Another Silly American Bayram (Holiday)

Happy Thanksgiving! I know it's a little late, but I haven't been on the internet, and I'm about to write about how I spent Thanksgiving, so it seems fairly appropriate.

For Thanksgiving, we all went over to my friend Mike's house. His father had killed a turkey (hinduşka) for us the night before and Mike had cooked it in his mother's oven. He also made some pretty fantastic garlic mashed potatoes. His mother thought he was a bit crazy with his American cooking techniques, but she was extremely proud of him when she tasted the results and kept saying how he is such a good cook. Mike wasn't the only one to have an Azeri think he was insane for how he prepared food though, because as I cooked up some stewed apples for us (the closest we could come to apple pie), my mother stood by and just kept saying "interesting... interesting" ("maraqlı... maraqlı"). And afterwards, one of my sisters tried the apples and said they tasted bad and then said the kitchen smelled awful (and let me remind you that people in America buy candles to make their houses smell like that kitchen...and I was loving it) and my other little sister wouldn't even try them. I just tell myself it was their loss because we certainly downed the stewed apples at dinner. When I brought the dish back, my mother looked in it and was like "you guys ate all of that?" That's right, fatty Americans don't mess around with Thanksgiving. We could barely move when we were done eating. Oh, and I found cranberry sauce in Baku, don't worry (if you're in my family, you probably were actually worried I couldn't survive Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce haha). Although it was no Ocean Spray, it was nice and processed and we tried to get it out in the shape of the can (because that's how all the classy people do it). Unfortunately, since to get the can open Mike's mom had to saw the end off with a knife, it was a little mangled (Look at the photo and you'll see that's kind of an understatement haha). His mom also didn't understand why I wouldn't just scoop the stuff out. She didnt' appreciate the can shape Mike and I were trying to achieve.

My Beautiful Cranberry Sauce...haha

Besides Thanksgiving, this week was just classes. And while that sounds boring and you are probably wondering why I am mentioning it at all, the reason I'm talking about classes is because all of the sudden at the end of this week, our school seems to have become the home of a sizable rat population! The other day during class we heard scratching near our trash can and, while I stood on a chair, everyone went over to see what was going on and a big old rat scurried behind our kitab şkafı (bookcase)! While that left me sufficiently freaked out (I really do not like rats), the rats weren't done with me. The next day was a holiday for Azeris but not for us Peace Corps volunteers, so we had to have the school opened especially for us. Just as Mike and I discovered that the doorman relocked the door after letting us in so we were trapped, two big rats started running right at us across the entryway! Don't worry, I found another chair to stand on until we climbed out one of the windows because we were tired of waiting for the doorman to come from his house to unlock the door. I don't like rats, but I'll admit it was fairly comical.

At the end of this week we have our second and final language test, which means we are starting up nightly tutoring sessions in addition to our normal language classes. Luckily I did well on the last test (I was deemed an "intermediate mid" Azeri speaker...if that means anything to you) and actually my score on the first test was higher than what I need on this test to become a volunteer. Just when I was starting to feel pretty good about myself for that one, I was on the phone with my mom and she put me right back in my place by saying "well yeah, but doesn't that just mean they had really low expectations for you?" Thanks Mom. (Haha I know you are reading this Mom and going "No, that's not what I meant!" and getting all embarrassed. I just think it's a funny story. And so do all the people in my language class. Who laughed at me a lot over your show of support. Haha)

Alright, I'm going to get to bed so I can wake up early and get to the internet cafe to post this, but before I go, I think I just have to mention (since you all seemed to love learning about my mysterious ankle ailment) that I woke up this morning to find that my right hand was partially swollen from another bug bite. It's nothing in comparison to the cankle I was sporting a few weeks back, but I'm a little concerned that there are some genetically modified post-Soviet bugs out to get me. It's not like I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in AFRICA where this stuff is expected (haha yes that was my obligatory dig at my wonderful sister in Benin who has informed me that she is walking around telling all her friends about my cankle. Not fair, this is my second crazy bug bite in a month and she is walking around Benin swollen-body-part-free!).

Miss you all!

Qədirli, Tovuz

To start with the important stuff, I have been placed in Qədirli, Tovuz. It’s in Northwest Azerbaijan (the red region on the map) and you can try googling it, but I’ll tell you right now that there is not much out there, even about Tovuz city (region's in Azerbaijan are called by the name of their biggest city). I’ll be the first volunteer in my specific village, but they were supposed to get someone last year and he went home after about a week of being at site. I have heard rumors it had something to do with having to chop wood every day, so maybe I’ll just have to become super jacked so I don’t freeze to death! And yes, I did learn how to say “I’m freezing to death” in Azeri class the other day haha.

In other news, I have recently discovered the wonders of running in the karate gym in my basement. No, it does not have a treadmill, actually strangely enough I hadn’t even considered anyone interpreting me saying I ran in my basement that way until I told Nathaniel and he asked if it was on a treadmill…I guess I’m more used to Azerbaijan than I thought. But really I’m just running laps of my basement with my ipod. Yes, the laps are very small (they take me about 10-15 seconds…and I’m being generous), but having this as my little escape to unwind is fantastic. Some days when I’m not in the mood for a serious run, my exercise time devolves into me just playing tag with my brother and sisters or rocking out with them to my ipod. But generally my siblings get bored of watching me after a few minutes, or I should say Cavad is kicked out by his sisters because he runs around almost tripping me. Funny story about that: I tried to tell Cavad today that he could run with me but he had to let me run in front because my legs are longer (in fact my legs are his whole body…), but instead I told him “Cavad, my shoe is cheap.” Oh Azeri, how much I screw you up. Really the sentences are fairly close (“Mənim ayaqqabım ucuzdur” instead of “Mənim ayaqlarım uzundur”…valid mistake right??), but Asya still looked at me like I was insane and was like “Cheap??” Anyway, once they’re gone I’m left alone with no one watching me except the excessive posters of Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme, but at least they can’t yell at me when I pass by and wonder what the crazy American is doing now! Plus this way I can run for as long as I want without my family getting worried about me, even if they find it hard to comprehend that I am running down there the whole time when I’m gone for an hour (Ayna even asked me “How many laps did you do? 10?”…I had to tell her more like 100).

Haven't you heard? All the Americans have Donuz Qripi!!

It's been a slow week for me here in Azerbaijan. We were supposed to have 3 days of practice teaching to finish that portion of our training, but instead the school in Ceyranbatan where I live and have been working was closed for 2 of the days. So instead I was forced to hang around and watch lots of the show Dexter on my computer (I became addicted to watching it when my foot was fat and I had to lay in bed all the time...I've now watched the whole first 2 seasons haha).

We've heard conflicting things about if this is a school vacation that happens every year or if school was specifically closed because of swine flu (or as we call it here, donuz qripi). We haven't had any actual cases in Ceyranbatan, but supposedly today they are spraying down the entire school to disinfect it (my host mom even used the word "prophylactic" so I guess that translates to Azeri?? who knew?? I can't successfully communicate simple sentences most of the time, but now I can talk about prophylactics). One of my little sisters specifically is super paranoid about getting sick. She was giving me daily donuz qripi updates last week about how many people in AZ are sick and has been asking to eat fresh garlic so she'll be protected. She has also been begging my mother to buy her one of those medical masks to wear. She even pretended the Peace Corps had called to say that the family needed to buy a mask for me so that then she could steal it...pretty creative if you ask me! Oh 11 year olds haha.

Unfortunately the big event this week was that one of the girls in my language group had to go home (as in to the US home). Poor Mary was literally allergic to Azerbaijan itself and was just coughing and sneezing the whole time she was here. It's really strange with her gone because our language group really spends all day together...and there is no one to cough and sneeze through every language class! The extra nice twist is that there were already rumors going around Ceryanbatan that all of us Americans have swine flu and are going to make people sick, so Mary leaving probably confirmed the idea that we are all sick in their minds! The concept of allergies doesn't really seem to translate as well as prophylactic...

Saying goodbye to Mary! (sorry, the picture is kind of blurry)

Mary - Azerbaijan style: always with a tissue haha

I miss all of you and love hearing from you, so send emails, letters, blog comments, and all that good stuff! I tend to make it to the internet cafe most Sunday mornings (what in the US is Saturday night, around midnight on the East Coast and 9PM on the West...you can figure it out if you're in between the two) so if you're around you can find me on gchat and usually even video chat (I know, it's pretty crazy, I can video chat at the internet cafe here) at that time.

To keep you in suspense for my next post: I find out Wednesday where my permanent site for the next two years is....!!!

I'm Totally Going to Be a Black Belt Before Long

This week my host father put down a new mat in our karate studio basement where he used to teach karate lessons (have I mentioned that he used to be a karate instructor? I think he is going to start up again). We celebrated by him teaching me and my host siblings some moves, we busted out the boxing gloves and everything. Cavad even came down wearing the most adorable little karate suit. After our lesson, my father started showing off by doing some crazy kick moves into the punching bags (and I was able to catch him in a photo mid-jump...thank you very much, it took skill on my part too to capture that!). I think spin-kick-jumps will be the next lesson though, I wasn't really ready for intensity of that yet believe it or not... (and yes, I know most of you who know how incredibly uncoordinated I am are having difficulty even imagining me trying karate in the first place, but I'll tell you, I was kicking some major butt).

Our Halloween celebrations continued into this week when my friend Mike and I got our host families together to carve up the pumpkins he bought. But let me just tell you that pumpkins here are not like US pumpkins. They are crazy shapes...and Mike intentioinally picked some weird ones. Of course the one he gave me to start cutting had this long neck that I had to cut through to get to the seeds and it took me FOREVER. And then, even though Mike and I were supposed to be sharing the pumpkin, only my hand fit down the narrow neck of it to grab the seeds, so I seeded the whole thing and then Mike got most of the fun of carving it...thanks a lot Mike haha. But even though I bruised my hand getting the seeds out (yeah I really did bruise from it, I guess I'm super delicate here in AZ I don't know), carving these pumpkins was one of the best things I have done since I've been here. My two sisters came with me over to Mike's house to do the carving and then we carried their pumpkin home to show the rest of the family. I have never seen my host mother's face light up like it did when she saw this jack-o-lantern. She kept telling me how she had never seen anything like it and my host sister kept blowing the pumpkin kisses and stroking it, it was hilarious. They kept it on the kitchen table for like two days and just kept lighting it all the time (and then blowing the candle out so it would last longer of course) and now it is sitting outside the house where I think it will stay until it is totally rotted out haha.

True Life: I Have a Cankle

It's true. My left ankle doubled in size yesterday and now if that was the only part of me you saw, you would think I weigh about 300 pounds. Trust me, it's real cute.

It all started when I was mysteriously bitten by a bug (or so I assume) INSIDE my boot while walking home from school Friday. Yes, not only did the little sucker get in my boot, but he found the 2 inch wide band of exposed skin between my sock and my spandex pants and he got me good. My ankle didn't start swelling until that night, but it didn't waste any time once it got started. By the time I woke up Saturday my ankle had ballooned and then throughout the day on Saturday the rest of my foot followed suit. Right now my ankle has deflated a bit, but the rest of my foot is still going strong. I can sort of feel it jiggle when I walk. Did you get a good image there?

Besides my fat foot, life in Azerbaijan is good. Yesterday was Halloween in the states, which isn't celebrated here, but I got to tell my host sisters all about it and they came Trick or Treating at my bedroom door wearing a strange Santa mask thing haha. They also watched a lot of Disney programming that was clearly supposed to be for Halloween in the states but somehow made it over here and was translated into Azeri...I don't ask questions. The American TV we get here can be so bizarre. I have been watching Corwin's Quest where Jeff Corwin has been hanging out with baby elephants, Guinness Book of World Records where some idiot dove from 30 feet into a foot of water, and the Dennis the Menace cartoon. And yes, someone has taken the time to dub all of these shows into Azerbaijani.

I hope all of you are doing well and your ankles are a normal size!

Corruption Makes the World Go Round...Or At Least the Schools

We started practicum this week, which means that those of us who are going to be teachers have been trying to co-teach English classes with Azerbaijani teachers. Unfortunately, the school schedule in Ceyranbatan (where I live) is switching around and so we frequently show up to teach only to find that our class has been canceled or is at a different time. It's been a confusing couple of days to say the least. And when our schedule changes, we tend to lose our time to go home for lunch (which we usually do every day), so instead we eat lots of chocolate and junk food at school. While I love chocolate so it makes me quite happy, my host family has been in a bit of a panic that I'm not eating anything. I do my best to tell them in my broken Azeri that I am eating plenty and I am constantly "doydum" (full), but the message doesn't seem to be getting through haha.

A view of my school and the surrounding area from by the reservoir

Winter suddenly arrived this week too. It has been cold and rainy, which isn't so much fun when the streets aren't always paved and you have to walk by lots of trash piles, but today it warmed up again, so we'll see if the roads dry out! The cold has also meant that I busted out a heavier jacket and started wearing scarves. Unfortunately, while in the states I can wear my sweaters and scarves around the house and my mom just laughs at me because I'm always cold, here my host family gets paranoid that I don't know how to turn on my heater, haha. I'm sure soon they will figure out that I just really like wearing lots of layers.

We have our mid-training language test this weekend, so we are all studying constantly. My 2 host sisters have been quizzing me on the typical questions that I might be asked and I am getting really good at explaining who is in my family, what fruits I like, how to get to Sumqayit, what things I have in my bedroom, etc haha. Don't try to have a real conversation with me, but if you want to know all about my kitchen, bring it on!

I miss all of you and I hope you are doing well!

A Pomegranate a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Hello from Lənkəran!

If you want to know where that is and you're looking at a map of the big AZ, look down towards Iran and right on the coast of the Caspian and you'll find it! I'm here for our site visit which is when all of us lowly trainees get to go visit the super cool volunteers and see what their lives are like. Four other trainees came with me down here to Lənkəran and we are staying at 2 different houses but visiting with 3 volunteers...that means there are 8 of us hanging out. We're all girls, so it's been one big slumber party for the past few days, complete with many pomegranates, chocolate bars, and cooking food.

I should say that it hasn't been all fun and games, though so you don't think that I'm just here for a vacation! I am staying with Rachel (an AZ6, which means she was in the group of volunteers that came last year) who is also a teacher so those of us who are TEFLs have been shadowing her classes. It's been our first exposure to a real Azerbaijani class taught by a volunteer and their counterpart (the special Peace Corps term for the Azeri teacher you team-teach with). It's nice to see and get a better sense of what our classes will be like!

Tomorrow we'll be taking the bus back to Sumgayıt, which means back to language classes (I have been ignoring my Azerbaijani all weekend, I hate to admit).

Send me lots of emails, I love hearing about things back in the states!!! And the prize goes to Heather for being the first person to successfully get a letter to me!

Mənim adım Cesdir. (My name is Jess...see, I am learning Azerbaijani!)

Hi from Sumgayıt! It's our first day off here in Azerbaijan, so a bunch of us trainees are getting together to hang out for a few hours. We have been staying with host families for almost one week now, so we don't see the whole group very often, just our small language cluster (mine is 6 people) and people in our sector (so I see other soon-to-be teachers like me).

My host family is great. I have my mom, my dad, 2 sisters (ages 12 and 11), and one brother (age 4). I think one of my favorite moments in Azerbaijan so far was the first day I moved into their house and I was walking with my 11-year old sister in our garden. She walked right over to a pomegranate (nar in Azerbaijani) tree and pulled one down and we walked around the garden sharing it. Another highlight was the first day I came home from school for lunch and my brother and I played "bu nədir?" ("What is it?") around the table so I could learn words. He is a very patient teacher because he really just likes to hang out with me (I mean who doesn't right? haha) and he always wants to talk to me, even if I stare at him dumfounded and have to say "Başa düşmürəm" ("I don't understand" - which is quickly becoming one of my best sayings b/c I use it so often!). My sisters are really helpful because they study English in school, but we still have to mime and use my Azerbaijani-English dictionary a lot!

I'm trying to learn how to walk down the street here, which unfortunately is another thing that is very different. Whereas in the US I walk down the street and can look people in the face, give them a little hello smile, here that is totally inappropriate. We all have to learn how to turn off our smile reflex and be way more somber. Plus, if I catch a guy looking at me (and everyone stares at all of us Americans constantly), I have to give him a death stare because culturally, they are not supposed to check out women and try to hit on us. My death stare is not perfected yet, but I'm working on it. You all will have to remind me to smile again when I get back to the states so I don't look like the rudest most hateful person glaring at everyone all the time! haha

Alright, I'm going to go now and let someone else use the computer (of course all of the PC trainees come to the same internet cafe so there aren't enough computers haha, smart), but I miss you all and would love to hear from you!

Life in the Land of Tea and Bread

So I had to make that the title of my post just to make my sister jealous, but that really is what it feels like here. I have tea (çay) at least 3 times a day and bread is the most important part of every Azerbaijani meal. I'm in my host family now (and I love them, they are wonderful) and at dinner the first night my host mother got scared that I didn't like bread because I didn't grab a piece fast enough apparently haha. But, to make my sister feel better, I have to mention that they use a lot of cilantro in their cooking, which is not my favorite. But I'm finding ways to deal haha.

Sorry to post and run, but I do have to catch my group to go home!
Miss you all! I'll try to post again soon!

Now We See the Real Azerbaijan

After several days in the Neapol Hotel, literally not leaving the premises, we will be moving into our host family houses tomorrow! We've been having meetings and language lessons all day, every day we've been here to prepare us, so we'll see how it goes. I mean, if my host family wants to hear me count to 10 (or maybe even 100 if I'm really on my game at that moment...but they are pressing their luck past 29), then I'm all set. If they want to actually speak to me, we may have some issues, haha. I don't know anything about my family except their address and the name of the father of the house, but if you want to know approximately where I am to get a sense, I am near Sumqayit. It's a fairly big city near the capital, Baku.

I'm really excited to move beyond the hotel and actually see what Azerbaijan is like. All I have been doing is hearing stories and learning about things I haven't seen. Even when we arrived, it was already dark, so the drive to the hotel was very uninformative. Although, I did get to see my first car crash in the country. It was interesting to notice that there was a huge crowd in and around the crash scene (and I do mean in, because there was nobody keeping people out), but there were no women. As a female, I shouldn't be out at night (among many other things I apparently shouldn't do). It's certainly going to be a change for me.

Alright, bedtime so I don't fall asleep the minute I meet my host family! I don't think that's really the first impression I want to leave...although let's be honest, sleep is about all I've wanted to do for the past few days (especially when a really important lecture about something like Safety and Security is happening...don't worry, I try to wake up and pay attention).