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.

Pictures From Lahic

Bruised but not broken

I went up to visit a PCV is a village called Lahic this past weekend for the first time. While I was there I went horseback riding with 3 other PCVs and had a great time. We rode up a mountain and got a beautiful view of the village, river, and Caucuses (I'll post pictures when I get a chance). Unfortunately while riding I was thrown from my horse. Twice. Went to the hospital yesterday and got x-rays and an unltrasound, no broken bones or ruptured organs, just a couple bruised ribs and sore muscles. It was my first trip to a hospital in Baku though. I kind of enjoy it. Everyone speaks Russian and I feel like I am in a James Bond movie.

Camping

Jake gutting a fish on the beach

So, spring has come to Azerbaijan and since the weather is getting better I just want to be outside. Yesterday Jake, Amanda, and I decided to go camping on the Caspian because, well the weather was perfect. We loaded up our stuff and headed out at about 1pm. We took a car to a village the walked out the the sea and about 3 kilometers up the shore. Jake got out his fishing pole, Amanda hooked up some music, everything was good. There was a slight accident involving my camera, a softball glove, a tarp, and an open beverage (hence only camera phone pictures) but everything is in working order now. Anyway, 9 hours, 6 soldiers, 2 police officers, 3 fish, 1 campfire, 1 bottle of vodka, and 1 military escort later, the 3 of us are being detained by national security for questioning. I'm not gonna lie, I had a blast. I had never been on an Azerbaijani military base before. We had a bunch of officers asking us all about why we are in Azerbaijan. We did have to call the Peace Corps Safety and Security Officer, but he rocks! At the end of the night we even got a free ride plus another military escort all the way back to Jake's front door. So, camping was sort of a bust, but I still had a great time. I just recommend that you never go camping in Azerbaijan if you don't know a man by the name of Jeyhun. That guy is amazing.

Novruz and Jake's B-Day

So, I went up to Sheki for Novruz, the spring holiday in Azerbaijan. It was a lot of fun. I hiked around Sheki and went on a Saray-crwal (think like historic pub crawl but palaces instead of pubs). I made it up to Zaqatala too and we cooked some amazing food. Josh even smoked some pork. Then it was back down to Sheki for Jake's horror themed birthday party.

The famous Sheki chicken shack

An Albanian church in the village of Kish

Walking up to Gelersen Gorersen

Danachi village in Zaqatala

My day

I realize that it has been a long time since I have chronicled my daily activities here in Quba, if I ever even have. So here you go, I threw in some pictures too.

I got up at 8:30am and proceeded to stay in bed until 9:00am in order to work up the proper amount of motivation. I roll out of bed and start filtering the water I boiled the night before. I still have no running water in my apartment. Which leads me to my next task. The only year-round 24 hour running water in Quba is a spring or "bulag" about 10 blocks and 146 steps away from my apartment. One-way. So I strap on my backpack with empty bottles in it and start the walk to water. I fill up about 9 liters of water from here:

Then put them back into my backpack and head up the 146 stairs, which, today are covered in ice.

I then walke dthe ten blocks back to my apartment past the saddest park in Azerbaijan.

I then boiled a pot of water so I could take half a shower, got dressed, and came to "my office" a few blocks away. The rest of my day consists of buying food, typing e-mails, reviewing a budget and making receipts, then making pizza and hanging out on my balcony despite the cold weather.