I remember last month in June, after staying up all night long at Student Life Center (SLC) of UWaterloo reading a paper on Gamma ray bursts and another one on noise in Josephson junctions, and rederiving all equations in them, I felt have no energy to walk 4km back home at 4AM. For the first time I slept on a sofa, it was not in fact a sofa it was quite I'd call a "recliner". In the middle of night this center is the only place open to students 24/7 for gathering, dancing, eating, drinking, listening, talking, studying, etc.
I woke up around 10 AM with freshly brewed coffee smell in the area. After I washed and had the best coffee with a big muffine, I went out to stretch and walk back home to take a shower. Right in front of my eyes I saw two bodygurads and Barak Obama. He was 2 meters away from me, coming out of a door and about to get into a car and there was nobody around. I was stoned to see this scene and thought I am dreaming. THe car door was open but before he gets into the car, he noticed my astonishment and stepped forward for a meter bending toward me and said hello, I am Barak, who are you? I was confused and totally mixed up. I said my name in the format I wrtite it on scientific papers: I said I am Mohamamd H. Ansari. He laughed and said "nice to meet you Mr. Mohammad H., What is the H. stands for?" and I said "Hossein". He laughed and said: "we have a name in common. Have a nice day"
On the way back home I could not believe what did I see and was reviewing the moment and laughing at how I introduced myself, it was so awkward! :)
Updates, December 2010: Since then I checked the news many times and there is nothing in the univerity news and publicity about the visit of the preseidnet from a random university. I am not surprised to hear today that the chair of our university has been promoted by the Queen Elizabeth to serve as the governor Gerneral of Canada, which is the federal representative of the Canadian/British monarch, i.e. the representatitive of the Queen in my country. Did the visit have anything to do about this news? I never know.
