And I'm a house of cards
You're the kind of reckless that should send me running
But I kinda know that I won't get far
And you stood there in front of me
Just close enough to touch
Close enough to hope you couldn't
See what I was thinking of
Drop everything now, meet me in the pouring rain
Kiss me on the sidewalk, take away the pain
'Cause I see sparks fly
Whenever you smile"
My head is overwhelmed with everything going on but I'm trying my best to sort through them. This morning I stopped by a bakery to ask the guy when he wanted to set up a community conversation club and I ended up buying two pastries (plus he threw in two VERY sugary extras). SUGAR RUSH! AH! BUT the good news it that he was able to work out a room for everyone to meet in. Now, the challenge is to contact all these people that I've been wanting to get together and see if the time frame works out for them. He told me the room is a lecture hall, with comfortable seats, a blackboard, and a microphone. Woah, buddy! This is going to be interesting.
Last week I tried to read everything I could about organic gardening and worm composting..jealous? After my trip to Georgia the construction on the worm house and greenhouse will start. Isn't that crazy?! It feels like I've only been here a month.
Meet Mr. California Red Worm
This past weekend I travelled to Mingachiver to visit with Jane and her sister (Amerikadan!). What's lovely about visiting other PCV's is that there is always an event to attend and this weekend was no different. On Sunday there was a softball tournament between different cities. The competing cities were Ganja, Mingachiver, Tovuz, and Oguz.
This weekend I will be attending a youth camp in the region north of mine (and hopefully have plenty of photos for your viewing pleasure).
I have started focusing more of my time on studying Azerbaijani and I have also started studying Russian. I figure since I'm here and there is the chance to master both of these languages, why not? Russian will not be a language I will speak in public here but there are some that will let me practice with them in their houses.
One of the more comical sides to the PC is that we try our best to integrate into the community but it's difficult to do when we are just SO different. This PCV summed up some of our "struggles" well in this little video: Poop In a Hole. The video is hilarious and highly accurate! Now to flip this mood..on one of my many marshrutka rides I had an old man "bother" me. Normally, I would have turned around and shamed him but something in me panicked. After about 20 minutes, I took action and just felt horrible the rest of the day for not doing something earlier. Why didn't I react? I kept thinking "DO SOMETHING!" and my stupid brain's response was "But then it'll cause a scene and I don't want a scene." I look back and think "I should have caused a scene." Lesson learned.. I was already in a weird mood when I got on this ride but after that incident I went into such a deep funk for 4 days. Luckily, when I was walking with my friend to the bus for Ming I had my normal thoughts "I FREAKIN LOVE MY LIFE!" :) Then like all of my days, about a minute after realizing my returned happiness I got another lovely surprise.. HAHA! BUT I didn't let it ruin my high. When I review the days I've had here, it makes me feel like I'm in some sort of romantic comedy. People keep telling me that I need to write a book about all the strange coincidences and funny times I have here but I figure all PCV's have these days...I hope.
That disturbing bus ride was to the beautiful city of Sheki! We made a day trip up there for souvenir shopping, exploring, and eating nummy food. Alise bought a beautiful jewelry box for her friends in Amerikastan and we got lost walking around the town. Now getting lost in Sheki is a great thing because everywhere you go is beautiful scenery.
This man makes these beautiful jewelry boxes and plaques.
Plaques that he has made. In the upper left corner there is a postcard from Houston, TX. A previous volunteer bought one of the jewelry boxes and brought it back home for his family.
The beautiful jewelry boxes.
In an antiques shop these old books smelled amazing.
It was hard to pass up this BEAUTIFUL blanket.
Yeah.. love the bears.
Yes, I think I do want a bust for my desk.
The rain was about to come down.
I love how this town is nestled in the mountains.
Who would ever walk to this door and have sad thoughts?
My roommate and I had a "BRILLIANT" idea to have an Insanity Marathon Thursday night.. It was brilliant until we were laying on the ground crying in pain. She ended up doing 6 videos while I only did 5. We will need another one of these days because this chaotic schedule doesn't lend to routine workouts.
Today is my 2nd day with this new tutor and I'm actually excited! This is a first.. I normally can't stand the teaching styles around here but she motivates me to learn more.
