Happy New Year!!!

This is now the 4th country I've celebrated New Year's Eve in.  It's not quite as big a deal here as it was in Russia or Kazakhstan, but it was still pretty spectacular.  It certainly put any New Year I've spent in America to shame, if only because of the events at the end of the night.  Intrigued?  Then read on...



The local butcher shop getting ready for the holiday- seeing as I have
a long-standing fear of turkeys, this made me a bit nervous

 

This year was definitely different from previous years. First of all, the weather was simply gorgeous. It was warmer than it has been in weeks (in the 50's) and the sun was shining. We met a teacher from Rachael's school downtown, and after she left for some last minute shopping, the three of us walked up and down the park by the water.



Just a bit different from New Years Eve in KZ or Russia!

Have I mentioned what a beautiful city we live in?

But of course there were still New Years trees and Grandfather Frost (like Santa).

 



I can see our house from here!  This is why we have such a phenominal
view from our apartment- we live at the end of nowhere!

The sun sets on 2012

Shortly after the sun went down we headed home to chill out for the evening.  We watched a movie and then went out on our balcony at midnight.  Now this is where the spactacular part comes in.  If you've read any of my posts about the holiday from years past, you know that fireworks are a huge part of the celebration.  Everyone and their brother buys as many as they can and then sets them off in their courtyard or off of their balconies at midnight.  And they don't have any kind of laws restricting who can buy the really big ones, so it's lightyears beyond anything you've seen at home. 

We figured that, considering our view, we'd be able to see most of the fireworks across the city from our balcony, and we definitely got that part right.  It was pretty great.  What we did not count on, however, was the view we would get of the ones going off in our own courtyard.  In the past my roommates and I have always gone outside to watch the show.  This time, we were on the 10th floor.  Which means they were exploding right in front of us.  Literally 20-30 feet away.  It was spectacular and terrifying all at the same time.  This is some of the video I took.  You can definitely hear us flipping out in the background:

 

 

I think Rachael was right, though, in saying that the best part was probably our neighbors on the next balcony, looking at us like we were crazy!  What's up with these weird American girls, shrieking and laughing and cowering in the corner of their balcony?  Even the little girl was laughing at us! 

 

Once we got back inside and let the adrenaline rush subside, we poured ourselves another glass of bubbly (well, kind of- it was a carbonated fruit juice of some kind) and paused for one last group photo.

  

Happy New Year!

So that's all for now.  Happy New Year from Baku!  I hope 2012 was wonderful and that 2013 will be even better. :)