doves land at the marketplace

One day just before the winter break, I was wandering through the market with Dr. F (we were on our way to our favorite falafel stand) when we happened across this incredible structure that hadn't been there only a day before. I wonder if just fell from the sky or was assembled eslewhere and placed strategically by a new magical ministry - Perhaps the Ministry of Public Art and Filling Empty Spaces? (There are at least 27 ministries here. How many is normal?)
One of my students says the symbolizism of a hand clutching a dove is lost on him and he misses the days when this space was occupied by a chaikhana (tea shop) where he and his classmates used to spy on their teachers as they drank tea.

prison

text is coming...

Back to Business in Erbil

I am back in Kurdistan! And instead of 14 days old, these photos are only 4 days old...I arrived in Istanbul on the evening of the 5th and made my way to Tizianna's bf's house in Beshiktaş slightly before midnight. We chatted a bit and then went online to buy me an early morning flight to Diyarbakir for the next morning. Unfortunately, I set my cell phone to Iraq, not Turkish time and arrived at the airport before 5:00 am instead of before 6:00. It took ALL day to get to Erbil, but at least my friends made it easier (Dr. Z and Pambette were waiting in Diyarbakir and Mu at the border).

And since being back, it was right back to work with the first few nights taken up with meetings re: stuff that is Mu's business and not my business to discuss here... Pity. But I can post pictures of the night that Izzy, Pambette, A, Mu, and Dr. Z were all at my house for dinner.

Pambette, pictured with pipe cooked some lovely lamb and also made salad and yaprak (stuffed vine leaves). Mu did most of the other cooking: veggies in lemon and garlic, chi kofta and pirzola (lamb chops). I only had to deal with dessert.









And this is Izzy, showing off his strength... to an olive.














And A who brought some lovely baklava.















And finally the antithesis of the portraits - Pambette's feet.

Living the Good Life in London

After my Dec 29 flight from Saint John to Halifax was cancelled, my second cousin Sue kindly offered to drive me 5 hours through a blizzard to Halifax so that I not miss my flight to London. I arrived exhausted, but fully ready to enjoy big city life... two days in Istanbul on the way to Saint John was just not enough.

The above picture was taken at S's friend E's house... Grrr kept the champagne flowing and we enjoyed a mellow evening eating gourmet nibblies until midnight when we went out to set off/watch fireworks.

On New Year's Day, I went to Covent Garden to meet friends who are usually in Paris over the winter holiday(see Jan 2007). We gathered before dinner at the Nag's Head... The guys in the picture; however, are not friends, but just some drunk guys from up North having a little fun with the blow-up sheep Dolly handcuffed to one of the guys' wrist.

And this is Sol enjoying dessert at a Brasserie in Covent Garden. It was her husband's sister's husband's 50th birthday that brought everyone to London to celebrate. The family lives in London, Dubai, HK, etc... (I hope to visit Sol at her home in Dubai next time).

On Jan 3rd, after clearing up some paperwork at King's College, I met Au, former classmate. We had some cheap food and a glass of wine at the International. She introduced me to this place... and the cheap cinema (Prince Charles) around the corner in Leceister Square.

And this last picture is a picture of the International because I don't have a picture of the Korean restaurant I went to with Mika or of Yash, Christina, Sarah x2 and I at the cafe in the Curzon Cinema.

Happinez

Saint John NB is getting a facelift! It's a cause for much celebration and "Happinez" (http://www.happinezwinebar.com/happinez/). Last night I went with my mother's cousin's daughter and her husband to a little wine bar- yes, you heard me right (St. John actually has a wine bar)- in the heart of downtown SJ. (The owner can't be local)... Anyway, it was lovely! They had collections called "flights" in which they put 2oz of 3 similarly priced wines with complimentary tastes in three small glasses. I was surprised to taste wines so good in a place where...

Let it snow?

It is the 29th of January and today is the day I leave for London via Halifax and it is unfortunately snowing again - unfortunate because my mother is terrified of driving in the snow. It snowed the evening of the 27th and all of yesterday morning and now it is snowing again. I have decided that the next time I visit Saint John, I should really come in summer as I won't have to deal with my mother's panic when we are in town (an hour's drive from home)... and I won't have to worry about my flight being delayed and not making my connecting flight.

passe-partout

Passe-partout (păs-pär-tū') is not just the name of a guy who travelled around the world in 80 days, but is (according to Answers.com) a border, such as a mat, that is used to frame or mount a picture. And the reason I write about it on my blog is because it is just one more of the items that cannot be purchased in Kurdistan. I have had a request to bring in 50 sheets in chic colors. This seems a mundane thing to write in my blog, however, if the price is within my budget and the weight within my luggage limitations, the end result of this purchase will be an exhibition of work by an Iraqi cartoonist... the follow-up being something definately blogworthy!

Christmas in Canada

Just a few photos from the Kingston Penninsula...
Mom's front door (and my reflection)
This is the view through the window in the woodshed - where Nanny Mac stood to hang clothes on the clothesline between her house and Georgie's. Now that Mom lives here, she has installed a dryer and doesn't have to wait for the snow to stop before doing laundry.
Another view of Georgie's house... It reached 7 degrees Celsius and the snow was starting to melt. Both this house and Mom's are typical KIngston Penninsula farm houses surrounded by acres of land... but Mom has been working hard to remodel the insides to meet safety standards; no more cooking by woodstove, etc.
...And Chintz the cat- "Santa" even visited Chintz - she can perform backflips if you taunt her enough with a toy attached to a string.
And this is Mom on Christmas morning opening her gifts.

Airports, Vending Machines & Photo Booth

In case you were worried, I am posting to say that I arrived in Canada in one relatively unscathed piece.
The trip from Istanbul to London was uneventful. I met a government minister from Hawler in the airport who tried to tell me how wonderful life in Hawler was; how very democratic, what a wonderful environment to do business in etc etc. This made me think of poor Mu who was as that very moment was wrestling with that "democracy" somewhere in Hawler. I tried telling this minister about some of the things I observed in my first year in Hawler, but he was incredulous and basically figured I was full of ****. Maybe. But then again, he could have been wearing those rose-tinted glasses so favored by many of the returning diaspora (He was on his way to his nice home in the UK). Please understand, I don't mean this to be disparaging... just to say that we have to set out the facts as they are. Kurdistan is opening up and there are some great opportunities/challenges, but the rules are still far from transparent.
I then arrived in London where I spent about an hour trying to contact a London friend via an airport payphone. Finally I gave up and bought a SIM card from a vending machine (ah how I have missed these small conveniences) and managed to contact that friend (good news as it meant I didn't have to sleep in Heathrow Airport). Even better news was that I also managed to talk to Mu in Hawler just as his 3-week long struggle had come to an end and he was celebrating with Dr. Z and Pambette. Relieved, I was able to leave the airport (and with it my stress) behind and spend a comfortable night at my friend's house.
Now I am in Canada at my mother's house and have just about gotten over my jet lag. I should be posting pictures of snowy Canadian maritime winter scenes, but the truth is, I haven't been out taking photos... much too cold. Instead, I have been playing with my mother's cat, fixing my ticket (seems I was booked to return to London the 28th of Jan instead of the 28th of Dec - a problem since the ongoing flight to Istanbul was for the 5th of Jan), reading novels, playing backgammon and wasting time on my mother's new computer. All these photos were taken with "Photo Booth" (a new Mac application? The webcam is built right into the screen!). And in between photos, I managed to fix my Air Canada ticket and arrange to meet friends in Istanbul on the way back. If I am lucky, I may not get back to Hawler until after the planned Jan 5th after all...

All flights to Istanbul cancelled

I guess this is what happens when the US doesn't raise any objections to to Turkey flying into Iraqi airspace to hunt down the PKK. So last Saturday, although I had planned to fly to Istanbul on Sunday and had just arrived in Sulemaniya at 10am, I found out that Laveen wasn't flying, turned around after lunch and came the 3 hours back. So sorry to the two Canadians who had accompanied me there. I got home, had a nap, packed my bags and set off towards the border by taxi at 11pm.

Now it is late Monday night and I am in Istanbul. I arrived yesterday at about noon. Tomorrow I fly out for London. But I had time for the following:
A trip to the Grand Bazaar...

... where I shopped for Christmas presents.

A few photos of Metro station tiled walls; This is Kabatas.

Shopping and a 3D movie (how retro) at Kanyon shopping center.

I will be sad to leave tomorrow if only because I have a long journey ahead to get to the middle of nowhere Canada (sorry Mom), but I return on the 5th of January. Who wants to make a bet that the Istanbul - Erbil flight scheduled for January 6th will also be cancelled?

Nechirvan on Nechirvan Street

Picture from www.Chris-Kutschera.com

"Who is this HOT guy?" you (or someone somewhere) might ask.
He is the reason I yelled at a beret-wearing AK47-toting guard yesterday. I had a very important meeting with some officials set for 10:00am and of course at 9:50 and a 10-15 minute taxi ride from my destination, I ran into difficulties. I stepped out from the drive to my apartment onto the main street when some of these camoflaged guards used go-away doggy finger gestures to tell me to get out of the street and back into the drive. I stepped back and impatiently shifted from foot to foot waiting for some sign that I could go out and catch my taxi. In the meantime, traffic kept accumulating in the drive from the apartment, of course every white SUV filled with men all staring at me with amusement and those looks that might indicate that they have never before in their lives seen a woman! One of them seemed so intent on talking to me that I stepped closer to his car and he informed me that traffic had been stopped so that Nechirvan Barzani (the guy in the photo and prime minister of Kurdistan) could pass. Shortly after an entourage of BLACK (not the usual white) SUVs with tinted windows passed and I was finally allowed on my way. Nonetheless, although completely unreasonable, I was so frustrated at being stared at for nearly 10 minutes that seemed like an uncomfortable eon, I yelled at the guards for making me stand on the side of the road where I could be treated like an unwitting zoo specimen.

On Flying from Erbil

The below article was published on AUgust 27, 2007. When I returned from my summer vacation in Istanbul, I was so overwhelmed with being back in Kurdistan that I forgot to write about the shock I experienced when I discovered that Austrian Airlines had discontinued service to Erbil! Sigh... Although perhaps a selfish sentiment, I feel rather put out by this now that winter vacation is soon upon us here at the university. Rather than being able to book a reasonably-priced and reliable trip out to meet our respective connecting flights home, we are left with rather less attractive options:

1. Bite the bullet and fork out $900.00 US to take Royal Jordanian to Amman and book onwards from there.
2. Fly Inshaallah Airlines to Istanbul, Dubai or Frankfurt and cross our fingers that the flight actually goes on scehdule and meets our connecting flights.
3. Go overland to Turkey, somehow get to Istanbul and fly out from there.

It has been rumored that Austrian will be back in Erbil as early as February 2008. Too bad that it will be just a little too late... (I am planning to go home via option 2).

Statement: KRG and Austrian Airlines optimistic flights will resume | Iraq Updates: "The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and and its airport authorities are in discussions with Austrian Airlines, and all are hopeful that the airline will resume flights between Vienna and Erbil. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was informed by Austrian Airlines on 25 August that it has decided to temporarily suspend flights between Vienna and Erbil International Airport. Austrian took the decision following an alleged incident at Suleimaniah Airport reported by the pilot of Nordic Airways, a Swedish charter airline, earlier this month. After thorough investigation, the KRG has found no evidence of foul play at or near Suleimaniah Airport. The Erbil International Airport authority understands Austrian Airlines’ concerns that led to its decision, even though the alleged incident took place at another airport and KRG investigations have found no evidence of foul play. The cities of Erbil and Suleimaniah and their international airports are peaceful. Security in and around both airports is the KRG’s highest priority and is maintained to the highest degree. The KRG, Erbil International Airport and Suleimaniah International Airport are in discussion with Austrian, and all sides hope and expect Austrian Airlines to continue to operate its very successful and popular flights to Erbil. Meanwhile flights from Dubai, Istanbul, Amman and other cities to Erbil and Suleimaniah have maintained their regular schedules."

Saffron and Lemons

Grubbying up the crisp first page
Welcome to a brand new blogger's brand new blog. So, what to do with this spanking new cooking notebook? The possibilities are endless, but perhaps I'll start grubbying up the pages with a small self-introduction so we can get to know each other a bit. My name is Saffron and I am a greedy eater and hoarder of cookbooks. There, it' s said (g). My twin passions are world music and world food. Preferably authentic and preferably together"

The above quote is taken from the brand new blog of my friend and occasional leaver-of-comments on this blog (some of you will know her as W in Tokyo). I am so excited about this blog as W in Tokyo aka Saffron will be writing all about food! I will note this blog in my sidebar so that if you were thinking of cooking wild rice, pomegranate and proscuito salad this weekend and ALAS you forgot that there is no proscuito available in Kurdistan, you can leave a comment on Saffron's blog for advice. She has taught herself all the finer details of all sorts of food (like how to make certain veggies less bitter and so on), she knows how to cook gourmet on the cheap and is likely also a master of substitution as the Yokohama/Tokyo area didn't always have the wealth of exotic imported foodstuff it boasts now. Furthermore, she loves Middle Eastern cuisine and has a treasury of cookbooks intended for the exact types of ingredients available here. I hope all of my friends here in Kurdistan who like to cook will become good friends with Saffron. You can find the blog by clicking here!:

Vegetables and Men

Apparently these are the two things you must be most wary of in Kurdistan. The person who shared this advice apparently bleaches her veggies! I wonder what she does to her men...

Please feel free to comment on this if you happen to feel strongly about either subject.

Miscellania from Last Weekend

The drive from Hawler to Sulemania via Koya takes approximately 3 hours. The drive via Kirkuk 2! But although we experienced both routes this weekend, we didn't manage either in 3 hours! So you know about the traffic blockade on the Kirkuk route already, but what you don't know is that at about 2+ hours in (on both trips) we had to disembark and light up the underside of the vehicle with a mobile phone so that Dr. Z could locate the fuel leak and wedge the fuel pipe together tighter! This, and having to jumpstart the car most mornings, appear to be a normal things to do here as he actually took it to a repair shop only to be told, "No problem".

Anyway, this first photo is just a view from somewhere near Koya.

These handsome men can be found outside the park on the main drag in Suli. I would love also to know who they are. And if you are patient, I will try to find the answer and post it as a comment to this post.

Pambette enjoys a private joke with one of her new stone-faced friends.

A photo of Mu only because there are no others of him in the photos of this weekend... and he was significant as he met us on arrival into Suli and took over the driving and guiding for the inside Suli part of the trip.

This last picture is "Moon over Kirkuk". I post it because I am always amazed at how big the full moon looks from here.

Drive by Shooting

A little scared to pull out my camera while passing through Kirkuk... once again... and once again by accident! I put on my telephoto lens and shot pictures from the back seat over Pambette's shoulder through the dirty glass of the Jeep Cherokee's window. (Just to let you know, although Kirkuk has been posted here more than once, it is always an accident when I find myself there - this time being no exception...the only difference is that this time, the driver also didn't intend to go there. We discovered the error when we passed Chamchamal instead of Dokhan).

Our first experience of Kirkuk was a high traffic jam/blockade where we sat hemmed in by lorries and other vehicles haphazardly matted together. Uniformed military personnel let us sit there a while before starting to weave their way among the vehicles slapping the sides of cars to get them to stop or move ahead and untangle the many lines of traffic. Later we found out there had been some incident with American soldiers and some fundamental Islamists and hence there was a curfew on the city which lasted until 5pm... so I guess we waited there until 5:00.

This next photo was accidentally shot. You aren't supposted to take photos at checkpoints. This is the actual Kirkuk checkpoint (the little white booth with the three men in unifroms in front). We had no problem entering Kirkuk. It was as though all the guards in Kurdistan had been warned that there was a red Jeep Cherokee of foreigners trying to find their way to Hawler. At some of the checkpoints they even spoke to Dr. Z in Turkish.

This next photo is of nothing - just the road as you enter the opfficial city boundaries.

At this point, it was starting to get dark and we were really driving too fast to shoot any non-blurry photos, but this one is of a statue of someone ?(Kirkukis, please write and let me know who this is)near the center of the city where you start to pass by the citadel, the markets and streets with little street stalls and... cows!

And this last photo is of a typical scene in Kirkuk. Last time I saw the Iraqi National guards dressed in Ninja outfits manning mounted guns on the back of a truck. This time it was a convey of armoured vehicles - American?

Not yet in Hawler

Last weekend, we (Dr. Z, Pambette and I) went on a little jaunt down to Suli! Although we really only had one evening and half of the next day there, it was great. We didn't have time to drive up and observe the view, but we did get what we came for - a little break from Hawler. Those of you who are Hawleri, please don't feel upset. I think little breaks are essential wherever you happen to live! Here are a few of the things you can observe in Suli (but not Hawler):

This first picture was taken at Dragon, a Chinese restaurant in Sarchner. Dr. Z is eating some "Chinese" noodles which were essentially spaghetti in Chinese sauce. The Chinese waitress argued that although the noodles were Itali mien that mien (noodles) are mien! I suppose that is true... and anyway, I was happy that although the food really wasn't good this time, I could still taste traces of authentic Chinese flavours (wood ear and other such lovely stuff)... This is different from the fake Sheraton in Hawler which thinks that if you add soy sauce to anything it becomes Chinese.

The second picture is also dedicated to food. It is where we had lunch on Saturday -Zara. Like Papula, is was attached to a department store, had a fast food restaurant downstairs and a cafe upstairs. What is special about these cafes in Suli is that there are coed groups of young people in the booths and young AND old couples out on dates. You can even see the occasional all female group! Another plus was the cappuccino... no Nescafe granules sprinkled on top!

A POST OFFICE! I wonder if it really functions. There was some news of a post office in Hawler as well, but none of us have seen it yet! I really want someone to mail me a letter just to try out the system.

And look here - a real phone booth. Near the bazaar in Hawler, you can also find some phones, but they are area phones belonging to some guy who stands there with the phone and collects your money. This is ever so much more... private (that is unless some foreign idiots come along and start taking your photo).

Nightmare in Naz City!

The posting of the Halloween pictures has been much delayed. Perhaps because what I really would have liked to have posted would be Dr. F's hand-drawn poster for the Halloween party at his nextdoor neighbour's! In any case, there were 2 party's this year! One for adults on the Thursday night following the REAL Halloween... and one on Friday for the children at Dr. D's:

This is probably Kurdistan's first real Jack-o'-lantern, carved by the fabulous Dr. D. It was also suggested that I photograph and post the infamous pink cupcakes from this party, but I realize you can already see these in the post of my birthday (Oct. 16). For this special party, Dr. D also made chocolate-frosted cupcakes which, although I truly thought they were even more tasty, were suggested to only taste better because it was psychologically more pleasing if your eyes don't tell you they taste PINK!

T reads Dr. F's palm... I am not sure accurate a reading he got, but I do know that afterwards, he likely forgot anything negative due to anticipation of the cake (see table) bedecked with.... how did you guess? PINK icing.

Devil meets devil! Although in fact, Pambette's devilish adult version was not really so scary to the rest of us adults, it reduced the little devil to tears. It wasn't immediately clear if and how we could calm her.

And the photo below is the only one I will post of the Thursday night party. None of my photos were particularly good, but I had to post one of our new English teachers in his Caspar head! I would love to post the story of the day we met, but as the story could be deemed "policically incorrect", I will desist until after asking permission. (PS. For those who know me, this same guy can be found in my Facebook wearing a Dolaemon head)!

Dolma

If you have ever been to local home in Hawler or neighboring areas, you definately know what dolma is! Last weekend, due to a sudden recurrance of a particulary pernicious sort of chronic social disease in which I seem unable to come with any polite excuse whatsoever to defer, postpone or decline invitations, I ended up going out for meals 3 times last weekend. It all started with dinner on Thursday night at Haji M's house:
Above is Haji M inviting us (Dr. F, Dr. S and I) to put a little more biryani on our plates already heaped with dolma (see center plate). In South Kurdistan, dolma is made of any and all local vegetables available: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, courgettes, aubergines, onions, etc. All are hollowed out and stuffed with rice cooked up with spices and meat. (Please note I received an essay last year where the main premise was that it was clearly evident that Kurdish culture was far more advanced that Turkish culture via the fact that Turks only stuff peppers for dolma, whereas Kurds use all vegetables. In fact, I like all the variations, and in Turkey I love some of the different ways of serving yaprak sarma (stuffed vine leaves): cold with yogurt, hot wish spicer accompaniments. In Kurdistan, the ones where the vegetable skins are rubbed with lemon before stuffing are good.
Anyway, enough about the dolma... the real reason I try to avoid invitations is not because I don't like dolma... which invariably shows up in quantities enough to serve an army, but because the hosts usually force feed the guests until they are unable to stand up and walk to the street afterwards. In our case, Haji M's wife (a lovely lovely lady) would hold kupa (little fried meat dumplings) in her fingers and look at you with a distressed look when you turned a 4th helping down, "But they are so good."

This second photo was taken on Firday, a week ago exactly. On Saturday late morning, I went to a 2nd home for lunch; however, shock of all shocks - there was NO DOLMA! And the food was not served on a plastic tablecloth on the floor (Which I am quite comfortable with being rather festive and picnic-like). Instead, everything was carried on the overly fancy silver serving trays (identical to the ones in our Naz CIty flats) and laid out on a table in the living room: a kind of meat biryani, apricot stew, fasulya, chicken... The food was plentiful, but not as heavy or overabundant as usual. Then I found out the family was not exactly local, but from Sulemaniya. Hmmm... very similar to what one might order at Abu Shahab restaurant (a local favorite), but less greasy. I actually left with enough energy to go shoppping at lenga market and for ice cream at "Me and You". This second picture is of Bilge and Dr. I enjoying Ice Cream. After Ice cream, we continued on to Izzy's house for coffee, food and drinks. I spend all of Saturday recovering. (More about Izzy to come soon).