Pics Pics Pics...

I'm too lazy to incorporate my pictures into previous posts, so I'll just post them here... :)  I will attempt to put them in chronological order though...

Jess at the Abuja Airport, before leaving for the States (2/9/12)

Me at the Abuja Airport, sitting across from Jess... what is that in my hand? (2/9/12)

Annoyed/exhausted/impatient me... waiting during our 5 hour layover in Frankfurt (2/10/12)

Jess staring out the window... what's so interesting? (2/10/12)

I totally passed out from 2 glasses of red wine at meal (I never know if what meal it is on airplanes), Jess took a candid photo... and yes, I have slight Asian glow (2/10/12)

                                                    

Ok, these might be slightly out of order, only because I can't get stupid blogger to post them correctly... drag function isn't working.  Tess and Jess: Leaving Atlanta! (2/26/12)

Nadya, this is for you: Berliner and latte at the Frankfurt airport during our layover from ATL to ABV (2/27/12)

Uh, this looks like Frankfurt?... not sure. But on our way back to Abuja... (2/27/12)

Obvi, who is the one not too happy to go back to Africa... (2/27/12)

Jess demonstrating one example of why small Asians have an advantage on the plane (2/27/12)

                                             

This is us back in our apartment... trying to overcome jet lag.  Why is it always harder when you come back to Africa?

                                       
Just a bit of background on the next few pictures:
The USMG took us to the Mogadishu army barracks for Nigerian grilled fish on Friday evening.  It's supposed to be a very Nigerian thing, to sit there in the charcoal smokiness, drinking beer, eating grilled fish with your fingers (no utensils allowed!)... and getting harangued by vendors walking around selling the most random shiz.  I wanted Jess to buy me a blow up globe that we could add to our eclectic collection of a living room, but to no avail.
This place actually got bombed a year or so ago by Boko Haram, so not too many people were frequenting it, although I guess it's up and coming again... why would BH want to bomb the same place twice?  O_o

Miss Fish Lady prepping the fish for grill... those fish don't actually have red scales... the Nigerian way to prep it is to slather the entire fish in peppe, their spice of choice (and it is spicy!)

Jess and I shared a fish.  They topped it with yam chips.  Decent, with Star beer (although really, Star tastes like water).  Notice the basin of water to the side... that was for you to wash your hands in... but where did the water come from?  Probably giardia-infested... jk.  Or not...

 

Jess starting on the tail of the fish...

Me... just.. waiting to eat. rawr.  Cat?

Paste-its...?

Wow, I've been pretty remiss about blogging these last few weeks.  A lot has happened since February 5th... mainly spending the latter half of the month in the States for SAS training at the CDC HQ in Atlanta.  I don't know how people who travel for a living do it... my flight back to the US was over 40 hours, including transit time, layover, zone change, blahblah.  Abuja to Frankfurt, 5 hour layover in Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Atlanta, 4 hour layover in Atlanta, then Atlanta to LA.  Rested for one day, then flew out again to the Midwest for a couple of days, before flying back out to Atlanta for 3 days of training.  Then, to take advantage of the long weekend, I flew back out to LA to visit family/relatives, before returning to Atlanta for the last 3 days of training.  Had 1.5 days of actual weekend, before flying back to Nigeria.  Erf.  Typing it out just makes me slightly ill... although I guess it could be coupled with the fact that I'm majorly jetlagged (even though I slept the entire day yesterday). 
Atlanta was fun.  Got to meet up with the Atlanta-based fellows, had gloriously-bad-for-you-American grub (pizza, burgers, beer, MickeyD's, awesome frozen deliciousness from Trader Joe's, chicken and waffles!!), slept on a REAL SPRING MATTRESS!, got to drive around Sprawl-anta (I just made that up... but does it actually exist?) in my own dinky rental car, had free internet, watched terrible TV on an actual TV set, felt cold (yay real winter!)... all amazing things not experience-able in Nigeria.  I also had the chance to visit the High Museum of Art in downtown Atlanta... get a dose of culture before heading back to Africa.  They had an awesome KAWS exhibit... some Atlanta-based graphic artist who likes to incorporate pop culture references into his artwork.  Will post pics later. 
Now that I'm back in Nigeria, I don't really know what to do with myself.  Guess I'm just biding my time before... yeah.  Things aren't any better or worse (how can it honestly get any worse)-- power was out for quite a while yesterday while I was trying to recoup from jetlag at home... turns out our generator ran out of fuel, so they took a while trying to get that up and running.  In the meantime, I just laid there in bed, fanning myself to sleep, sweating balls.  Our apartment has become a no-pants-zone, mainly because it's so flipping hot here.  Got into work today, and realized the AC was broken.  Feels just like the first few days we arrived here last September.  Our maintenance guy came up to take a look, called in a contractor to try and fix the AC unit, but to no avail (why would I expect anything more?)... so he asked for a "Paste-It" and I just looked at him blankly... turns out he wanted a Post-It.  :T
You are welcome back to Nigeria! :(

Happy World Nutella Day!

Thanks, Amazon page on Facebook, for informing me that today is World Nutella Day.  How fitting and coincidental, since I didn't know this morning before making breakfast... but I still was able to celebrate it with nutella and peanut butter toast and a cafe au lait, made right in my tiny, dysfunctional kitchen.  Not much going on here, as per usual... we have a three day weekend because of Eid (again), so I'll be bumming around the apartment.  Tried to sit in the dining room and journal today, but only got as far as last summer (I'm playing catch up since 2010, haha... my journaling skills suck)...

Leaving for the States on Thursday, at least I can escape some of the oppressive heat here... looking forward to spending the majority of February in civilization.  Not looking forward to coming back afterward... just gotta stick out a few more months...

Started rewatching ALL seasons of Mad Men and the first season of Game of Thrones to prepare for upcoming season premieres in March and April.  Yay TV!

Happy Last Day of National Oatmeal Month!

Ok, so I couldn't find any other holiday to celebrate January 31st... at least I can say I've made it through all of January 2012 :)  Boko Haram, you haven't blown me up yet... although that remains to be seen, as tomorrow I will have to go to the Nigerian Immigration Office (yet again) to extend my stay here for... wait for it... SIX WHOLE DAYS!  Yep, immigration refused to stamp us in until our departure back to the States mid-February.  This is how they make money off of us oyibos.  Sigh.

Not much else to report on here in Abuja.  Work has been slightly inane, and that's an understatement.  I've never been more excited to go back to the States for SAS training.  O_o  Will be in Atlanta for most of the time, with a quick trip back home to pick up more home-cooked deliciousness to last me the rest of the fellowship here.  Thanks to the kitchen of Mom and Dad, I've been eating pretty nicely here, since we vacuum-sealed all the food.  I did actually cook tonight though, and I was quite proud of what I made (although half of the food on the plate is from home, haha).  And my rice was perfect tonight!  Third time's the charm :)  (YES, it is hard to cook rice without a rice cooker)  Here is proof of what I cooked tonight:

Tofu (that wrinkly thing on the right) and char-siu pork was from home, but I made the stir-fry bok choi with dashi and corn-egg-tomato dish thingy...


It's getting way hot here... Harmattan is almost over... soon it will be rainy season again.  I would like to bypass all of that and just go back to Harmattan without any dust allergies... but... no dice.  Instead, I will just console myself with this incredibly cute piglet picture.  Someone please buy one for me as a pet.  I will love you forever if you do.

EDIT/UPDATE: Was able to get my visa stamp extended, came back from the Nigerian Immigration Office in one whole piece, and the entire process only took 1 hour. Amazing!  It's not even that fast in the States!  Funny thing was, the guy who processed our visas was the same guy as last time, and he totally remembered me... guess that's what happens when you make a fuss about being American and not Chinese. :P

SQOOSH!

Even though it's still the height of Harmattan season here, seems like the mosquitoes are quickly coming back in full swing… Jess has been bitten like crazy, and I just found a brand-spanking new bite on my leg this morning.  I found one flying around my room last night after we finished watching the new Vampire Diaries episode--smashed it with my slipper, and ::sqoosh:: the mosquito exploded into a bloody mess.  I guess it was my leg blood, hah.  It's mondo itchy right now.  Gah.  Need to figure out how to get a bed net before the rainy season starts in March/April. 

Boko Haram decided to coordinate a bomb attack last night in Kano, the second biggest city in Nigeria… I don't understand why they did it right after Friday evening prayer for Muslims… why are they targeting their own religious group?  I am confused… or maybe Boko Haram is confused?  Oh well.  Praying that it doesn't blow up here… literally.  But, I guess if it does, I'm bouncing early :T  Probably a good thing, because I will lose my marbles if the Feds decide to continue their shutdown of Megaupload… my weekly dose of TV shows is the only thing that's keeping me going here.  Meh.

Back in the States for training in February… yay for countdowns to break up the monotony!  Oh yeah, and maybe actually learn something new here?  O_o

OH YEAH-- HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE! 
Now, go stuff your faces full of nian gao for me :)

Weekend Update

The weekend was pretty uneventful here in Abuja. The Nigerian labor unions put a hold on the strike over the weekend, so that people could stock up on supplies for another week of striking, if no compromises were made during talks that were scheduled.  I had a much harder time bargaining at the fruit market on Saturday... Testament to how difficult and expensive things are getting here.  Afterward, I went over to a friend's place to watch the Taiwan elections and play Kinect.  Sort of felt like I was at home again, but all illusions faded when I got back to my apartment.  Spent the rest of Saturday alternating between staring at the ceiling and rewatching Season 1 of Downton Abbey.   Sunday was equally uneventful... Did laundry in the morning and tried to sweep/mop the floor in my room, although that is a losing battle, since Harmattan is in full swing, so everything is just disgustingly dusty.  I have never had allergies before until now... Eyes are too irrated to wear contacts, so I've been nerding it up with glasses since I got back.  Started watching Homeland, the Showtime series on terrorism with Claire Danes... Pretty good so far.  I was sadly disappointed with how bad the new episode of 30 Rock was... Can you tell that all I do these days is watch TV?  I guess I better get in all the TV time I can get before I don't have time in the near future to watch TV anymore... On an annoying side note, I have reverted back to being an insomniac here.  I have been waking up at 4 or 5 am every night recently, and really haven't been able to go to bed until midnight... I don't think I have jetlag anymore, but I did start taking mefloquine again-- I have noticed that there are a lot more mosquitoes around, and even though I haven't been bitten yet... I really would Rather prefer to stay malaria free... So I guess I am just trading sleep for health (although I don't know how long I can last on four hours of sleep per night).   Today is MLK Day, and we are supposed to have the day off, but instead I am sitting in a hotel conference room, listening to baby epi lectures... Total waste of time and money.  Supposedly the president agreed to lower the petrol prices, not back to subsidized prices, but at least a bit less than what it was going for... However, the strike is apparently still on, since we had the hardest time trying to find a taxi.  We finally found one, but it turns out, the driver had NO CLUE where he was going, so we ended up driving basically around the whole city, before Jess had to tell him which way to go.  I almost thought I was going to die when the driver decided to take the off-ramp of the opposite side of traffic... I have no idea what was going through his head when he accelerated and switched lanes into oncoming traffic... O_o  Never know when you will be surprised here in Nigeria... Guess it just keeps you on your toes.

National Strike!

It has been about a week since I have returned to Nigeria. It took me a little more than half of the week to slowly get back into gear and fight the jet lag--I don't know why it is so much more difficult this time around-- and sitting in class all day relearning basic Epi hasn't helped my energy level (read: snooze). It has been eerily quiet here too; since President Goodluck Jonathan (yes, that is his first and last name, I didn't invert it) decided to cut the fuel subsidies that has kept petrol prices so low for the Nigerians, the sudden increase in petrol prices has incited a nationwide strike that started on Monday and has continued... Not sure when it will be over. The labor unions are striking and maintaining their stance until the fuel subsidy is put back into place, but the federal government here doesn't seem to be budging. What does that mean for me? Well, I don't have a car, but since I rely on taxis to get everywhere, and most, if not all of the taxi drivers are on strike, I am basically under house arrest, since I don't have a means of transportation. Thankfully (or not), a few of our American colleagues at the CDC have been able to swing by and pick us up and drop us off to and from the office. None of the businesses are open either; I have been living on ramen for the last week, although I guess it isn't too diffent from how I was eating prior to the strike, haha...but I wasn't even able to get staples like milk and eggs until yesterday. One of the western style markets, catered more to the expat community here, opened for about 2 hours during lunch to allow the diplomatic community to stock up. It was craycray, to say the least-- kind of like that frenzied rush that hou see on the Price Is Right... Jess and I ran up and down the aisles, grabbing 8 cartons of milk, super huge crate of eggs, people were just hoarding food like there was an impending nuclear war or something... Not sure how long this Strike is going to last... People are going to need to make money and feed themselves soon, but I don't know how they are going to do it if they keep at this... Whole country has come to a standstill and day to day activities are crippled... Although it definitely makes for some easy traffic, since there are barely any cars on the road. I guess I should relish in the peace and quiet before everything starts to get crazy hectic again... Let's just hope that it doesn't deterioriate into some kind of chaos, although thr unrest in thr North from Boko Haram isn't helping the overall situation. Will update more when something actually happens o_O