#IranElection

What a week...and it's only Wednesday! So I started summer session 2 weeks ago and each session is only 3 weeks long. BUT somebody at my school decided that the last week of 1st session and the first week of 2nd session should overlap. Yeah so i'm in class all day every day this week and it sucks. Not only is there class to attend but also readings and a final exam on Friday. Great.

ON TOP of school stuff the Iranian presidential election happened last Friday. And unless you've been living under a rock then you should know that the election was rigged and there have been mass protests in Iran and around the world this week. I went to two of them here in Paris already.

There's a reason I am so distracted mentally by what's happening right now in Iran. I'm 30 years old and 30 years ago in 1979 was the revolution in Iran. My parents left Iran before the revolution and moved to Canada where I was born and raised with my brother. Had my parents stayed in Iran I would have been born there and possibly grown up there. A vast majority of the protesters are students and people my age as an overwhelming percent of Iranians are under the age of 35. I am under the age of 35. I could be there right now. Who knows what your life would have been like if even one thing was different. There's no way to know if I would have been a protester but I think I would have. I've seen protests before but I have never felt this way about any of them until now. I suppose the thought that that could be me on the streets of Tehran is really stuck in my head and heart right now. I want to be there with them, protesting in the streets for freedom. Obviously I don't want to get shot at or anything like that but I think what they're doing is admirable. I feel a sense of connection to the citizens of Iran even though I wasn't born there and I've never been there. My parents are both from Iran, I am Persian and this is my fight too.

There's not much that I can do right now from my little studio apartment in Paris but to go to the protests that I can go to (they're usually during class so it's hard to get there in time). One thing that has emerged through all this is the use of websites like Twitter, YouTube, Twitpic, Facebook etc. These sites have been essential for the people in Iran to spread videos, news and pictures to the rest of the world. Since I don't have a TV I can't watch any news programs but what i've heard is in the first few days main stream media barely covered the story at all. My sense is now that they are covering it but no one can expect the MSM to show the kinds of footage and photos on TV that are truly at the heart of the protest. It's amazing to see on these sites the raw footage from the heart of the situation. To see students' dorms terrorized, see people injured and dead is unbelievable. I'm grateful that the Internet has allowed others to really see the people of Iran fight for freedom.

I feel a little like a kid caught in the middle, I'm both west and east. I'm Canadian and Persian, and I'm proud of it!

So anyways...this week has been really hard and it's only going to get harder. I think I am mentally breaking down a little. Last night I passed out in the middle of my bed/futon with all the lights still on, window wide open and computer on. I was that exhausted! I still am exhausted but I can't even imagine what it must feel like for the students in Iran right now. I hope that all Iranians stay safe but keep on keeping on!

Here's a link to a video i took of one of the protests in Paris. Already has 300+ views!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itibtJg2NHA

I'm Just Not In To This Day.

So I've had a really weird day and I'm so glad it's almost time to go to sleep because I'm so OVER this day.  So let's start at the beginning...

First I wanted to wake up earlier than I have been.  I'm trying to instill a better schedule.  So of course that didn't happen but I started to wake up around 10am and around when I was starting to wake up my doorbell rang.  First off I didn't even realize I had a doorbell. So I thought as I was slowly getting out of bed it's got to be my landlady, who else would be at my door right?  So I look through the peep hole and it was blurry because I had literally just woken up and was really still half asleep and it looked like my landlady a short blond french lady.  So I open the door and standing there was NOT my landlady it was an older gaunt looking Chinese man.  So naturally I'm freaked out and he starts talking to me in what I think was French but I couldn't understand exactly what he was saying.  So I think he's asking me for hot water but soon realize he's not. Then he says "English?" and I say "yes" and then he proceeds in broken English which I barely understand.  He's trying to explain something to me but then he starts leaning in towards the door line, the line which you do not cross which immediately freaked me out even more so I started waving my hands in a shooing motion for him to get back. At this point I'm super freaked out and he starts leaning back in so I close the door and as I close the door I hear the word "bread".  I didn't slam the door but I did close the door basically in his face.  I went and sat down and thought what the fuck just happened??  So then not 2 seconds later I hear him in the hall go to my other neighbor's door and the chick's boyfriend answers the door.  I think he gave him some food but I'm not sure.  So I start getting ready for school and now I'm feeling guilty because this guy is basically begging for food, he looks like he hasn't eaten in forever and I just closed the door on him.  As I was getting ready to leave I looked around my place to see if I even had anything to give him.  I really don't have any food except for a few random things in the fridge and I had half a box of this stuff that's similar to Melba Toast.  I decided that I would give him what I had left of the Melba toast so as I'm leaving I knocked on his door and I stood as far away as I could with my arm reached out and gave him the food.  He started to thank me but I basically took off and didn't let him finish.  So the whole day now I have the image of my neighbor the gaunt Chinese man in my head!

Then I get to school and meet Susan and I tell her what happened and I decided that I need a Starbucks (which is right by school) so we go there on the way to class.  As we're walking from Starbucks to class I stepped on a cable that was on the sidewalk and almost fell.  Luckily I didn't fall but I almost fell which shook me up even more.  Then I sit through 3 hours of class.  Then I have a meeting with my Global Internet professor to talk about my term paper.  We had to meet with him to discuss our topics.  I started discussing my topic and I could tell he didn't like it, or at least didn't think it was a good enough topic to write my paper on, great.  Luckily I had a back up topic which he liked much better. 

The other part of the day that pissed me off has to do with just how unorganized my school/department is.  When we first arrived they assigned us advisers but now they've reassigned advisers so I went online to the site where it's supposed to tell me who my advisor is and it says it doesn't recognize my student ID (mind you i'm logged in to the site WITH my student ID!) Ok fine, so then I see the chair of the department in the hall so I go ask him and he schedules an appointment with me for March 12th (today is February 17th) um thanks.  It's because the next two weeks are Spring Break so we're all off but the word around is that we have to register for Summer classes DURING Spring Break...um excuse me?  And now my advisor won't meet with me until AFTER?  WTF?  The whole class schedule, the advising system just everything is ass backwards here.  I feel like the whole department is so unorganized and they don't know what the fuck's going on.  Hello!  We're the Communications Department, maybe try communicating with each other eh???  

So now Jenn and I leave the Grad Lounge and head to Kamini's place for dinner and on the metro a homeless guy gets on the train and starts begging people for money.  At this point I'm so frazzled from the day I feel like I'm going to have a nervous breakdown and I just want this homeless man to go away.  He's not holding on to anything in the train so he keeps flopping around and his bag is hitting me and I just want to shove him away, but I don't.  I just have an internal break down! 

I'm home now and yes, I have readings to do for class tomorrow but I just can't do it.  I'm sorry but I just can't so i'm going to watch the latest episode of Friday Night Lights and then go to sleep.  I'm so over this day!  

Please let tomorrow be better.

lemmelone!

leave me alone facebook! damn you and your constant updates...and you're no better twitter!  I'm half way done a paper that i really want to finish for tomorrow's class but I can't focus with all you distractions!  must.focus.now.