Addendum

As I was on the phone with Hannah last night I thought I heard a kitten so I opened up my door. Just as I did so a kitten came runnning into my room. Apparently the family upstairs aquired a new pet. I call her Bitey because she bites my toes. So now the list of sounds coming into my room includes:

People yelling in Azeri

People talking in Azeri

People whispering in Azeri

Tolets flushing

Water running

Refrigerator running

Dog barking

Dog whining

Chickens dying (being slaughtered)

Cars coming in and out of the hospital

Kitten meowing

Hammering in the garage

Children knocking on my door

And coming in roughly 2 months by my estimation... screaming newborn.

I need a new place to live.

Azeri wildlife... sort of

This is Huey, the puppy that lives in the backyard of the house where I am staying.

This is robot head, my sitemate Chris' new kitten.

And this is one of the hedgehogs that lives in Jake's yard.

Mmmmm....

This is water directly out of my faucet. An no, that is not a brown container. My water filter has been getting a workout lately.

The foreigner stare

As a foregner living in Azerbaijan I get stared at, a lot, everyday, blatantly, by everyone. I've gotten used to it somewhat and wearing sunglasses helps because then I stare back no problem. I have noticed though that in my integration into this culture I have bgun t stare at foreigners too. Mostly I just wonder "what the hell are you doing in Azerbaijan?" because it isn't like I'm living in a top resort destination over here. As I write this I am sitting in the office of an intenational organization and there are a buch of Americans here that I don't know and I can't help but sare at them as they have their meeting. Why oh why are you in Quba? I'm prett sure they are wondering the exact same thing about me.

Dragon Attack!

Quba has dragons!

Ispik yolu

Yeaterday since the weather was nice my sitemate Chris and I went walking up my road to the village of Ispik. It was a really nice walk despite some extremely sunny hills. On the way we were stopped by a group of older men in the woods who fed us kababs and juice. By the time we got to Ispik there were storm clouds looming so we took a bus back. I'm pretty excited about the weather being nice enough for day hikes into the villages, summer is going to be great!

Moments

So as I was sitting in the Quba Olympic Complex typing up a press report for the International Women's Volleyball Federation after hanging out with the Ukranian embassador to Azerbaijan and cheering on team Israel I had another "how did I get here?" moment. These moments come every so often but this one was one of the more interesting ones.

In Quba...

We punch bulls!

Because I can

To the sea!!!

So, back in winter Jake and I tried to walk from his town of Xachmaz to the Caspian sea ( I don't know how far that is, look it up) sadly despite our enthusiasm and determination the snow storm got the best of us and we were forced to turn around. Flashforward toMonday. We decided in honor of Heydar's birthday we would attempt the walk again by in honor I mean we had the day off work). This time the weather was perfect. It was cloudy but not cold, no sunburns or frostbite. It was a really nice walk. We followed the Quydial river (sort of) and ran into turtles, frogs, lizards, donkeies, rabbits, horses, and people. We got invited to tea three times on the way out to the sea but we were on a mission and had to decline.

Pretty right? Lots of flowers and nature, all that business. Unfortunately we ran into another smaller river that flows into the Quydial and had to cross it. Our first option was this pipe that goes over the gorge to the river:
We decided instead to go to the smaller river, cross the log that was only about 3 feet above the water. Unfortunatly the other side was covered in throny bushes. Whatever, we walked through them.
So the walk was really nice, very pretty and totally fun. However when we got to the sea it was a bit of a disappointment. Welcome to beautiful Azerbaijan!

Do you know where your meat comes from?

Because I do. I get reminders whenever I walk down the street.