Friday, December 31, 2010

Life in Twenty-Ten

A summary of my life in 2010...
LUMUN '09-10: World Peace

January: First day of the year, woke up in a common room in LUMS, Lahore... ahh yes... we were there for LUMUN... Surely was a great experience, and when I look back now, a sort of a micro-simulation of what was to happen in the not-so-distant future... Although our team was unable to win any sort of delegate awards, we did win the best costume award! After all the effort we put into those ancient Egyptian costumes... we deserved it! A round of applause for all my fellow teammates, and of course, our co-ordinator, Ms. Romana Pirzada.

February: Don't remember much about this month, except for the fact that I was running around school, trying to grab photos for the end-of-year magazine! Oh... how could I forget the memorable trip to Sandspit...

A Panoramic View of Sandspit

Towards the end of Feb, I received an email from the University of Waterloo, offering me a place in the Faculty of Math... probably one of the highlights leading towards some major changes in life as it was...

March & April: Not much happened during this time, except for the occasional event at school, along with an increase in stress levels as the threat of GCE A Levels started to come closer... School Farewell at the end of April... TCS PAF, I will miss you... At the end, I was happy that I followed my heart and went with PAF as my school of choice for A Levels... a decision that I did not, and will not, regret...

May: Celebrated my 19th birthday amidst books and exam prep...

June: CIE kept kicking our butts until the last possible moment... (just as Sir Faisal predicted: "... system jaatey huay bhi laat maaray ga..."). My opinion on the A Level finals is sort of mixed... Physics went well, Further Math, first paper was moderately difficult, the second, hellishly freaky. Chemistry, a total massacre... But at last, we gained our freedom from the tyranny of CIE... the four years of slavery was now over... the wait for the fruits of our labor was now on...

Photo of my room before I left...
July: Visa arrived... preparation for the start of a new life in a foreign land began with a frenzy... Rushing here and there, things to buy, people to meet, bags to pack, flights arrangements and all that... I once read in some place: "... getting there is half the fun..."


August: Results came... Thankfully, my grades were sufficient to complete the requirements of the University...

21st August: Last day preparations, iftari with family, anxiety levels on high... Went to bed for a couple of hours...

22nd August: Woke early, got ready... On to the airport. Was really tense about the baggage weight and all... Fortunately, all went well..l
0725 hrs (PST): Left my homeland behind... End of the Beginning...
... Sometime in between: PIA's crappy food + travel anxiety = Stomach Problems!!!
1300 hrs (EST): Set foot in Canada... Was AMAZED when a car stopped, waiting for ME to cross the road... (a novelty back home)

September: Start of a new life... found a place to live, attended uni orientation, spent the first Eid-ul-Fitr away from home... Commenced the Fall 2010 term...

An experience to be shared... walking back home after a long, tiring day... expecting a bright, cheery home, someone waiting at the door to take the load off your shoulders, a hot meal ready on the table, and a bed waiting to collapse into after a hot shower... suddenly all these expectations come crashing down... you open the door yourself after a whole minute of fumbling with the keys, open the lights in the dark, gloomy house, make your way up your room, and realize that you can't just "collapse into" bed... you need to eat to go on... but to eat, you need to (at the very least) heat your own food... The actual act of eating takes about 10 minutes since (for once), you do not talk while you eat... And when all these thoughts hit you, you realize what you have truly left behind...

Mathematics & Computer Building, University of Waterloo


October: Started to settle into uni life... as well as handling things on my own... Learned a few things... malls are boring unless you actually need to buy something and find someone to accompany you when planning such an outing... grocery shopping and waiting for the bus in really windy weather is awful... plus my shoes, which are I brought from home, were not meant for walking in the rain...

Also in October: Joined the UW Photo Club... Went through my first uni midterms... suffered Friday nights with crazy CS assignments... almost failed Calculus... Looking back now... I guess I fared pretty well...

The Bridge in Front of the SLC

November: It felt as if the term was about to end (it really was!) even before a proper start... Spent Eid-ul-Azha alone... didn't feel much like Eid at all...

December: With December came snow... I loved the white blanket of snow... so much that when I first went out in the snow, I was grinning like a maniac along the whole way...

View from my doorstep
The snow gave my photography a totally new angle... only one thing though... fingers tend to freeze!!!
Snow on Bench
Mid-December brought with it the final exams. Algebra was a killer... Economics was okay, Calculus and CS were amazing!

Once the exams were over, I started a massive cleanup of my room (lasting half of the day!). Lots of rubbish (rough papers & fluff!) had accumulated over the past four months...

Spent the holidays at my uncle's place... Saw sales on a scale never seen before...

Results came out recently... thankfully cleared all courses... even algebra!

A peek back into the past four months... it seems that it was all a whirl... my sense of time has become totally distorted... Sometimes, it's as if I've been here for ages, at other times, it feels like I came here moments ago...

Looking forward to next year...

Happy New Year!
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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Visit to Toronto

Day: 30th December 2010. City: Toronto. Weather: Not too cold, not too windy, perfect for an outing, but way too overcast for good outdoor photography. Armed with my trusty Sony A100 and associated gear, I set off on my first visit to the provincial capital of Ontario, which is also Canada's largest city.

I was absolutely awed and amazed by Toronto's subway system (probably because this is the first I've ever traveled in). So fast! Just like in the movies! Now I know how Spiderman fights in subway tunnels! And how villains slip in without people noticing!
The Amazing Underground!


Inside Eaton Mall
My friend, who was showing me around Toronto, unfortunately had some business to attend to, so most of the afternoon (read: daylight) was spent indoors in a non-scenic, uninteresting environment. By the time we made our way to Eaton Mall, it was already beginning to get dark...

Grabbed a few shots of the inside of the mall... I have to admit, I am starting to find all these malls quite boring. Same things for sale, ridiculous prices in many cases... And where there is a Boxing Day sale, people are buying like there is no tomorrow!!

Street at twilight

Outside the mall, at dusk... Nice, colorful lights up and down the street... Here I wished for a tripod which should magically appear when I need it, and disappear when I don't... Nevertheless, got some neat shots...





Walking for hours takes its toll on humans, so naturally, we were hungry! Veggie Pizza never tasted better! After an early dinner, we made our way to FutureShop... played around with the anorexic MacBook Air (opening the lid once closed is NOT easy... Steve Jobs, here's a design flaw for you to consider!), tried our hands at a few of the cameras on display, and maneuvered our way through a mass of crazies intent on buying SOMETHING!

My A100 apparently got jealous of the big, beautiful A900 (and its lesser sibling, the A850) on display in Sony Style (at a faint-inducing price!)... It decided to grab my attention by taking a fall (from very low height, thankfully) while I was adjusting my backpack and jacket... I hope everything's okay... the camera seems to be shooting fine, for now...

Note for PHOTOGRAPHERS: While on the topic of Sony... I did not like the EVF of the A55, no matter what anyone says. Period. More in-depth discussion on this in a later post...

By the end of the day, I felt as if there is (obviously) a lot more to Toronto than what I saw... Plan to come back sometime again...

Enjoyed every minute of the subway ride on the way back home (Hope they initiate that Waterloo train-subway thingy project that is being talked about...)

That's it for today, folks...
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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

As the year ends...

The year 2010 is coming to an end... I admit, it was an extremely turbulent one. Leaving one's home behind and coming to a foreign land... settling into university life... learning to live on your own... these are all experiences unique to each and every person.

I've started  this blog to share my experiences and my interests, or to simply express my point of view on what I observe. My writings may range from simple observations I made during the day to discussions on photography projects and/or equipment. If there is anything in the news that prompts me to speak out, I shall do that on this blog. I hope my readers find my posts entertaining and enlightening...
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