I Knew I Was Back In Azerbaijan When…

I have been compiling this list while I've been here, so here it finally is (since I haven't had a chance to write something about the wedding yet...)

I knew I was back in Azerbaijan when...

1.  I went to the tualet and the only toilet paper was my sister’s old school notebook (for English none the less!  I’ve been meaning to give her a hard time about that…)

2.  I ate my first tomato and remembered how they somehow grow tastier tomatoes here than anywhere else!

3. I got my ears blasted out by sitting at the front table at a toy (wedding) closest to the speakers (rookie mistake, but it was my first toy back and we came really late so that was the only place left)

4. I accidentally dropped my phone (really it was sort of like I threw it at the ground) on the concrete and it didn’t even skip a beat, it essentially didn’t happen.  I love my little brick of a Nokia phone :) It lasted more than 2 years when I was here before and it’s still going strong!

5. One of my teacher friends decided I needed to dance at a wedding and came to literally take my purse from me and make me dance.

6.  Some random man stopped to offer to drive me where I was going … and I accepted, with no idea who it was (he knew me though, he knew I was Jess müəllimə and even that I was probably walking to Tamilə müəllimə’s house, so I can assume he was one of my student’s fathers right?)

7. I got excited at a wedding when on the table instead of the usual salt bowl (so that everyone can stick their fingers into the same bowl and get some good sized pinches to really salt the food) I saw a salt and pepper set because not only could I avoid the communal bowl (which I came to terms with a long time ago), but I could use some pepper! …Nope. Just salt and more salt.  Which I learned the hard way by salting my food twice.  I literally laughed out loud at how Azeri it is to have twice the salt and no pepper.

8.  Driving through Baku, I saw a huge “Heydər Əliyev 90” sign on the hill (essentially like the Hollywood sign … and I have since seen it in a few other places) and remembered how in Azerbaijan we count the dead president’s birthdays as if he were still alive.

This is the same as the Baku one but at the entrance to my region's capital!  I didn't see it anywhere else along the road, that's how much Tovuz loves Heydər Baba!

9.  I was scared by shepherds when I was running on the outskirts of town and they would suddenly come out of nowhere! (And of course I was always sort of lip-syncing and dancing to my music when they would appear!)