I have been a bit bad posting as of late. I went to a whole country and didn't post about it. But, I am in Ireland now. After Morocco we went to Paris and of course loved it - again. But, we are in Ireland now and we are leaving Thursday to go home! I am so excited to come back to the US, never thought I say that, but I am excited. But, enough on that and I will say a few things about Ireland.

We are both so pleased we are ending our trip here. It is true - everything in Ireland is green, even in winter. We arrived early evening and the next day we left Dublin, so I haven't even done Dublin yet - we are doing that tomorrow. We rented a car and have been spending time traveling around the Southwest of the country. Yes you read right - we rented a car and I am the driver. Those of you who know me well will find the irony in that. I don't want to say I don't like driving, but if I have a option I would prefer not to drive - i.e. other people drive, walk, or public transportation. But, since the car is a stick shift and Amy hasn't driven those a lot, and my car in America is, by default I am the driver. Needless to say driving on the left side of the road, changing gears with my left hand, having the passenger seat as the driver seat, round-abouts, roads that can only fit 1 1/2 cars but are really 2 lane roads, no street lights - all this takes a lot of getting used too! Amy helps me out a lot by telling me when I get too close to the curb on the left (which I constantly do) and she is in charge of navigating. It is getting a bit more normal now so Amy will have to make sure I drive on the right side of the road when we get back to America! But, I am having a wonderful time here. We went to Glendalough, Killanarey National Park, Cork City, and Blarney (where the Blarney Stone is) thus far. Tomorrow we will go through the Guinness Brewery and some other fun things in Dublin. I tried to upload picture to facebook a few minutes ago but it wouldn't load for some reason. So, I will try again later and hopefully add some pictures.

I am going to start off this post with a warning - I am biased so take my views of Morocco with a grain of salt. I have always wanted to come to Morocco, actually twice the PC told me I would be placed there. So here I am finally spending a week traveling around Morocco... and I can't wait to leave. I am not having a good time here at all. I think if I was coming here at a different stage in my life I would really enjoy it more; but not now. It is way too similar to my life in Azerbaijan. And coming here after spending time in Europe is brutal. I am back to being harassed walking down the street, having guys trying to grab me, having a guy kick at soccer ball at me, tons of unwelcome attention. It is just too much my life for the past 27 months too soon. But harder here because I don't speak the language or better so I can't understand what they are saying to me - depending on your perspective. We have already been to Casablanca and tomorrow we are leaving Fez for Marrakesh. Our first night in Casablanca we watched the movie Casablanca for the first time (the first time seeing the movie for the both of us) and we actually ate lunch at Rick's Cafe the next day. Our conclusion - Casablanca during WWII was much cooler. I am just having a hard time here in general - it is hard to find food I can eat, the tea is so sweet I don't like drinking it (never did I ever think I would find tea I don't like drinking) - I feel like I am drinking liquid sugar, I am just not in a good place mentally here. But on the positive side - the weather is quite nice during the day and it is cheaper than Europe.

We leave Morocco on Monday for Paris and then to Ireland and then back to the States.

Let me just start off saying I love Lisbon! I definitely want to come back to Portugal and spend more time, there is so much more I want to do. And this is definitely a place I wouldn't mind living in the future. I absolutely love it here. I am not sure where to begin. I love the weather, the history, the people, everything. And it has a circus school! And as I wrote previously I love the circus, I kind of want to come to Portugal and go to circus school. Amy's mom knows a Portuguese man who lives just outside of Lisbon and we spent Saturday with him as he toured us around Lisbon and surrounding cities ending the night at his house for dinner with him and his family. The other days we just wandered around on our own. Tomorrow we fly to Casablanca for more adventures!

I have been asked which city do I like better: Barcelona or Madrid. To be honest I am not sure: in Barcelona I went to the circus and a Flamenco show (which I could have done in Madrid but we booked it for Barcelona). And yes I did say circus, not the typical Barnes and Bailey style circus, but a circus none the less. We were walking down the street when I saw signs for the circus and made Amy and Olga go with me to the night show. So my new desire in life is to run away and join the circus (a desire I get every time I see the circus). But, for my first meal in Madrid I had a salad with avocadoes on it. I was so excited (I have had them in 2 ½ years). Then we were walking to Renia Sofia (a very famous art museum) when I saw a street seller selling sweet potatoes. I almost peed in my pants with excitement. A little background information – the only food I have truly missed my entire time abroad has been sweet potatoes. I already told my mom to stock the house with them because that is all I want to eat for the first month after I get home. So when I saw them on the street I was overcome with excitement so much so that I couldn’t even enjoy the art museum because all I wanted to do was go outside and get sweet potatoes. Needless to say I impatiently went through the museum with Olga only thinking about sweet potatoes so tomorrow I am going to the museum again so I can actually focus on what I am seeing. (And yes I loved every precious bite of my sweet potatoes.) I also went on a walking tour of Madrid and learned some interesting things about the history of the city that I didn’t know. So, back to the original question – I still have no answer. Amy and I will be in Madrid until Jan 6 when we will take a night train to Lisbon, Portugal.

I am spending my last night in Barcelona and tomorrow I am heading off to Madrid. I have a few observations about my trip - I like Spain but I am not in love with it; I don't foresee myself coming back anytime soon. I guess it is a good thing I never followed through with my childhood dream of becoming a bartender in Spain. I am now, however, a huge fan of Sangrias; I tried it for the first time this trip and love them. But, eating in Spain is quite difficult for a vegetarian who doesn't eat dairy; not many options. And the hot chocolate is a no go - never thought I would turn down hot chocolate but here it is quite thick, like pudding. Continuing on the food topic, which eating is my favorite past time, I like mezas (Turkish version of tapas) better than tapas. Well, I should log off so I can continue packing and go to bed. Be on the look out for pictures on facebook in the next few days.

Today is my last full day in Istanbul. Tomorrow we are heading out to Spain. I am very excited to leave Istanbul even though we have had a good time. We haven't done tons and tons of stuff, just taking it easy and enjoying a laid back relaxing vacation. We did however go see some of the major sights. It is Amy's first time in Istanbul and she had a list of thing she wanted to do.

Below are a few pictures but I posted more on my facebook account.

The Blue Mosque

Aya Sophia

Amy and Me at Subway

Its been too long since I last updated my blog. Since my last post everything, literally everything, in my life has changed. I am no longer as PCV; I COSed (completion of service) on Dec 16th. I am now an official RPCV (Returned PCV)! I know that is a bit of a surprise for some people since I posted a while ago my decision to extend. But after much thought and soul searching I came to the conclusion the best thing for me was to finish my time in Azerbaijan and come home.

So where am I now? Currently I am sitting in a flat in Istanbul that Amy and I are renting for the duration of our stay here. We will be here until the 30th, when we will leave for Spain. And yesterday I was in Paris, my new favorite city. After I COSed I met Sara and Laura there; I absolutely fell in love with it. I am not sure if I loved it so much because it is so different from where I have been or it is just that amazing. But I like it enough that Amy and I will make our way back there while we travel through Europe. We (Sara, Laura, and I) rented a flat near in a cute little neighborhood and had an amazing time sight seeing, eating, and relaxing. Below are pictures from my time there.

Sara and me at The Louvre

Our last supper - (I had monkfish)

Laura and me

Yes, I am drinking a bowl of amazing hot chocolate

At Notre Dame

Yummy sushi dinner

In our flat

At the Louvre

Last week I was so fortunate to have a friend of mine from Raleigh, Char, stop by for a few days to visit me. And when I say a few days I literally mean 2 days. She was helping some friends move to Turkey and decided to stop by and see me. I am so glad she did and I had an absolutely amazing time with her. We spent the time in Baku doing some sight-seeing with my Embassy family (the family I stay with when I am in Baku who works at the US Embassy; I have adopted them, hence the possessive pronoun). It was hard to see her leave, but I loved every minute of her being here.

I have attached a few pictures from our time with descriptive captions. Me and Char at Qobustan (a historic site with rock engravings dating back between 5,000 - 10,000 years)

Us in the House

Us at the "Burning Mountain" (a hillside where the ground is naturally on fire, constantly, from natural gas)

Me at Burning Mountain

Me climbing through a rock at Qubostan that is believed if you go through it (like in the picture) and make a wish it will come true

I’ve changed. That was a given outcome I was expecting when I decided to join the Peace Corps. Some changes I think are for the best and some not so much. What brought on this discourse of thought on change? Watching a cooking podcast (which I download to get new ideas for meals and merely because I enjoy watching them). As I was watching this particular episode for vegan pancakes, the cook needed water for the recipe, so she proceeded to turn to her kitchen sink, open the faucet, get water and then put it in the batter. I watched that and thought: that is so weird; she just took water from the sink. It wasn’t until a few days later did I realize how strange it was that I thought it is strange to get cookeable, drinkable water straight from the tap. (Bit of background on my process for having drinkable water: daily gather water (between 7.45am to 8.30am – roughly) from the yard faucet, boil it, pour it in my water filter, and wait for it to be filtered (this is the longest part of the process, usually requiring several hours.) Pondering all the ways I realize I have changed (probably have changed in ways I don’t even consider as change anymore), I wander when I go back to America if all these changes will reverse or are they permanently part of me now? Will I ever stop thinking running water is precious? When I turn a knob and instantly have hot water will I even remember having to water several hours for water to heat up, and never having hot water in the house, only the in the yard shower? Will I continue the habit of never leaving anything pluged into an outlet when it is not in use? Will I get used to not having to bring my own toilet paper everywhere? Will I continue to use my hand (for number 1 and 2) when I run out of or forget toilet paper, without giving it a second thought? Will I break the habit of automatically throwing used toilet paper into a trash can? What will replace my knowledge of exact time of day when I no longer hear the call to prayer 3 times a day? Will I continue to walk down streets with my head down, eyes to the ground, avoiding eye contact, and frankly any interactions, with men? Will I see a group of guys, young or old, in the street and instantly change my course and find an alternate route to avoid them or will I not even think twice about them? Will I walk into a room full of men for a business meeting and think it is strange that my presence is acknowledged (since here my presence is rarely acknowledged)? Will I stop becoming overwhelmed when I am in large group gatherings? What will happen when my secret language of English is understood by everyone around me or when I can fluently understand everything around me? To be honest the thought of staying scares a me a bit to think how much more I will change and the thought of going scares me a bit because here has become the normal for me.

I hosted a birthday party at my house last weekend for one of my youth, who was turning 16 or 17, not sure which. Birthdays are counted differently here and when I asked her how she was she said 17, but when I doubled checked for how many candles to put on the cake she said she was turning 16. I tried to get an explanation for the difference, but I didn't understand what she was talking about so I gave up and said she was 17 turning 16. None the less we had a really fun party. I spent Saturday night baking and as usual I over baked - 1 layer chocolate cake with pink icing; 1 batch sugar cookies, 1 batch butter walnut cookies, 1 9 x 13 pan of peanut butter bars with PB & chocolate icing, plus watermelon and chips. The party was Sunday and 8 youth came (8 were invited) and we played Twister and Screaming Ninja. Twister was a big hit, but being where we are and how it is here boys and girls played separately, well that is not true, I was the only hussy who played with both boys and girls. Screaming Ninja was also a big hit and I can only imagine what the women who sit the in the apartments' building communal yard thought of a group of kids yelling "hi-ya's" at each other were doing, because we could definitely be heard out of my window. The kids really like my new house a lot better, I can really tell too because they come over a lot more often now - which I like. So here was the breakdown: games, tea break, more games, cake and soda break, games, Xalid's Micheal Jackson dance and then photo session. (Photo session is the term I apply to the need for everyone in this culture to take crazy amounts of pictures - the person individually with everyone.) Then they left - the girls had to get home, they only were allowed permission from their parents to stay until 5.

Screaming Ninja in Action

Making a wish

Me and the birthday girl

Xalid doing his Micheal Jackson dance to "Smooth Criminal" for us, he is really good.

The group (minus the girl taking the picture, she doesn't like her picture to be taken)

Boys Round of Twister

Twister fun

Me rocking out Twister

I have been in my new place for one week and last night I started to get worried that my water tank would run out soon - like in the middle of my shower soon. (Just in case you don't know, most houses and apartments have a tank that stores all the water for their house; which is different from drinking water - that comes from somewhere else. In my current case, the drinking water comes from a faucet in the middle of the courtyard of my building.) The water to fill tanks and the water from the faucet in the yard does are not always working at the same time (unless your source is a well, not the city.) To further complicate things water is only cut on a certain times during the day - you have to know your water schedule and be home at those times. For three days I have opened the valve I needed to fill up my water tank when the faucet (in the courtyard) was pouring water; I assumed that if one was working the other would be too. Not the case. So I was becoming increasingly worried that I would run out of water (which has happened to me before, not the end of the world but not super fun to be in the middle of a shower with no more water either). I asked my neighbor why I couldn't fill my tank in the mornings when the faucet water was turned on. She said, "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't; sometimes the water comes on around 3 or 4, but you work then." So where did that leave me - a little more stressed out. She suggested I turn open my valve in the morning before work and just leave it on until I come home at night and close it then. Great thought minus the fact that when once a tank is full it then begins to overflow. Again, not the end of the world to have a flooded yard expect my tank doesn't overflow into my yard but into a neighbor's yard. As much as I want water I also don't want to be that jerk who floods their neighbor's yard.

This brings me to this morning. When I went to shower this morning (and the faucet water was turned on) I decided to open my tank valve and just see what happened. What happened? Nothing, no water. But I left it open while I continued to get ready for work. As I was leaving for work I stopped in my yard to close the valve. But, what did I feel? Water running! (Yes, I tell if the water is running by touching the pipes to see if I can feel running water). New delima: leave for work with an unfilled tank, leave for work with tank valve open and flood the neighbor's yard, or stay until my water tank fills and be late for work. I took option 3. Now I can rest easy because I know that I have a tank full of water, until the next time that is.

For my birthday this year I really felt the love. My PCV and Azerbaijani friends totally went above and beyond with visits, presents, texts, and phone calls wishing me a happy birthday. Ceyhun, for the second year in a row, brought me a birthday cake to celebrate. I have posted pictures below. However, my favorite gifts were from my amazing friends Sara and Jessica. What did they give me? Diet Coke, brought to me all the way from Baku!

Ceyhun (right) and his best friend (also my neighbor) in my kitchen

Aybaniz, me, and Ceyhun with my birthday cake

Cutting the cake

My birthday cake from Ceyhun (second year in row he has given me a cake)

This past weekend I went to visit my good friend Sara at her site, on Sunday my other stellar friend Jessica came down to join the fun. Sara and I had a blast cooking all sorts of amazing food and running together in the mornings. We made English muffins, which we were so proud of - they tasted amazing and looked like store bought. We made apple oatmeal pancakes, hummus, roasted veggies with pesto sauce, Thai veggies, burritos, and brownie oatmeal cookies. I was sad to leave, but the realities of work. Below are some pictures from the weekend.

Me and Sara with two of her girls she works with

Jessica and Me

Me, Jess, and Sara

Home made whole wheat English muffins Sara and I made - from scratch!

Me slicing up our amazing English muffins to toast in the oven

Well, I did the unthinkable - I moved. I honestly thought I would never move away from my host family, but I had my reasons for wanting to move and I did, yesterday. I will try to give you a mental picture until I post pictures of it, which will not happen until I have it fixed, i.e. unpacked and decorated.

When you walk in the front door you are standing in the corridor - there is a coat rack, small table with a mirror, where I fix my hair and for the first time since I have been in the country have access to a full length mirror to actually check out my outfits! To the right is a room that will serve as my kitchen - it is very spacious, guess lack of furniture will do that, and has a big window giving it lots of light. In that room is a kitchen sink and a fridge. Back in the corridor again, to the left is my bedroom. It has my bed and place for my clothes (can only think of the word in Azerbaijani, can't find the English word right now). But this clothes holder thing has a place where I can hang my dresses, amazing! Haven't had that before either. At the far end of my bedroom is a door which accesses my enclosed balcony. On the balcony is my gas stove - with 3 working burners! I am pumped about that, the gas is a lot stronger than at my old place. So that is the rundown of my apartment. Anything missing!?! You're probably wandering where my toilet and shower are? Well, they are in my own little enclosed yard - outside of my apartment building. I can't get indoor plumbing for the life of my in this country! But, I am okay with it, it is just a short walk to my yard. It is mine alone, I am the only one with the key (I bought a new lock) - there was some dispute on how many keys there were to the old lock so I solved that problem by buying a new one. I still have a squatty potty, but I actually like them so I don't mind. My shower is absolutely fabulous - the water doesn't just drip on my head, but comes out of all the holes on the shower head - its amazing. The shower alone was worth the move to me. However, I do have to heat the water up via burning wood. Didn't try that this morning, little apprehensive, not going to lie - but I will get the hang of it eventually, hopefully before winter comes.

Lessons learning: how to heat my water and the water schedule (i.e. when the water comes so I can fill my water tank). Also, where to put my garbage - still a mystery.

Lesson learned: Just because I am the only one with a key to my yard doesn't mean I should shower or using the bathroom with the doors open (which I love, not a fan of doors) and shouldn't walk around my yard naked either, which I also like. Why? As I learned this morning, people on the second floor can see down into my yard - opps! lol.

I can't remember if I have announced this or not but I am going vegan. I have already cut out eggs and cheese and recently I cut out milk. All that is left for me to eliminate is yogurt and ice cream (every time I go to Baku I buy a soft serve cone from McDonald's). I won't be able to completely go vegan while I am here because not going to lie, I really like the fresh from the village yogurt. A staple guesting food for me is a aryan, yogurt drink and dovga, a yogurt soup, since I don't eat meat. That and there is no such thing a soy products here so it makes it a bit more difficult.

But, back to the point of this post. When I search online for vegan recipes it drives me absolutely insane when the search results say the are vegan and then I go to the site, but in reality they are just vegetarian. For someone with very limited Internet access it is super annoying.

One indication I need to find friends closer to my own age: After lunch today we checked our blood pressures and discussed it over tea.

Yagud cooking vegetable Kabobs

Me and Yagud at a small waterfall at a resturant

Isti Su (Hot Water)

Me with my hair wrapped, wearing a wool jacket and pants

Xəyələ and Me outside a dead prophet's tomb we visited

Me and Yagud in Lerik

Everyone (minus the person taking the picture) drinking tea in Lerik

I am on vacation with Yagud and Fizuli in a village of Lankeron. The day I am writing this, Sunday, is day 5 of our vacation and I am having a good time and enjoying it. However, there are definitely some marked differences form an American vacation, I should not generalize, so more specifically there are definitely marked differences between my version of a vacation than their idea. But, that is to be expected. Some examples. We left Imisli Wednesday, and when I say we I mean me, Yagud, Fizuli, and their neighbors who have a family of 3. So we drove the 6 hours in the afternoon heat with me and 3 other people in the back seat of a small 4 door car. We arrive to the village and start looking for a place to stay. The other family is renting a room out of person’s house, but Yagud didn’t like it there so we (Yagud, Fizuli, and me) went to another house. She didn’t like it here either so we went yet to a 3rd house. By this point we are all tired, hungry, and hot. She finally agreed to stay there a night and then decide if we will continue staying there (which we are, guess it grew on her). And we went to a neighboring region yesterday called Lerik. What did we do to mark our time in Lerik? See the highlights of the city? Drive or walk around? No, we went to a tea house, took pictures of us drinking tea, then left.

The village we are staying in is known for having naturally heated water springs that people visit for healing and health reasons. So every night we go to this place to sit in the ‘isti su’ (i.e. hot water). Well, there are two types of this hot water you can sit in: for one person it is a bathtub and for families or groups of same sex people (if a man and a woman go they have to be married to go in the same room) it is more of a pool type setting. Maybe a carved out of the ground hot tub is the best description. It is a large hot tub size, but rocks and earth are the ground – if that makes sense. So I went into the single room the first night. The second day Yagud decided I should see the ‘pool’ one (I said pool because the Azeri word used translated is pool).

On the second night we went to the hot water place and told the women in charge of collecting the money we wanted a ‘pool’ room. An hour later we were still on the benches sitting outside waiting for a room to open up, this is a crowded place. Yagud is getting impatient, I am getting hungry (it doesn’t open until 6 and we got there around 7). We go wait outside of the door of the room Yagud wants. For another 30 minutes we stand outside the door while Yagud impatiently knocks on the door telling the people in there to hurry up. Another 30 minutes passes and we are still waiting; the original plan was for me and Yagud to go together and then I would leave and then Fizuli would go in with Yagud. By this time we have been waiting so long that Yagud thought we all 3 (me, Yagud, and Fizuli) should go together, but I squashed that (because you do this naked). Then Yagud is fed up so she walks in there and talks to the people in there, who are all women. Next thing I know Yagud is telling me to come with her (this is about two hours after we arrived at the hot waters). So I walk in the room with the ‘pool’ and small area for changing. What do I see? Four naked women in the room going back and forth between sitting in the pool and sitting on the bench and one woman fully clothed waiting for the others. What do I do? Get naked and get in the pool. So here I am with 5 complete strangers, naked, and floating in the ‘healing power’ waters. (From the first night in the bath tub room the un-sanitariness of this gets suppressed from my mind, like I do often during my service.) Not sure what this says about me, but I don’t think twice about the situation. So next thing I know some says my shoe, i.e. my right chaco is in the canal. (The right shoe only being significant because I just happened to pee on that one by accident when I went to the bathroom while waiting for the pool room to be free.) I immediately jump out of the pool asking ‘what do you mean it is in the canal?’ Evidently, leaving your shoes in the middle of the room is a big mistake because the overflow from the pool flows out of the room into some inaccessible canal outside. A woman looks through the hole in the back of the room where the water is draining and says she sees my show. I look and don’t see it. Next thing I know Yagud, butt naked, gets down on all fours and starts reaching her hand through this hole trying to salvage my shoe. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my chacos. It didn’t start out that way, last summer I killed my rainbows and after mold starting to grow on them I decided it was time to face reality and throw them out. So this summer I had no choice but to start wearing my chacos. Well, I thought (and still do think) they are some of the ugliest shoes I own. But they have grown on me: they are comfortable, durable, easy to take on and off (no shoes in the house here), don’t mold when they get wet; they do leave a nasty tan line on my feet, but hey who is perfect? So, I daily wear my chacos and don’t want to wear any other shoes. All that being said, I don’t love them near enough to get on my hands and knees, butt naked, on the floor of this public bath house stick my arm through a drain where I can’t see what I am touching (huge phobia of mine – reaching my hands in things where I can’t see what I am touching). So, I resigned to losing my chaocs and having to buy a pair of sandals for the rest of the summer. But, not Yagud. She stuck her arm up to her shoulder through that hole (which was not much bigger than her arm) and that paired with a stick was able to save my chaco. Now, all the women in the room are mad at me because I am younger and smaller than Yagud and think I should be the one of the floor. But, I just look at them like they are out of their minds because I would never do that. So after my shoe is saved from its little bath (guess I shouldn’t pee on my shoes anymore) I wash my hair and body, rinse off and decide I have had enough of this pool experience. (Now, on the showering note – the only shower I have here is at this hot water place which is why I daily go).

But don’t worry, the story only gets better. Now, take into account it is the middle of summer, ridiculously hot, I just got out of basically a sauna, all my body water has been sweated out, feel de-hydrated and am continuously sweating – what would you do next? Let me tell you what I have to do, and I mean ‘have to’ as in forced to do. Put on pants, wear socks, wear a wool jacket over my tank top, and wrap my wet hair with a towel and stay that way for hours. Am allowed to drink water? Nope. I have to wait for everyone (Yagud, Fizuli and the other family we came with) to finish then we will all go drink boiling hot tea. I kid you not. If I don’t completely cover myself from head to toe and drink hot tea I will get sick. Yagud seriously told me the first night I couldn’t go into the hot waters because I refused not to drink water for the 7 week we will be here. So we compromised, I said I wouldn’t drink water after the hot waters, but during the day all bets were off. So, the second night I got out of my naked stranger experience, pee shoe in toe, sweating my life away dying of thirst. Oh Azeri vacations!

ps. pictures to come when I don’t have dial up internet

It has been way too long since I posted last. I actually started to write a post a few weeks ago, just now realizing that I never posted it. My bad. I am alive and well and I will attempt to give an update on my life. In Imishli it is still really not and we still have no gas (since May). I officially put my extension request in to Peace Corps and now I'm just waiting to hear for their decision.

I do have a few funny guesting experiences. A little cultural side note: the majority of Azerbaijani people, especially older people, do not like to sit in direct contact with a fan or air conditioning in the summer. They believe that the cool air will make them sick. That being said, my host grandmother has been coming to our compound daily to hang out in the yard with my host family. My host family went inside to sit in their room with a wall unit and then my host dad had friends come over to drink tea and play backgammon. Therefore my host grandmom came over to my house and asked if she could sit in my house for a while because the men were in the yard (women leave the area/room when men guests come and only serve food and tea for them) and couldn't go in the big house (my host family's house) because the wall unit was on. I said sure. She said 'I'm going to go wash and be right back.' So about 5 minutes later my host grandmom comes to my door naked from the waist up - no shirt, no bra. She then proceeds to sit in my one and only arm chair spread eagle with a skirt and no top until the men left. I had to turn my fan away from her so the air wouldn't hit her. I just sat there thinking - wow and laughing in my head.

Another time I went guesting at an aunt's house of one of my youth. They live in a village of Imishli. That guesting experience was a mere 7 hours, but it wasn't so bad. We went fishing, milked cows (which I have lost my touch), played cards and chess. Ceyhun, my youth, asked me to play chess with him. I told him I learned how to play chess in 1st grade but hadn't played since then. He then proceeded to say ' Oh, so you learned how to play 20 years ago.' My initial reaction was 'No way, I'm not that old' until I realized, yes I am that old and he was completely right. That was a shocker! I guess to all my youth I am old. It made me realize all my friends at site are either 20 plus years older than me or 10 plus years younger than me.

I think thats all I have for now.

I have been asked a lot lately 'when are you coming home?' The question for me was a lot harder and complicated than 'my time in PC ends in December.' For work reasons I have been considering extending my service in the PC. I wavered back and forth for at least a month on what I should do. For me, the real question was 'What do I want to do with my life?' If I could answer that question then I could decide if it would be smarter for me to leave or stay in PC.

So, why have I even been considering extending? I originally said to myself that I would never even consider extending unless I had full time work, not as it is now: periods of a lot work and periods of very little work. Well, turns out that I do have full time work in my future. I have been and continue to be very busy with preparing project proposals. I am working with Fizuli's organization to design and prepare two projects dealing with building the capacity of 8 municipalities in 4 regions to be more democratic, transparent and citizen-orientated. There are two separate projects, one focusing on the 8 municipalities and youth and one focusing on the 8 municipalities and women. For the donor organization these projects will be a pilot program to possibly implement in other regions. Each of the projects will be 12 months and will probably start in August. After have been repeatedly asked, by both Fizuli and the donor organization, to extend my service in the PC to continue to work on these projects, I actually started to consider extending.

So back to the question of what to do with my life. After much prayer and seeking the opinion and advice of professionals in the various career fields I am considering I have finally come to a decision. I have decided to extend my time in PC for an additional 6 months, as of right now I am planning to leave in either May or June of next summer. (I have until December to give my exact date of leaving the PC and I am figuring out the best date for me to leave in regards to my plans for after PC.) I chose to stay for career purposes as I have decided to pursue the field of International Development. The reason I am leaving next summer is to give myself 2 months (1 month for personal travel in Europe and 1 month to spend with family and friends in the US) before I start graduate school, inshallah, next Fall. I will be taking the GRE in December and applying in January for 5 graduate programs to receive my MA in International Development or Public Policy (the program name varies from school to school). The schools I am considering are all on the East Coast, the majority in Washington, D.C.

So, that is where I am now - one year before I will be coming home. But, the positive side I will soon have access to video skype whenever I want to use it so I will be able to see and talk to you all for free, if you have skype! We will be getting DSL in Fizuli's office for the projects and Fizuli is going to buy a webcam and headset for me to use - so let me know if you want to set up skype dates!

As I was encouraging my youth to create blogs I realized how I have not updated my in a really long time. So, this is me trying to practice what I preach. I am slammed with work, which is nice. I am developing two project proposals that will work in municipal development and civic engagement. I spend most of my time working on the proposals, traveling back and forth to Baku for meetings (who would ever thought driving 4 hours for a 2 hour meeting and then back 4 hours in one day would become routine), talking through the project with Fizuli and staying up late revising and editing the proposals. I also have 3 clubs a week for my youth: sport night, movie night, and English lesson night (my least favorite). I have learned anything here it is that I do not like teaching English. But, I love my youth so I guess it balances it self out.

Other updates: It has been 19 days and counting with no gas, ie no hot water and no way to cook food. The gas pipes that serve Imishli are covered with water from the horrible flooding here (as Imishli, Saatli, and Sabairabad regions). But, it could be worse - it could be winter or my house could have been flooded. I have electricity most of the time, last week it was off until around 8 - 10 pm, but this week has been much more steady. I had a end of school party at my house last weekend for my youth. I made too much pizza and cookies, but I think they had fun none the less. I had an amazing time with my mom (she has all the pictures though so you will have to get them from her), her time with me went way too fast.

My youth at my house

My mom at a HIV/AIDS awareness training in Fizuli Region (a project I did, it as nowbeen completed)

Me, a shot from one of my youth

My host family wanted to chop down a lot of unfruitful trees (literally, the trees that were fruit trees that were not providing fruit) from my yard. When I heard what was going down I decided to go help them; and when I say help them I mean watch. As my host parents were getting tired my host mom asked me to help cut down one of the trees. I thought, how hard can this really be right? Well, it is a little harder than it looks. I like to blame the dull saw and ax for my absolute failure, but in reality I just couldn't make the cut! My host mom, when she found her breath from all the laughter of watching my horrible attempts, asked me "Didn't your father teach how to do this?" Which got me laughing and I said no. (So mom, for the first time you are not to blame for my failure of knowledge!) My failed attempts to cut down the tree.

The pros at work.

I realized that you all may have never seen a picture of Yaqut and Fizuli (my second family here.) These are the people that I consider my closest friends, next to my host mom, and at whose house I can be found if I am not at home or at work.

Novruz, the biggest holiday in Azerbaijan, just ended. For my 9 nine days of work being closed I decided to go traveling. I went to Sheki, Baku, and Xachmas. Here are some pictures of my Sheki leg of the trip.

Albanian Church in the village of Kish outside of Sheki.

Stopping for tea with fellow PCVs on our day hike.

A friend of a friend (i.e. a PCV's, in another region, Azeri friend serving his army service in that PCV's region) is from a village of Imishi. My friend suggested I go visit his friend's family. So last Sunday was the day I arranged, through my friend's friend, to go visit his family. I had been talking to the mother on the phone several times through out the week finalizing the arrangements. We decided on a time and that the father, who has a friend with a car, would come get me in instead of me taking a taxi. (Let me just preference I had never heard of this village before so I had no idea where it was. I asked around and got a general idea of the location I was going.) I was looking forward to the visit, I felt like I had everything set up. Time, ride, informed the mother I don't eat meat (even more awkward than telling a complete stranger I am coming to visit and listing off food I can and can't eat is showing up to their house with a huge meal prepared in your honor that you can't eat because everything is meat) - all checked off my mental list. I thought I was ready until Saturday night. I had borderline anxiety about going and that's when I realized I really don't like meeting new people and I have become borderline antisocial. The thought of me being the center of attention for minimum 5 hours of guesting, trying to plan how to politely get out of spending the night (normal for guesting), making small talk, trying to avoid being forced to eat so much I explode, figuring out how I will get a ride back to Imishli... had me thinking I am too old for this and wandering why in the world I agreed to guest at complete strangers' house.

Well, Sunday morning I woke up, I ate as little as possible to prepare myself for what was to come, made a coffee cake as a gift, packed up my photo album (pictures and family videos come out for every guesting experience and bringing my own is a great time filler), packed my box of chocolates for a gift, packed my tp (third to keys and phone on my check list when I leave my house, don't like using my hands) and decided it would be easier for me to wait on the main street for the father to come get me (I gave them my address but considering the roads nor houses are marked I decided to wait outside).

So I am waiting on the street for a someone to come up to me, who has never met or talked to me nor I have ever met or talked to him, and ask me "Are you Hannah?" I am banking on him being able to find me easily, since I completely stand out every where I go. After this man comes up to me, then the plan was to get in the car with the two random men and drive 40 minutes or so to a village I have ever heard of and spend the rest of the day at their house. It was not until I was already in the car and well on my way did the thought occur to me that this might not be the smartest plan in the world. It seemed completely normal to me, completely legit for here, and then I started to laugh because I thought this would freak my mom out.

But, as I knew I it would be, I was completely safe, everything was fine. The family is very nice and I enjoyed spending time with them. It was a bit awkward at times, but that is to be expected. I only stayed for a little over 5 hours and left with a parting gifts of some of my favorite foods. (They were at a complete loss of what to do with me. They wanted to give me eggs, but I don't eat eggs. Then wanted to kill a chicken for me and give me that, but I don't eat meat.)

What I took away from this experience: coffee cake is a huge success and I will now bake it for all my guesting adventures.

So I went guesting to Yagut's the other day. Yes, the same Yagut where I had all my facial hair removed and became a dress up doll for her middle aged women wardrobe and wig. So what happened in this latest adventure? Lets just say a picture is worth a thousand words. And I would be lying if I didn't actually want to do it myself. What can I say, I am a girl after all.

Below are some kids who came to my house last Sunday for pizza. The very first time they have ever eaten pizza. Sometimes I forget that I am the only 'piece of America' they have known or ever will know. Kind of a scary thought. After we ate we played outside a bit with a Frisbee and volleyball and then came inside for a game of Skipbo.

A few things that don't phase me anymore:

1. Having to pay extra at a store because you asked for a receipt

2. A store not having the coins you need for change so instead you are given matches, candy, or a pen

3. Having guests come to your house and stay from 11am - 4pm and thinking once they leave that they only stayed for a short period of time

4. Not remembering the last time I changed my outfit and yet continuing to wear it daily

5. Using a broom to sweep my carpets and thinking it is perfectly normal

6. Not knowing anymore if what I do and don't do is normal by Azerbaijani or American standards

All I can say, is watch out America. Every time I come back from overseas I always have new habits that disgust and drives my family crazy. I can't even imagine what you all will think of me now!

Last week Fizuli (the director of an organization I work with and Yagut's husband, if you remember her), Anar (the trainer for Fizuli's organization), and I went to Fizuli Region, a bit confusing I know. We went to gain permission from the Ex-Comm (if we were given his permission then everything would fall into place) and the Minister of Education to receive permission from them to do an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) schools there. So the interesting thing from this is that we (and when I say we I mean Fizuli because I didn't do any of the talking for two reasons: 1. my language ability and 2. I am a woman (even if I knew all the Azerbaijani words needed to talk about HIV/AIDS I wouldn't say anything because I would not have been taken seriously and then we would not have been given permission for the project). So back to trying to convince them. After we went through all the proper channels, i.e. meeting with 6 people first, then we were finally able to meet with the Ex-Comm. In his office, which was bigger than my entire house, no lie, Fizuli and Anar had to repeat over and over that we were going to focus on transmission through needles (a serious problem here) and not focus on sexual transmission in our project. The Ex-Comm (and therefore the Minister of Education) finally agreed that we could do the project, but we have to be very careful that we don't talk a lot about sexual transmission, just mention in passing so to speak. The other condition is that they may not allow girls to attend the trainings because the topic may be too inappropriate for them.

Side note, in the meeting with the Ex-Comm at one point he asked Fizuli if I understood what he was saying. Fizuli said no and then the Ex-Comm proceeded to talk a really long time about very inappropriate topics (lets just say prostitutes was the start of this conversation). So while the Ex-Comm was going on this tangent, for a lack of a better word, I sat there and pretended that I didn't understand what he was talking about, since Fizuli said I didn't understand. Afterwards I asked Fizuli why he said I didn't understand and he just laughed. He said he knew I understood but could tell the Ex-Comm really wanted to "get this stuff off his chest" and knew it would help our chances of getting permission and if he knew I understood he would never had talked about it. I just laughed. Oh the politics of getting stuff done.

Last week I went to Baku for Az6's Mid Service Conference. Well, on the day we were suppose to leave, we got snowed in the hotel! So we stayed a day extra and finally were able to leave the hotel on Saturday, but not allowed to leave Baku because of the road conditions. So, Amy, Jessica, and I headed over to stay with the Riders (American family working in Baku who Jessica and I often stay with) for a few days. We went sledding, played games, drank hot chocolate, and ate awesome food. Once we were finally able to leave Baku I was very excited to see the snow disappear as I headed back down to my region. But, I woke up today and it is snowing here! No love for me, I can't escape it. I am just hoping our pipes don't freeze again; they did a few weeks ago and it made me really understand how much I value running water. I will have to say that I have almost mastered the art of cold weather dressing. Today I am wearing: hiking boots, two pairs of socks (one is wool), leggings, thermal long johns, pair of pants, thermal shirt, long sleeve shirt, hoodie, two jackets (one North Face and one Patagonia), scarf, and gloves. Yes, I am a wimp, I know. Amy (another PCV), me, Aaliyah, and Elisabeth

me and Jayden getting ready

I was walking home from work the other day with one of my kids. I said kids but in reality he is 16. I called the youth that come to my clubs, around 15-18 years old, kids because that is how I think of them. They are just so much more innocent that any 15-18 I know in the US. But, back on track. So Ceyhun and I are walking home, we live in the same general direction, when some man calls out to Ceyhun to stop. We stop and here is the conversation that follows (take into the fact that this entire conversation takes places in Azerbaijani):

Man (to Ceyhun): Does she speak Azerbaijani?

Me: Yes, I speak Azerbaijani.

Man (to Ceyhun): Is she English or American?

Me: I'm American.

Man (to Ceyhun): Very good. I'm a music teacher and I want a Pink Floyd CD. I can buy one here, but the quality is bad. Tell her to give me one.

Me: I don't have a Pink Floyd CD.

Man (to Ceyhun): Why doesn't she have one?

Me: I don't listen to Pink Floyd.

Man (to Ceyhun): Okay. Thanks. Good Bye.

So this is just a typical event for me if I am ever with any guy, yes, including guys way younger than me. I am invisible! After a year of this one would think I would be used to it by now. It still irks me a bit, but not nearly as much as it did before. Now, I just laugh when it happens.

So my goal this year is to be a bit better about updating my blog. But, I have absolutely nothing to say. My life is very mundane. As I was walking to work today I tried to think of something, anything you all would find interesting to write about and all I could come up with is food. Pretty sad. So, at this point in the season the cheapest vegetables are carrots and cabbage. And the cheapest fruits are apples and mandarins (and mom when I say mandarins I really mean clementines). I try to think of different foods revolving around those vegetables, in addition to onions, which are pretty cheap year round. Thus far I have made curried carrot dip; cabbage and lentil soup; peanut butter noodles with carrots; and cabbage, carrot, onion, and mandarin salad. My life actually evolves around food. I love thinking of what I want to make and seeking out recipes for new food ideas and then cooking them. On that topic I now realize that last summer I did not make enough jams for myself (for when I drink tea which is non-stop in the winter). I have already gone though my ultimate favorite of yellow cherries with lemon and now I am onto my red cherry jam. I have others in storage: strawberry, fig (not the kind I made which I devoured in like a week, but a different kind I don't like as much), some kind of sour berry, and eggplant (yes I did say eggplant, it was gift and it is absolutely disgusting.) But, I will come up with something I am sure.

Hey Everyone. I thought I would write a post to let everyone know that I did make it back from my Christmas vacation to the US. I arrived Sunday back in Imishli after spending a few days in Baku with an American family. I spend New Year's with them and ate tons of amazing food. I also bought fireworks (a first) and set them off (also a first) for the kids - that was a lot of fun.

Back to Imishli; like I said I got back Sunday late afternoon to Imishli. My new site mate, Joe, came over for a bit. That was the third time I met him (he arrived to Imishli the day before I left for vacation). We hung out for a bit and then I spent a while unpacking, reorganizing, and cleaning my house - a lot of little bugs and spiders had taken over my space while I was gone. Monday: My host mom left for Baku early in the morning (still haven't had a chance to catch up with her yet). Joe came over again and we made miso soup and sushi together. Then we played Phase 10 (a card game I love and bought in the US because I knew I would have a site mate.) Tuesday: Joe came over to drop a few things off and tell me he was ETing (early termination - i.e. he was leaving the Peace Corps). I went around town and said my hellos to everyone I needed to. Wednesday: Joe left Imishli in the morning. I went to work and got back to life as normal for me here. Thursday: Work. Friday: Again, I am at work and hope to catch up with my host mom tonight.

So, I am back to being the only American in Imishli. lol. I am okay with it, I did enjoy my site mate for the two and half days though!

Last Thursday was the one of the funniest days I have had in a while, the kind that just leave you laughing just thinking about it. All in a sphere of about 4 hours I became a dress up doll for one my good friends here. Let me give a brief background on my friend. Her name is Yaqut, she is around 49ish years old, not exactly sure (and no she doesn't speak English for those who you who were wondering. Next to my host mom she is my closest friend here.) She is the wife of my old and new site mate's director. She adored Amber, my old site mate, and now her complete focus is on me. It is kind of funny because half of the time she calls me Amber (but gets very upset if someone else does the same thing!) At times I feel very uncomfortable being the sole preoccupation of someone, but nonetheless I go guesting to her house about once a week.

So back to last Thursday. I went over there for lunch and we started talking about clothes. I had a big event coming up where I needed to dress up, so we were talking about what I would wear. Now since she had never seen me anything she considers "fancy clothes" she just assumed I don't have any (as does the rest of Imishli - business casual just doesn't make the grade here). So after lunch she brought me into her room and said "Look Hannah I have plenty of clothes, you can borrow mine." Then she proceeded to tell me to undress and had me try on the clothes! So imagine for a minute, me - 27, who likes to dress my age (or not really I like usually look younger than I am), but nevertheless, she had me rocking out middle age women long skirts with matching blazer - wait for it .... with shoulder pads! And to top it off she is bigger than me so all the clothes were literally falling off of me. It was so funny and Yaqut kept saying "Hannah, you look so beautiful!" It was so funny. Then, the icing on the cake came, I got a wig put on me. Yes a wig! I so wish I had my camera there. Well, after the playing doll session was over I was talking about how I wanted my eyebrows cleaned up. She said no problem and then we proceeded (have my own cloths on by now) to go to the shop she owns and then a girl comes in and starts plucking my eyebrows. So, they are a little bit skinnier than I would normally do them, but not bad. (Okay, don't forget I am in a shop, with 5 women in there all staring at me intensively and giving their opinions on how I should look.) Then out came the white sewing thread. Yes, I had my first and last experience of threading. That junk hurt! A lot. For those of you who aren't familiar with this process it is when regular sewing thread gets turned into a tool used to pull out hair through a crazy twisting of the thread, pinching of skin, and pulling it out. Well, I knew people threaded their eyebrows so that wasn't a big surprise. The big surprise came when areas of my face no where near my eyebrows starting hurting. Next thing I know she was threading my entire face! And when I say entire face I mean my face has no hair on it expect for my eyebrows. I am sure you are thinking, why the heck didn't you say anything. But, by then my face would have been half hairless and half with hair - so I just suck it up and let the pain keep coming. But, I am no done yet! Then after the de-hairing process was completed the women said to the girl that she needed to refix my hair. And of course, if my hair is going to get redone (which they said needed to be done better than the mere ponytail I had it in) might as well put makeup all over my face! (Which I don't wear here and it drives every Azerbaijani woman absolutely crazy.) So by then end of my guesting experience I was totally been beautified by Azerbaijani standards, but ruined it with my jeans and t-shirt. It was absolutely hilarious!

Hello everyone! It has been a long time since I posted anything about work on my blog. So I want to tell you all what is going on with me. Well, I am crazy busy. This past week I started implementing, not one by two, grant projects and turned in two new grants applications I wrote – all in one weekend! (I am calling this the formal edition because I have just written the bone facts of what I am doing. However, in a few days the informal post, i.e. not just the facts, but my experiences, is to come. So stay tuned.)

So first my project I am working on is an Environmental Project, it is a 6 month long project. For six weekends, for 7 hours every Saturday and Sunday, we are training 21 youth, from 7 different schools – 3 in Imishli city and from 4 villages, about Environmental issues. Part of their trainings include creating art projects with recycled materials and creating a power point presentation. After the trainings, the youth are supposed to create a kind of environment club at their respective schools with their class mates. Each youth is supposed to give a presentation we help them create (based on the information they learned during the trainings) to their classmates and come up with an environmental clean up project idea. Within each school the youth with the best idea will be given a budget of 300 USD to implement their project (we would be helping them implement their project.)

The other project is United Nations club. This project actually started last spring but was shut down by the Minister of Education this summer. So we are basically restarting with the final conference set for 12 December 2009. For this project I am working with university students from Baku who studied abroad for 1 year in America in high school. They come down every Sunday to work with the Imishli youth in meeting our project goals. This club is based off the UN’s millennium goals, instead of creating a mock United Nation’s General Assembly meeting as are the aim of most United Nations clubs. Both projects I have faced and facing several challenges, but there are successes, too. The projects are very challenging in their own ways, but I am excited about what we are teaching the youth. Needless to say my weekends are full for a while, in addition to my other weekly clubs (which meet on Saturdays and Mondays). Below I have posted some pictures from each project.

Working on a collage project - Environmental Project

Environmental Project

Collage I made as an example of the project they did with the theme: Environment & Me

Environmental Project

Environmental Project

Environmental Project (I am on the far left)

Environmental Project

United Nations Project

UN Project

UN Project

UN Project

A wall decoration I created which I love - thanks Hadley for sending me pictures of my beautiful niece and nephew (and you and Gilbert)!

So, what do you do when your only toilet is being remodeled? Well, if you live in Azerbaijan you do the most obvious choice of course. You poop and pee in the yard! Yes, my toilet is being remodeled. The toilet room is being tiled and we are moving up in the world because now we will have a squatty potty that flushes! And wait there is more. We now will have a little hose thing that we can clean ourselves with; and when I say we I mean my host family. I am an old fashioned girl and will stick to the toilet paper. But, on that note now that we will have a tiled room and new squatty potty my good old plastic bag isn’t going to cut it for holding my dirty toilet paper (we don’t flush those here). So now I get to go to the bazaar and go shopping for a super rad trash can for my dirty toilet paper. However, my host mom has her heart set on me becoming completely Azerbaijani and doing away with the unclean toilet paper (she believes it does not clean very well). So she has promised to teach me how to clean myself with the water hose. I insisted that I would come out of the bathroom with my clothes completely soaked in water as I try to maneuver that thing which in turn caused my host mom to roll over with laughter and further secured promises that she would teach me to properly use it and not get any of my clothes wet. So until our little renovation project is finished I will be fighting the chickens for the most private places in my yard. Does make me wonder though what I will be doing when are shower room gets remodeled with tile.

On a completely unrelated side note – geese are really creepy. I was walking on Friday to visit someone and a pack (maybe flock is the right word here) of geese were congregated outside her gate. I don’t think I have ever seen or heard geese cry out (again the proper bird terminology evads me). But all these geese had their necks strained and lowered with their heads tilted up as they cried out for whatever reason. That in itself was pretty creepy because the sound they make is not a pleasant one and they looked weird in that position, but add to it that when I walked next to them to enter the gate they all turned their strained necks and shrieking heads toward me and started moving in on me. That was creepy. I think I will add geese to my bird hate list. Right now I have roosters and geese; in the next 15 months I wonder how many more birds I can add to it?

Playing spoons at my host family's house

Mark (PC Admin officer), Joyce, Andrea, Bonnie, Me, and Meredith (PC country director) at conference in Imishli for a project of Amber's

playing games at my office

Going away party at my house for Amber

making smores in my yard

playing cards at my house

another going away party at my organization for Amber

me preparing the room at my office

So I am in Baku and I am finally able to upload pictures to my blog. Mom this is for you! Walk way to my house. My host family's garden is on the left and their house on the right.

Our shower room.

Our shower room.

The area where my toliet and shower are located. The outside sink is where I wash my clothes.

My toliet

My house

Once again I am trying to upload pictures to my blog as we speak, but again it is not working. I think it is the Internet connection here, it is really slow and not reliable. So, I am trying my best, but sorry. And here I thought having a new camera would solve everything! lol. If it is not one thing it is another, the story of my life here. :)

Well, my site mate is leaving on Monday - leaving and never coming back. Her 2 year period is up and she is heading home. I am really going to miss her because we have gotten quite close in the past few months.

Other random things going on here. So, I woke up one morning, went to the pit toilet outside and my host mom was said "Hannah, we got 20 new chickens!" So we went from having 5 chickens to 25 chickens. I asked if she had any man chickens (that is the literal translation of what I say in Azerbaijani, and yes there is a word for rooster but I prefer to say man chicken - much to the bemusement of my family). This is a big deal for me because I am afraid of roosters. Sometimes one of the roosters from our neighbor's yard gets in lose in my yard and he really is a vicious little thing. So I have developed a fear of them. My host mom said they bought about 10 or so roosters, but not to worry because by the end of winter they will have killed them all and eaten them. With the coming of new chickens I wondered if the old chickens would be territorial towards the new ones, like dogs and cats can be. And the answer? Yes, they are. My host family has to separate the old chickens from the new. The old ones stay in my yard and the new ones stay in the my host family's yard.

Another random story. One of our neighbors got a cow. How do I know this? Because for about 3 nights in a row I heard that stupid thing mooing in the middle of the night. It drove me crazy. I would lie in bedding thinking 'man, will they hurry up and kill that thing!' Which I have decided either makes me the coolest or the absolute worst vegetarian ever; I guess it depends on how you look at it! But, last night - no mooing. So I guess they finally did kill it. I don't think I was at home when it happened because I would have heard it. It is not a very pleasant sound to hear a cow being butchered, FYI. It makes some of the loudest screams, a bit human like too actually (sheep are the same). Now I'm sure I have you all loving me right about now, so I think I will change subjects.

I have said this before, but I am going to say it again. I still get so amazed and excited when I can walk in my yard and find fresh eggs and pick grapes, figs, berries, hot red and green peppers, and regular green peppers for eating (the fruits and veggies in season right now). I love it! I don't know what I will do when I come back home. I guess I will have to start a garden (with my mom's green finger of course; I have a knack for neglecting and then killing plants.)

Still no pictures, even though I have been trying to upload 5 pictures onto my blog for the past hour. So once again, I give up. Sorry friends!

Well, I hope these work. I had more pictures I wanted to upload, but it was taking way to long, so I gave up. Enjoy!

Here is a link to my trip to Sheki:

http://www5.snapfish.com/share/p=220311251715383587/l=3749534008/g=42056374/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Here is a link to view pictures from Georgia and Turkey:

http://www5.snapfish.com/share/p=733311251718012478/l=3749825008/g=42056374/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Hello everyone. I realized that I have become a complete slacker on updating my blog. So, I thought to myself I really need to write something today, but for the life of me I am not sure what I should say. I am not sure if it is because I feel like I have to have something funny or expectational or out of the norm to warrant an update or if I am just lazy. lol. Well, I don't have anything funny, expectational, or out of the norm to update.

My life here is no longer exotic and different (at least for me). The things that I thought were unusual when I first got here seem completely normal to me. I guess that is a good sign: I am settling into a life here.

My sitemate will be leaving for the US (for good) in about two weeks and then I will be the lone American in Imishli. There is a possibility that I may get a new sitemate in December, but right now I would say it could go either way.

The weather is starting to change, finally! Slowly but surely the heat is becoming more and more bearable, next thing I know I will be freezing to death wishing for the unbearable heat of summer!

I am trying to upload some pictures from my Georgia/Turkey trip. But, I have been trying to upload the same 41 pictures for the past 2 1/2 hours and I am still waiting. Needless to say that is going to be a multiple Internet trip project. So hopefully by the end of this week I will have a small album upload to snapfish.

Right now is Ramadan and school starts back on September 15th. That is it for me!

Hey Everyone! I made it back safe and sound from my travels to Georgia and Turkey. This morning I saw Joy off to the airport and in a few hours I will go back to reality, i.e. travel back to site. Here are some pictures that Joy and I took while we were in Imishli. I have tons of pictures to post, but I need to sort through them first and then I will post them online.

Enjoy! Here is the snapfish link: http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=456271248710105244/l=3016217008/g=42056374/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

1. I can wear whatever I want here (i.e. tank tops)2. Cold diet coke everywhere3. I can afford to eat a banana daily4. Goodwill supermarket (a mix of super target and Ikea - never been so overwhelmed in my life) 5. The police are friendly and helpful (it is no problem for me to approach them to ask for help) 6. It is not as hot (thanks to my Imishli desert heat preparing me for anywhere else in the world)7. Everything is cheaper! 8. The road are amazing (they are actually paved and have a highway system - travel here is quite comfortable)9. There is scenery - mountians, trees, parks, clean streets, statutes (besides Heydar Aliev)We spent the day touring Mtsketa, the old captial, visiting some of the most beautiful churches ever. Tomorrow we will take a two day trip to Telavi, wine land, and then finish our stay back in Tbilisi. Saturday we head off to Turkey, which I am told is even better than Georiga, so I do not know if I can ever go back to Azerbaijan!

So Joy successfully made it through customs, got her visa, and found me in the airport! I was so excited to see her! We had a good day today walking around Baku and tomorrow morning, bright and early, we will be traveling down to Imishli.

Well, what does Joy think of Azerbaijan? On the ride home from the airport she first of all was exposed to the craziness of drivers here as they drive anywhere on the road the please (lane markers mean nothing). Then she saw a car driving down the street with its trunk open. No big deal, right? Right, unless it was a trunk overflowing with decapitated bull's heads in it (horns and all!).

And today on our walking tour? Well, using my handy guide book to pick out interesting sites only led us to everything we really wanted to see being closed down for repairs!

So, all I can say is - Joy welcome to life in Azerbaijan!

PS. I now have a camera and pictures will be uploaded soon! Thanks mom!

Okay, I have said this before but everyday I start to believe it more and more. I am country! Tuesday I got home from work around 6.30ish pm. My host family was enjoying a tea picnic outside. So I changed from my work clothes (skirt and t-shirt) to my house clothes (shorts and tank top) and joined them for a nice steaming hot cup of tea while sitting in the steaming hot weather! (Weird I know, but they think I am weird because I like to drink cold water when it is hot.) Anyway, after our leisurely tea break with pastries, jam, and chocolate and talking about various things my host mom asked me to help her out. So, what was my task? To climb a latter and pick cherries from our cherry trees! She wanted to make compote (a drink that consists of fruit, sugar, and water- I particularly don't like it because I think it is too sweet, but it is a favorite drink here). So after I picked cherries (which is a little harder than it sounds. My host mom was busting out with her skills filling her bucket way faster than mine. She said it is because I am a city girl and she is a village woman, but everything she does she makes it look so easy and takes me twice as long to do!) I then preceded to start a composting pile in my yard. Then I took a cold shower to cool off (my new nightly routine: Jump in the shower with cold water, rinse off, put my clothes on (without drying off) and then go in my house - it makes all the difference in the world). After that I roasted some veggies to eat with my home made hummus and had dinner while watching The Wire (one of my new favorite TV shows).

PS. Thanks to everyone who wrote me emails and left comments on my blog to make me feel better about being outrun by a cow!

Sunday morning I went for a jog. I leave my house between 6.30 and 7.00 am for my jogs because there are less people and cars; i.e. less stares and less likely one of the crazy drivers will hit me! So, I follow the same jogging rules I did in the States: stay on the side of the road and run toward traffic. Very rarely do I see other people running in Imishli, I think only on 2 other occasions have I actually seen people running. Well, this past Sunday morning there was another early riser using my path. I, wanting to be the polite runner, ran to the other side of the road and was going to pass my fellow morning companion (who was walking) and then cross back across the road. However, as I got beside the walker (but on the other side of the street), the walker started to jog as so I couldn’t pass. I thought, okay, no problem, I have a little push left in me, I can run faster so I can pass you! Apparently a race was on his mind because the faster I ran, the faster he ran. For the life of me I couldn’t pass him! He was just faster than me; I couldn’t believe it. I for sure thought I could out run him. Now, mind you, I am on the return portion of my jog so I was getting a bit winded, speeding up and all. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold on at this pace, and still make it home without stopping. I was too prideful to admit defeat; I mean homeboy was packing on the weight; I should be the faster one! But here we were racing, with the road in between us, me struggling to hang on and him looking like he was good to go for miles. Well, thank goodness he finally veered off the road onto another path; so I could slow my pace and not keel over and die. So, who was my fellow companion who could out run me? None other than a cow! Can you believe it? I can’t outrun a cow! How sad is that? Every jog I try to dogde the sheep, cows, and dogs, but never has a cow actually started to race with me, and won!

Well, here in Imishli summer is coming full swing, i.e. it is super hot! I am thinking that I am might die for my first summer her. Just kidding. But it will be a hot one because it is so hot now and it is only June. I am told that the end of July and August are the hottest times. So how do people here stay cool, in the land of heat and no air conditioning? All windows and doors stay open at all times, fans, and take multiple cold showers a day. Within the walls of my yard it is not so much because I can wear tank tops and shorts, but outside of my house and yard that is not permissible, dresses, skirts, and t-shirts are what women here wear.

My 25 minute walk to work gets me nice and sweaty, but I wouldn’t move away from my host family for the world. Last Friday and Saturday my host mom and I made my favorite jam for me to have with my tea. (People drink tea with pastries, sugar cubes, chocolate or jam. My favorite thing to have with my tea is jam.) We made red and yellow cherry jam for me. We started by de-seeding all the cherries (and with the yellow cherries we put small pieces of cut up lemon inside each one) and then added sugar and bit of water, cooked into jam and then canned it. I have them in my storage room waiting for me to open and use for the next year. As my favorite fruits for jams come into season I will continue making 1 kilo of jam at a time.

Also, one cool thing happened yesterday (Sunday) that I want to tell you all about. So the family structure here is quite different. Families are super close, brother, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc… And it is definitely a male dominated society. What the brothers and fathers say goes – no matter if the brother is younger or not. The males don’t want the females to being doing things that could compromise themselves. For example, my host brother gets angry at my host mom for going to the bazaar (the market) (it is not a place for women; men should be the ones going). My host uncle got upset with my host sister because he went to visit her two times in Baku (where she goes to university) and she wasn’t at home either time. He wanted to know where she was and what she was doing that would take her away from home. To us these things are no big deal, but here the women’s place is at home. Anyway, so yesterday I went to work and then after work I went to Amber’s house for a bit. I cam home about 4ish. Well, my host brother was upset and asked my host mom where I was and why was I out so long (he is home from university). He was thinking I was at a guy’s house or something (big no go here); he said is not okay for me to be out that long, that I need to be at home. Okay, so I am thinking you are 7 years younger than me; I don’t care what you think I am doing, I will do what I want (my host mom told him, it is okay because she is an American. Her answer for all the seemingly weird things I do.) However, I was very touched because I know that he accepts me as family if he is upset about where I am. So that was pretty cool. Of course, I am still going to do what I want, but it was special for me to know that he is caring for my reputation and welfare like he would for his sisters and mom.

Okay. So many people respond to my blog and ask me "But Hannah, what about work?" So here is the some of what goes on here in Azerbaijan. I am working on a Model Union Nations Project. I, along with university students in Baku who studied abroad in the US in high school, started a MUN club here in Imishli. We meet every week with the goal of having a mock conference in July. We wanted 20 kids to participate, doesn't sound hard to get 20 kids from the 8 schools in Imishli right? Wrong. Getting kids to commit to stuff here is like pulling teeth, very difficult and painful. We have about 10 kids (and have been working on this for several months now). So Friday I went to the Minister of Education to get his permission for the project. In reality, we need more kids to come and in order to get more kids I first have to go the Minister. With the minister's permission of the project I can then go to the schools and talk to the directors (principals) and then in turn be given access to the youth and recruit for my project; without his permission I can not get help from the school directors.

So, a bit complicated but easy enough. Or so it seems. The Minister did not give me permission for the project because the final conference would be in the summer, specifically July 12-13. Because his three month vacation starts July 7th and because he said kids would be on vacation during the summer he would not give me permission for the project. Granted I have been working with youth now for several months on this project and completely disagree with his logic. The Minister did say, however, that if the final conference was in September or October he would guarantee me that I would have 20 talented and hard-working youth in my club and the project could proceed. So, I have no choice but to follow the say of the Minister. Despite the frustration of Azerbaijan politics and inter workings, it is actually a blessing in disguise because it will give us the much needed time to make this project meet the potential that it has (it is struggling right now).

So lessons learned: Always go to the Minister first! (I didn't before because the project is not in the schools. It was my understanding that anything I want to do literally inside the schools I need permission from him for, but I have now revamped that to anything I want to do with youth I need his permission for.)

Well since I have been neglecting updating my blog this month, I thought it was about high time I did. Nothing super amazing or out of the ordinary has happened to me, but I will relate some random stories.

Last Friday night, I was making strawberry jam with my host mom. We were sitting outside at the picnic table in our yard underneath a berry tree (our yard is full of various fruit trees, I can not wait for them to come into season, probably in another month or so, so I can pick fruit from our yard). It was really windy out and the wind was knocking all the blackberries down on top of us. I don't know why I found it so funny, but I couldn't stop laughing - it was raining berries!

This past week I bought and put up screens on all my windows. Now I can open my windows and enjoy the fresh air without my house getting full of bugs! I still have bugs, but before I didn't open my windows at all. Now I only close them when I leave. It has made a big difference in the temperature of my house.

Yesterday Greta came over to my house for a bit just to hang out. We were sitting in my living room when we heard a chicken. (My family has 5 chickens and they prefer my yard over my host family's yard, so they are usually always around.) It was a loud noise and kind of unexpected. Greta was like what was that. I replied, without thinking, oh, no worries it is just a chicken laying an egg. After I said it I thought - oh my gosh, I am officially country! I can tell the difference in chicken noises!

This next week one of my site mates, Greta, leaves for good to head back to America. After that it will be just me and Amber holding it down in Imsihli until September - and then she leaves and it will be just me! Should be interesting.

Work wise - things are coming. I have started working with a NGO in Baku to help them write and edit grants. I have also started helping out another NGO is Imishli with a project and editing grants. So, at least now I have a bit more stuff on my plate. My house is starting to feel more like home and I am settling into a routine. So, life here has been pretty good as of late.

I am just anxiously awaiting July 6th when my friend Joy is coming to visit for a month! I am super excited and can not wait. We are going to travel in and out of Azerbaijan - so that is what I am counting down until.

Well it is Thursday night and I just showered and am enjoying a steaming hot cup of tea (new for me because I never liked tea before I came here; now it is becoming a daily necessity for me) when the sudden urge to write a blog entry hit me. I figured I should jump on this as the inspiration has not found its way to me recently. Actually, I have not had much inspiration to do much of anything as of late. I have been having a bit of a hard time of it; it as in life in Azerbaijan. But, I was thinking over this I realized I totally called it before I left the states. I remember telling people that I thought at the about seven month stage that the honeymoon would have warred off and reality would hit me. And the 23rd marked seven months down and 20 to go. Anyway, I have been prying for a change in attitude and perspective and slowly I am seeing that answered!

But, I did want to write a bit about my life. I am settling into my new house; I know I promised pictures, but my camera is on the fritz again so you will have to settle for words instead – for now. (The pictures I posted yesterday were from Amy’s visit to Imishli the other week.) Slowly, it is turning into my home, not just a place I live. Last night I stayed up way too late making a wall decoration arrangement. I made five collages now hanging on my living room wall from magazines, cardboard, ribbon (thanks mom!), modge podge, glue, tissue paper, and cards. Working on that last night really had a calming effect on me. Now, I can’t wait to start my next project: a mural on one of my bedroom walls. I am calling this my ADD wall and all that will make complete sense when you see my design. My bedrooms are an amazing shade of princess pink and my mural will be in all black. I can not wait for the hours of tedious thoughtless drawing and painting. (I am not being sarcastic, but completely serious – when I do art my OCD comes out in all its glorious fury, all which has a very relaxing and calming effect on me. No worries mom, I will not be asking anyone for help, I don’t want everyone to hate me!) I am heading to Baku tomorrow for some Peace Corps meetings and can’t wait to come back so I can start muraling (yes, I did just make a new verb; it is amazing how my English language skills keep digressing).

What else, so Hadley and mom this is for you. I am embarrassed to admit but I came really close to getting a cat – like 80% there. The last thing holding me out was that I would have to ghetto rig a litter box and make my own cat food. But, the litter of kittens didn’t survive, so my decision was made for me. So I have two reasons why I almost went back on my claim that I would never own a pet: one, I wanted someone to talk to. How sad is that? I can only laugh at myself. I get kind of lonely here at times; I spend my time mostly by myself. My office is completely isolated from people and I live a ways from my site mates. My spirits are always lifted when I spend time with my host mom, but I can’t fully express myself in Azerbaijani so I spend a lot of time listening (I can understand a lot more than I can speak. And side note to that if I am not careful I think my host mom is going to marry me off. I am afraid I am going to wake up one day married and not know it! Maybe she is just in the wedding arranging mood since she is in the negotiation stage of finding a husband for my host sister, but lately whenever we talk she always bring up the subject of finding me a husband and me staying and working in Azerbaijan. She is even trying to bribe me; she said if I got married she would give me a new bed for me and my husband – a much nicer and more comfortable one than I have now. No lie, she really told me that! I almost died laughing. (Side note, I have what we PCVs call an orphanage bed because it looks like a bed you would find in an orphanage. Actually, I have two twin orphanage beds which I pushed together to make a double bed. Not that like it really matters because the body slumps are so deep that there is no possibility of moving out of the giant pit in the center of each bed once you get in.)) (So mom, just another thing to add to the list of why you are inadequate! Lol. If I was any younger I think my host mom would call child services to take me away. I mean really, you haven’t married me off, you didn’t teach me the proper way to hand wash clothes, you didn’t teach how to make home made jam… should I go on!?!J Second reason, I want something to kill all the stinking insects in my house. (Mom and Joy, where are you when I need you?) Due to Azerbaijan construction (aka holes and cracks in all my walls and windows) my new roommates are flies, moths, spiders, ants, some bug that looks a gray lady bug on steroids and creepy antennas, and something I pretty sure are baby roaches. However, due to my complete fear and anxiety from roaches I am telling myself they are some other type of bug, some unknown foreign species of bugs only found in Azerbaijan to give me the strength to kill them and not run away screaming. Anyway, I am glad that I am going to stay cat-free otherwise I would completely turn into that spinster with the cats! I can not turn into that lady yet; I don’t want to be the crazy cat lady until I am at least in my 80’s and completely senile. Granted I am not a spinster by American standards, but here I am considered one. So, I will just go back to my books and dvds. I knock a book out in anywhere from 1 – 3 days, depending on how good it is, and am catching up on dvd watching. My new favorite thing is to watch tv series – I don’t think I will ever watch tv shows again, I will just wait for the series to come on dvd, it is great not having to watch commercials or wait a week for the next episode.

What else? Food – I am so enjoying being able to eat or not eat food of my choosing! My new favorite thing to make? Applesauce with oatmeal. But, apples are going out of season and getting expensive so I will have to find something else to get addicted to until next fall. Actually all fruit is a bit expensive right now, but I am told that in about 1 month prices of grapes, plums, watermelons, and cherries will get very cheap. Cheap like a 3 kilo watermelon for under a $1 cheap. I can’t wait! Okay, it is getting a bit late and I need to go to sleep so I can get up early to catch the bus to Baku. If you made all the way to this point – mad props for reading my diarrhea of the mouth!

Our wonderful Heydar Aliyev monument in our Heydar Park. (He is considered the father of Azerbaijan and every city has a park, museum, statue, street named after him, his quotes plastered everywhere, as well as giant pictures of him all over. His son is now the president.)

An absolutely amazing poster I saw in a school classroom. Yes, I did say school. What else would you want your kids to learn about?

Me trying to get gum off my shoe.

Some random apartments with their toilets in the yard. It is common for apartment buildings not to have indoor bathrooms. Glad I don't live in an apartment, oh wait my toilet and shower are in the yard too - about 50 ft from my front door!

One of the amazing sites I see at the plethora of butcher shops. Sometimes the legs are tee-peed together on the road, or there are buckets of blood, piles of skin, intestines laying around, not to mention the hanging meat or the tied up animals waiting to be slaughtered. Makes me happy I am a vegetarian.