the freedom of filth

1-12-08
So the "severest winter in 73 years" seems to be letting up – that is to say there was not any snow today and I saw the sun – Not that there is 3 feet of snow and sleet all day – but it is cold as hell and because it is usually not this cold here they are just not ready for it – there has not been any water sense last Saturday and it does not seem clear when that will let up – consequently I have not had a shower in 10 or 11 days now – luckily I have washed my hair twice in that time – once this morning with a tea pot – my mom kindly pointed out that my hair is falling out – thanks but I was trying to ignore that – maybe I should start weaving a rug ;) I road to Ganja with my dad and some siblings today to get my sister – she is in the college their – The first thing we did when we got there was go by the college and pay a bride to one of her teachers so he would release her grade – It pisses me off - I imagine it does the same to them but then it is just another part of life – she asked if it was like this in America – I said he would be fired – even if you have good marks you may have to pay for them and if your marks are crappy you can probably buy better ones. On the way out we stopped at the Nizami Gangi monument – oddly enough as we driven in we hit one section that looked just like a part of the industrial sector along the highway in Indian, a bridge , open fields with snow on them and a big factory – all except for the road which was poor – well the monument was on top of the bridge sort of – Nizami is a famous poet all over Azerbaijan – He lived from 1141 to 1209 and wrote five major epics of sorts and about the beauty of the country – or area I guess –he statue it the only statue iv seen beside the president and quotations about the beauty of an area written by him can be seen everywhere - he was said to have been born and died in the Ganja region which is why his monument it there with what is said to be his actually grave – I for one do not believe it – though there is am impressive mausoleum temple of sorts - the other large feature of the "park" is a set of life size metal working representing each of his 5 great works – they were beautiful and well done - this is set on a hill over looking the almost barren surroundings - the only dominating feature was set directly behind the statues – puffing away – no matter where you stood – the massive aluminum plat – as we had some out we talked about how it was so bad for the environment – they had pointed that out – I just wondered, watching it through a fragment of wall and a king on horse back – did they see the irony in it