Languages

Since i am learning about a new language which is English i started to be more interested about other langauge. i found that there are more than 2700 different languages in the world woth more than 700 dialects. The world started to have different language when some people were giving tongues to the tower of babel and the language that Adam and Eve sopke was not the first langauge. Only in Indonesia there are about 365 langauges and in Africa there are about 1000 langauges, Babers in north africa have a langauge but without a writing form of it.The only country in the world that all citizen of it speak one langauge is Somalia and the langauge is called Somali, however the youngest langauge in the world is Africaans and it is spoken in South Africa and it is mostly developed from Dutch and German, also influenced by other languages. Mandrin is most spoken language in the world followed by English but as a home langauge, Spanish is the second most spoken language. The most dificult language in the world is teh Basque and it is spoken in north-western parts of Spain and South-western parts of france and it is not related to any language in the world. Latin is an old langauge and now it is an offesial language only in the smallest country in the world which is Vatican.

Soccer Team

If anybody know Algeria, he must know that they are crazy about soccer because all the people in Algeria no matter what even if they are good at other sports they mast be good at soccer or at least play it and it is called Bola or ballon which means ball or football and not soccer, i think soccer is a North American name. i have been playing soccer since i was 5 or 6 years old in the streets my city Oran and even my interests went o Tennis and became good it i kept playing soccer and played for teams because it is still in my blood. When coming here to Canada i though i am never going to see anybody playing soccer but i found many people playing maybe no too good but there are great player from different countries. Just couple weeks ago i met a random person that i always see at the gym and he suggested me to join his team that he is starting. There is a Calgary football league , so him and other players are making a new team to join the league and he asked to join them too, so i said yes that will good idea. We started to practice 2 weeks ago every Saturday and every player has pay 220$ to join team which the entrance fees and i have 20$ penalty because i am late for the payment and i am looking forward to play in the league and i hope we win some games. There is another person who was joining the team as well and he is my class mate ..his Yusuf but he is too lazy too come of course he did not pay so i don't think he will be in the team and he is a terrible player anyway ...no big dealllll????

MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix

One year and a half a go when i used to live Qatar which i lived there about 9 years and i came here to Calgary, Canada in February 8, 2007. just 6 months before coming there was Qatar MotoGp Grand Prix held in Doha-Qatar and it was called Losail Grand Prix. All the international racers from all over the world were coming to participate in this race. Formula 1 and MotoGp and Rally races are all my favorite because i love cars a lot and anything that is related to them. Me and my friends volunteer to work in couple races as security guards and it was still paid job so it is not really volunteering but i get to see the all the races also the race it self. The best thing that i was able to do is to see the races outside the circuit after racing in casual and take pictures with them also it was interesting to see how they clean the moto cycles and repair them, and not forgetting the Best part of it is that i got to take pictures with models of every racer and company...they were reallllllly hot and sexy and i took pictures with all of them???? It was more a fun job than a working one, and i had one friend responsible of the Limousin's so when ever i am bored i go and take around in the limousine, after that i got problem with my supervisor but it still do it anyway. The down side of the Grand Prix was the weather...if u know Qatar u will know that it is a very hot country and because we had to stay outside all the time so i used to sleep in the food trailer because it was so hot and too much humid, the temperature was around 48 to 50 degrees and you can't leave your bottle of water for 5 minutes and not drinking it because it will be hot. anyway it was a good experience and i got to take picture with my favorite racer and his name is Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) who won the Grand Prix.

Numbers

Many people may not know about where do things come from or where they were invented and by whom. One thing i know and i want to talk about is the numbers that all the people or most of them use which are 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 are invented by the Arabs. i think it is a big invention so all people can count their money...wifes????....and children and their animals of course in that time and if it would not be invented by them probably it would be invented by other later on somehow but i guess Arabs needed it more and they were simply smarter and developed and they are just taking a rest now....mmm???????? One thing that really confuses me is that many Arabic middle eastern countries do not use these numbers and use the Indian numbers and i think is bad idea however they are used in my country Algeria and we do not use the Indian numbers. It is important to know the history of this at least for me but what is more important is to know how use them and I'm trying???

Solar Energy

this week i had term paper and i chose to write about fossil energy and how it can be replaced by another source of energy like solar energy and by that i knew too many things. fossil fuel and natural resources that we count on to produce all kind of energy can be finished so we have to think about another way generate power and energy or find another source. most of the natural sources are going to last for 50 to 100 years except United States that has backup sources for 200 to 250 years from now. the best way to replace anykind of energy is by the solar energy because we are sure that ther will be sun everyday no matter what even with cloudy and stormy days but the sun is always going to be there, so we have to act smart and start taking advantage of the sun as long as its free ....who knows maybe later or after many years from now we will have to pay for it?????????? not too many people are familiar with this system or maybe they are just trying to ingnore it now because it is expensive and we still enough oil and gas resources but we have to think about the next and after next generations.

Summer

We are at the end of the semester of EAP3 and I'm very excited to finish and getting to ready to go to University of Calgary and start regular courses. I made good Friends in the EAP and had very nice teachers and helpful and now i am ready to move on and hopefully i still see my friends and teachers. The semester is almost finished and we are during the spring time but the most exciting thing for me that is summer is getting closer and i can not wait. i have never stayed in Calgary for the summer and i heard it is really hot and entertaining, especially the Stampede. Usulaly i go to Algeria every summer and it is always fun and i never get bored of it. i get to meet friends and remember the best times ever also my childhood. One of the best things also is to go weddings and celebrate the Algerian way and why not meeting a cute girls. going to the beach all this things that i like the most but this time im going to stay here in Calgary and i think it going to be great and i am excited to see stampede because i heard about it alot and i like to experience new things.

Hookah

Hookah in Hindi, Shisha in Arabic, Nargile in Tukish, is a water pipe with a Glass based water jar for smoking. It came from originally from India and it gained it popularity around the world especially the Arab world during the ottomans time. The tobacco in the shisha is made of herbal fruits which has fruits flavour and that's what makes it different from smoking because it does not have a bad smell and teh smell do not stay on the person, and it taste good in the same time, even though it is known that it is more harmful than cigarettes. There are some places here in Calgary that have Shisha for example: La Barava, Cafe Med, Narah and Ice Classic and many people go there especially Arab people. The Shisha is very popular in countries like Turkey, Iran Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Paletstine, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunsia, Egypt, Mexico, US, Uk, Greece and it spreading more and more. From begginer smokers even people who do not smoke that much can get them dizy a little bit. In my counrty Algeria there is shisha but it is not that popular like what i have seen in other countries and people do not ask for it as much as in the other countries or maybe because it is just not very popular yet.

Rally Dakar

The Rally Dakar also known as Paris Dakar rally is an annual off-road race for amateurs and professional when the competitors have to race in each stage about 800 to 900 kilometers (500 to 560)per day. First the race was organized in 1978 and the race started from Paris- France and goes until Dakar-Senegal through other countries like Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger,Tunisia. It started to change every year than the original way and go to other countries in Africa. The next Rally Dakar is going to be in Argentina- Chile which is the first time to a different continent. The vehicles and the classes that are allowed to be in the race are: Motorcycles cars and trucks and they all have certain weight to participate in the rally.Mitsubishi pagero/montero in themost succesful in the rally dakar history with last 7 straight years.

Learning English

I have been studying English since i was the sixth grade but i was just becuase i had to. I never wanted to learn English and we used to memorize vocabulary all the time and then we were tested on them just like it is going to help to speak better. It was the same untill 12 grade when i graduated from high school and i can tell that English level that i was studying did not change since the sixth grade, i used to go to exams without studying and still get the highest mark. After high school i attended a canadian college called '' The college of north atlantic'' then things started to change and i realized the difference but it is nothing comparing when i came here to calgary, i did not feel comfertable with my English at all. Maybe because everybody here speaks English and they are realy good at it also the environment when everything around you is in English and i think this is the difference between here and wher i used to live. My English improved but i still have many things to learn and i hope by the end of EAP3 i would improve my English more.

Final Exam

Today i had my final exam in writing and for me it is the hardest exam. i have to improve my writing mark and also my writing skill and i was a little but stressed out. Actually i had a very bad exam. Before the exam the instructor said if anybody want to go the washroom it is better if you go now because during the exam we are not allowed to go out for any reason. i went to the washroom before the exam, so when i started to write my outline and begin with my introduction, i start feeling that i have to go the washroom again. Of course in this situation ithink nobody can think properly and it was realy bad and i felt that my stomack is going to explode really. i started to feel the pain so in this case i started to finish my essay quickly. i dont really remember what i have wrote. i think everybody was surprised that i finished early, believe me just because i had to go to the washroom. At the end i just hope to pass this course.

Destiny

Muslims believe in destiny and that everything is destined for us. we make choices and do what ever we want according to our feeling and our brains also to our religion, but at the end all the choices that we make are destined to happened for us. Life is a path we go through whether we do good or bad and it depends on us. Muslims believe in Heaven and hell after death. Lets say life is a school, if you do good things and take the right path you pass your exam if not you fail. the things that we do in life will determine our destiny after life( death) Heaven or hell. There is a saying which say<>.

Couscous

What is Couscous? It is like grains about 1mm diameter before cooking and it is rounded shape semolina wheat. it's origin is from north Africa from the 13th century Hispanic-Muslim culture. which was in north Africa and Andalous. This traditional dish was famous specially in Algeria and west of Morocco, Tunisia and Libya also also it is quite known around the Mediterranean sea. Now it is known almost all over the world. It is an essential type food in the Maghreban area. Usually in Algeria we have Couscous every Friday after the afternoon prayer. In some parts of Algeria we call it ( Taa'am). They are different ways of making it. you can make it with its sauce and vegetables and lamp or beef and sometimes chicken or without it and with sugar if you wan and some people add milk to it sometimes. In Tunisia, they make it a little bit spicy.

Sports

One of the most popular sports in Algeria is Soccer. Everybody plays soccer and i do not know why they call it soccer and not football here in canada. we use only our feet in this game and they give the name of football to american football when they do not use their feets only in some part of the game, strange. i have been playing football since i was 5 years old, because in soccer you just need a ball and you can keep playing all day and it was always fun for me to play football and swimming as well. when i became 11 years old i started to play tennis and i became realy good at this game and won alot of tournaments. i won about 13 tournament cups and around 5 medals but i did not keep playing i dont know why, maybe just being lazy, and my marks went down.despite i was always the best student in my class but,,,,,,,. I think i have the ability to learn soprts quickly and be good at it, and i tried many different soprts like volleyball, basketball and handball anything that is related to a ball and i enjoy it alot. In football i got around 6 medals as well and played for a club for a while but soccer it was always fun to play it with my friends. here in calgary i dont play football that much only sometimes in the university and it is always indoor of course. the same thing about tennis, i guess there are not toomany people who play tennis here so i think i will try to learn how to play hockey.

Night in the desert

This picture reminds me when i used to live in Doha- Qatar. I lived there almost for 9 years and it is a small country and very rich with natural resources like oil and gas and it is one of the biggest oil exporter in the world with very small population. most of the country is deserted outside the cities and it is very good place to drive in the sand mountains if you are risk taker becuae it is very dangerous and scary. That night was a big party going on and it was called dune party. It was in the desert where the bands play their music. Everybody brought his tent to sleep over becuase it was two nights party. You can party at night time and swim in the morning or drive over the dunes. That was me and my friends and it one of the best memories that i have there. The funny thing about that night that we brought evrything to make BBQ for dinner but we forgot how we are going to make the fire because we brought only food. We had to go back to the stone ages and think how they were making fire in that time but at the end we made it i don't know how. it was one the biggest parties ever when there were over 1000 people there and it was just different and alot of fun.

Casbah

What a great place and what a legendary area. It is called La Casbah and it is one of the oldest places in the capital of Algeria, Algiers. It was hardest area for french invader to go in and find leaders for the Algerian revolution. If you do not live in this area, you can not get out of it because it is like a maze, and nobody knows the place only the people who live there. The french had control almost all of Algiers and all of Algeria. But they did not know how to get into La Casbah. Women and men, were fighting together in different way and it was very hard for the french to have doubts about the women, they never thought that they will be involved. But at the end the invader had some sources to help them find the leaders and explode their houses because some of them did not want to serenader.

Fernie

One of my best experience here in Canada is when i went to Fernie resort in BC. It was my first time to snowboard and actually play with the snow even though i do not like the cold weather and snow, but i really enjoyed it. One thing that i didn't like about it is that i hurt my body alot, obviously because i was falling all the time. when i first learned how to stand up and go down the first hill for beginners i didn't know how to stop or turn left or right , so i hit everyone in my way. Everybody used to stop when they saw me going down because the know they will be in danger, but at the end i learned how to snowboard down the hill and stop. I was very pleased and happy because i learned i a new sport that i did not know before and specially not falling. i am looking forward to try it again.

Cheb Hasni

his name is Hasni Chekroun, one of algeria's unforgetable singers. Cheb means young and most of algerians Rai singers have it as an artist name. He sang about love, about youth, about poor but he was famous for his love songs that touched all algerian heart. Young generation and old, girls and boys. He was singing about true events that he experienced in his life, and share them with everybody, and his songs dealt specially about youth problems just like his talking to them or about them. His feeling were true and his words were just right and sensitive. He is from the city of Oran, him and cheb khaled and they made Rai music famous and international while that time arabic music did not exist only inside the arab world. Then came after them another singer called cheb mami but that was in the early 1990's. unfortunately he was assassinated in 29th sep, 1994 and the algerian music went down almost stoped, and too many singers quit singing and many of them imigrated to france becuase of the islamic fundamentalist threats. specially Rai singers becuase they say this kind fo music is provocative, and it is mostly about taboo subjects. alomst 6 years or more none of Rai singers published any album after Hasni's death only out side algeria. Rai means (opinion) so all thses singers expresed their feelings through Rai music. They could not express it in that time but after year 2000 things got better and algeria became like before. Hasni is always going to be in algerians heart and we still listen to his music until now, and he still alive with us. we can not forget you!!!!!!

EAP2

EAP refers to English For Academic Porpuses and thats the course that i am taking in order to get the University Of Calgary with the needed level of english and in this course i got the chance to meet many other students from diffrents parts of the world with diffrent cultures and traditons, we are almost like a big family going through the same feeling and events. they got to know about my culture and i get to know about theirs as well. our class is a mixture of Chinees, Vietnamees, Corean, Russian, Ukrainian, Brazilian, Saudi Arabian ,Iranian , Indounisian and Algerian cultures.i think for all of us it was never a problem that we come from diffrent countries.

i want to say something for students from lecture2 that lecture 1 is way better than yours hehe ;-) , im just kidding?

FIFA

The federation national DE football and it is an international governing body of association. it was founded in Paris on may 21, 1904 and it has 208 members and the first world cup was held in 1930 and there is a women's world cup besides of that and it started in 1991.the world cup is every 4 years and all members must be part of a federation according to their continent or geographically resident to be qualify for the entry to FIFA.until now there is only one team that had won the world cup 5 times which is Brazil.

NO IDEA

i don't know what to write , I'm new to this thing and my teacher told me to? I am editing this post and right now we are in the last 2 weeks and it is very stressful. there are lots of homework to do, presentation and assignments to hand in. everybody is trying his or her best to do well in the exams and hopefully pass this course, specially me because i have to improve my writing. Writing in blogs and comments to each other i think it is a good way to encourage us to write, enjoying in the same time and read about different topics and other students intrests.