the dude of waterloo

i came across a dude today who goes to uni in waterloo. he was a real dude, in dress and speech, and the combination of attributes kind of cracked me up. it was hard to keep a straight face as we talked, but that could also have been cos i’m seriously cold given the recent plummet in the temperature.

back to waterloo, or water-abad as it is affectionately known by the large number of iranian students at its stellar engineering university, could easily be mistaken for a town in germany. judging from the names and language, as well as the blond/burlish-looks of its main inhabitants its as much duetcsh-canadian as you can get. but the great olympiad level minds of many young iranians who now find it much harder to make it to the us schools are attracted to this bland city and its beloved university, to be poached thereafter by some fantastic private company/university, or better yet start their own mega-millions-business.

coming full-circle, it was just too bizarre to see this dude fitting in with the legions of nerdy olympiad minds and computer geeks that are the main occupants of u-w. as they say, you can’t judge a book by its cover.