Last time I wrote I was on vacation in America. Well. I’m still in America. I’ve been here on medical leave and will be going back to Azerbaijan next week. Since I’ve been home, I’ve been getting a lot of … Continue reading →
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While American food, or I guess I should just say food in America, is delicious, I do believe that my body is rejecting it. Actually. Let’s be real. My body is rejecting America right now. I’ve enjoyed Chinese food, Mexican … Continue reading →
These last few months have been a little rough. Actually, I think ‘a little’ might qualify for understatement of the year. But despite it all I am trying to struggle through and am currently on my way to America for a much needed break. Although at first this ‘break’ seemed impossibly difficult due to the [...]
It’s been kind of a long time since I last updated so here’s a little of what’s been going on since my last post: It snowed in Zerdab- Thanksgiving- Christmas in Mingechevir- Gift Exchange Football on Christmas day, Azerbaijanis vs. Americans Shaxta Baba and Qar Qizi New Years in Tbilisi-
And it’s off to another house… Not one that I can live in alone, but hopefully that will come soon. It’s been a slightly stressful week. I’ve looked at way too many houses with too many people that are currently residing in them with no inclinations to move. Clearly, when I say I want to [...]
It’s just now a month into the new school year and, well, things haven’t been too exciting. Aside from getting my hand cut open, realizing that my town’s hospital is not too shabby after all, and needing three stitches, things have been quite calm (Don’t worry, it’s all healed now and I have a [...]
After an interesting period of 57ish hours spent sitting on various buses and trains where a certain level of sanity might or might not have been lost Jess and I finally reached our end destination of Azerbaijan. If anything can make someone excited about the prospect of returning to an ac-less, real bed-less, refrigerator-less life [...]
Getting to Thessaloniki… Well. Let’s just say it wasn’t initially as dramatic as trying to figure out noodle language and night trains in Georgia (the country. not the state. in case you couldn’t figure that one out on your own). And there was no moment of, “what am I doing with my life?” when the [...]
After 10 months in Azerbaijan it is vacation time. Before leaving, my parents flew into the country for a visit. It was fun taking them around and pretending I have awesome language skills by providing terrible translations, but hey, it’s not like they know the language. They even managed to survive my waterless (for only [...]
Honestly, I’m not sure why I was ever allowed in a kitchen. I remember growing up and liking to make cookies all the time, well, not all the time, but I liked making them. Anyways, I’ve never been the cleanest cook. Flour all over the place, spilt sugar, and the more I bake the worse [...]
Dirt. Everywhere. Seriously. I’ve pretty much been sweeping my house everyday this week and I feel like I dump a bucketful of dirt outside every time. It probably doesn’t help that I have wiped out, not once, not twice, but three times this week alone into a great big pile of mud. And every time [...]
And summer has begun. As of right now I’m just trying to fight off the loss of my voice and get the song “The Ants Go Marching” out of my head. So far everything has been going well. English clubs are, well, English clubs and not super interesting at that. Slam Poetry was a surprisingly [...]
The school year is coming to a close and this past week I have had “last” day of club parties all week. In fact, for one club, I wasn’t even allowed to plan a lesson. My students told me they were going to throw a party. Mostly I think they were just using my birthday [...]
Things in Zardab have been going quite smoothly these past few months. I’ve been going to school, teaching conversation clubs, and even making new Azeri friends. We’ve just finished our sort of “spring break” which is really a week and two days off for the national holiday Novruz. Sadly, I did not get the full [...]
At this point I haven’t really said too much about what I’m actually doing here in Zardab. I have a list of excuses, most of which involve me struggling to get a decent working schedule and then there’s the lack of work as well. At first all my afternoons were completely dull. I spent the [...]
Finally! I have my lovely new insurance paid for camera that my fantastic parents shipped on over here. It was quite a process in getting the stupid thing. I got a letter from the Baku post office saying that I had a package there. Why they kept it there and didn’t ship it to Zardab [...]
As I stood on my porch this morning looking at our icy yard I took a moment to appreciate the fact that I do not live in one of the colder regions of Azerbaijan (something I’ll probably be wishing for in the summer… but you work with what you got). Before coming here I thought [...]
The weather has been rainy and dismal these last three days leading to an increase in mud. Thank goodness for my fancy rain boots. I’m typically the type of person who needs sun to survive, but surprisingly enough, I’m not hating the current state of the weather. As I sit here writing my crazy family [...]
And my work has begun. I woke up bright and early in hopes of maybe a nice work out, but realized that was too ambitious an idea and ended up staying in bed reading… Ah well. Maybe tomorrow. I got all fancied up for school (my mom even called me her “gashang qizim” beautiful daughter. [...]
I haven’t written much about my site placement or even what that really means, but I’ll just blame that on my lack of writing desire. So here’s the gist of it: I’m moving to Zardab. Hey, there ya go. Actually I’ve already moved there. Zardab is right in the middle of the country. Desert-esque, flat, [...]
This is my first blog written as an official volunteer. And it doesn’t feel different. In case you were wondering. So let’s get on with it. I didn’t really get a chance to tell my friends or family this, but I think it was a week ago my friend Carrie and I were asked if [...]
So I finally made it to the toy my family could not stop talking about since the first week I arrived in Azerbaijan. I would assume they were more excited about this one than others because of the fact that it was Fatima’s cousin that was getting married. Being on the family side of the [...]
As of right now it has been a week since I showered. What’s funny about this is that back in the states flaunting 7 day’s of zero showering is completely disgusting. Here, however, it’s a major accomplishment. Almost something to be proud of. It’s funny what you get used to. Anyways. It’s been a while [...]
After talking about laundry so much, and grossing out my friends with my perpetually “dirty” clothes (I swear they didn’t smell bad!) I finally succeeded in my first laundry endeavor. Although, sadly, it wasn’t as much as an ordeal as I was preparing for. I was so looking forward to doing some hand washing in [...]
By now I’ve gotten used to being the odd one out in our town. Kids love coming up to the english speakers and say hello, hello, hello, my name is ________ (fill in various azeri names). And the hello really actually sounds like aahlo, or kind of like aloe with more emphasis on the a, [...]
Perpetually tired. Those are the words I feel best describe my general state of being. When we first arrived I decided to get my family used to me going to my room early and being alone by going in to my room around 8pm every night. I new I would want to have time to [...]
It’s monday morning and Taran is in my room painfully trying to explain that today is her birthday. Finally, I get what she is saying, so I do the typical American thing and ask how old she is, 8! she says. Wait a second. That’s what she told me when we met. Okay, whatever, I’ll [...]
I have been invited to my first toy (azerbaijan wedding). Apparently this is a landmark event. Although, it’s not until december. However, my host mom has already worked her way through my wardrobe and picked out the only appropriate dress that I brought, made sure I had stockings, and then continued to ask about heels, [...]
I have never had a little sister before. Brothers yes. Sisters? Such a foreign concept. Growing up with brothers has not prepared me for this situation. Taran is adorable, but seriously, super girly. She loves having her mom do her hair. She loves to dance. She loves Shakira (you can’t really fault her for that, [...]
I think my family has warmed up to me for the most part. At least now they like to laugh at me a lot. Even my quiet host father, who for the first two days said hardly anything to me, has started to communicate with me. He even cooked me dinner last night. Although, I [...]
I was trying to think of one word to describe the whole meeting my host family experience but all I was able to manage was this one question: dear lord what have I gotten myself into?! I woke up very excited. I had zero nerves. I was ready to get on out of that posh [...]
When I think of Peace Corps I think of hard times, squat toilets, bucket baths, and weird foods. However, these last three days in Azerbaijan have been spent lounging at a lovely hotel with free wifi, a fancy pool, nice beds, hot showers, and three very large meals a day. Although, in reality there hasn’t [...]
It looks like there will be 63 of us heading out to Azerbaijan today, most of the group falling in the TEFL category. I feel eerily calm about it all. I know I’m not generally a stressed out or super anxious person, but this is something I’ve been waiting for for a LONG time. Shouldn’t [...]
It’s done. I packed. My suitcases have been weighed and measured and fall within the guidelines provided by the Peace Corps. So why do I feel like I’m going to be the volunteer with the most crap? I blame my dad. Actually, it’s probably that hereditary “Breed gene” that lends to an obsessive need to [...]
this summer has been both exciting and painfully dull, fun trips and time spent in good ‘ol tiny sebring. I’ve enjoyed having the time to spend with my family/friends, but I cannot wait to get out of sebring (one summer is certainly enough, even with the breaks for road trips, and flights across the country, [...]
Azerbaijan. Who has honestly heard of this country? Does anyone even know where it is? Well, in case you care, here is a map of the wonderful country that I will soon call home for 27 months Cool, eh? Caspian sea, close to Turkey (which is on the other side of Armenia), right under Russia, [...]
As of today I have officially received and accepted an invitation from the peace corps to serve as a secondary school english teacher in Azerbaijan! Everything I have been waiting for has been made real by a very large, rather intimidating invitation kit. There was slight disappointment upon discovering this kit due to the fact [...]
My entire summer has, up until now, been spent waiting. Waiting for letters, or a phone call, or information from the doctors office. Actually, this entire year so far has been filled with lots of waiting. The reason for this? I applied for the peace corps last october and I received a nomination in november. My [...]
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