A night out
Fancy dinner with the Deputy Chief of Mission and his family. Great company, excellent food, and amazing view.
The Host
We’ve been hosting dinner every weekend since our arrival. Definitely tricky to cook without all the kitchen utensils and/or spices, but I’ve experienced worse in Bangui, so I can’t complain too much.
This time, I recruited help from our wonderful nanny, Dani, who cooks amazing North Macedonian food. She helped prepare local salad, pasta salad and Macedonian rice. I can’t forget about homemade fig and strawberry jam!
I added some flair with meze, sauteed onions with prosciutto, and roasted ribeyes. Of course, fantastic Macedonian wines were had.
Also, head over to the training blog - a new video of working out with Romi is posted!
Another stroll
The city’s infrastructure cannot accommodate all the influx of cars. So it’s common to see cars parked on sidewalks, or witness cars driving on sidewalks to avoid traffic.
Main street
They pronounce fajitas, fa-ji-tah.
Not much of a landscape. And what you see in the distance is air pollution.
Abandoned winery
Tactical pause
The last two weeks have been hectic:
Six drills, three including on Sat
dozens of meetings
draft cable
PT with the marines
unpacking UAB, and HHE from Bangui
hiring a domestic help
one brunch party
11 hrs at work nonstop
Needless to say, taking a break was much needed. Off to the coffee shop we went.
She made a new friend.
City Square Part II
Dinner at the Marriott.
Biggest beef tartar on top of the largest bone marrow served at a restaurant. Total - $3.00.
Rakia!
City Square Part I of II
Finally! A time to spare to explore the city. We headed to the city square.
I don’t know where she learned to pose.
Alexander the Great
Lots of people “fishing”.
The legend has it, there is no fish in the river.
So many monuments…
And then there were kids making a rukus with mopeds on pedestrian-only streets.
Should I…?
Damn right. Hitting the jackpot. Every. Day.
I had to take a photo of this.
And this…”Mony”
A book store.
That’s enough pictures for one day. Part II of dinner at the Marriott coming up.
Trick or Treat!
Romi wanted to be someone super cool and special for Halloween. It sure was a treat!
And after a long week, decided to order Chinese food in N. Macedonia. Yes, Chinese.
Needless to say, I don’t ever, ever recommend it. The “noodles” were in fact ramen noodles and they tasted very chemical. Sauces were barely edible. Rice was average and yet I ate most of it considering that I haven’t had a chance to eat for almost 24 hours.
Regardless. Lessons learned. Don’t eat Chinese food in N. Macedonia. It sure was a trick.
First Sun
Day started with an hour long session with my new tennis coach. Afterwards, walked about 30 minutes to check out the new fitness center located in a fancy hotel. My review of the gym is in the training blog.
On my walk there, I walked through a big city park, which was interesting to say the least. Lots of playground, a few clay courts and lots of graffitis.
Then a quick walk to a grocery store and stopped by a small playground.
Sat Grocery Run
I was recommended to go to a specific butcher shop and a fish store. I was not disappointed. The quality and variety of options I saw instantly trumped most of the grocery stores in the U.S. And almost all of the goods were well priced. For instance 1 kg of pork ribs was priced at or around $10. A quarter kilo of ground beef was priced at $3.00.
This is by far the most exciting culinary experience I encountered.
*After a detailed tour of their fish and how they are organized…
Teo (fishmonger): You like raw fish?
Me: Absolutely.
Teo: Try this.
Right there and then, he grabbed what I can only assume to be a cross between a ginormous crayfish and ebi (I’m using hyperbole here just in case you want to cancel me with my “ignorance”), peeled the shell, squeezed lemon, sprinkled some herbs and handed it to me.
Teo had a satisfactory smile on his face as I sucked Karavida’s body off its head. So fresh and buttery. It literally melted in my mouth!
Me: Teo, this is the best thing I tasted. Give me four more!
And that, that’s how you earn a loyal customer. We instantly bonded over our love for food. I even offered to buy their hat - but they gave it to me for free.
Ninety percent of the fish at the store are from Greece. And I was no doubt overwhelmed with different names and labeling of the fish. Teo patiently guided me through what he had, and how best to cook it.
Last Sun in DC
Started off with eating lunch at Tachibana with friends for one last time. In typical fashion, the ladies had tempura Udon and I had Salmon & Salmon Roe Donburi with CA Uni, Ebi, Saba and Deep fried Ebi heads (the latter of two not featured).
Then came our final Target run and more packing and cleaning. I’m so done with packing! Too much!
Afterwards we headed to a nearby park and flew a kite. Romi’s first! And she did pretty good.
Per usual, I was cranky.
Last day at Diplotots II
All of Romi’s teachers came out to say goodbye when I came to pick her up from school today. One of her teachers wrote:
Likewise, Romi misses her teachers as well as her classmates. Romi told me that she went around the school giving everyone squeeze hugs.
Raegan
Romi wanted to throw Raegan a surprise birthday party on our last night together. I’m constantly amazed at how emotionally intelligent Romi is. And very in tune with other people’s feelings. I’m so glad she’s not like me.
We didn’t have a candle to light, but we had a lighter.
I think Romi was more excited about this than Raegan.
