What smells like burning underwear?

My host family has a washing machine in the house. This among many other things makes me one lucky PCV. However I am not allowed to operate the washing machine. I’m not totally offended by this despite the fact that I’ve been using a washing machine since I was tall enough to reach the knobs myself, but the one my host family has is in Russian so really it is probably okay that they do all that for me. Currently my host mom is in Baku though which means nobody is allowed to use the machine. Since I am bound for Zagatala this weekend I decided to hand wash some socks and underwear for the trip. Nobody in Azerbaijan has a dryer so I put my newly washed clothes in front of my heater. I usually do this even if the family is home because I have never seen any of my host family’s underwear hanging out on the line, so if they don’t want theirs out there I’m not sure how they would feel about my superman underoos and glow in the dark pirate skulls.
Recently my host dad was messing with the electricity in the house which in turn has made my heater insanely hot. Of course I forgot this and left my clothes to dry while I went to go get some tea. When I came back the waistband of one pair of underwear melted on my heater and I had to air out the burnt plastic smell from my room last night.

Ganja & Mingechevir

All of these are from Ganja, Mingechevir coming soon.

Went to Ganja and Mingechevir this weekend with my old clustermates for Sabina's 21st birthday. Mingechevir is a nice city, pretty and clean. Had fun playing cards and catching up. It was good to see Sabina angain too. Ganja is pretty far away so Hannah Jake and I took the night train there. On the way there it was crazy hot inside the train which made it hard to sleep. Jake decided he couldn't take it so he took buses all the way back to his city. Hannah and I took the night train again and on the way back from Ganja it was perfect temperature. We even got moved into a room with two ladies who slept the whole night through and were really quiet. Good weekend.

New Theme Song

As I was walking through my neighborhood to work the other day listening to my ipod the song “Stop & Stare” by One Republic came on and I realized that it makes a great theme song for my life here in Quba right now. I realize that in the song when they sing “steady feet don’t fail me now” they are probably going for the more metaphorical meaning while I just hope not to slip on any ice that day, but still it even starts out with “This town is colder now” perfect right? Although a more appropriate title for me would be “Stop & Stare & Yell Hell-lo.” This is a phenomenon here in Azerbaijan that I will never understand. No matter where you are in Azerbaijan when people see us Volunteers they decide to yell things in English. I just don’t get it.
In America if I saw someone who I thought looked French I wouldn’t yell across the street “Bonjour! Commont Tu t’appel?” (Which I’m sure is spelled totally wrong). It is just not something you do. However here in Azerbaijan it is a daily occurrence. The most popular phrases to yell are: “Hell-lo”, “what’s your name”, “how are you”, and my all time favorite “I love you.” Then there are the more amusing: “What’s my name” (asked by strangers), “Good Morning” (said at all hours of the day) and “Thank You” (which doesn’t seem funny but it s the reply we get when we ask “how are you”). Some of the most creative ones I’ve heard of: “My name is Quba”, “Welcome to Quba” (both of which were directed towards my site mate Jill) and the best yet: “Pizza Kitchen.”
So here is my theory on this: People are trying to prove that they know English and in a fit of their desire to shine they just yell out all the words and phrases they know in an attempt to get our attention and perhaps praise. Of course we also get the swear words that people always seem to learn first in any language, but perhaps they think we will still be impressed. I could be wrong but that is what I’m going to tell myself so that next time I get asked by random strangers “What’s my name?” I will just think they are trying to show me how much English they know. Of course when they start in on the Russian I will continue looking confused and just keep on walking.