So, since leaving Azerbaijan I have been to 3 other Peace Corps countries and it makes me realize that I was lucky to have been placed in Azerbaijan. Why you ask (or you don't)? Especially since I found plenty to complain about for the last 2 years. Oh, I'll tell you why.Local staff - We had some great people working for Peace Corps. My language teacher was amazing. The stuff she put up with from me alone is enough for an award. She was great and is one of my best friend in Azerbaijan. Our training manager was awesome, my un-offical program manager, the drivers, the assistants, pretty much Peace Corps found stellar folks to work there.Safety - Maybe it was because of the city I was in. Maybe it was because I'm so tall and intimidating. Maybe it is because I had a badass named Jeyhun on my team. Who knows, but I never felt like I wasn't safe in Azerbaijan. For all the harassment I got it was mostly harmless. I felt comfortable walking home alone at night, even in Baku.Convenience - Yeah, that's right. I'm mostly talking about stores though. There were markets everywhere and if one didn't have what you needed you just walk half a block, or even next door.Travel - As much as I hated those tiny cramped buses and horrible roads, at least there were roads, and travel was cheap and frequent where I lived. Plus the Azerbaijan Peace Corps travel policy was super lenient so I could see all my friends.Other Volunteers - We all know it but I'm going to say it. AZ5, AZ6, and AZ7 are a good looking, funny, intelligent, fun spirited bunch of folks. We're awesome (most of us, you know who you are)!So basically it took me seeing other options before I could really appreciate what I had. Go figure. But mandarins don't taste as good outside of the baijan.

Yeah, as of December 8th I went from PCV to RPCV. Take that Peace Corps! Slipped through the cracks again! The whole process of paperwork and red tape was awful, one giant cluster f*@k of running around an office. One staff member who shall remain nameless was particularly horrible. I felt like the last week of my service was harder than any other one week I can think of. But it's done, I'm finished, hooray hooray! I will miss a few of the people I had to leave behind, tears will come I'm sure. Now it's time to travel!

So, Peace Corps has decided to gives us a final blow by having all of the people from my group leave over the course of a month. A month of very emotional good byes. Since I am staying until the end I get to slowly say good bye to the people who have become family to me, then say goodbye to the people I will be leaving here. So, that sucks.

Lucy and Danielle's last days in Azerbaijan.Also, the bar serves cigarette pie.

So, my sitemate Chris and I get bored sometimes and wander around Azerbaijan on foot. Last week we went on a walk between the 2 major cities in the Xachmaz region, Xudat (pronounced kind of like "who dat) and Xachmaz city. It took us about 5 hours including 3 stops for chips, beer, and some games of rummy cube.

The puppy who didn't want to be our friendThe out house that couldn't have come at a better momentRoadside produce stand

Yeah, I forgot I had a blog again. These things happen. Anyway, For Halloween again this year I went p to Zaqatala to hang out with PCVs and enjoy the American-ness that Halloween is. It was a little sad because I realized this was the last time I would be in Zaqatala and Sheki, or anywhere past Baku really. But it was fun none the less. A group of PCVs went as circus themed costumes and I was the lion tamer.Jake was the ring master. Good times were had by all.

Fall is finally here in Azerbaijan. This is great since the weather is not only bearable, but I would go so far as to say perfect. Unfortunately this also means that ice cream is dissapearing from stores more and more every day. I'm also not a fan of it getting darker earlier but I'll take it if it means I don't sweat through three shirts a day. Unfortunately my computer has also broken, I need to go drown my sorrows over that in some ice cream as soon as possible. Fall also means that school has started again and kids are running around the streetsof Quba n their suits and skirts again. I'm also down to 12 weeks left in Azerbaijan! This dawned on me as being barely any time at all while I was trying to schedule my last visits to different regions and friends. Clock is ticking down.

So, Quba has the best doner in all of Azerbaijan (no matter what Lucy says) and I'm lazy and it's hot so didn't want to cook anything today, hence, I went and got doner. Unfortunately I used my last qepik to but ice cream for breakfast (don't judge me) so I had to go to the ATM. As I was walking to my bank I saw a group of elderly people awkwardly hanging out in the shade on the street. Whatever, this is Azerbaijan, stranger things have happened. However as I got closer someone from the bank across the street uttered something in Azeri and the elderly loiterers turned into a mob and bum rushed the ATM (not my bank's). Now, when pension money comes out at the end of the month there are always unorganized lumps of people around the ATM, but I have never seen the stampede that happens before. So I continued on to my ATM which luckily nobody in Quba really uses so there is never a line. On my way I awkwardly walked through a group of 10 men praying on the street. Then I got honked at, yelled at in Russian, stared at, and got my doner. It was delicious.

Yesterday I had the opportunity (like how I'm staying positive?) to spend 10 hours on various buses, taxis, and cars (oh my). I had to travel across the country to put down a deposit on a camp site for G.L.O.W. next week. I don't know if I have painted a clear enough picture of transportation in this country in the past but to sum it up: extreme temperatures, crowded spaces, bad roads, horrible children, creepy men, gossippy (is that a word?) women, and uncomfortable seats. So here are some of my survival tips, they work pretty much year-round.1. Sit by a window. You have better control of temperature and it makes me feel superior to be the "window master"2. ipod. Sometimes I'll read on a bus but a lot of times the roads suck making it impossible to focus. An ipod loaded with music, podcasts, and audio books is key. I also just got a headphone splitter so now me and 4 others can listen to the same ipod which is great for listening to comedy because other people on the bus get freaked out when a group of Americans are sitting in silence then suddenly all start laughing at the same time.3. Sunglasses. Even in the winter. People talk about me right in front of me and have an intense desire to stare. Sunglasses let me stare back or fall asleep, two birds one stone.4. Don't travel. I need to follow this rule better but being on buses in this country usually just makes me mad. I'm gonna start taking more trains.

Yes, I still have a blog. I've just been busy (sort of) but here is a re-cap of the last 3 months. May - Okay, so May wasn't super busy, I pretty much just stuck to my normal routine. But at the end of May I flew back to America for my brother's wedding. Now I have an awesome sister-in-law. How awesome you ask? Well, she let me do this at her wedding:

Yeah, that's me pretending to be a judge (or priest, take your pick).

June - I got back from America and decided that I didn't want to teach English for a week so I tagged along on the Embassy's soccer program for youth for a little bit. It was an interesting experience. 2 American soccer professionals came to Azerbaijan to work with youth in 3 regions and the capital. I think the best one was in Quba, but I'm a bit biased. Then it was back to work on my regular stuff. I also started working more (and still am) on the girl's camp that we will be doing in a couple weeks. Girls Leading Our World. My official title is "Pirate Queen" and I've been working with a lot of other volunteers to put this camp together.

July - GO AMERICA!!!!!I don't know why I get so patriotic when I'm outside of the U.S. but just go with it. 4th of July was fun but extremely hot. Since then I have mostly been working on G.L.O.W. which happens the week after next.

Okay, so 3 months in a nutshell. Fun. Hopefully I'll remember I have a blog sometime in the next 2 months this time.

I went up to visit a PCV is a village called Lahic this past weekend for the first time. While I was there I went horseback riding with 3 other PCVs and had a great time. We rode up a mountain and got a beautiful view of the village, river, and Caucuses (I'll post pictures when I get a chance). Unfortunately while riding I was thrown from my horse. Twice. Went to the hospital yesterday and got x-rays and an unltrasound, no broken bones or ruptured organs, just a couple bruised ribs and sore muscles. It was my first trip to a hospital in Baku though. I kind of enjoy it. Everyone speaks Russian and I feel like I am in a James Bond movie.

Jake gutting a fish on the beach

So, spring has come to Azerbaijan and since the weather is getting better I just want to be outside. Yesterday Jake, Amanda, and I decided to go camping on the Caspian because, well the weather was perfect. We loaded up our stuff and headed out at about 1pm. We took a car to a village the walked out the the sea and about 3 kilometers up the shore. Jake got out his fishing pole, Amanda hooked up some music, everything was good. There was a slight accident involving my camera, a softball glove, a tarp, and an open beverage (hence only camera phone pictures) but everything is in working order now. Anyway, 9 hours, 6 soldiers, 2 police officers, 3 fish, 1 campfire, 1 bottle of vodka, and 1 military escort later, the 3 of us are being detained by national security for questioning. I'm not gonna lie, I had a blast. I had never been on an Azerbaijani military base before. We had a bunch of officers asking us all about why we are in Azerbaijan. We did have to call the Peace Corps Safety and Security Officer, but he rocks! At the end of the night we even got a free ride plus another military escort all the way back to Jake's front door. So, camping was sort of a bust, but I still had a great time. I just recommend that you never go camping in Azerbaijan if you don't know a man by the name of Jeyhun. That guy is amazing.

So, I went up to Sheki for Novruz, the spring holiday in Azerbaijan. It was a lot of fun. I hiked around Sheki and went on a Saray-crwal (think like historic pub crawl but palaces instead of pubs). I made it up to Zaqatala too and we cooked some amazing food. Josh even smoked some pork. Then it was back down to Sheki for Jake's horror themed birthday party.The famous Sheki chicken shack

An Albanian church in the village of Kish

Walking up to Gelersen Gorersen

Danachi village in Zaqatala

"Noose Olsun"

Sheep head

Danielle is creepy

The kitchen crime scene at Jake's party.

Azerbaijan is getting some attention in the news.

READ ME!

So, not too long ago a 15 year old girl in a village near my town here was found hung in her family's barn. This was pretty shocking to me. Later I found out that she had hung herself because her family was forcing her to marry a man she barely knew. 2 weeks ago a man killed his wife because he thought she killed his mother over a year ago. Women in this country are smart, motivated, and strong. They simply need opportunities and encouragement.

G.L.O.W.

Sometimes I forget to update this thing. For a long time. I think it is just because there isn't much that seems worth writing about anymore. There is, I'm full of entertaining and hilarious anecdotes, but they all seem normal to me now, so I forget that maybe a guy pouring burning hot coals across the street in a snow storm might be interesting to others.Those red things in the middle are coals.

These two hooligans came up to Quba and we had a pajama party.

So, Peace Corps issues us a variety of items to keep us safe and healthy. We get a fire extinguisher, smoke detector, water filter, sleeping bag, etc. However I was talking with one of my super-awesome fellow volunteers and her friend in Peace Corps (I forget now, but it started with an s. Suriname? Senegal? Slovakia? I just don't know) was issued a machete! What the hell? Where is my machete? I go out into the woods, I hang out in the wilderness, and I need something to open champagne bottles with. It also seems pretty lame that while other PC countries get training on how to treat deadly snake bites and stave off lion attacks ( I'm assuming this) we have sessions on what our rights are for when we are detained by the police or KGB. Lame. I want a machete.

I've bad having a spell of bad luck/karma/hoodoo, whatever you want to call it and thought maybe other people were wondering if their life hates them too so here is a checklist:1. On the night train have you been moved from a cabin full of old dudes to a cabin with 3 small children and at the exact moment that the youngest ones starts crying your headphones stop working.2. Your apartment has not had working water in a month and a half. Each day for a new fun reason?3. Every month your electricity goes out because the people living in your apartment before you racked up a 740AZN bill that is still outstanding and the electric company doesn't understand the concept of new tenant.4. You heat your house with a metal box that has a gas pipe running to it and the gas goes out for no reason with no warning. When there is gas it leaks and your house fills up with soot and fumes.5. All of the above happens as soon as winter decides to finally put some effort in and everything is now freezing and covered in dirty snow.

It occurred to me the other day that over the past 16 or so months I have stopped paying attention to the absurd. I notice, it just doesn't strike me as odd anymore. As I was sitting in a van packed with 27 people it didn't even seem odd that the driver had to open the door with a tire iron. However when water actually comes out of a sink, whoa, stop the presses. Ah Azerbaijan.

So, this week we had no gas for 3 days. I figured this would just mean that everything would be cold unless I felt the desire to go chop me some wood. I was wrong. I was on my way to my sitemate's house and he asked me to bring him some bread. I stopped by the corner store and asked if they had bread. "There is no gas, how can we have bread?" In case you don't know, bread is a pretty big deal in Azerbaijan. It is eaten at every meal. If it gets stale or moldy you don't throw it away, that is unacceptable! You hang it from the dumpster and the "Chorek Fairy" does something with it (this may be a mystery I never solve here). So no bread. For 4 days "because it takes a while to bake. Yesterday I went to the store and people kept sticking their heads in the door asking for bread. It was a difficult time, but we made it through. I made muffins actually. And I didn't burn them. Go me!

So, now that it is winter I have been thinking about where I was last year. Snow evidently makes me think deeply, who knew. I've been having flashbacks to my life one year ago and it is so very different now. This time last year I was living with a host family full of awkward situations like being offered money, complained to about health ailments, walking in on my host dad purposely putting me host mom into a coma ( he was a doctor, but still, in the living room?) screaming fits of rage by my host sister, and shotguns being pulled out during friendly card games. Now I live on my own (insert sigh of relief here). Last year I was also still fighting the "I am not an English teacher" war that every Youth Development Volunteer encounters. I have sort of gotten over that at this point. I work with some of the better English speakers in town and help some people write reports in English, but that is it on the English front. I've sort of found my groove helping people with office trainings, sports, and something along the lines of therapeutic recreation planning. It rocks. I've come a long way in the last year, I've grown wiser and a bit more bitter, but I don't think that is a bad thing. Here is a gratuitous picture (of the shack across the street from my apartment), cuz you know, I like blogs with pictures and I'm only sort of a hypocrite.