Part Three: A Friend indeed! From airport to moving to our own App.

It's said that a friend in need is a freind indeed. Amir and his wife, Forough, are friends indeed. We arrived in Calgary airport and found Amir waiting for us. He took us to their home were Forough had prepared dinner. This was the first time Maryam and I were visiting Forough. We really were feeling that we may be a load on them. But we were thinking, "OK, it's just a night and we will leave to our own house tomorrow". So we enjoyed the delicious dinner and soon went to bed in the hope that tomorrow we will get our luggage. But the thing didn't go all well . The day after I registered the course, opened bank account and did many other things with the help of Amir. I believe if he wasn't with us, It would take a month to realize how to do those things. Unfortunately our luggage didn't come for five days. We had to go to airport several times and finally we got all but one which came almost a week later.During these days Amir and Forough were so kind to us. With their help we find a Russian guy who was moving to South Africa and had a moving sale. We bought almost all we needed include TV, bed, Sofa, a good bike, microwave oven, two chairs and many other tiny things we needed. The guy was going to flight to Johanesburg to manage things befor taking his wife there. So, we agreed to take bed, chairs and a small extra TV and wait for him to come back and give us the sofa and the big TV and other stuff. We rent a car and took things to our appartment which Amir had rented for us. After five days we moved to our own appartment. Our life in Calgary started.When I think back about the things went on those five days, I really wonder how we could manage all those things without helps of Amir and Forough. That's why it's said,"A friend in need is a Friend indeed".

Part 2: From Mehrabad THR to Calgary YYC

We got in to airplane and started calling as much people as we could, thinking that we gonna fly in few minutes. But it almost took 1n hour and half to fly. Airplane had a kin of technical problem or something. So, Mary called almost who ever she knows! By the way the flight had not so much exciting but it ended with lots of Adrenaline. London was quite windy and we had a very bad landing. It felt like roller coaster and unfortunately Mary's stomach didn't like it. She really tried hard to just don't blow up. With an hour and half delay and such tight flight schedule we had been late already. But, we had to wait for half an hour getting some pills and cool water from very friendly and helpful Iran air's staff to have her back on her feet. (Despite of lots of odd things I had heard about Iran Air I found it's international flights crew professional and so friendly, better than many other airlines like BA and even Emirates). Then we started run through the maze of Heathrow. Being there twice before we had less trouble than others to find the way but finally when we got to boarding desk they told us Air Canada has closed the boarding. The African American lady in Air Canada was also a nice lady and tried to find a way to send us with another Air Canada flight through Toronto or Vancouver but unfortunately (Not really sure about "un", you gonna see) she didn't find any thing. We went back to Iran Air desk. They asked us to wait and told us we may have to stay on a hotel (being guest of Iran Air) for a night. But as it was our lucky day finally we ended up in two business class seats of British Airways. Honestly it was my first time seating in a business class and I found it so good! So all bads turned to a happy end we enjoyed our 8.5 hours trip to Calgary. Fortunately our cell phones were working in UK and so we managed to send a message to Amir about our delay. We flight around 4 p.m. and as we were heading west we arrived in Calgary around 5 p.m. afternoon!
In Calgary airport we found out that our luggage were still in Heathrow. So a BA staff got phone and address of Amir's house and told that they will send luggage later.
We went to visa office and again as it was our day, we met a real gentleman officer. He was kind enough to give a two years study permit to me. And with a great surprise he asked Mary whether she want to study or work in Canada. We asked for a minute and then decided to go for work permit. So he kindly issued a TWO Years work permit for Mary. After such a disgusting time with Canadian embassy at Tehran, I found Canadians kind and friendly. So, we just stepped out after almost everybody. There a kind gentleman with a great heart was waiting for us. He was Amir!
I'll bring the rest of story in another part. See you then!

Part 1: From getting study permit till rushing to Airport.

My visa application was refused by Canadian visa office in Tehran for September 2006 and I’d almost given up. I just applied again for January for the sake of doing it.
I was in the middle of teaching a Petrel (Geological Modeling software) course to people from an oil company that my wife called me and told that I’ve been asked to go to Canadian Embassy in Tehran for interview. The day after I went there and had a short interview. 3 days later, I got my medical check up form. I noticed to my company that I am quitting. With a surprise my manager (Which is a very nice Afrikaner) started finding a competitive offer inside the company. In a few days I got an offer from UK. The last few weeks was sort of chaos. I was to finish my grade 11 project and at the same time I had to prepare myself for moving. The UK offer was so interesting that made me confused. As a result, I almost did nothing till two weeks before my flight when I got my visa. Thank God our area manager asked me to stop my grade 11 project because he believed if I am quitting there is no point of doing that. I got disappointed first but then I thought maybe this is just a gift. At least I could prepare myself for moving. Now I had to choose. The UK offer was not confirmed and we just on Christmas vacations. Almost nobody was working in UK. In the other hand I didn’t want to lose my chance of studying in Canada. Finally we decided to go for Calgary and let the UK thing go as it is till we get a clear offer.

In two weeks we start packing things, selling what we can’t take with us and managing our properties and a thousand of other tiny annoying but necessary stuff. The flights were almost full and we hardly managed to get a ticket for Jan 02. I tried a lot to find a ticket for a later time to make space for UK offer but no way had we found any other ticket. (Actually it was good and you’ll see why).

We had a couple of welfare parties in company, with our own firends and families.

We almost left half of our apartment full of our stuff for our family and rushed to flight in the morning of January the second! Our journey began. Maryam and I left our peaceful life in the hope of a better future.

Moving to Calgary

Since January I’ve moved to Calgary. Before, I was working for Schlumberger in Iran. In a very exciting process of decision making I decided to quit my job and come to University of Calgary. In the next few posts I will bring my story from a couple of weeks before flying to Calgary till now.

On The Good Earth

On The Good Earth is where I will tell you about me, my life and about what's happening on the good Earth. Here I will talk about my personal experience and also about events on our good Earth from my point of view.

The first thing I noticed when I was posting this picture here was how we look at the Earth. Depends on where you live and how you live, you may see it differently. Share what you think with me and let the Earth and those on the good Earth benefit from that.
Let's Talk about The Good Earth and all which is on it!