Prison Tattoos, Stale Alcohol Breath and Long Pinkie Fingernails (on men!)

I went to KIEV! And yes, that is what my final impressions were when I boarded the plane back to Baku - the men in the Ukraine seem to have an awful lot of prison tattoos on their knuckles; they smell of stale alcohol all of the time (but what can you expect in a culture where people start drinking vodka at 9 a.m. and all day long it is common for people of all social classes and occupations to wander the city drinking beer out of the bottle any time during the day as if it is made of water); and it is mysterious to me why so many of them also have long pinkie fingernails, except that it is pretty gross.

I arrived in Kiev and had the fun of navigating from the airport to my friend's house on my own- fumbling in bad Russian. In another taxi ride I was certain the driver told me to be careful of bad drivers who hike up their prices- and he called them "communist bandits" - which was pretty funny to hear in Russian. The sites in Kiev are interesting and old - but it is COLD IN THE UKRAINE! Women there all look like supermodels, tall and skinny and decked out in high fashion (even in freezing rain). And if you don't know this already - people there are VERY RELIGIOUS. They are Orthodox Christians - so even women in the smallest skirts you have ever seen on the highest heels anyone could barely walk in will cover their heads in a religious place and weep and pray and kiss the religious icons and cross themselves over and over again.

Lankaran - on the border with Iran

On a recent trip to the southern region of Azerbaijan, Lankaran, on the border of Iran I had the good fortune of checking out the local bazaar. It was an incredibly interesting place, and the cultural and religious issues facing women there are even more intense than other areas of the country. Here are a few photographs of some of the women there, who are rarely seen outside the home after 6 p.m.

Bellydancing!!

So on this latest trip to Istanbul we decided to go for it and buy ourselves semi- authentic bellydancing outfits at the grand bazaar. Why you may ask? Well to go along with the bellydancing lessons that I (and a group of wonderfully fun friends) have started to take. And let me just say now....it is hard work! We are working muscles that I didn't know I had. But our amazing teacher promises us that soon we will all be Shakira!!

Florence!

I had the incredible good fortune to be sent to Florence, Italy last week on work-related business. It also happened to coincide perfectly with my birthday. Naturally I took the trip as a welcomed break from life in Baku, and while the work was long and hard, I had two days at the end to simply enjoy the amazing food, beautiful people, sexy language, and mind blowing gelato. It was a perfect way to spend this birthday. Of course the experience wasn't entirely without incident. I did suffer an unfortunate cheese-related-injury (or CRI, as I am calling it). All due to my intense love and devotion to parmesan. My final night in Florence I found a shop and bought a big block of parmesan to take (smuggle) back to Azerbaijan with me. And in my excitement to taste it (it has been so long since I just ate a really good chunk of parmesan cheese!) I tried desperately to break off a piece...but it was too hard, and I was too impatient. I had no knife, so my next poorly judged moved was to use my fingernails. Well, let this serve as a warning to all those who follow after me - good hard parmesan cheese under the fingernails can CAUSE SERIOUS BODILY INJURY. At the moment it was happening I didn't realize it, perhaps because I was focused on the taste of the thing, but once my little feast was over the pain began to set it. I had cheese PACKED under the nails of my forefinger and thumb SO hard that I had actually separated skin from nail. Cringe. Days later and I am still feeling the effect of that CRI.

A better outcome was had when I made the somewhat impulsive decision to get my haircut in Florence. It had been almost a year, and I was getting tired of looking like a hippie...and, right or wrong, I assumed that even a bad haircut in fashionable Italy would be better than most haircuts I would get in Azerbaijan. So upon recommendation of a woman who lives in Florence, I fumbled through making an appointment (in very very poor Italian), and when the time came I went in armed with a photo and the spirit of pantomime. With no common language, I had a hilarious time communicating with all the staff, trying to show what I wanted, trying to compromise with the woman who was doing my cut (and insisting that she needed to take a LOT more off than I wanted) - and in the end I am pretty sure she just did what she wanted, with a team of cute Florentine shampoo girls and stylists all looking on and talking about the crazy foreigner with the ridiculously long hair. And although she took about 5 times more off the length than I wanted, she was right. Her sense of style is much better than mine, and in the end I love the cut. And she even did a quick eyebrow plucking before I left as well. Florence is dreamy.

A Make Believe World

So here are a few photos from the make believe world that some of us expats create here in Azerbaijan to pass the time. Three different parties are represented here, one is the 70's and 80's Disco party (where I went as Madonna in her "Like A Virgin" era, because I like to make myself laugh and it seemed appropriate here given the cultural emphasis on virginity and my job as the Gender Liaison :); the other two parties were a Murder Mystery party (characters and costumes assigned) and a Pirates of the Caribbean party (it turns out that oddly enough I have a lot of pirate-attire in my wardrobe in general so only a fake sword needed to be added). These theme parties are a lot of fun, and are an excuse for us to get dressed up, wear wigs and laugh a lot - which is a fantastic break from the real world for a night.

Other fun updates to report (other than my night as an unleashed Madonna - where my adolescent spirit rejoiced!) I should mention that this has been a packed month of busy work and travel, both for pleasure and work. In the midst of it all, I have been suffering for more than two weeks with recurrent eye infections that I apparently contracted from a kitten I was fostering (did anyone know that conjunctivitis is one of the few diseases that can be transmitted from animal to human?). So after numerous antibiotic eye drops and a recent visit to the health clinic I am hopeful that this week I will be able to rid myself of it. We'll see. Another new experience for me was learning how to give my cats injections of antibiotics (since my whole household got ill from the little rescue kitten I was fostering)...Injections in the back of the cats' necks. A scary thing but I did and feel a whole lot more capable now.