Hi from Turkey!

I got a panicked email from my mother this morning because my sister Kim and I apparently haven't been checking in enough as we travel through Turkey (sorry Mom) so I thought maybe it was time to put up a little post to let the rest of you know where and how I am!

I'm currently in Fethiye, Turkey (on the Mediterranean) watching my sister sleep because even though for my entire life I've never been a morning person, on this trip I can barely sleep past 6AM (which is 8 on Azerbaijani time, so I guess it makes some sense).  Today we are going to go on a boat cruise to a whole bunch of little islands and swim and see ruins, etc.  Try not to be too jealous :) Before Fethiye we first traveled to Istanbul and then on to Ephesus, but I'll write more about everything later (remember, this post is just so you don't all start sending me panicky emails!).  And from here we are going to Antalya so we can fly to Bulgaria and meet up with Kimmy's friend from school!  So that is my itinerary, you can all feel properly informed now and I'll write more detailed accounts of our journeys later.  For now I'll just say that we are having a great time and everything here is just so beautiful!

The Son Zəng has been Zəng-ed!

Summer is here!  The school year is over!  On May 31st we had "Son Zəng" which literally means "Last Bell" but we would say graduation.  One of my best classes (I wrote about them a few posts ago) was graduating and they asked me to make a speech and sing so I got to be in the ceremony.  I spoke in Azeri (obviously) and I felt more comfortable doing it than last year, so I guess that shows improvement!  And then I sang "Time of Your Life" by Green Day with 3 of my students.  They were so funny about it!  They decided all on their own that we should make cardboard guitars and violins to play when we sang, which I thought took a lot of guts!  Everyone loved the song, even though they couldn't understand it.  They said it was "romantic."  :) Don't worry, I have a video of it and I just might put it on Facebook so you can go look for it!

Now that summer is here that means....more of the same thing!  I'm teaching a second round of computer courses quickly before my sister arrives on June 8th and this time my counterpart Tamilə müəllim is helping me teach which is really exciting.  Makes teaching 6 hours of computers a day (and by that I mean how to point and click a mouse) a bit more bearable!

Right now I'm in Baku (I had meetings all day) and we're about to go out to dinner so I need to stop writing this and get ready!  Delicious food here I come!