The Week Starting: Monday February 7th (Post Superbowl Travel)
The day I came back from Ganja was pretty much shot because I had probably 10 hours of sleep that whole weekend. BUT the next day we got to meet with the local police here. This is a routine event with people that are not from Azerbaijan. It was pleasantly and everyone was really friendly. My story for this event doesn't even have to do with the Police. While I was waiting on some of my sitemates to meet up with me I complimented a lady on her lovely boots and she replied in English. I immediately started thinking "AH! I must KNOW her!" For the people that know me well, know that I have a problem with being too sociable so I held back my squeal and asked her where she works and other general information. When we were walking away to meet the police I hurried up and gave her my number. I was so ecstatic. We've since talked and she's only available on the weekends so I've been trying to figure out how to best get some women together on Saturdays to just talk and be ourselves.
Later in the day I stopped by rex to have some dinner and just bother them, for which I do believe I'm becoming an expert at. HAHA! I got to meet some guys from S and at the moment I can't remember what organization they worked for. I was excited to just hang out and I turned off my business mind. You know what's funny, when I typed that statement I could hear the sarcasm in all my friend's voices saying "yeah like you ever have your business mind turned on." For which I will reply by sticking out my tongue. Yup, that's it. Ok back to the dinner. I met an Azeri that works in Baku there and he gave me a 20 minute Azerbaijani lesson and told me that when he lived in Barda that he use to work with the PCV's here and tutor them. In that short lesson I learned so much and felt this wonderful confidence. If only he was still working here. It was a great night and I still think what the organizations are doing in this area is mind-blowing. I love to hear them talk about their adventures working in the field, which are sometimes so completely different then mine (the little ol' pcv) and then sometimes so similar.
Now let's jump to the GOOD part! I had my first conversation club at Ox on Friday and I had this BRILLIANT idea that I could catch a bus to Sheki following the meeting. We all know that my brilliant ideas usually run astray. This one wasn't any different. I went into the bus station and realized that the bus to Sheki was only in the morning. SOO after staring at the ticker for like 10 minutes a man that works there came up to me to ask me where I wanted to go. When I told him my destination he so nicely informed me that I had missed it but that tomorrow morning I could catch it OR I could jump on the next bus to Yevlax then catch a Sheki bus there. Me being me was like, "OK Let's DO THIS!" I get to Yevlax and man informs me that there is no bus to Sheki but to wait on the side of the road for one. He stood there waiting with me, so I was thinking that he also wanted to go to Sheki, what are the odds?! Well at that time another PCV called me about something other than travel but we ended up talking about my predicament. The day light hours were winding down and it was looking bleak so I made a decision to head back to Barda. I got off the phone and told the man there that I was going back to Barda and that I couldn't travel at night. He then walked with me towards the bus to Barda and I stopped walking like "umm... can I help you?" He explained to me that it was better if I just take a Taxi back and he flagged one down for me and told them that I would only pay 1 manat. Now I never asked for his help but he stood there that whole time taking care of me. For all those people that talk about how bad some men are, remember this guy. A true gentlemen. As we drove off back to my home I saw him light a cigarette and walk in the opposite direction from where we were originally standing. To that man, thank you.
The next morning I promptly headed to the right bus and left on the bus by myself. The driver offered me the front seat, by telling me it's warmer up there.. yeah.. no thank you. HAHA! I'll be cold in the back. When I arrived in Sheki I met up with a couple PCV ladies and one PCV dude to go hiking up one of their beautiful snow-covered mountains. I'm not use to this type of environment so I was downright giddy and couldn't control my happiness. These ladies and Gene were my first round of Valentines. :) We took a hike up for a bit, took some pictures and headed down for a little lunch. The hike was magistic. If I could have kept going I would have loved it..and froze to death. OH OH OH! ON my way down from the hike Lilli and I went running down. Oh yeah, this big girl went RUNNING down the mountain. It was awesome! Ok back to lunch. During lunch we had our girl focused talks and Gene sat by patiently listening to us and just hanging out.. THEN he said some magical words about a woman having a white rose for Valentine's Day and he busted out with these "white roses" he had constructed. He put lotion and a couple pieces of candy in white tissue paper and tied it with a red ribbon. He gave us all one. I have to say that was probably the most amazing V-day gift ever.
After the hike and lunch, Jane and I caught a bus to Zaqatala to continue the Valentine's day weekend in her neck of the woods. We hung out with 2 other PCV's and then on Sunday we took another bus to her village. We visited with her host family and went to her conversation club. She had gathered supplies in Zaqatala for her club to make Valentines. Now just saying, you know the outcome. It was just as precious as you can imagine. A couple of the kids made Valentines for Jane and me. This made me do the "awwwww how precious" constantly. So now add that to my count of Valentines. Ha ha! Still keeping a tally? After that we went to her place and played a wicked game of UNO with her host family. They switched to their language of Avar to ask each other questions and try to trip up the ethical system of UNO. So instead of be good, Jane and I rose to the level and spoke to each other in broken Spanish. Yeah, we aren't above this activity. It was a great time. Jane whipped up a brownie mix her family from the States had sent her. Num num num..
The next morning I caught a bus back to Zaqatala and then one to Barda. Once I got to my house my sitemate called me up and invited me over for some Spaghetti and Valentine's Day fun! She gave me the cutest Valentines and made some decent Spaghetti. I absolutely love this girl! We watched the V-day episode of Glee and it gave the weekend of love a great ending.
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