The Old City

Scott figured out my new camera for me today so here are some long overdue pictures of the Old City in Baku, Azerbaijan.  The Old City is an ancient city dating back to the 12th century and possibly even the 7th.  The Old City is stone walled city with gates.

        * see side note

 * Side note - I should probably point out that in this picture of the wall and what appears to be a parking lot, this is actually supposed to be two way traffic, but because people in Baku have no respect for traffic laws, themselves, or others this is the result.  MASS CONFUSION.  Notice the parking spaces, well you couldn’t park if you wanted to because you can’t get to the spaces.  Oh, and this is supposed to be two lanes - one going in each direction - the best I can tell, this became 5 lanes, 4 going the wrong direction.  The 1st picture was taken on a different day, notice one car and the stripes in the middle of the road indicating two lanes, one in each direction!   —- end side note.*

One of the most notable landmarks in the Old City is the Maiden Tower.  The Maiden Tower is a magnificent stone structure that I haven’t had the courage to explore inside yet, but I have admired it from the outside (perhaps this will be the location of my first cache placement?) 

      

The Maiden Tower used to be located on the shore of the Caspian Sea, but is now separated from the Caspian by a busy city street called “The Boulevard”.  Today the Old City is primarily made up of apartments, carpet vendors and restaurants. 

     

Here are a few pictures taken late evening to show the pretty colored lights that illuminate the tower after dark.

    

 

The PERFECT Hobby

Well folks, I’ve finally found it!  The PERFECT hobby.  I don’t know why I didn’t think of something like this before.  It’s right up my alley.  Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you what it is…

It’s geocaching!  That’s right geocaching.  So how did I learn about this geocaching?  Well, I was catching up on Carola’s blogyesterday.  She had posted about geocaching, I didn’t know what it was so I looked it up and that was all it took.  I knew that I’d found the PERFECT hobby.  I know, I know, I had to google it too, and once I did I was hooked.  I am hooked, Scott is hooked (more on that below), we are hooked.  

Geocaching is a kind of hide and seek game.  “The Hider” hides a waterproof container “cache” with “stuff” (stuff can include a notebook, pen, trackable item, small collectible items, etc) in it somewhere (anywhere) in the world.  The Hider then goes to this geocaching.com website, log the coordinates or clues about the location of their ”cache” into the database.  The Seeker goes to the geocaching.com website and enters some information, it can be country, state, zip code, etc…then a list of possible finds comes up!  Then they go seeking.  When the cache is found it is opened.  There should be a notebook and pen in there.  The “Seeker” writes their name and date and how they came to find the cache.  There will also be some small items.  You take one and you leave one!  That’s it.  Simple. 

Some of the cache items are trackable.  The way that works is that they are registered on geocaching.com,  the orignial and all subsequent owners of the item are then able to follow it from location to location provided that the person who finds and takes the item goes to the website and logs the information - which they do, because that’s the way this thing works.  Also if you find the cache you go to the website, tell the story about how you found the cache, what you took and what you left.  You even log in and document if you weren’t able to find the cache.  This might mean that the cache was stolen or not placed back in it’s original hiding place after being found before.

It just sounds like so much fun and it’s a hobby that you can do all over the world!  There are 4 caches hidden in Azerbaijan and Scott and I intend to attempt to find them!  I haven’t quite decided what we will take to put in the cache when we find that first one, but I have decided what we will put in to 3 future caches.  Trackable Coo Coo for Caching coins!  I bought these on ebay today (of course I did LOL).

Scott and I have talked about taking a lot of road trips when we return to the States.  Seeing National Parks, etc.  This new hobby is the perfect way to see the world and leave a little piece of ourselves in each place we visit!  I’m We’re going to love it!  So, that’s it, my new PERFECT hobby.  It’s kind of like Nancy Drew meets Louis and Clark! 

Now, how did I get Scott interested?  3 letters - GPS.  You see, this game is based on clues AND coordinates.  You use the GPS to help find the location and the clues to lead you to the cache.  GPS isn’t mandatory, but I suspect that this is the way many sneaky clever wives such as myself spend a little more quality time with their husbands!  ; )

He really is interested in it.  He even suggested stashing our own cache!  I almost fainted on that one!

I hope some of you get interested in geocaching as well.  If you hike and like to go exploring, you may as well make a game out of it!  There are also CITO events (cache in trash out) where you take a trash bag and clean up the area as you are looking for the cache.  I’ll probably need a case of bags for my first cache here in Azerbaijan!

Thanks Carola!

More Flag Talk

I started this as a comment to yesterday’s post, but it started to become WAY to lengthy so I decided it deserved it’s own space, so here it is.

I started to become obsessed with the way people display the US flag when my husband was deployed to Iraq last year.  We lived just outside of Camp Lejeune in a small fishing village called Sneads Ferry.  It was a fishing village but a large part of the population was either active duty or retired military - a majority of them veterans. 

This area in North Carolina sees a lot of wind from tropical storms and hurricanes.  After one tropical storm I started to notice that there were several US flags around the city and town that were damaged.  Over the course of the next several weeks most of the flags were replaced, with the exception of two.  Two that I passed everyday.  The first on the way out of the neighborhood, this guy (previous military service) had a flag mounted to his house.  The flag had become twisted around the pole and then became torn from being thrashed around.  It stayed this way for MONTHS.  Many military men and women lived in the neighborhood, no one said a thing.  This guy had no respect for his neighbors, no respect for himself and obviously no respect for the flag.  Finally after I just couldn’t stand it anymore I wrote a note and put it in his mailbox.  Three weeks later there was a new flag flying.

The second flag flew over the Sneads Ferry Post Office.  The same post office that I went to EVERY Saturday morning to mail a care package (or 2) to my husband who was deployed to Iraq.  The last thing I wanted to see was a torn American Flag on a Federal Bldg, during this time.  I first noticed the tears after the storm so I gave it a little while.  After a few weeks when it still hadn’t been repaired I said something to the female clerk.  She looked clueless so I waited til Monday morning and called.  The gentleman that I spoke to assured me that he would take care of it.  The next day on my way to work there was a new flag.   

I have since acquired two US flags of my own….the first from 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines dedicated to me by my husband for my support of him and the troops during their deployment.  It was flow over their base in Iraq.   The second flown over the US Embassy in Minsk during that period of political uncertainty I spoke about from March-May.  When we return to the states I plan to have display cases made and display these flags proudly in my home.

Anyway, I really don’t care if people wear flags on their shirts or flag pins or hats with flags, blah blah blah.  Just don’t write on them, throw them on the ground, or display them improperly.  Just show a little respect for it.  Thank you!

Red, White and Blue

I’m being proactive this week.  I called the Prince George’s County Board of Elections to check to see what I needed to do to get my address updated in order to receive my ballot for the November election.  If you remember I was not able to vote in the Maryland Primary Election due to an error in record keeping at the Board of Elections and I am not about to let that happen again.  The woman that I spoke to remembered me (I really did raise a stink back then), she told me that I could either mail or fax my request.  I’m going to fax and then follow up with a call.

As I was catching up on some of my favorite blogs today I came across a link to The Overseas Vote Foundation.  I clicked, I read, I’m impressed.  They have all the information you need right on this one website.  I’m using it.  Of course I’m also going to send my fax, well because I WILL VOTE IN THIS ELECTION).  Thanks Monica for linking to this site!  What a wonderful resource for us Americans overseas.

Now I realize I’m probably opening up a can of worms but here goes…

I watched a muppet video that was posted on youtube in which the American flag is displayed incorrectly.   As I was waiting for the video to load I looked at the flag and thought something just didn’t seem quite right and that led to my google search in which I found this.  Notice anything wrong?  How about this one?  Do these guys even have a clue? I mean the Muppet’s I can understand, but a man who wants to be our Commander in Chief AND “The” Commander in Chief?  Common guys!  Oh, and if you are a geek like me here’s a link to the Flag Code.

AMCHAM

This past weekend we went to a picnic put on by AMCHAM.  This stands for the American Chamber of Commerce.  There was a live band, free beer, free food, raffle tickets (with awesome prizes) and fireworks.

Initially I said I wasn’t going.  This was a working event (sort of) for the hubbo which usually equates to me being left to fend for myself.  Not to sound like a stick in the mud, but I’ve become more of an introvert lately and would rather just stay home.  This is most likely depression due to the fact that I’ve moved so many times, have no job, no personal belongings and Tricare continues to piss me off almost daily, but I digress.  I decided to go after speaking with a couple members of the mafia who were also going, good, I’ll at least have some people to talk to~!.

The Ambassador made the opening speech and then it was time to eat. 

One of the mafia and I started making our way to the food.  The other stayed to save the seats (which at 4pm were prime and by later in the evening were horrible due to the proximity to the band’s speakers).  Anyhoo, we were almost first in line for the food.  Then the foil came off the first chaffing dish and out of no where they appeared like a pack of wild animals.  Seriously, it was like someone opened the flood gates.  People were everywhere. 

The prime position I once held, now meant nothing.  I’m telling you these people have no respect for themselves or others.  They cut in front of you by the 10’s.  SERIOUSLY.  They take whole packages of hamburger buns, plate loads of food, sometimes with their fingers and sometimes with serving utensils.  Needless to say, after about 10 minutes of trying to make a plate of food this is what I had 1/2 baked potato, 5 potato wedges, potato salad and pasta.  Yep, all carbs.  What?  Were there vegetables?  Why yes there were, but the 6 huge trays of salad were reduced to scraps of cilantro in less than 2 minutes by these vultures.  I was standing right by one when the wrap came off and couldn’t even manage to get a cucumber on to my plate.

There was also meat.  It was easily identified as hamburgers and hotdogs.  I had been hoping for REAL American food and it was in the shape of the all familiar frank, but was a very strange color and not burnt to my hotdog specifications.  The burgers, well, lets just say, they were grey.  I’m not sure this was even beef so I just went back to the table with my plate full of carbs and bitched.

The other people sitting at my table faired a little better with the variety of food they were able to obtain and offered to share but I declined.  By this time I’d been thoroughly disgusted by the vulture scene.  Do these people not eat?  EVER?  The food was also supposed to last til 8:30….yeah right, in under an hour these vultures had devoured every scrap.  My suggestion for next year.  Servers. 

I’ll spare you the description of the bathroom, but I will say that it’s pretty bad when you leave wishing it was a hole in the ground!  YEAH!  All the Purell in my purse didn’t help me feel clean after that!  WHOA!

Ok, so later in the afternoon dessert was served, Raspberry Sorbet, YUM and melon.  I did manage to get a plate full of melon (if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em) and these good muffins that were stuffed with pudding (interesting).  So at least I did have a little variety in my food intake for the day.

Now, no fourth of July celebration is complete without hookers right?  RIGHT!  Here are a couple of pics of two that were present at this celebration.  Now I’m really not sure if they are hookers or not.  That’s just what we called them to amuse ourselves.  Take notice of the outfits.  Really?  Seriously?  Yes, the one in the black skirt is probably not wearing underwear, hard to tell, maybe her rear is eating them?  Anyway….they were entertaining.

Later in the evening threre was a man auction.  You know the type, guys get up on stage, take their shirts off and drunk women bid on them.  It was entertaining.  One guy gave women 10 manat to bid on him (including myself).  I’m not quite sure what the strategy was there, but a woman did end up paying either 70 or 85 manat (I can’t remember) for him.  The highest paid was 200 manat (that’s just crazy - he wasn’t even cute).

After the auction was the raffle.  Hubbo had purchased 20 tickets.  10 pink, 10 blue.  The prizes were good, mobile phones, dvd players, ipods and plane tickets….NOW WE’RE TALKING!  I just had to have those tickets….two different prizes, 2 tickets economy class to anywhere in Europe and 2 tickets business class to London. 

Now this was probably the longest raffle in history.  There were 6o prizes, it was raining and there were a lot of drunks waiting to win those plane tickets.   The prizes were raffled in order of value, meaning the tickets would be last.  I won a digital camera.  Nice, I was thinking about buying a new one, now I don’t have to.  The next category….plane tickets. 

Ok, here’s where I get mad.  The prize two round trip tickets anywhere in Europe.  They call 1218…..MY number.  I heard it, the girl next to me heard it, the guy on my other side heard it.  I find the ticket….look at it, verify that indeed they did call my number, I scream and off to the stage I go.  I arrive on stage and then I hear…..0218, EXCUSE ME?  I have 1218, the ticket check guy says, 0128 I say 1218 he says no, so I leave the stage.  BUMMER!  Everyone heard 1218.  0218 wasn’t there so they redrew…..I should have asked to see the ticket she drew.  I just know I won those tickets.  Oh well, I have a new camera so I didn’t go home empty handed.

Making The Most Of It

It is expensive living in Baku.  The prices are unbelievable.  So I’ve decided that I’m going to make the most of it and cook with the inexpensive vegetables that are plentiful.  With a little help from Allrecipes.com I’ve discovered some wonderful new recipes. 

Last night we had Chicken Dilly Sandwiches and tonight we are having Mediterranean Chicken with Eggplant.  Some of the ingredients that are plentiful right now include:

Eggplant

Tomato

Cucumber

Dill

Cilantro

Onion

Potato

I just did a simple search for “Dill and Chicken” and another for “Eggplant” and came up with some wonderful ideas.

A few tips about using the website:

1.  Always read the comments.  People make the recipes, modify them slightly and then comment.  Some people are just ridiculous with their rating for example the recipe calls for chicken, pasta and tomato….the person decides to use beef, rice and tomato instead, then rates it one star….UMMM, maybe try it with the suggested ingredients and then make MAJOR modifications next time.

An example of how to use the comments.  Tonights dinner calls for eggplant.  In the recipe it says to soak the eggplant in a salt water bath.  I read the comments and several people suggested putting the eggplant in a collander, sprinkling with salt and letting stand for 20 minutes.  I chose to use this method instead of what the recipe called for.

2.  Recipes that have 4-5 stars and lots of comments are usually winners.  I had Thanksgiving dinner last year with a majority of the recipes from Allrecipes and it was a huge success.

So that’s it.  I’m not getting paid by Allrecipes, though if they have an opening I’d gladly take it (I have this yarn habit I need to support).

Speaking yarn next in my que the Baby Surprise Jacket.  I hope to be able to begin that as soon I finish the Hoodie Baby Blanket that I’m making for Kriszti.  Also in line are the Clapotis (I know, I hate the name too, but it’s really beautiful), and after visiting my friend Christine’s blog today and ogling over her Nutkins I’ve decided that I MUST make them afterall!  I have the perfect yarn. 

Oh, and I got my partner for the Summer Yarn Swap….shhh, it’s a secret!  Did I mention lately that I love swaps?  I mailed my package for the HSKS5 this week!  I hope it arrives much faster than the last….stay tuned.