FINALLY! Rachel has a blog. I know it’s taken me 8 months (can you believe I’ve been gone for 8 months?!) to finally create a blog for everyone to read while I’m off in faraway lands attempting to change the world. The main reason it’s happening now is because I have moved into my own place! Those of you in America have no idea how much of a feat this actually was.
So anyway, most of you get my email updates so I’m not going to give much of a background of what I’m doing assuming you already know. In a couple sentences, I am a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Azerbaijan (west of the Caspian Sea). I left America this past September and finish in December of 2010. I live in Lankaran where I spend my mornings at school teaching English to children ranging from 5th to 10th grade and my afternoons working with AzETA (Azerbaijan English Teachers Association), helping university students, or relaxing with my sitemates. The only way to explain my life here is extreme. I have never been this extremely busy, extremely bored, extremely frustrated, extremely lonely, or extremely clueless in my entire life. My lows are more extreme than anything I experienced in the states, but to make up for it, my highs are something I could’ve never imagined before coming here. That’s all the history you’re going to get on me, sorry. You can have my mom forward all the emails I’ve sent if you want to know more than that.
So, as I said before, my biggest news right now is that after five long weeks of searching for a house, I finally found one! Originally I was very back and forth about moving away from my host family. My setup with the host fam was really ideal in a lot of ways. However, I finally decided that it would be best for me (and my mental health) to live on my own. So far, I believe this was the right decision. With the help of my friend, Elshan, I found a beautiful 3-room house with a huge porch that will be perfect for summertime. The main room is long and has two big armchairs and a little table in it. I also put a spare bed out in this first room which may sound weird, but I should let you know that before I moved it, the bed was in the kitchen… So the kitchen has a big table that seats 6, a cabinet for food, a fridge, and a couch. I fashioned my own stovetop by forgoing my desk and using it for the little 2-burner gas stove I bought. Everything is working well and it looks really good. My bedroom has a single bed, a big couch, and a tv set in it. It also has a pech (gas heating device) which is good if you don’t want to become a popsicle in the winter. I imagine I will live in this room when it gets cold again. To get to the shower you have to outside and downstairs, but it’s really nice (meaning it has hot water and a shower head basically, which is not a given). The toilet is a squatter, but I’ve become pretty adjusted to them to the point where I sometime think I prefer them (maybe a sign I’ve been here too long?). Yep, so that’s my house! I wish you could all see it. Maybe I’ll get some pictures put up next week if the internet can load them fast enough.
My house hunt actually came at a perfect time, as my friend Anna will be coming to visit me in just 10 days! I absolutely cannot wait! I will definitely keep her busy while she’s hear traveling around the country and visiting other regions. She will leave to live in the Palestine region of the world for a summer program after her Azerbaijan vacation(?). Immediately after Anna’s flight takes off, my sister’s will arrive. We will spend a week together in Azerbaijan before she goes back to Scotland and I come home for a couple weeks for Autumn’s wedding!!! Basically, I’m about ready to burst with excitement of what’s to come in May. Tomorrow I am heading up to Dashkesan to see Evan (another volunteer who I met and have been dating for mmmmm…like 5 months now, for those of you who don’t know). He is also moving into a new house this week so hopefully I can help him settle in and get everything moved painlessly.
Ok, well that’s about all the news I have for right now. Thursday nights are my ‘Joyce nights’. She is one of my sitemates that I have become really close to. We usually just cook supper together, watch a movie, and then she keeps me up way to late talking about randomness.
Also, apparently there was an attack at the Oil Academy in Baku today where 15 students were shot. I haven’t heard exactly what happened, but we are on a slight security watch right now. Nothing to be actually scared of (ahem…mom), especially since I live a good 5 hours away from Baku. But you can look it up and check it out online if you can.
I will hopefully see many if not all of you in exactly 4 weeks!! Woop woop.
