Sunday, January 30, 2005

600 Km for 30 min.!

I drove all the way to Edmonton to see Renay yesterday morning. I've had booked a car from Hertz through the net. So when I woke up in the morning I drove to 10th Ave. SW, parked my car behind Calgary Tower and walked to Hertz and got the car, an automatic Pontiac Firebird. The road was not very crowded. At first I felt a little bit tired but got better later. I got a room in Super 8 and called her. She told me where she is and I drove to the mall she mentioned. Kingsway Garden Mall is in the north of the city while my hotel is in the south. I crossed North Saskatchewan River and headed up north. Edmonton is a beautiful city. I'll be there again in summer. We were supposed to meet in a 7-11 store. She showed up almost on time. When I saw her I gave her a hug and we went to the mall for a coffee but she didn't seem very friendly and we didn't sit as it was very busy and she wanted to go to the hospital for her training program. Although she's chubby but she's beautiful, with curley hair and pretty eyes. (She wore a colour contact lenz). I drove back and parked somewhere close to river and walked around and took some photos. We were supposed to go for a dinner or movie but she said his dad has a problem with his car and ... . I guess she lied. So we made an appointment at the same place for today morning. I slept very bad last night and went to a Safeway and bought a stem of rose but she didn't come. I called her and left a message and then drove back to Calgary! Didn't even go to c West Edmonton Mall!
(Photo: Frozen North Saskatchewan River which splits up Edmonton to half. It has a very beautiful and at the same time different river bank)

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Saskatoon

I have lots to write today. I applied for a position as Quality Supervisor in a mine in Saskatchewan a few weeks ago. Last week I received a phone call from the company, Gogema Resources Inc. indicating an interview date set up. The good thing is they sent me the ticket. They actually didn’t send anything physically. They just sent the seat information through e-mail. As my damn PC is infected I'm writing this in SAIT lib. now!
So what I did is I started preparing myself for the interview by making up a whole story about working in Sarcheshemeh Copper Mine in Kerman province, south central Iran. I was a little bit worried about the definitions and terms uses in mining industry as I have no idea about them at all! I decided to talk to my friend, Shahrokh, in Tehran who is currently working for a company involved in copper mine. I e-mailed him and informed him about my intention toward a phone conversation.
There’s always a problem when I have to attend an interview meeting and that’s the damn tie! Last time I missed a good opportunity just because I was late for interview! Therefore I asked Resurrect to help me with the tie and as I’m not usu. lucky in situations like that he was very tired and cranky last night. He tied it inappropriately and I couldn’t say a thing!
When I was driving to the airport this morning while it was very cold and windy (almost -25 Âșc) I didn’t have my tie on and looked kind of silly!
I had another problem (better call it trouble!) with my ticket. The name that I applied for the career, is different from the name on my IDs! First I didn’t know what to do because I was sure I can’t board the plane. Then I simply called Westjet and told them the seat confirmation number and they simply changed the name over the phone! Then I sighed!
I called Mom from the airport just minutes before the plane jumps and told her that I was headed toward Saskatoon and then called Shahrokh but his number was busy.
The plane left Calgary on time regardless of bad weather and in a short time (in about an hour I guess) we landed in John G. Diefenbaker International Airport. Saskatoon is a small city and I was easily able to see the city limits from the plane window. Both Resurrect and Victoria are graduates of University of Saskatchewan.
As soon as I arrived, I went to rent a car as I was going to buy a tie and ask the salesperson to tie it for me! That was the only way to recover the mess! All of the damn car rentals were out of car as one of them said that there was a conference in the city. Then I asked a green-eyed security girl about the closest mall and she introduced me Confederation Mall. I took a cab there and started looking for a tie. Although the mall was very close but the fucking cab driver – a Romanian bitch – charged me about $10! The mall was so easy. Just a few people were seen around. Same shops as Calgary were there. I went to Wal-Mart and tried my story but it didn't work! I thought there would be someone to help me wearing that but no one showed that much interest in me as a customer!
Therefore I decided to get a cab and go to the interview. There were no taxi around like there are around malls, hotels, c-train stations, etc in Calgary. A phone set attached to the wall, was caught by my eye. That's how you get a cab here in Saskatoon: Radio cabs. Call 'em!
As we were heading toward the company, the driver figured out that I'm Iranian and told me there's a community of Iranian Baha'i's there in Saskatoon. I was a little surprised but told them what happened to them during the revolution and aftermath. This little conversation incouraged me to ask him helping me with the tie. As I'm always a very good actor told him that I just fell down and my right hand is paralyzed and it's not good to see the company men with no tie! (I didn't tell them I was there for interview just said that I was sent there by an Iranian company!) The driver believed my story and helped me. So when I stepped in the company and faced the young lady at reception desk, I had my tie on which has been worn few sec. ago!
This trick boosted my spirit and I was so relaxed for the interview, the position that I have never had!
There were three people for the interview, one from human resources, a beautiful woman and two from Quality departemnt. The following are chosen from a few questions that they asked:

  1. What did you like the best and the worst about your job?
  2. Why should we hire you?
  3. Why did you quit your previous job?
  4. Have you ever had job performance evaluations? What was in them?
  5. What would you do if you ask someone to do sth. in terms of quality and s/he refuses?
And here are my answers:
  1. Teamwork and commuting
  2. Because I'm a good team-player, I have enough experience and I believe that I handle this job very well.
  3. I just did because my visa was issued and I had to be here in Canada
  4. Yes. Every month. Once my supervisor mentioned that I'm sometimes too easy on people.
  5. I try to make him or her understand that, this is good for the company, helps him or her to perform better, it's logical and it's approved scientifically, the best way of doing that.

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Flashback (1): Tenant and Landlord Clash


Resurrect came home with her Romanian gf last night and we all celebrated the New Year with a glass of Champagne. It tastes good and doesn't have much alcohol (I guess just about 15%) and that's women's favorite.
Today, 01.01.05, reminds me of a good memory of the firsts days I came to Canada. When I just arrived after 2 days staying in a hotel, I settled down in D. H.'s house, a crazy but nice in a way, guy from Bangladesh, who has been living in Canada since his high school years. In the first day of 2002 there was a very nice fight between him and one of his tenants Ali A., a guy from Abadan who flee to the US after Iran-Iraq war began in 1980. On that time Ali A. used to live with a black guy, Montel and what I did in just a month is ruined their reputation and blamed many things on them. D. H. got very angry with them and they got very mad at me! So on that day Ali A. and the landlord threw punches at each other and Ali grabbed his throat and was about to choke him! I remember that they had two clashes. I pretended that I'm trying to meddle the second one. D. H. was so angry and shouting and swearing and I was really happy by seeing that. Finally D. H. went upstairs (they lived in the basement) as his older son saw the fight and got really frightened and upset!
I used to go for a half an hour jogging almost every day on that time and when I dressed to go that afternoon, D. H. asked me not to go! He was really scared, I guess, 'cuase those two guys could beat the shit of him and leave him there and he could do nothing. But I went for my exercises and told him not to worry. Nothing had happened when I was home. I hared from the other guys later that Ali A. is involved in drug dealership and once I saw him in downtown. He was really happy, he hugged me and told me that his Green Card is almost ready and he would be gone to the US soon!
(Photo: This picture might not be a good one chosen for the New Year but reminds me of the early days of the devastating war. Residents of Abadan are shown here defending their beloved city. No sign of brain-washed fake volunteers is seen here!)