Daily Life

So I wrote this with the intention of posting it a week ago, but through a series of internet mishaps and such, it hasn't made it up till now...which means some of the information has changed but whatever, just pretend I posted it last Wednesday, ok?

Because I am constantly (alright, constantly is certainly a bit of an overstatement, but often enough) getting questions about my daily life here, I wrote up this little snapshots of some facts about my life right now. Enjoy!

Tea today so far: 1

Tea yesterday: at least 5

Most recent junk food purchased: M&M peanuts, Fanta, Dannon yogurt bar that can only be counted as junk food because I only eat it due to the fact that it tastes like cheesecake

Current books: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows; Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham (I didn’t even mean to do it, but I wanted to read a novel on the side while I read this book about FDR and Churchill during WWII and I picked a book my mom brought for me which is all about the aftermath of WWII…good coincidence!)

Recently finished books: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (never finished it in Mr.C’s AP English class because I took the test and said “screw that” to more work before graduation, it took me months this time, but I was determined not to give up again and have to restart a third time); The Innocent Man by John Grisham (I read it like crazy on my marşrutka ride home from Baku, only stopping when we hit the ridiculous road construction patches because I didn’t want to get sick)

Most recent movie watched: Braveheart (another volunteer hadn’t seen it – ? – so we had to watch it during Biləsuvar camp)

Most recent TV show watched: Glee (this show makes me so happy)

Most recent thing I cooked: Peach sorbet thanks to Mathias’s recipe and instruction

Activities I’m currently teaching: Conversation Club for University Boys with Tamilə müəllim, World History Discussion Group, English Writing, Mini Camp for Middle School Age Students (starts today!)

Last time I was in Baku: August 14 and ready to go back, if only for the Twix ice cream I found during this visit and should not be allowed to buy any more because I’ve already eaten too much of it

Last time I saw Beth, my sitemate: August 7 (and before that it was July 14^th…how am I surviving??)

Latest decorations added to my room: Maps of Azerbaijan and the US which like to fall back off my wall so I’ve had the pleasure of hanging them many times, more pictures from my mom for my picture wall

Last time I had an Azerbaijani language lesson: August 16

Last time I had a lesson before that: first week of June (oops)

Last time I talked to my family in the states: August 12 (only for like 5 minutes before it got cut off, I was super disappointed, it was the first call from Naima! And I hadn’t heard her voice literally since I came to Azerbaijan)

Most recent song obsession: Tik Tok by Ke$ha (a little bit embarrassed to admit that…)

Songs I reminisced listening to this week: Stumbling into The Barenaked Ladies on my ipod, I first listened to “One Week” which reminded me of Little Jimmy trying desperately to learn the words and say them fast enough and then to “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” which took me back to freshman year with Steph Miller in our sweet double blasting that as one of Steph’s song obsessions.  Then I also listened to “Walcott” by Vampire Weekend which has lyrics all about getting out of Cape Cod and all the bad things about it…but my response was more like “Oh my gosh no Cape Cod is wonderful and I want to be there right now more than anything!”

Biggest success of the week: Actually remembering to consistently take my vitamins every day, something I haven’t done in months and something which can be pretty important here where I feel my diet is generally lacking a few (many) things.

Biggest disappointment of the week: One of my fans seemed to stop working last week.  And yes I said “one of” even though I live in one room.  I had to buy a second one during the heat wave while my mom was visiting (she was about to get violent if I didn’t go make the purchase), but I have been leaving one in my family’s room for them to use…and so I was I jerk and went and took it when mine stopped.  I’m still hopeful mine will make a complete recovery and I can go back to sharing like a nice person.

Interesting little stories of late:

Sitting in a car on the way to town with my host mom and an acquaintance, I noticed that the woman was looking at me strangely and kind of cocking her head to one side.  I tried to ignore her, assuming she was just being curious and trying to look into my purse (and at this point of this sort of typical Azerbaijani behavior, I just sit still for it most of the time).  Suddenly she looked at me and told me she had been counting the freckles on my left arm.  In case you were wondering, there are 47.

In a sleepy daze one morning, I heard a strange scratching sound from outside my window.  Looking out I could see some sort of animal in a small tree just over the property line in our neighbors’ yard.  I was trying to make out what animal it was and at first wrote it off to my eyes not working properly because of sleep, but no.  It really was a rat.  A big rat eating what I now learned is a chestnut tree.  Probably 10 feet from my bedroom.  Not a big fan of rats.  And especially because I heard a story last week about another volunteer getting bit by one in her room while she slept! Ew!

I watched a guy get arrested at a road tea house on my way back from Baku.  I have no idea what this guy did, but it was very interesting to watch the two cops try to get him into the backseat of their car.  He was literally doing splits against the door frame so they couldn’t get him in.  And he lost a shoe.  A third cop would kind of walk up occasionally and watch and not help, which was maybe the best part.  And the other cops were yelling “You’re a cop! Help!” but he just walked away.  This incident made me realize the value of having a partition for the back of your cop car because as I watched them drive away, I saw that one cop was having to sit with the guy and keep him in a headlock until they reached their destination.  I bet that got fun at some point.