Western World, meet Baku, AZ!

It's been almost exactly 48 hours since my arrival in Baku. Today we celebrated Aite, which is the end of Ramadan. We celebrated by eating sweetened lamb fat. Sounds appetizing, right? Right. This was the first food I ate here that didn't stay down. I'm thankful for a bathroom away from my host family so they don't have to know that it's not all going down and staying down. TMI? Sorry.

So, Western World, meet the beautiful BAKU, AZ!

This is the view from the deck of my 20th floor flat:

The walls of the Old City, early 1600's:

Basically, all the streets look like this:
The Maiden Tower! If you google Baku, you'll inevitably see a picture of this. This is where the princess jumped from to commit suicide because the King, her father, wanted to marry her...or so the story goes. This is the view from below:
And the view from the top! Looking down on the Old City:
The Caspian Sea:
Climbing the Maiden Tower with Amanda (Roommate) and Rashad (Host Brother):
Proof of life in Baku:
inside the tower:
SO. STINKIN. BEAUTIFUL.
Walking by the Sea:
I ordered pomegranate juice, so they took out a juicer, cut 5 pomegranates in half, and juiced them all. Yes, I drank 5 entire pomegranates. Whoa. That's probably enough antioxidants to last me years:
The city center at night...Sort of reminded me of Rodeo Drive!

So, that's all I've got so far. But, I'm figuring out my new life and the way around this new city. Teaching begins in a few days, and then normal routine will become the norm, and I'm excited (and ready) to be back in a teaching routine.

Sorry for lack of any humor whatsoever in this post. If you just had to eat sweetened lamb fat for two meals and a snack, you wouldn't have any humor to offer either.