Countryside!

35 Steps

Good Morning Baku!

Certainly it has been a surreal experience to be back in a place I never thought I'd see again. My hasty exodus in January took me to Colorado and Alaska but when my friend Dorje (chemistry teacher) wrote in June telling me my job was open again I jumped at the chance to return. Baku is a vibrant, evolving, walk able, liveable city that I am so happy to have the opportunity to return. And the kids seem pleased to see me too! Did they forget all the homework I assigned?

There are some changes. I have moved to a new huge apartment! There are 35 steps from my bed to the bathroom, but the floors are beautiful and there are 3 chandeliers. It overlooks a triangular square that is being renovated as well as all the surrounding buildings exteriors. When it’s done it will be absolutely wonderful. There are however some draw backs to the place. The main one is only one room is heated and it has 12 foot ceilings. Not a worry in the summer, but as the winter approaches it will become a 12 ft high ice box. I have put a request in for a move. We'll see if that goes through at any time soon. There’s also no parking for the soon to be motorbike. I have a feeling one will be coming my way soon.

The ceilings do have an unusual "sexy" lighting I've tried to capture and the front room and my bedroom are quite nice. There is a huge, albeit strangely located guest room, it is only on the third floor so not too many stairs and it has a small balcony overlooking the triangular square. So I am not complaining too much. Plus I get to get out of the city next weekend to look at some camp locations for the kids and there is a possibility that I will get to go to Paris for a teacher’s workshop in November. Life is good.

The settling in process is coming along. I’ve found the bus routes from home to school. Walked and run it a few times. I have forgotten most of my Russian and thinking about switching to Azeri classes. There are two problems with this plan….#1 I would insult my Russian teacher by dropping out and #2 Azeri class is on Fridays. I teach every period on Friday (and Tuesday) and don’t know if I will be able to function but I think I may as well try.

I bought some lotion the other day, but then I thought it might be conditioner after I tried to apply it to my arm and came away with a sticky mess. So I tried it as bath soap and was instantly covered with bubbles, finally realizing I had bought bath bubbles… Reading in Russian would come in handy as many products are coming in from Russia. With the Georgian situation we expect to see some shortages. I should mention that the conflict feels a long way away and no one, not even the nervous embassy types have said anything about it spilling over to Azerbaijan. We’ll just have to see what happens but for now things are quiet.

That is all for now.
Das Vidania

Baby blue bike

Razzie you will be pleased to know that a new member of the Lepry family has been born.... well acquired... It's a bike! A Beautiful Paris Dakar... I was going to go for a KTM in your Mother Country, but this one already speaks Azeri. So Woop Woop. I get to sing my way to school.
My awesome friend Andy Buckworth... he's in black in the picture in front of the Xinaliq (sp?) sign in a previous post about the dogs and mountain biking... anyway he is just fantastic and is letting me pay in installments. We are sharing the bike until I pay it off in May.

Of course I am getting a bit of flack from people but, truthfully the driving here is not as bad as other places and everyday there are more and more bikes. Plus the traffic is congested in the afternoons. There is however a small lane usually available to sneak through and leave all those Ladas and Mercedes behind. I am cutting my commute by 1/3. Also it makes it possible to get up early and swim at my swanky club. Life is grand!

Here is Andy with his darlin' girl Sasha... She's already a bike fanatic!









More shots follow from a tour around the country I was lucky to do on Baby Blue. It is just an awesome bike but surprisingly not as fast as my other F650. It is truly a dirt bike. More pics on the next post. Cheers!
Sue

City City

Here are some more pictures of the city. Most of these are shot in the old city which is no lie.. Many of these buildings and walls have dates inscribed in them like 1179. At first I thought that was their address... then my friend Lisa, pointed out that no, those were actually the YEAR these buildings were built! Pretty impressive.


A minnerete in the distance. There are quite a few mosques in the old city.
West wall of the old city.


Really old stones.
The presidents wife's house in dark brown with a mosque to the right.
A close up of the Maidens tower.
Roman Baths
The maidens tower
water trough

Nice balconies and buildings on the main avenue.

A common local scene. Cell phones are everywhere.

Cobble stones recently redone.

The carpet museum which used to be the Lenin Museum.