First World Housing Problems

One of the realities of Foreign Service life is moving sight-unseen into a new living space every few years.  Each house has its own little quirks that become apparent as we work to turn the space into our home.  And overseas, there's often the added fun of amenities that aren't designed for our oversized American belongings.

One of the first oddities we noticed in our apartment in Baku was the tall height of the bathtub side.  It's higher than our knees!  As Jeremy is demonstrating below, the tub height allows him to do an excellent Captain Morgan pose!

Jeremy high-stepping into the tub 

Also in the bathroom, the toilet paper holder is positioned directly under the towel bar and our luxurious American bathsheet towels are so long they reach the toilet paper holder.  Not a good recipe for keeping the toilet paper dry!

Towel interfering with the toilet paper

We conveniently have a trash chute in our kitchen closet.  However, we've discovered that our kitchen trash can is the same girth as the trash chute.  This makes it tricky to neatly drop a full trash bag into the chute without pushing and shoving it in.  I usually prefer to avoid manhandling full trash bags!

Trash chute of similar size to our trash can

The bedroom has plenty of built-in closet space.  What's crazy is the height of the closet bar.  It's so high, I can only reach it when standing on tip toes.  I know I'm not a tall person, but that's a tad extreme!

Erica stretching to hang her clothes

Of course, we are extremely grateful to have a warm house to move into.  It certainly beats the flip side - to arrive in a new country with no place to live.  And in the grand scheme of things, towels that are too long and trash chutes that are too small aren't bad problems to have and are absolutely First World Problems.

Pivnaya Apteka

Last night we went to a really hip restaurant called Pivnaya Apteka.  "Aptek" means pharmacy in Azeri and the decor of the restaurant followed a medical-scientific theme.  The backdrop of the bar was filled with hexagonal shelves and diagrams of molecular structures.  The waitstaff wore white lab coats and we saw drinks served in test tubes and laboratory flasks.

"Chemistry" bar with molecular diagrams

Curiously, the restaurant also had a marine animal theme.  We were seated at a tiny corner table underneath a massive whale tail.  Across from us was an octopus chair with a stream of tentacles flowing out behind it.  And the menu featured x-rays of frogs, tadpoles, and other creatures.  We thought the images were cool, but noted that some diners may find them unappetizing visuals to consider while contemplating dinner options. 

Enjoying our drinks under the whale tail

Accompanying all this was a DJ spinning club beats.  The restaurant's only been open for two months and many people haven't heard about it yet.  We felt like we had really found the new "in" place to be!

Angie and Erica lounge in the whale seat

Expectations of Azerbaijan

In anticipation of arriving in our new home city of Baku, Azerbaijan, Jeremy and I prepared our list of expectations for the next two years:

• Although Azerbaijan is a Muslim country, it practices a liberal form of the religion.  I predict we will see more mini skirts than headscarves.
• We will grow to appreciate four seasons of weather after four years of living in perpetual summer.  Baku gets windy, but the temperatures will actually be milder than the DC area.
• Jeremy will finally go skiing for the first time in five years.  Although Baku is not a ski town, there are ski resorts within a few hours drive.
• We will have to learn to keep a straight, stern face.  I've heard that smiling at strangers is interpreted as flirting!  I'm hoping once I've become acquainted with someone, it will then be okay to smile at them.
• We both hope to play more soccer, or find another team sport to get involved in.
• Azerbaijan will be more developed than Kenya or Cambodia, both of which are developing countries that receive significant amounts of monetary aid from donor countries.  Azerbaijan has its own wealth in oil and natural gas.
• We don't know a lot about the local cuisine, but I'm dreading potentially two years of Russian Borscht and meat & cabbage pies.  Hopefully that won't be the case!  Jeremy is crossing his fingers that Azerbaijani food will be better than Cambodian food.
• Baku will be the safest overseas city we've lived in yet.
• I'm worried about encountering more of a language barrier.  In Kenya, English was an official language.  And in Cambodia, English was readily spoken.  I feel that English will be less common in Azerbaijan, so I'll really have to work at learning the local language, which is called Azerbaijani or Azeri.
• Although I've never been a rug person, we will buy at least one rug.  Azerbaijan is known for its oriental-style rugs.

Stay tuned to our blog as we find out how many of these expectations come true!