A Valentine to St. Valentine
(in the form of, yup, you guessed it...a bad haiku)

Brave, noble saint, we
Honor thy name this day with
Conversation hearts.

...

Of course, as I was writing this, I received Doug's comment alerting me to the fact that St. Valentine has about as much to do with Valentine's Day as the Easter Bunny has to do with Easter. No matter; I'll take any excuse I can to write bad haiku, even if it is historically inaccurate!

First, another poorly-devised haiku (this looks to be a regular feature on this LJ):

The Longest Week
No clothes, toiletries.
Airline left 'em, Frankfurt, still.
For shame, Kurdish Air.

Other random thoughts to share:
- You want to know what this place smells like? Think of a combination of dust, gas, and kerosene, among other things. It's quite a, uh, unique smell.

- Because the power is out for 17 hours a day, we have to rely mostly on kerosene heaters to keep us warm. We live in a large, cavernous house with marble floors and stairways, concrete walls and ceilings, and lots of windows. Needless to say, the heaters don't help a whole lot.

- Also, because of the aforementioned scenario, the song "Neighborhood 3 (Power Out)" by the Arcade Fire keeps running through my head.

- I woke up at 4 AM, due to the expected jet lag, but thankfully was able to fall back asleep an hour and a half later. But not before I was able to hear the minarets sound the morning call to prayers. It was absolutely fascinating and even surreal to hear those chants in the dark of night. If that didn't make me realize that I'm in the Middle East now, I don't know what will.

- This internet joint switches from Americn tunes to Middle Eastern music. Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do (I Do it for You)" was just up. Yes!

More later, when I get a chance to collect my thoughts.