Colonel Mustard.

Something phenomenal about living in Azerbaijan is that it takes creativity. A lot of times you have to think out of the box to get something very simple done. This thinking paves the way for new approaches and, sometimes, creating new ideas and challenges to motivate oneself.

Earlier this year, Baku friends decided an amazing way for them to entertain themselves and further explore Baku and Azerbaijan was to buy a 1980 Lada, Colonel Mustard. And, I've been lucky to reap some of the benefits of their collective fine decision. This car has provided me with so many good times and memories thusfar, but the best just occurred: the Lada and visitors came to Ming.

The first challenge the 'comrades' created was to test out my 'street cred' and find me without my aid. They didn't even tell me they had arrived in town. After about 20 minutes and talking to around 7 people, there was a knock at my door. Friends had arrived and I fully realized too many people I know nothing of know where I live. But, hey, looks like I passed that test with flying colors.

Our next mission was to find Lenin in Yevlax. There's a halved Lenin statue from the Soviet days around my areaish. I was able to navigate decently in the right directions and we had to ask a few people, but we found him... sitting in dumpyard of sorts with decrepit vans and a bunch of goats. My favorite part of this venture was asking the first random man about Lenin's whereabouts. We didn't quite know how to ask about him, so my friend explained that the Lenin statue didn't have a head on his body. The man was confused.

Riding around and traveling in a beaten up (down-to-earth) Lada older than me attracts a good amount of attention. People watch and stare in disbelief as foreigners are driving about in an almost 30 year old car. Azeris tend to think foreigners/Americans are rich and the visual of us in this particular car is something completely astounding and shattering. It provides Azeris with something else to look at and us with hours of entertainment. I think that's called a win-win.