First few days....SO BUSY!!

Oh wow so much has happened since I landed in Baku on Wedesday. I went to Chicago, Iceland, Liepzig, Germany, then finally to Baku, Azerbaijan. It is so different here. There was a mosque right there next to the airport. The sun was setting and the lights of the mosque were on...it was a beautiful sight. There were about 180 soldiers in a 12 bus caravan driving on the freeways in Baku. We caused quite a sceen. People were slowing down and looking inside the buses. I was kind of scared because I didn't know what was going on. Police escorted the caravan as we exited the freeway and took the backroads through Baku to get to the military base. It took about an hour and a half to get to the base. Along the way the busdriver lost sight of the road and swirved to get back on and almost flipped the bus. Yea....pretty scary. I didn't want to get injured right before the mission started. What was really crazy was seeing the uneven distribution of wealth. There would be this great big house surrounded by houses that were missing a roof or ones that were run down and old. There were oil fields everywhere...and I mean EVERYWHERE!! I couldn't believe it.

The Azeri soldiers have never seen blonde American females, let alone blonde American females who are in the Army. During chow time the privates stare at PFC Hansen and I. It was really super awkward at first but we're used to it now (I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing....sorry Doug, you know I love you). The chow could be better but I guess it's better than what the Azeri soldiers are used to eating. The other day the cooks took sliced bread and deep fried it. I think it was their attempt to make french toast. I ate it with ketchup because I thought it was fried potatoes.

Today we covered the opening ceremony of Regional Response 2009 (that's the name of the mission). General Hamm from Europe (4 STAR GENERAL!!!!) was here and so was the Command Seargeant Major of Europe as well. He have me a coin for the work I did covering the ceremony. Hansen and I were running all over the place taking pictures then getting out of the way. The Azeri Army is so disciplined. They march like the Russians and it's such a cool thing to watch. They have so much pride in serving their country, which became an independent nation in 1994. Some of the privates I've talked to (some speak English pretty well) said that they returned about a month ago from the trenches and were fighting against Armenia. These soldiers are just kids...18 years old. The privates are strictly infantry. It takes them years to rank up and be able to go to school and learn a trade (like AIT). My counterparts are all officers (majors) and some of them speak English. They have been so friendly to us and don't treat us differently because I'm female. The privates are scared to death of me though. I get saluted all the time and it's pretty funny. I salute them back because I don't want them to think that they're losers. :D

I'm so exhausted all the time. I run around and get pictures all the time and then edit them and then run off to do another assignment. I'm so happy that I will be going home soon. I'm also hoping that Hansen and I will be able to go to Baku for the day and take pictures and experience the city. For security reasons, MWR day was cancelled. I guess it's because 9 other nations including Iran and Turkey, will be here later next week. Regional Response 2009 is now a multi-lateral mission. Hopefully I will be able to totally kick ass at my job and get some pictures published.

Well gotta go...the public affairs lieutenant is giving me crap for typing so fast and being on the computer. Wish me luck and I miss all of you. Doug, I'm glad you've been receieving my letters. :D