The Itinerary

This time next week I will be in Madrid after a flight from Paris. It is slowly starting to hit me that I will be finally doing what I have been dreaming of the past few years. Over the past few nights I have been researching our destinations carefully and planning the best route of travel. My main problem was getting from Europe to Syria through the cheapest and quickest means necessary. I was lucky enough to find affordable flights from Bratislava to Istanbul, and I heard that there is a really good train service from Istanbul to Aleppo (anyone know a better way to go from Istanbul to Syria?).

The itinerary so far looks like this (in order)..

Paris, Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, Valencia, Barcelona, Marseille, Nice, Milan, Cinque Terre, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Venice, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Prague, Bratislava/Vienna, Istanbul, Aleppo, Damascus.

I will be travelling with two good friends although I have a feeling that we will separate on certain occasions. We plan to spend 2 nights in most cities, with the exception of Rome, Barcelona, Paris, and possibly Madrid where we’ll be staying for another night. To save time we’re making hops by plane from Paris to Madrid, from Venice to Frankfurt, from Amsterdam to Prague, and from Bratislava to Istanbul. I might be alone in Istanbul as my two friends are unsure of what they want to do after Prague.

I’m most excited to see Paris, Andalucía, Rome and Istanbul. Although my perspective of these cities/regions might change once I experience them. The highlight of trip will definitely be entering Syria. Usually I go from Canada to Syria, which is essentially going from one home to another. But this time I will be travelling for two months hopping from hostel to hostel and living out of my backpack. I think this will make coming into Syria even more special than usual. I will finally be in a place where I can speak the language, know the costumes, am able to pronounce the name of the food I’m eating, and know the best means of transportation from point A to point B.

I’m not sure whether I’ll be writing my trip journal on this blog or whether I’ll be creating another blog for the trip. I’m leaning towards writing the entries here, or on paper and scanning them in when I get back.

Finally, if you have any suggestions or advice about some of the places I’ll be going to I would really appreciate your help. There’s only so much information that “Europe on a Shoestring” can provide.

Ode to the fx-991MS

A dog may be a shepherd’s best companion, a wallet is a bankers best friend, and a pen is a writer’s best tool. To an engineering student the calculator is what the dog, wallet, and pen are to their respective owners.

The journey began sometime late in high school when I needed a new calculator. I was having trouble with statistics and noticed a new calculator on the shelves that promised to do statistics, matrices, and much more. It was the Casio fx-991MS, and it was love at first sight.

The Casio promised to be a lot more that what was mentioned on the box. It made my test, and exams easier in high school, and it proved to be just as effective during university.

I clearly remember an electrical circuits course we had during first year. Imaginary numbers were a pain in the ass to do arithmetic with, and phasors were things we had to deal with in physics and circuits. Of course I didn’t have a problem with all those imaginary numbers thanks to my Casio. When the class discovered the abilities of the Casio, I estimate over 80% of the class trashed their Sharp, Texas Instruments, and whatever other crappy calculator they had and made the move to the fx-991MS… doesn’t that just roll off the tongue?

The Casio became the talk of the class (I’m not kidding) and those with Casios would show off the abilities of the calculator to the non-believers. I have to say that the non-believers truly missed out on many time saving tricks including:

• Solving equations with 2 and 3 unknowns
• Solving order 2 and 3 equations
• Imbedded BEDMAS rules
• Calculating the inverse of a 3X3 matrix
• Conversion between base 10, binary, hex, and oct
• Tons of statistical functions
• Ability to type equations and quickly perform iterations
• Integration using Simpson’s rule (although this one take about a minute to process)

There are other features of course, but the first few are by far the most time saving, especially in an exam situation.

My Casio will travel to work with me, and the second one (I have 3..you know, for emergencies and such) will stay on my desk. Every now and then I plan on giving it a little work out, so it stays sharp, so to speak.

For the makers of the fx-991MS I say thank you, using the calculator has been a pleasure. The Casio fx-991MS will always be my favourite calculator.

I know I know, but let me explain

It’s been a while, but let me explain. The past two months have been, by far, the busiest I have ever been. Partly due to school, partly due to life, more school than life though. As some may know this is my last term at UW, and unlike people say, the last term was a BITCH. Particularly 2 weeks ago when I had to hand in about 300% worth of marks for 4 courses, and somehow keep my sanity while preparing for finals. The biggest pain in the ass was getting the 4^th year project done, which involved long hours behind the computer and in the shop, but at the end things worked out and I survived. Today I wrote my final engineering exam. I must admit that my mind was half gone through the exam, I just couldn’t focus anymore. My last exam ever is on the 22^nd, after which I will finished and the celebrations will begin.

The design project

Other than school, my involvement with an activist group on campus kept me super busy for the first 3 quarters of the term. Through my activity with the group I met Ali Abunema, co-founder of Electronic Intifada, organized and ran a very successful Palestinian culture night, raising over 3000 dollars for infrastructure building in Khan Younis, and had a sit down with the great Israeli historian Illan Pappe. Our work was featured in several newspapers, and may reach Arabic media soon. It was certainly a fulfilling experience, with a great group of dedicated people and great friends.

Between all of that I was searching for a full time job. I had a bunch of interviews and finally found a job that seems very challenging in a great company. I’m not going to go further into it, as I’m going to be writing more about my job in the future once I start work.

Lastly, and most interesting is my plan for immediately after graduation. Fully knowing that once I start a fulltime job I’m going to be stuck with a 2-3 week vacations for a good portion of my life, I decided to do what a lot of people do nowadays after graduation… backpack through Europe. The tickets are booked the route is being finalized, and details are being discussed now that finals are almost done. More on the Euro trip later. Of course no after graduation trip is complete without a trip home to the beloved Syria. I should be in Syria for the month of July, Syrian bloggers take note.

It's all in Self Defense People!

A "militant strong hold" as they would have you believe

I haven’t written about Gaza because I don’t think my words can do justice. How do you translate into words the feeling that you have when you see the limp bodies of children being rushed to emergency vehicles? Or when you see young boys digging through the rubble of a destroyed residential building, looking for survivors? Or when witnessing the sheer agony experienced by the mothers and fathers who lost their dear children?

How do you translate the anger that you feel when you hear UN Secretary General mention the “terrorist rocket attacks” before mentioning the “disproportionate” response by the Israelis?

What is happening in Gaza today is far from a Holocaust. The Holocaust happened under different circumstances, and different times. Gaza today is experiencing a Modern Holocaust. Where innocent civilians are being killed while the world watches in silence; where the UN justifies the action of an army under the banner of “self defense.” Self defense against whom? Palestinians who don’t even have clean drinking water?

To examine who truly needs self defense we need to only look at the numbers of the few days. The timeline is shown in a BBC article:

Saturday:

At least 52 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers killed

Friday:

Ashkelon activates warning system after rocket hits

Thursday:

Four Palestinian children and seven militants killed

Wednesday:

Six-month-old Palestinian boy and six militants killed

Israeli civilian killed in Sderot

The BBC article is now outdated. The latest numbers from Aljazeera show 102 deaths from the Palestinian side of them 39 children.

As I write this Israel continues to launch attacks against civilians in Gaza. Meanwhile the IOF is launching an assault on Hebron in the West Bank, fully knowing that the media is too busy covering its crimes in Gaza. The results of the attack on Hebron so far are the death of 13 year old girl, and the injuring of seventy.

I ask you take a moment to step back and examine what is happening, because I truly think we’re becoming desensitized to hearing of Palestinian deaths. No matter what side you’re on when you look back on what’s happening, the human in you should tell you one thing. What’s happening right now isn’t a political dilemma. It’s a Moral dilemma.

Damn You Winter!

Frozen lake in Waterloo Park

This winter just won’t end! I have witnessed many winters here, and compared with the rest, this one had more storms, more cold days, and the crappiest weather. We are being pounded by storm after storm, and could barely keep up with the snow fall. And when there isno snow, it is just freezing cold weather. I hate going to university and walking between buildings. I try to take short cuts, take indoor routes, but the walk from the parking lot to class is inevitable… and very long. My pants literally froze a few weeks ago as I walked from one point to another. Icicles develop in my nostrils on specially cold days (-25 and below), and I start experiencing a sharp piercing pain in my ears.

And then there are the car troubles. I detest having to sit in a freezing car for a few minutes while it warms up. Not to mention scraping the ice and the snow off of the windshield and windows, and breaking off ice buildup on the wipers. I was late for class the other day because my door refused to open. Ice formed between the door and the pillar, and I had to dump antifreeze to get the door to open. Of course the antifreeze container was frozen shut, and I had to dump hot water on it to get it to open.

Every morning I turn on the computer and visit the weather website. After seeing the disappointing temperatures, I look for hope in the 5 day forecast. Usually I see a 0 or a -5 coming up and I get excited. When the promised days come by and the temperature doesn’t reach the ‘high’ of -5, I look into the future again, and I see another -5 lurking in an upcoming day. Weeks pass and the trend continues, the -5 keeps getting pushed back, and I feel like a person lost in the desert chasing a mirage. But there is a bright side to winter. Without a harsh winter, spring has no meaning. The happiness that I experience during April and May, is almost worth all the turmoil of a Canadian winter. In the meanwhile though, I think I had enough!

My only hope now is the unavoidable fact that we’re slowly turning around the sun, and soon we will be facing the ever beautiful sun. Earth will have no excuse but to warm up and stop dumping snow and ice on our heads.

Before 18 I should...

Sam tagged me with the “Things to do before 18” meme. I am supposed to list 6 things that I think one person should do before they turn 18. I will list the first things that come to mind.

1. The first thing that popped into my mind was getting into a relationship. It’s never too early to experience what it is like to care about somebody else, and develop feelings for someone in a non friendly way. The best lesson can be learned from relationship, and the earlier they’re learned the fewer mistakes one will make in the future.

2. Get a job. Getting a shitty job is probably the best way to encourage somebody to work harder in school. While working horrible shift at McDonald’s I would often take comfort in knowing that I’m not going to end up stuck with fast food for the rest of my life.

3. Plan a huge trip with a bunch of friends. A trip that will take you away from home for at least a week. I think trips like this build friendship a million times faster than by just hanging out, and seeing each other at school. The memories shared in these trips stay with you for life.

4. Find a hobby and practice it often. Particularly a hobby that involves creativity, and produces something that you are proud of.

5. Learn to critically think and to form opinion based on your findings not somebody else’s. Don’t take things as they are but learn to examine them further on your own.

6. Read about the universe, how it began, how big it is, and where we stand in it. Nothing is more humbling that realizing how insignificant we are. You definitely start looking at things differently.

Having mentioned these I want to mention that some of the points on the list are things that I wish I had done before I was 18, while other are things that I did and left a mark on me. Either way, it was a fun exercise coming up with the list.

Call animal control.. there's a bear in the neighbourhood

This week is my reading week. Not much reading has been happening, as usual. I have been dinking around watching movies, reading the odd non-school related book, and replying to a million emails.

This morning as I made my way to the kitchen from my bedroom, my mom informed that my dad with his detective skills had discovered that a bear was lurking in the neighborhood. He apparently saw footprints on the sidewalk early in the morning, which in his opinion resembled a bear’s foot print. I didn’t believe that it was true, but my mom went on describing to me the size of the footprint and the way it looked. There are bears in Ontario, but they’re usually up north, and when a bear happened to hang around in a nearby city it was because he escaped from a zoo.

During the evening my dad went on describing the footprint, and assuring me that he was certain a bear hanging around in the neighbourhood. He then told me that he took pictures of the foot print and suggested I look at them.

Exhibit A - "Bear footprint"

I looked at the picture and the shape of the footprint puzzled me. It didn’t look like anything I have seen before, and it was too large to be that of a dog. So, with family behind me I started searching Google Images of footprints of animals that live around here. First to remove doubts I searched for a bear's footprint.

Bear footprint

The raccoon was a negative.

Raccoon footprint

We tried dog, and that wasn’t even close. Skunk came next and proved to be a negative as well.

Skunk footprint

Finally, in a moment of brilliance my brother suggested “bunny.”

to make sure I looked at another..

Surely enough the foot-prints matched, and I felt like Cinderella trying on her glass shoe. The fit was indisputable, and the case was closed. We can all sleep comfortably tonight thanks to Google Images, and a little boy’s imagination.