When I got back from my counterpart conference in Baku last weekend, Jesse and Tahir (our host dad) had a surprise for me! When I went back to our room, it was empty! They had spent the previous two days moving all our things out to our new house! It really is the best of both worlds, because we get to stay near our family, whom we love dearly, and we get a little more freedom!
Our house has three rooms. Two bedrooms and a brand new kitchen! Tahir and Bibi (host mother) used to rent our house to university students and when they lived here, the kitchen was basically just a porch with a tarp around it. Now we have walls, windows and a door. It’s really nice and cheery! They even put in a water heater over the sink – this is a big deal! Outside of Baku, I hadn’t seen a water heater in a kitchen. Our family doesn’t even have one. It’s amazing… we can wash dishes and our hands without freezing! We can even do laundry in our kitchen because Tahir put up a clothes line. We have a full size refrigerator, three gas burners and tons of work space. It is the best kitchen in Azerbaijan, bar none.
Our living/sleeping room is also quite cheery. We have a gas stove, a sofa, book case/dresser, nightstand and a table. We have covered the walls in pictures, so it’s nice to have all our friends and family surrounding us!We have a guest room/ storage room. It is pretty much just storage right now, but in the summer when it thaws in there, we might try to do something else with it.
One of the best things is that we’re 10 steps from the toilet now! We used to be in the back of the main house and to get to the bathroom we had to go through 4 rooms, across a porch, down 7 stairs, across the yard… it was a hike, especially in the night. I’m very happy to be so much closer!!! Simple pleasures, that what I live for these days!
If you can’t tell, we are really happy! Everything has worked out so well for us here in Mingechevir! We’re glad to stay near our host family. They are everything a host family should be. They are interested in the cultural exchange, they are very generous, they genuinely care for us and there is great mutual respect. We really lucked out this time!
If you can’t tell, we are really happy! Everything has worked out so well for us here in Mingechevir! We’re glad to stay near our host family. They are everything a host family should be. They are interested in the cultural exchange, they are very generous, they genuinely care for us and there is great mutual respect. We really lucked out this time!
Check out our Picasa album for more pictures! There's a link on the right.
and here http://picasaweb.google.com/dabnut
2 comments:
I am SO happy for you two. Jesse, good job on the surprise move! I'm so glad you have such nice people to share this time with, I can't wait to meet them! I can't believe we'll be there in less than a MONTH!
Love,
Mom (D)
I thought I would respond to your question here rather that on my blog (:
So, our current house will still have a good size yard. There is plenty of grass space beyond our deck for the kids to play in.
Our new house, however, will have a tiny backyard. We'll have a large covered patio for BBQing and we might have enough space for a little swing set in the grass, but that's it. The house faces south (toward the alley/field, which is now a nice street) and has a good amount of front yard. It's hard to explain, but we're pretty happy with the layout.
We enjoy keeping up with your journey! Thanks for sharing (:
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