masters degree.

Next term, I'll be fully dedicated to working on my research paper. I still can't believe it went so fast, and I finished all my courses with straight A's !

So, what have I been up to lately?

I ended up playing the piano at Allegro, soon enough, another restaurant phoned me, and now I'm playing there as well. I had some arrangements with the Music Department at Concordia, and we're working on a small music project together. ALSO, I'm now the official pianist for all the events happening at Concordia University. I have played there twice so far, and everyone was enjoying my music, I even built myself a website for my piano services:

www.musicbynid.com

The worst thing to do in Canada is paper work. As an international student, I have to keep renewing my study permits, work permits, and Visa. I have paid thousands of dollars keeping my documents up to date, but the worst part is TIME. In case you decided to apply to any of the above permits, make sure you do so at least 60 days in advance !

I have experienced how it feels to live in a human freezer ! We had a temperature of -56 degrees, it was the second coldest city in the world after Cyberia ! I still believe that this land was made for dinosaurs and that humans can NOT survive here :-) !

So, Christmas is almost here and I'm going back home for a visit (21 days vacation). I lied to my parents by telling them I'll be there on the 22nd, HOWEVER, i'm leaving here on the 14th :) !

I'll try to post as much pictures as I can.

Cheers

Halloween and my new car

I've been planing to buy a car for a while now, and finally Elio saved me. He got me a 1999 Honda Civic in mint conditions. So now i have the car, what's next? I got my drivers licence translated, but it wouldn't work since i need a permission from the Lebanese government, so i called the embassy and asked them about it, they had NO idea at all about what i'm saying. I had no choice except for applying for a Canadian drivers licence. I had to read a 158 pages book for the knowledge test, and finally sat for the test and passed it. I was happy i had my licence, soon enough to discover that this license is too basic, and i can not even use it. I can not drive alone, 0% alcohol in my blood, i can not drive between 12 midnight and 5 AM, and lots of other silly rules, so i had to give in my Lebanese license to th Canadian government, and apply for an advanced road test, once i pass it, i will be able to drive alone. HOWEVER, since i got my car, i've been driving it to school. It's taking about 4 minutes to get to school by bus (a highway), BUT it's taking about 1.25 hours to get there on a bus.

October 30th,2009:

Friday night, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is performing, and the concert is a special event for Halloween. It was one of the best concerts I've seen so far.

The second day, we went to celebrate Halloween at the Union Hall. It was a blast. I was a naughty pirate :-) ! Funny, weird, sick, sexy, erotic, unique, artistic.. costumes everywhere lol. crazy...

Second weekend of October, my first date and a happy thanksgiving

Saturday, October the 10th:

I have made a reservation at Allegro restaurant at Downtown for two persons, Heather and I.

This is my first real date in ages, I tried to pretend that i wasn't stressed about it, not sure if it worked though...

I took the bus to go to downtown, and at one of the bus stops, a drunk guy jumped in the bus, and was asking not only for a free ride, but he also wanted 12 bucks so he can buy himself a dinner. He spent about 10 minutes talking to the bus driver, and finally got off the bus! He was soooo drunk! Meanwhile I received a text from Heather saying she's going to be late, but guess what, I was the late one :) !

I arrived to Allegro, it was a really nice restaurant, i wouldn't give it 5 stars since there was no super fancy decoration and whatnot, just a little nice Italian resto!

The evening was really nice, dinner was good, the wine was great, company even greater, and finally I decded to play a couple of songs on the piano they have in the corner. I met the pianist and the restaurant owner as well.

As we were having dinner, one f the waiters came to me, gave me the restaurant's business card and asked me to call them in case i was interested in playing at that restaurant as a pianist. We finally decided to go somewhere else,so we went to Salsa! I can't remember the places' name, but it was a nice place (first time to go to a bar in edmonton). I can't say i danced Salsa, i'd rather say i TRIED and somehow it wasn't successful at all ! I tried to copy people, I stepped on other people's feet... We had a couple of beers, enjoyed our time there and left. I dropped by to see Heathers' cats and her fish tanks.

Sunday 11th,

Happy thanksgiving,

Woke up around 7 AM, I didn't have much sleep tonight! I went to give Bambi her diet pill, let her out for a while and feed her. I talked to my parents and family since my cousin was getting married while i was writing on his Facebook wall CONGRATS! I studied for a while, had lots of coffee to keep myself awake when Elias called me he's coming to pick me up. We went to Georges' , it was a special dinner, i met more people and enjoyed the family spirit/gathering they have and they way they all considered me that i AM a family member and made me feel that way too, I enjoyed the vino as well.

Elias, his wife Sandy and his parents drove me back home, and it was snowing heavily! I went straight to bed as soon as i got home.

After a long break, i'm blogging again

It's been a while since i got the time to write about my experience so far, but as i'm writing now, the snow is falling outside for the first time this year and it's -11 degrees Celsius already, so I guess i will have plenty of time add write more on here.

How i met Sary - the story :

Before moving to Edmonton, i was on facebook, then i went to my friends' profile to wish him happy birthday, and i noticed a guy called Sary did that before me, and he was in Edmonton's network. I asked him about how's life here and whatnot... and then informed him that i'll be coming here, that was almost 1 month before i came here.

After i came to Edmonton and had my internet installed, i went to this mall nearby (Capilano Mall) to buy a wireless internet router... and all of a sudden, i hear someone calling my name with a question mark "Nidal?" i freaked out and turned arround to see Sary standing there wondering if it was me. I have no idea how this happened, but he was there at his parents' restaurant, and saw me passing by. I had no idea it was their place, and he had no idea if it was me... but he tried. Of course he insisted on offering me a great meal (which his mother still do EVERY TIME i get to visit her even if I was just dropping by to say hi, she always makes me eat, and if she couldn't , she will make sure she give me a bag with plenty of food inside !).

How i met Romeo and so on...

I got my cell phone, and a "blonde" was the person who sold me my phone and plan and whatnot, and soon enough i wasn't able to make any phone calls because i was out of credits! I called the service provider to find out that she actually missed a couple of things, but i couldn't blame her, she was a good looking blond haha, and i still drop by to say hi every time i'm in the mall!

I was looking for car dealers, when Sary told me he knows a guy who's good in cars... and he's lebanese. I called Romeo for the first time (was trying my cell phone for the first time too), and he sounded like a 38 years old guy... he was busy and he told me i'll call you later... (i didn't know Romeo by then)...

Then i met Romeo at his work so we can check out a couple of cars... and he turned out to be a different person than i expected, he's younger than me, a funny and decent guy. And so far every time i call Romeo, he's always busy and he always calls me back hehe ...

Sary's engagement party was a blast, although i felt a little bit odd which is normal. (Picture above)

I've been meeting a lot of people (Canadians, Lebanese, Indians, Chinese... it's Canada hey?), some of them are worth getting to know, and some of them are not even worth waisting your time, and i would like to apologize for being offensive but it's the truth, and it happened to everyone of us i guess... was it a long term friendship, relationship, or a single date/meeting...

So far, school is the second best thing I've been experiencing in this country, as for the first best thing, it's the friends I've made so far... i won't be mentioning any names on here, but they simply know they are great people. As for what I've been doing lately? Getting more involved in the "Canadian cuisine" lol , more shopping, studying, projects, etc...

We are starting a small business for web development and consultancy (Web Portrays), hopefully it would grow with time and i'm simply taking advantage of the opportunity i have here for now.

Symphony under the Sky, i was able to attend one of the open air concerts held by the Symphony orchestra at hawrelak park. I went there with Lynn's friends (Gloria and Roxanne) as Lynn couldn't make it,

too bad i didn't have my camera with me..

My first days at school were ... different, everything was so new to me... not to mention the transportation part that is actually wasting a LOT of time since i'm using the public transportation. As i started to go to the gym, i had to stop again since i can not afford spending two hours by bus everyday to get to the gym... I'd rather wait to get myself a car.

A good thing i'm enjoying is having access to the pianos' room at Concordia, i get to play once or twice a week, and I kinda feel a bit rusty which is bad, but i'm still trying to find a place to play, even if it was once a week and on weekdays.

2 weeks ago i've witnessed the biggest motorcycle gathering at Capilano, Sary and some other friends were there

Today i received a mail containing my Alberta ID, so now i don't have to carry around my passport with me everywhere! I managed to buy some books online which were three times less expensive than the school library which is awesome !

Anyway , enough with the story of my life, i will get back to daily blogging soon !