Koorosh's Web Diary

April 2008

University is experiencing this year´s international week! A week that is fully dedicated to the international students, starting with the International Cultural Evening that invites students from all different cultures to gather in an amazing show where they bring about a traditional performance, dance or music from their culture…This is not just for entertaining but to discover the foreign and unknown cultures…it is not open only to international students but also home students can also join and meet non-British cultures and find new international friends…

The week is then continued … with international film period where international societies show a movie from their country which is open to everyone just for free…absolutely fantastic experience!

This is all about the international community and diversity and how much the university and other students appreciate us and our cultures!

Tuesday 17th July

I am back again after a long absence; first of all because of my final term exams and then a 3-week travel to Iran and finally my summer placement in Manchester.

It is more than a couple of months since I wrote my last web diary input…so many things happened in the meanwhile…but the most important one was my trip to Iran after 2 years and visiting my family and my friends after these years! It wasn´t easy at beginning to cope with the Iranian society again, especially when you have lived for a long period in a peaceful environment like Sheffield. But thankfully I adapted myself with the new conditions and new people who were so familiar with me, but also a bit strange on the other hand.

I came back to UK about 2 weeks ago and started my summer placement in a cancer research UK centre in Manchester which keeps me busy all weekdays and does not leave me a spare time to express myself here.

I am quite happy to be back again in the UK, apart from its lovely weather which is more like a late Autumn rather than a Summer…for those of you who intend to travel to UK soon, please do not forget to bring a very effective umbrella.

Hope to see you all soon…

Wednesday 1st May 2007

I am back again … not from somewhere in Caribbean or in Oceania this time, but from the Info Commons in Sheffield!

The Info Commons means a lot to me:

My 6 exams in a row…
My long revision list…
Being behind schedule…
And finally going home at 2.00 o´clock in the morning!

To pass or not to pass that´s the question…! When you come to the university the true happiness will change his face to a virtual happiness…even when you are out with your friends to Gatecrasher…you can´t forget your 2000-3000-word essays, assignments, reports, seminars, projects, exams and loads of other things that won´t let you down for a second!

You do have a couple of months to do a 2500-word essay BUT you do it over the last couple of days and even ask for permission to hand it in 2 hours after the deadline! When I think about it myself it sounds crazy, but it really happens to more than 99% of the students all over the world…and you might ask yourself why man made things to suffer himself?!

I´m getting back to work….

Wednesday 11th April

If you are wondering how I spent the last weekend which was the long weekend, Good Friday + Bank Holiday on Monday; I have to say it wasn´t that amazing comparing to my time in Dubai.

I decided to go and visit a few Christian friends in Liverpool, which I do usually during their holidays, but I suddenly changed my mind and preferred to stay alone in Sheffield as most of my friends were preparing for the final exams or were out to Iran.

At least I could find a couple of friends to go on picnic on Saturday morning, which was an absolutely lovely day. As most of the Iranians are "last-minute people", we organised everything in an hour and we went for shopping to have a barbeque. The interesting part is, we wasn´t sure what we wanna have so ended up with buying burger meats, sausages, and sweet corns as appetisers.

We had decided to go to Snake Path which is a woody area between Sheffield and Manchester and about half an hour drive from here, and is located in Peak District beside a fantastic lake. BUT as we were on last minute, it was hell for us to find a car park…excitingly everybody was out on this lovely day…and there was not even a needle space for us…

Weeeellll…we managed to park our car after a half-an-hour more searching all the area even the next nearby town…and finally we could start having fun…by setting up our disposable BBQ pan and making people look at us like an alien…well at least we could introduce ourselves as strangers in Peak District. It was all fun at the end and the dogs were much happier because of our presence…you can imagine why!

And finally, after two years of expecting the Information Commons, which is not only a library or an IT centre, but something unbelievably massive on 7 floors that opens 24/7 and has about 500 PCs and more than 100,000 books and loads of amazing study areas that you can´t even imagine…

It almost encourages you to study rather than enjoy the holiday... almost

Thursday 5th April

I am back again…!

This year´s university Easter holidays is exactly at the same time to our Nowroz holiday, better I say started from the 3rd of Farvardin. The University´s Easter holidays are changed each year and next year it will start on the 13th of Farvardin (13-bedar) and the year after it would be again on the same days to this year. So for those of you who are coming next year you can spend your "Sizdah-bedar" with your family and if you were lucky enough to be here the year after, which I most probably won´t, you can spend the whole Nowroz in Iran.

Well, well, well… I spent a great holiday for 10 days in Dubai with my parents, it was great to see loads of Iranians after almost 2 years away in a very warm and sunny city on the beaches of Persian Gulf. I said sunny because it´s quite unusual to have a sunny day in Britain´s autumn and winter. However, amazingly this year we had a global warming in all Europe where I just witnessed snow once in the whole winter and almost summer days instead of winter days. So be happy, the frozen age is over and Britain is not as damp and rainy as most of you have imagined or have seen in the movies. And today is an absolutely amazing day full of sun shine and warmth … nice for having BBQ or a reunion in one of Sheffield´s green areas like Botanical Gardens or Endcliffe Valle Park, which are only a few minutes away from most of the university accommodations in Endcliffe.

Tomorrow is the Easter Friday and having Easter Eggs is a tradition in this country, you can also go to egg hunting if you wish. I am not gonna describe what these eggs are and I leave it to you to come and see yourselves next year.

So Happy Easter to all my colleagues in the International Office and all my Christian friends.

Be Happy…!

Wednesday 21st March

I am going to start a blog from this week to introduce you more to the Sheffield´s student life and my unique experiences as an International student from an Eastern country.

Last week was a very busy week for the international students and the whole university. We had the International Week which started from the 12th of March, and ended on the 17th by one of the biggest university festivals on Saturday night, International Cultural Evening.

At the beginning of this week, on Saturday the 10th, we had the global games where international societies were playing 6-aside football in one of the biggest university-managed sports facilities of the UK, Goodwin sports centre. Persian society was also involved and after playing 7 hours from 10 in the morning till 5 in the evening with 7 teams, sadly and unluckily we came fourth and lost the last game in penalty matches where we had 3 injured players and a Sri-Lankan goalkeeper.

It was all fun but the tiredness was extreme and playing football for 7 hours is not something pleasant when you come 4th.

After that by starting the week, we had the International Film Week, where a Persian movie, Offside, was shown on Monday alongside with 3 other international movies, which was both an honour to be one of these 4, and a bit of shame because just about 50 people were attended, and the more dreadful was that most Iranians were excused to come because they had already seen it millions and millions of times! WHICH WAS FAIR ENOUGH!

And finally on Saturday the 17th, we had the amazing International Cultural Evening, with amazing international societies´ performances like samba school´s beach-like dancing and equatorial clothes…an unexpected Chinese singer who surprised everybody by ripping her robe in a sudden action…a Japanese version of Aladdin which I prefer not to talk about it…few amazing and incredible Indian dance and finally a traditional show by a professional Persian band from London who were playing "Se-tar" and "Tombak"…BUT unfortunately the sound system was not powerful enough to put our tradition altogether and the players were a bit disappointed and frustrated…anyhow it was well great…

And finally we had our New Year Celebration which was absolutely great and around 100 people attend it and at least we could revive our rich culture! in a way that we liked! Despite all those bad lucks we could have a great time finally, which wasn´t free of exhaustion for me and the Persian Society committee.

Hope to celebrate Norooz next year with all of you here in Sheffield…

Eyde hamaton mobarak…!