10 hours on the road, or, thank goodness I have an ipod

Yesterday I had the opportunity (like how I'm staying positive?) to spend 10 hours on various buses, taxis, and cars (oh my). I had to travel across the country to put down a deposit on a camp site for G.L.O.W. next week. I don't know if I have painted a clear enough picture of transportation in this country in the past but to sum it up: extreme temperatures, crowded spaces, bad roads, horrible children, creepy men, gossippy (is that a word?) women, and uncomfortable seats. So here are some of my survival tips, they work pretty much year-round.

1. Sit by a window. You have better control of temperature and it makes me feel superior to be the "window master"

2. ipod. Sometimes I'll read on a bus but a lot of times the roads suck making it impossible to focus. An ipod loaded with music, podcasts, and audio books is key. I also just got a headphone splitter so now me and 4 others can listen to the same ipod which is great for listening to comedy because other people on the bus get freaked out when a group of Americans are sitting in silence then suddenly all start laughing at the same time.

3. Sunglasses. Even in the winter. People talk about me right in front of me and have an intense desire to stare. Sunglasses let me stare back or fall asleep, two birds one stone.

4. Don't travel. I need to follow this rule better but being on buses in this country usually just makes me mad. I'm gonna start taking more trains.

3 months

Yes, I still have a blog. I've just been busy (sort of) but here is a re-cap of the last 3 months.

May - Okay, so May wasn't super busy, I pretty much just stuck to my normal routine. But at the end of May I flew back to America for my brother's wedding. Now I have an awesome sister-in-law. How awesome you ask? Well, she let me do this at her wedding:

Yeah, that's me pretending to be a judge (or priest, take your pick).

June - I got back from America and decided that I didn't want to teach English for a week so I tagged along on the Embassy's soccer program for youth for a little bit. It was an interesting experience. 2 American soccer professionals came to Azerbaijan to work with youth in 3 regions and the capital. I think the best one was in Quba, but I'm a bit biased. Then it was back to work on my regular stuff. I also started working more (and still am) on the girl's camp that we will be doing in a couple weeks. Girls Leading Our World. My official title is "Pirate Queen" and I've been working with a lot of other volunteers to put this camp together.

July - GO AMERICA!!!!!

I don't know why I get so patriotic when I'm outside of the U.S. but just go with it. 4th of July was fun but extremely hot. Since then I have mostly been working on G.L.O.W. which happens the week after next.

Okay, so 3 months in a nutshell. Fun. Hopefully I'll remember I have a blog sometime in the next 2 months this time.