Year in Review!

So we have successfully reached the end of another year. It seems like so long ago since the end of last year, and yet, the time also seemed to fly by. This year I have lived in three different countries, China, the US and Azerbaijan. Each country very different from the others. We have been caught in the middle of diplomatic wrangling and thus had to be reassigned at the last minute... twice. In the end, I'm glad we ended up in Baku, the post seems friendly, the people are also very friendly, and it is a very unique change of pace from China. I think Manilla might have been nice, but I don't think our experience would have been significantly different from our experience in China.
We celebrated our fourth year of marriage this year, and I look forward to many more years. I can honestly say that marriage is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I'm not saying it's not tough, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.
I lived at home for four months.... enough said.
My brother went to war....
My sister decided she was going to be a doctor...
I went to Turkey for Thanksgiving....
We also expanded our family this year. I now have a sweet loveable Honey sitting at my feet keeping me company during the day. After all my years of hoping and wishing, I finally have a dog, and although I sometimes get really annoyed (like after she peed on the carpet for no reason at all) I really do enjoy having her with me. I don't know what I would do without her.
Speaking of expanding families 2006 was also a staging year. My brother got engaged to a very nice young woman, and we are all looking forward to their wedding next year. I got knocked up and EVERYONE is looking forward to the arrival of our first child (my parents are beside themselves with glee).
All in all 2006 has been a good year, and I can't wait to see what's in store for 2007!

The Nutcracker

Finally! After 3 days being cooped up in the house, not being able to go anywhere we finally got out! Or rather I finally got out. My hubby had to go out despite the unsafe conditions to attend to some urgent work business, while I was still sequestered at home. Snow and ice are not friends of Baku or pregnant women.
So for our journey out, we attended the Baku performance of the Nutcracker. Now, I freely admit, I don't know very much at all about ballet. I appreciate the art, it's a beautiful thing, I just don't know enough to appreciate fine ballet, from average ballet. However, tonight's performance was not very nice at all, except that I got out of the house. At first, I thought I was just being nitpicky. I have a pet peeve against professional artists who can't get their stuff together to dance in sync. I mean if a high school band can all march in step to music they play themselves, artist, who get paid to dance together, should be able to dance together in sync. But as the performance went on I noticed that the choreography was not that sophisticated, and anything that was difficult was sloppily done. And it's bad if I noticed that it was sloppy. All the male dancers would stumble after executing any kind of jumping spin and the big move for couples dancing together was for the man to hold the woman up while she performed waist high split kicks.
But even though I'm complaining, I was happy to get out, and it was nice to see a ballet again. And I have to say the man who played Santa Clause had a very nice muscular butt, and his blue tights emphasized his cheeks nicely. he he

Snow day!

Today is a Baku snow day! It started snowing yesterday, it snowed all night, and still really hasn't stopped snowing. The thing of it is, that there really isn't that much snow on the ground. It's almost like Texas where people freak out if they see a snow flake. It's actually been pretty amusing to sit at the window and watch the craziness as people slide down the hill on our street. Even as I sit here typing I can here the spinning of wheels and gunning of engines as drivers try in vain to coax their cars up the little hill. I think a big part of the problem is that no one has plowed the street. So the snow has compacted into ice, and with people's bald tires, and old crappy cars the hill is proving to be too much of a challenge. And as usual, with traffic in Baku, there is the yelling and the horn honking accompanying the sliding cars. I don't really know what they expect to accomplish, if your car is sliding backwards, obviously there is really nothing you can do to improve the situation, other than get out and push. But who knows? Maybe the honking will somehow magically give the car traction and the driver will then be able to progress up the hill.

Fire Temple

Last week I went to the Baku Fire Temple with some friends. Supposedly ancient Bakuvians built a temple on this site because of the fire that naturally sprouted from the ground. People came from as far away as India to worship at the alter of the firegods.

December blues

WHEW! November just seemed to drag/fly by. I started taking Russian language classes, 5 days a week thank you very much, started to get out a little more. I went to several International Women's Club events, and a couple BP social club things, I even started doing some baby group events, our final shipment of crap finally arrived, and we went to Turkey for Thanksgiving. In between all that the baby got bigger and it's finally no longer possible for people not to know I'm pregnant. It's really quite obvious. I wish you could backdate posts on blogger, I'd like to cheat and write a few posts as if I was in Turkey, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. But I will update in the next day or so and write out a post on Turkey. It was loads of fun, and we took a lot of great pictures.
I'm looking forward to all the adventures to have in December!

20 WEEKS! HALFWAY DONE!!!!!

I have finally reached the pregnancy midpoint! YEAH! Hopefully the second half of this pregnancy will be easier than the first. I'm tired of being sick, and I want to move on to the I'm happy and feeling fine phase. I'm still itty bitty and people are still shocked when I tell them that I am almost 5 months pregnant. I think if I was to keep pretending that I wasn't pregnant people might just think I'd gotten a little fat. Weirdly enough, despite the fact that I'm gaining belly a little everyday my body image is better than it's been in a long time. I think it's because I'm loosing weight everywhere else except my stomach (and well my chest, they're HUGE!). That and maybe all the attention of the crazy women loving Azeri men. Or maybe I'm just happy that I don't already look like I'm nine months pregnant. Even if I were to suddenly blow up tomorrow and gain ten pounds in the next week and everyweek thereafter I'd still be happy because I made it this far so small.

Rain Rain Go Away...

So the last week, I'm sitting at the kitchen table finishing up my first breakfast of the day, getting ready to put on my shoes and take the dog out for her morning constitutional when I see these huge splats begin to hit the window. Uh oh.... In about 30 more seconds the splats turn into a deluge and it's raining harder than I've seen it rain anywhere in a long time. I apologize to the dog, but tell her I'm not going out in this, and neither is she, and put her back in her crate. I thought it would rain hard and then lighten up a bit, but no. It rained hard for an hour or so. The street flooded, our lobby flooded, it was crazy. As I watched the street turned into a little river, and cars were driving by in water up to the middle of their wheels. But then it was weird, it finally stopped raining, and out came the sun and it was a gorgeous day. Except for the small creeks, and rivers everywhere you'd never know that it had been raining. Crazy!

uh... Honey we're not going out right now

the street in front of our apartment

driving in the river

more water

the pool inside our lobby

Flirting with kids

I was out walking with Honey today, when I was ambushed by a group of highschool boys who started off slyly asking about Honey. Started off innocently enough, although I should have known better most people here are terrified of dogs. They petted her, once I assured them she wouldn't bite, talked about how good she was, and even asked how old she was (although in retrospect they might have been asking my age). I talked politely with them, answering what I could with my limited knowledge of Russian, and their limited usable English, and then continued on with Honey to finish her potty break, which is why we were out there to begin with. As Honey finished up, two of them circled in again to make their move.... Apparently there needed to be courage worked up or something. The two of them approached as I was trying to get Honey to poop and started to compliment me. I didn't understand at first, but soon caught on, and tried to figure out a way to turn down these young'uns without being too mean, and in a way that they would definitely understand me. I tried to tell them in English that they were too young, they didn't get it, so then I moved on to hinting around the topic by asking them how old they were, and then implying that I was old... which when you're talking to 18 year olds a 30 year old is OLD. I was pleased though.... it's not everyday you get hit on by 18 year olds, while you are carrying your husband's child no less. Score one for the pregnant girls!

Mommy's first maternity outfit

So I thought we were going out Saturday so I got all dressed up and I thought I would celebrate by putting on a maternity outfit for once. I didn't think I actually needed one, so far I have been getting by with slightly baggier shirts and loose fitting pants, but when I put on the outfit I was surprised to see that I actually DO look pregnant. I suppose it's about time, I am nearly halfway through. But still, it's shocking to suddenly look in the mirror and see a pregnant woman. Anyway, I just thought I'd share the new look.

Sheep!

I was in the park with Honey this morning doing a little long neglected brushing when I noticed that there was an awful lot of commotion going on at the local school. I ignored it thinking that it was just regular noise, but then I noticed that the loud boys were herding two sheep into the schoolyard. Honey and I went closer to investigate, but could learn nothing, except that the I think kids were being let out of school early. Mothers and littler kids were fleeing the schoolgrounds in force, while the older kids were gathering in groups to gossip and exchange plans for the upcoming holiday (I assume. The govt. declared Mon & Tues to be national holidays in respect of Ramadan). Some kids and parents were milling about in the schoolyard. The kids running wild, as kids will do, and the parents watching with one eye and talking to teachers and other parents out of the other. The two sheep were alternately ignored and chased around by groups of boys, while the sheep handler tried in vain to keep the sheep contained and keep the boys away from them.
My best guest is that these sheep will be sacrificed. From what I have gathered from Wikipedia, at the end of Ramadan there is a feast of Eid and it is possibly a tradition to sacrifice a sheep in a symbolic nod to Abraham's gift of sheep from God when he was supposed to sacrifice his son. I also think, and I don't know where I'm getting this from that part of the sheep is eaten by the family, while the rest is given to the poor. I was curious to see if this is what was going on so I waited around for a good half an hour to see what they were up to, but nothing was happening so I went back home. Some pics...


mad handler trying to calm sheep

cornered!

run sheep run

schoolyard

sheep

kids in school yard

sheep