Winter Has Come to Azerbaijan

I guess technically it is still “fall.”  But really, even months ago, people kept telling me that winter had arrived.  At first I would respond by saying it was fall, mostly because I didn’t want winter to be here yet!  But by now I’ve given up.  It is winter.  Yes, for a few hours in the afternoon, most days it warms up a bit and the weather is nice, but the rest of the day/night is just so cold!  Plus we have all the other tell-tale signs of an Azerbaijani winter:

1) Needing to keep your peç (gas stove) on all day: Inside the buildings, it just doesn’t warm up like it does outside during the day.  If you don’t leave your peç on, you’re freezing.  I hate returning from school or whatever because I turn it off when I leave and that means returning to a cold, cold room!  In our house, November 1^st was peç set up day, but a lot of other people had started using theirs a lot earlier in October, and trust me, they had the right idea.  October was FREEZING and before we even started using the peç, I could see my breath while lying in bed in the morning!

2) Getting dark early: It is completely dark by like 6:30 now.  This severely limits what you can do in a day, let me tell you.  I have one conversation club that goes until 6:00 and by the time it ended this week I couldn’t see my students’ faces!

3) No late marşrutkas: I was in Gəncə last weekend and caught the last bus home at 4:30!  In the summer I could get to the bus station at 7:00 and still catch one.

4) Bundling up to teach: My school hasn’t put the peç in my classroom yet, so it is pretty darn cold in there.  I teach wearing my coat and my fingerless gloves (so I can write on the chalkboard) and I’m still freezing.  I’m hoping they give my room a good strong peç this year because our electric one last year just didn’t cut it.

5) The return of weekly showers: Who needs to shower more than once a week anyway right?  The other week I literally had this thought: “Geez, why is my hair looking so dirty? It’s only been 5 days since I showered.  That’s not even a week!”  Gross.

But, on the brighter side:
   -  Winter makes you very appreciative of the Azeri love for hot tea.
   -  All this cold gives me an excuse to lie in my bed and watch movies on my computer.
   -  I get to wear my very large collection of scarves.
   -  The rain/mud of winter hasn’t set in yet!
   -  The cold and darkness means that my whole family spends more time at home hanging out together.
   -  Our garden looks all pretty with the leaves turning yellow.

In other news, my home has been a cesspool of chicken pox for almost 3 weeks now.  My oldest host sister came home from where she goes to school in Gəncə just before Halloween with the chicken pox (she had kissed a baby that had chicken pox on the mouth having never had chicken pox herself...go figure she got sick!) and has been home ever since (yes, she has been better for about a week, don't worry, she doesn't still have it).  And then, because my 2 younger sisters hadn't had it, they got it too.  Their pox started last weekend, so they are still nice and spotty.  In Azerbaijan instead of pink calamine lotion, they use this green/teal stuff, the result being that my sisters have looked like swamp things for a few weeks.  And now there are green smears all over things in our house from them touching them.  The Azerbaijani fear of cold and showers also means that the doctors tell them that they cannot shower while they are ill or even as they are getting better because it will come back/get worse/whatever.  I'm sure I've painted a lovely picture of my house for you and now you really all want to come and visit don't you?  I'm just thankful that I had chicken pox in 2nd grade so I don't have to worry about getting it from them!