Carolyn and Jesse Williams

Our "Garden"

2009-06-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

We planted a garden on our back porch. I has grown a lot since we planted this about a month ago. I need to put some updated photos up.

Anyway, we planted basil, rosemary, Italian parsley, elysium, zinnias, snapdragons, tarragon and lavender.

Here's our little porch with a creepy man in the window. Who is that weirdo?

Silver Creek Falls

2009-06-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we stopped at Silver Creek Falls with our friend Shaun. We did a short loop and saw 4 beautiful waterfalls. It was one of the lovely Spring days that gets you really excited for Summer.

Shaun, Me, Jesse

This is Shaun and me going to visit the fairies and dragons who live behind the waterfalls. Obviously.

You want proof? See the rainbow? Fairies and dragons always live near waterfalls.
Obviously.
Shaun was really proud that he found the fairies and dragons. Jesse didn't see them, so he was disappointed.
We were talking to a fairy here.
Obviously.

Random

2009-06-12T11:11:00.001-07:00

Here's a video about where we lived when we first got back to the States from Azerbaijan. Talk about CULTURE SHOCK! My friend Susan lives in Vienna, Virginia and posted this on her blog.
Video

What a difference a year makes...

2009-05-05T11:04:00.001-07:00

A year ago today we got on a plane in Baku and flew all the way around the world to Washington DC. I can't believe we've been back state-side for a whole year. The time has flown by, but so much has happened.

We got to have a paid 'vacation' (including, but not limited to museums, landmarks, memorials and free surgery - yay Peace Corps!) in DC for over a month. I have had one clean MRI and need to schedule the next one. We came back to Eugene and hunted for jobs. Jesse went back to his old bank, and I went back to my old pre-school. We decided that it was time for me to go back to school. We found out our friends were going to have another baby (who was born last Friday, by the way... check him out here). Now I'm doing my first student teaching at my old high school, International High School (although I'm at a different campus) and just found out about my second placement at my old middle school, Cal Young.

The year has been so full, but has gone so quickly.

It's good to be home.

But we do miss Azerbaijan...

Aquarium

2009-03-28T11:16:00.001-07:00

By now, I'm sure you've heard the news.

We went to the aquarium with Kenton, Katrina, Stu, Jaque and Finley at the end of February. I had free passes to the place from work, so it saved us $86! Yikes!

I was also in my beginning stages of growing a beard (now gone). I know what you are thinking. "He reminds me of someone....who....is....it....." Well let me help you out a bit here:

Yup, Clive Owen. It was a bit awkward having women run up to me all the time and want to have their picture taken with me, but I managed somehow.

Finley looking through a window in the floor at the passing sharks. I have to say that going there with a child was way more fun than going with just grown-ups. The excitement about everything is just so great.

WE OWNED THAT PLACE...JUST LOOK AT US WALKING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PATH!!!!!!!!!

No trip to the beach is complete without actually seeing the beach, so we made the trek down to play in the surf and sand.

Carolyn found some slime.

Carolyn really liked the slime. Weirdo.

Stu and Jacque. I think I'm going to turn this one into an inspirational poster. It will probably have a caption something like "FRIENDSHIP: I don't know how we made it out of that whale, but you made the whole trip worthwhile."

Stu is a huge fan of Rogue brews, so we had to stop and have lunch and pay tribute.

Bread

2009-03-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

You wanna know something cool? We haven't bought a single loaf of sandwich bread in 2009! Sure, we've purchased a few buns and specialty loaves here and there, but for our everyday bread it's all been handmade by Carolyn (and one by me, but we won't go into that fiasco!) We have to say this is all thanks to Debbie Grable. She gave us some of her homemade bread and we fell in love with it, so she gave us her recipe and ever since we've been baking away! Thanks Debbie!

Oh, and I suppose we should also thank our good friends over at KitchenAid for inventing mixers.

Valentine's Day...During The Day.....

2009-03-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

Valentine's day weekend Carolyn's step sister's family Jen and Kyle and Drew and Logan all came down from Spokaloo to visit us. It was great to see them and their kids...they are growing up so fast!

The results of the boys v girls king of the hill contest.

Strangely I'm the only thing in focus here...maybe I should be in more photos because I make them so awesome!

Finley came over to meet Drew. Then we had a no-holds-bared-drag-down-knuckle-up-biting-scratch-yer-eyes-out toddler super wrestlemania for the title of strongest little kid. Actually no. That was all in my head and never happened. Not that I'd ever condone events like that. Why? Do you know of something like that?

Drew turned the candlestick into a trumpet! Silly boy...he never really caught on that with 20/10-65% Egyptian brass it could never be a trumpet...only a french horn. Silly boy.

A good close up of the laddy.
So you don't have to get too close and mark up your monitor!

True Valentines Day

2009-03-06T19:06:00.001-08:00

We actually went out to dinner the day before Valentines day. On the actual day itself we babysat Kenton and Katrina's baby boy Finley so they could have a nice dinner and movie out alone.

After about a week of constant nagging, I got what I always wanted for Valentines! A HEART SHAPED PIZZA!!!!!!!!!

I had to do it. But now I strangely know how Kanye Feels.

Valentine's Day....Awwwwww!!!

2009-03-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day 2009: Operation Lovahhhhhh
Main Objective: Facilitate feelings of mutual enjoyment and fulfillment through spending time together
Obstacles to Success: Wife has class until late late late (like bed time late...like dangerous late...like 7 PM late!)
Method of accomplishing objective: Dinner at Cafe Maroc, which is right next to school

Goal 1 accomplished

Goal 2 accomplished

Mission Results: Mixed
Quality of food: Mediocre
Service: Unfortunately fast
Belly Dancer: Yes
Smiles: Present

And Then Came The Floods....

2009-03-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

January 10th the Willamette River flooded Alton Baker park. It was insane! It was disastrous! It was life altering!!!! It's happened for the past 140 years!!! Anyhoo...we ate lunch at McMenamins and took a walk down to the park afterward and did some goofing around.

Get it? ...She's sitting on the flooded park bench! HAHHAHA! Like anyone would ever sit on a flooded bench! We are so clever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't let Carolyn get all the laughs! So clever....

Then we took a walk down the path...OH MY GAWD!!! THE PATH IS DROWNED!!!!!! HOW WILL WE EVER GET THROUGH!!!???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!! OH THE CARNAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Clever, huh?

Wow, How Time Flys!

2009-03-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the year, Carolyn started back to grad school at Pacific University. They have a campus down here in Eugene and she's going back to get her masters and teaching certificate to be an English teacher for middle/high schoolers. We are both very excited about this new path she's chosen and I'm sure it will amount to a much more satisfying career for her.

Naturally we have the obligatory "first day of school picture." I was so proud of her! She didn't even cry!! (although she may have once she was on)

She got a new outfit and everything! The jacket is actually old. So really all you can see of her outfit is her new boots and skirt in the first picture. They look good from the front too!

The One Little Word Project

2009-01-02T00:12:00.000-08:00

"A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow."

I got this idea from Ali Edwards' blog. The idea is to choose a word that I will use in 2009 - as Ali wrote last year, "a word that I can focus on, mediate on, and reflect upon as I go about my daily life." With all that will be changing for me in the coming year, I felt I needed a word that could help me be present at all times during my day, week, month, and year. I know I will need to spend time on studying and doing work for my masters, but I also don't want to ignore the time I have with Jesse, my family and my friends. I want to be able to give myself time to be creative and even time to be lazy. I want to live a more healthful life and change the way I see and treat my environment. I decided that the best word for this would be focus. I hope that I can truly focus on what I'm doing, whatever it is. If I'm studying, I don't want to be thinking about painting - I want to focus. When I'm with Jesse, I want to enjoy the time we have and not worry about homework - I want to focus. When I'm being creative I don't want to feel guilty for neglecting 'more important' things - I want to focus. Live in the moment. Be aware. Focus. Focus.

What a year this has been

2008-12-31T10:44:00.000-08:00

Goodbye, 2008!

I can't believe this year is coming to a close in mere hours! It has been quite an amazing year for us. These are some of the highlights:

- New Years in London.

-Istanbul in the snow.

- Azerbaijan and all that that has meant to us. Host family, PCV friends, Azeri friends. Quite incredible!

- Mom and Steve coming to visit us in Azerbaijan.

- Learning I had a tumor in my spinal column.

- Saying goodbye to Azerbaijan.

- The wonderfulness of Washington DC, Peace Corps HQ staff and potable water.

- My incredible surgeon, Dr. Art Kobrine.

- Mom coming to be with Jesse during my 7 hour surgery/ night in the ICU.

- Surprising Dad and Deena at the Reagan airport a week later!

- Surprising Kenton, Katrina and Finn when we were back in Eugene.

- A great summer of catching up with friends, family and meeting new nephews.

- Ben and Devon's wonderful wedding!

- Going back to work for EEP was a great experience. It's a great program.

- Jesse going back to work for Siuslaw Bank.

- Olympic Track trials.

- Thanksgiving in Sunriver with Dad, Deena and the Ambroses.

- Year end snow.

- Christmas celebrations in the good old US of A. Can't beat that!

We have been to 4 countries, 3 continents, spoken 2 languages, all in 1 year. And what a wonderful, crazy, scary, fulfilling year it has been!

We are looking forward to next year and all the challenges and excitements it will be bringing!

Bring it on, 2009!

birthday(s)

2008-12-30T21:59:00.000-08:00

happy birthday, jesse. you're finally as old as i.

we celebrated jesse's 27th birthday (on the 27th!) by going to sushi at one of our favorite restaurants. jesse's wish was to be able to order whatever he wanted, no matter the cost. so, this is what he got...
man, can that boy eat some sushi!
yum!
i got to put my new kitchenaid to work. it was fun, but i think i need some practice.
i could only find 24 candles...
luckily deena had 3 more the next night!
tonight kenton and katrina took us out to celebrate jesse's big golden birthday. they took us to happy hour at el torito (an old pre-baby favorite of ours) and to australia (the movie, not the country, although it would be fun to go visit my brother!). it was a great night out with our favorite friends! thanks, guys!

CHRISTMAS!!!

2008-12-28T22:11:00.000-08:00

We had such a great Christmas season this year! Boy is it great to be in a country that has Christmas! Don't get me wrong, I loved last Christmas - singing carols with friends in Baku is a memory I will always love. :) I miss all my Peace Corps friends, for sure!!This Christmas I felt so blessed.

Jesse and I went to The Nutcracker done by the Eugene Ballet. It is a childhood tradition I always adored. It was fun to share it with Jesse!

We went to Albany to spend time with Jesse's parents and grandparents.

The day before Christmas Eve, I had my Grandma over to make her famous sugar cookies. It was great to have her over to my house to do this- when we were little my brother and I always went to her house to help her.

We had a wonderful time at Dad and Deena's house for Christmas Eve with Grandma, Adam, Trisha, Brady and Nicole. Dad and Deena gave us a fantastic new laptop- it should help with grad school next month (ack!!). My lovely husband surprised me with a KitchenAid! Like I said, I was blessed.

On Christmas we went up to Willamette Pass with Mom and Steve.

It was one of the best days I've ever seen at Willamette. There was about 8 inches of fresh power, clear skies, no crowds and not a breath of wind. It was a great way to spend Christmas (and burn off some of the cookies!).

We also sneaked in time with Kenton, Katrina and Finn, went to a Christmas Eve service at our church, a couple movies with friends, and lots of fun times together.

I hope your Christmas was filled with many blessings!

SNOW!!

2008-12-15T09:17:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving!

2008-12-11T08:51:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving we went to Sunriver with Carolyn's dad and Deena and we met Deena's relatives there who came up from California! Unfortunately there wasn't any snow for skiing but we found many other ways to keep ourselves occupied.

The whole gang!

This is in the lodge, it's a lovely building.

There are many things to be thankful for in life...including Tiger Woods Golf on Wii...Which I rock at!

We went on a 5 mile bike ride around the resort one sunny day...no skiing, but it was amazing weather, that's for sure!

The night before we left Carolyn and I went ice skating. It was the first time she'd been in years and only my second time ever! Despite this picture, neither of us fell!

It was an amazing time and we had lots of fun hanging out with the fam, we can't wait for next time!!

The Beach!

2008-11-19T20:31:00.001-08:00

For our anniversary we went to the coast (Yachats) and stayed the weekend. It was stormy, it was sunny, it was wonderful.

The misses got some new rain boots and I busted out the AZ shoes.

It was exactly the kind of weather we were hoping for. Carolyn put her new boots to the test.

The wind was blowing the sand like crazy and I just couldn't resist.

We had lunch at a lovely new place in Newport...Local Ocean Seafoods

Carolyn had the fish and chips and I had steamer clams and oyster shooters. Oh my, what a wonderful lunch. It was great to get away from the city. I read an entire book (albeit it was only 175 pages long) and Carolyn got lots of studying done. Fun!

Spokane!

2008-11-19T07:47:00.001-08:00

In October we went up to Spokane to visit Jen and Kyle's new baby, Logan.

Here I am, trying to establish early in Logan's life that I am the cool/magical uncle.

There was a lot of free time for us to keep ourselves entertained...

He's really a lot smarter than you'd think...and then there's Steve.
(with baby Antonio, Heather and Erik came up as well!)

We stayed at George and Debbie Grabel's house, it was amazing the whole time we were there. The leaves were just beginning to turn and it was so quiet!

Carolyn's long lost high school senior photo...

I should probably not post this picture online for fear that Nigerian scammers will think I'm hunky and steal it to use in their scams.

One of the only pictures of Carolyn with her siblings...Jen. I don't know how it happened, but Jen, Kyle, Heather and Erik were there too and we didn't get any pictures of them. I guess Jen is the lucky one.

He actually really loved this, despite what the picture looks like
...until she dropped him...
then he wasn't so amused.

2008-11-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

Its the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

Its the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

Its the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

Its been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and hes fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nations promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nations next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy thats coming with us to the White House. And while shes no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics - you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what youve sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to - it belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didnt start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington - it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.

It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generations apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory.

I know you didnt do this just to win an election and I know you didnt do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how theyll make the mortgage, or pay their doctors bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who wont agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government cant solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way its been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, its that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, We are not enemies, but friends; though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down - we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security - we support you. And to all those who have wondered if Americas beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America - that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one thats on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. Shes a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing - Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldnt vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that shes seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we cant, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when womens voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that We Shall Overcome. Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we cant, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

A Month of Photo Updates

2008-10-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a LONG time since I've blogged. It's been so long that I figured it would be better to just to a photo journal type thing. Here goes:

Here's the local Peace Corps group at the Eugene Celebration Parade... no Azeri flag yet.. maybe we'll be with them next year!

Me and Finn watching the parade with my Dad in the background. We had a huge group this year! Dad, Deena, Kenton, Katrina and most of Katrina's extended family! It's always a fun parade full of funky people, even better when shared with friends and family!

2006 with Finn in Katrina's belly and 2008 with Finn almost 2 years old!

We got to see N.E.R.D and Common in concert with my old Wells Fargo friends Rick and John.

N.E.R.D.

Common pulled my old friend Echo on stage with him for almost his whole set. Crazy!

We drove up to Albany to have dinner with Jesse's grandparents and this was on the drive home.

So was this.

We have a new nephew!!! What a sweet little guy! We are going to Spokane this weekend to meet him and to spend time with our other two nephews! Can't WAIT!!

Mom and I had tea and talked about all the baby boys in our lives.

We took the annual Fall trip out to Deterings for pumpkins and cider. This year with took the Henrys along with us and lucked out - Deterings was offering wagon rides through their orchards! Fun stuff!

I love this picture of the little Henry family. I love the looks on all three of their faces.

The horses worked hard in the rain and mud.

Last week we went to see Cara Luft and Bill Staines. We got to have dinner with them before the concert and they are awesome people!

Here's a video of Bill singing my favorite song of his, "River."

And a video of my music club back in Azerbaijan singing "River." I love, LOVE, LOVE these girls!

Two roads diverged...

2008-09-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Our great, wonderful, fantastic friend Rayne was here on Monday night for dinner and a sleep-over! He was on his way to a wolf sanctuary where he will live and work for a while. I love how Ranye has totally embraced LIFE and is doing so many cool, adventurous things!

We knew Ranye in college when he lived in our dorm for two terms. Ever since then he and Jesse have kept in great contact and whenever we see him, it feels so natural and easy. He was the best man in our wedding (and did a great job at the toast, by the way!) and he is truly a GREAT man. We love him and are always so happy to spend time with him.

It's so funny to think of the things we do with our lives, the directions we go, the adventures we have. It looks like Jesse and Rayne have chosen two distinct paths, but their connection is greater for it. It has made all the difference.

I'm glad I get to spend time with these two men, who I love so much.

My Talented Husband

2008-09-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

Jesse made a new website for us. He's awesome. I love him.

Go Ducks!!!

2008-08-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

The season opener for the Ducks turned out to be a great game! The ducks looked pretty good most of the time and the fans (as usual) were amazing. There's really nothing like going to a football at Autzen Stadium. It gets so LOUD in there!!

Jesse played a joke on Dad by showing up painted purple. It was pretty funny, except the face paint kind of dyed Jesse's chest hot pink. :)

There were some neat clouds as the sun was setting. The weather was great, but it got kind of chilly near the end. I'm so excited for Autumn!!

We spent some time down at the seats Dad has had for my whole life - right on the 50 yard line 18 rows up. Pretty much perfect. We also got to spend time in the Wells Fargo suite.

You gotta love Autzen!! Go Ducks!!!

Organic Local Produce, Dead Computers and New Jobs...

2008-08-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

Our trusty laptop has died. It was sort of expected. It's what happens to laptops that live in Azerbaijan. I have a great photo of Jesse and our site-mate Nate fixing Nate's and Mike's computers. But, of course it's on our broken laptop. But, fear not! The nice computer men have told us that our hard drive is fine and will give it to us soon. All is not lost... all can be regained. (edit: I got the hard drive this afternoon!! Don't you just love this picture? Nothing like fixing computers, drinking vodka pomegranate juice with head lamps on!)

Until we get our handy little hard drive back, we are without photos or a way to upload photos. It's a huge bummer, but not the end of the world. It will just make for some boring blogs in the meantime. Sorry about that.

We are still house sitting. It's nice to be able to spread out and cook for ourselves. It's been cold and rainy here lately so I've been making lots of yummy soups from this book. Yummy!

I added some links of blogs that I enjoy. I also wanted to mention a website my mom told me about. It's called Eugene Local Foods and it's a lot of fun! We've talked about doing a CSA program for a few years, but never felt like we could eat all the food in the box. This is a great alternative because you just pick what you want and go pick it up at Hideaway Bakery. Good stuff!!

Next week I start working for the Early Education Program. I worked here a few years ago and I'm excited to go back to teaching.

We love driving our new Civic! We've been getting about 30 miles/ gallon, which is so wonderful!!

That's it. Thanks for reading. Leave a comment.

What a month this has been!

2008-08-14T09:05:00.001-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're still alive....

After Ben's wedding we came home and bought a car! This is a car just like our cute little Petunia! We love it. :)

That's about all that's been happening, I guess. We've been house sitting for a few people. It's kind of fun because we get to "test drive" neighborhoods and different parts of town. We've already been in Santa Clara (so so) and College Hill (aMAZing) and now we're back in Ferry Street Bridge area (too much traffic). We're in a new house until the end of September, so that will be nice to be a little more settled somewhere.

We're watching the Olympics a lot and thinking a lot about Georgia and our friends over in Azerbaijan. We really hope things get straightened out soon. We are also looking forward to all our AZ4 friends coming back to the states!!! Yay!!!

Pre Wedding Fun...

2008-07-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun preparing for my brother Ben's wedding to Devon! We flew down to California on Thursday and went right out to Devon's wonderful parents' house. They made a wonderful meal for us including the best chicken I have even eaten in my life - no joke! It was great to spend some calm time getting to know them and with Ben and Devon before their big weekend!

On Friday Devon's dad's business partner's wife hosted a beautiful bridal luncheon. Then we had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It's always so great to spend time with our family! Especially with the kiddos! We really missed Dan and Nina, though! :(

Jen, Heather, me and Devon at the bridal luncheon. Jen's pregnant! She looks so beautiful! The silly baby was always shy around me and never let me feel him kick!

Drew wanted to get in on the rehearsing. Both his parents were in the wedding, so he was stuck with me and Jesse.

He didn't seem to mind being stuck with us too much.

Jesse and Antonio. So cute and sweet!

Devon's gown was so beautiful. She looked amazing. She wore the bracelet that Jen and Heather gave me for my wedding. It was her 'something borrowed' and it looked great with her ensemble. :)

... and on to the Big Event!

2008-07-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

Ben and Devon's wedding was so wonderful. The location was one of the most beautiful houses I've even been in. It's called the Kohl Mansion and it's in Burlingame, California. In the Bay Area. It was exquisite! Jesse and I got to babysit my two sisters' kids during the ceremony. They are the sweetest boys and did so well for us! The only problem was that Drew (15 months) was too happy! He kept laughing and stuff. :) Antonio (4 1/2 months) was happy chilling out on Jesse's lap, sucking on Jesse's hand.

Here's Ben with the priest and his guys. He looked very nice and calm.

Dum, dum da-dum!
This is a lovely shot of the beautiful Kohl Mansion and Devon and her dad John walking up to Ben. It was such a pretty wedding. The weather was perfect and Devon looked stunning!

Devon and her bride's maids. Jen and Heather are on the end on the right. Devon had all the maids pick their own dresses in the same color. It looked great and each girl looked amazing.

Me and Ben before the wedding. My hair is a bit wind-blown.

Jesse, Steve and three of my brothers. What a group of good looking fellas!

Week in Review

2008-07-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

This past week we got to do lots of fun things!

We got to attend concerts at the wonderful Oregon Bach Festival.......and go to the US Track and Field Olympic Trials!

On Monday night Deena and I went to see the OBF chorus, orchestra and Youth Choral Academy perform with Garrison Keillor. It was a lot of fun. He's a funny, funny man, I tell you what!While we were watching Keillor, Jesse and my dad went to the trials and did a more manly event. They watched lots of runners and stuff. Jesse and I got to go to the opening day the previous Friday where we saw lots of qualifying races, but on Monday Jesse got to see some actual final races. It's pretty cool how Eugene is becoming Track City, USA once again!
Tuesday was a rest day at the trials so the Bach Fest did a special concert honoring Bill Bowerman. It was a nice tribute to one of the founders of Nike - a true Man of Oregon.
On Wednesday we got to take Kenton and Katrina to see the 5 Browns. They are a group of siblings in their 20s who all studied piano at Julliard. They were a lot of fun to watch, very talented and had great personalities. It was fun to have a fancy night on the town with our friends!

Thursday I got to go see the Youth Choral Academy. This is the 11th year of the Academy and it holds a very special place in my heart. I was a member of the Academy the 1st and 2nd year of its run, and a chaperone the 3rd year. It's such an amazing experience for the high schoolers involved. I learned so much about music in the few weeks I spent with Dr. Anton Armstrong and his crew. This year I got to go with my step brother Adam who's a professional singer, so that was cool!

Besides all that, we spent lots of time with Kenton, Katrina and Finn. I had lunch with Mom and Becky, we watched fireworks at Alton Baker Park with KK&F, went swimming with the Ruddicks, Chases and Henrys...

I'm still looking for a job. There are resumes out there and other things in the works, so send your happy thoughts towards all of that!

First day at work!

2008-07-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

Jesse had his first day at his new job last Monday! He was offered a position at his old bank, Siuslaw Bank. He's doing more interesting things than he was doing before, so that's fun! It's sad to have him back at work and me still looking for a job. I miss him. :(

I decided to take pictures of Jesse on his way to his first day of work.He's such a big boy!! He can tie his own tie!Just a little tantrum when I dropped him off with donuts for his co-workers.He was really brave and walked in all by himself!!

Now hopefully I can find a job so I can help contribute to our family! Prayers are appreciated. :)

Family Weekend

2008-06-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we had a family weekend up in Portland with my mom and Steve, and *most* of my siblings on that side. It was great to get together so soon after coming home from Azerbaijan. We stayed at the Vintage Plaza downtown and had lots of good times.

We took some special time out of the weekend to celebrate Jen and Kyle's new baby boy coming this September and Ben and Devon's wedding next month! We are all so happy that our family is growing so quickly and missed everyone who wasn't here this year.

We of course had breakfast at Sckavones.

We got to meet our lovely new nephew Antonio.

And catch up with our other nephew Drew.
We went to the Japanese Gardens which was totally beautiful. Here's all the girls (#1 baby boy).
Devon, Mom, Jen, Me, Nio and Heather.
Here's our lovely parents who generously plan these weekends and bring us all together!
Thanks, guys!
We love being back in Oregon where everything is green and beautiful!
On Saturday night we went to a fancy dinner at Pazzo's at the Vintage Plaza. It's fun to get all dressed up and have yummy drinks and food!The boys.
Kyle, Drew, Steve, Jesse, Ben, Erik and Antonio

The Girls.
Devon, Mom, Carolyn, Heather and Jen

Jesse just loves falling water!!! YAY!!!

Back in Eugene... AKA Finley

2008-06-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

We've been back in Eugene for two weeks now. Yesterday was my 1 month mark since my surgery. Things sure seem to be happening fast!

When we got into town we went to Papa's Pizza to surprise our great friends Kenton, Katrina and Finley. We got to hang out with all Katrina's sisters and their families while we waited. They were totally surprised and it was wonderful to see them again!

Finn and his cousins playing at Papa's.

It was great to catch up and it felt like hadn't been away at all, except that Finn is a little boy now instead of a baby!

Brave Finn going down the BIG slide
In the two weeks we've been home, I think we've seen Katrina and Finn (and sometimes Kenton) at least 9 days! We went to the Riverplay park, fed the ducks, played games, scrapbooked... we've done it all!

Here's Jesse with some friends he made at the park. They were digging for bones.

Finley with a friend he made at the park. They were digging for moles.

A couple nights ago we tried to make an Azeri dinner for Dad and Deena. The plov (pictured below with my parents) turned out pretty well and the dolma didn't turn out quite so well. It was fun to try and now we have some ideas of how to make it better and more authentic!

Finley being followed by geese. He loves animals!

He's such a big kid!

Sitting on the sun!

It's good to be back!!

New FAQs and another blog coming...

2008-06-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I just wanted to let everyone know that we're still alive and I've updated the Peace Corps Azerbaijan FAQ and we've got another blog in the works. And if anyone knows of any really good job openings, let us know!!!

I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making. - FDR

2008-06-02T16:13:00.001-07:00

Hey all!

Carolyn here! I'm back in the world of the living after spending a week and a half sequestered to my hotel room!! Yahoo!!

Last Thursday we went back to see my amazing, wonderul, talented neurosurgeon and he reassured us that everything went perfectly and that I'm healing just right. He took out the 25 stitches (phew!) and we were off! We headed to the Peace Corps Headquarters where we talked to our nurse about what will happen next. We still have some medical stuff and paperwork, but we should be heading back to Eugene pretty soon!

The man who made it so I won't end up paralyzed (right). Kind of amazing, huh?

That afternoon we were really lucky because Dad and Deena were coming into DC to see my step-brother was singing with his group Cantus at the Kennedy Center! They had planned their trip even before they knew we would be here! We had planned that Dad, Deena and Adam would come to our hotel for dinner, but I was feeling so good we decided to surprise them at the airport! We thought they were coming in at about 5 so we got to the airport super early - about 3:55. We sat down at a TGI Fridays that was right where everyone from domestic flights comes through. We ordered drinks and were waiting for them when I saw Deena and Dad walking up!! Deena's jaw dropped and Dad looked confused then happy to see us! Good thing we got there so early since their flight actually got there at 4! It was so much fun! We had some drinks and headed to their hotel where we met up with Adam and his friend Tim for dinner.

On Saturday morning Dad and Deena came over to Arlington and we walked down to the Iwo Jima Marine memorial on our way to Arlington National Cemetary. What an amazing place. It's astonishing to see all the white headstones lined up so perfectly. Being in Washington has really impacted my life. America might not be the best country in the world, but the foundations of our government are so beautiful - reading Jefferson's words at this monument and FDR's inspriring words at his memorial - it makes me really happy and proud to be from a country based on freedom, equality and democracy. I feel that everyone coming home from the military or Peace Corps should be given a paid weekend in DC to reconnect with the roots of our country. It's impressive. But I digress - Arlington - It's very humbling to see the rows and rows honoring the men and women who sacrificed so much for the things that Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln and FDR were so passionate about. It's realy very touching.
We went up to the Kennedy grave again, then went on to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We were there for the Changing of the Guard which was a beautiful ceremony. I really love how the Old Guard is there to protect the nameless soldiers instead of Kennedy, Taft or any of the other famous leaders burried there. It shows so much respect to the vetrans, families and soldiers who died in American wars.Notice in the photo above how dark the clouds are.... right as we got on the shuttle that goes around the cemetary the skies literally opened up and dropped buckets of water along with lightening right above us! It was almost perfect timing since we were already heading back to the hotel. Almost perfect timing because the shuttle doesn't have very efficient window system and we managed to get soaked!We dried off, Dad and Deena went off to a museum and we met up later for dinner at a restaurant my good friend Bonnie (she's still in Azerbaijan) recommended. Jaleo was a fun Spanish tapas place with good sangria and mojitos and even better paella. Yumm, yumm and yummm! We had a great time with Dad and Deena and we were all so happy I was feeling well enough to spend some time with them! Thanks, Dad and Deena for visiting!

I also want to thank my mom for coming out, spending some time with me and Jesse before my surgery and lots of time with Jesse during and after my surgery! Thanks mamsie!

Me and Mom at the World War II memorial. Note: all the bronze at this memorial was forged in Oregon. Rock on, Oregon!

Update-O-Rama!

2008-05-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hi all! Sorry it's been so long since our last update. Carolyn's surgery went well, we got home from the hospital on Wednesday and have been hanging out in the hotel room since. So since there isn't really too much new stuff happening, I'll catch you up on some of the stuff that we got to do before her surgery.

Carolyn doing her best "America's Next Top Model" impression in front of the Jefferson Memorial. It was a beautiful day and we learned a lot about Mr. Jefferson. It's really amazing to be back in a country that was built on freedom as a cornerstone.

Carolyn sitting on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial. From here we went to the FDR Memorial, but didn't take any pictures there.

In honor of JFK's birthday the Peace Corps had a small ceremony to celebrate the creation of the Peace Corps. It was really nice and quiet. The director even came to speak.

Carolyn's mom came the day before her surgery to help out, so we took advantage of it and got out to see the monuments.

Carolyn and her mom at the WWII Memorial. We were both very thankful to have her here to help out.

Today (Memorial Day) I walked down to Arlington Cemetary for a ceremony. I got there about an hour early and they weren't letting any more people in. Turns out it is because the president was giving a speech, so I waited around and got to see him has he drove by. It's funny, no matter how many times you see someone on TV, it's always weird to see them in person.

So that's whats new today. We are both very thankful for the sacrifices that men and women have made to protect our country, hopefully they will not be forgotten.

Busy as the Beavers that we are!

2008-05-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

We had all weekend off, so we decided to take advantage of it. Washington DC has tons of free museums, which is really nice since we are on a bit of a budget. Friday we went to the National Art Museum and the Capitol building. Saturday we went to the Holocaust Memorial and yesterday we went to the Air and Space Museum and the National Archives.

Spitting image, don't you think? Outside the National Archives.

Oh my little pilgrim!

Carolyn in front of the Wright Brother's Flyer.

I knew they pretty much owned Eugene, but I guess they are expanding!

Looking up at the dome in the Capitol building.

And Carolyn got the first non-self haircut she's had in a long time. Looks good, huh?

And finally some things we are amazed by:

Landscaping: You mean people actually want to keep things green?
Inside bathrooms: No more putting on your rain jacket to go to the bathrooms!
Pizza delivery: We still can't believe how fast it comes!
Dishwashers: Actually we've only used it once. Turns out washing by hand isn't all that bad!

Thanks for everyone's well wishes, we'll keep everyone up to date on the developments.

Shop Til You Drop

2008-05-08T06:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday between appointments we took the metro out to the amazing Prince George's Plaza (or as we like to call it Prince George's Banana Boat). You aren't going to believe this, but it was a magical place where you could buy practically anything you want! They had a Target, Old Navy, Gap and even a Cinabon! Wahoo! We went to town and were actually a bit overwhelmed. We have a friend who gets a bit overwhelmed at the selection in the cereal asile in grocery stores, now we can totally relate. We went from having a 10 ft by 10 ft clothing selection to target's insane selection. Woo!

So, for yesterday here are the things we are amazed by:

Cosi Sandwiches: Now, we might not be the best judges since we just got back, but these are the best sandwiches in the universe.
Two words: Tar-Get. Nuff said.
Sushi: Last night we went to dinner at Cafe Asia. A-Maz-Ing. But sushi still amazes me how I could literally eat my self into abject poverty and still not be full. At least I would be happy :)

America The Beautiful

2008-05-07T05:08:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! We are enjoying our time here in DC and thought I'd try to update pretty frequently since we have good internet. Since a blog is a very public thing, we won't be posting updates to Carolyn's medical situation on here. She will send out periodic e-mail updates on her situation to friends, family and other interested parties. She sent out an e-mail this morning, so if you did not receive it and would like to be added to the list, please e-mail her at the address to the right. So, with that out of the way, let's talk about fun stuff!

Since our appointments are made with respect to the doctor's availability, it has allowed us some free time to explore the city. Yesterday we were able to go see the White House, Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Memorial. The Peace Corps office is close to the National Mall, so we were able to walk to all those places.

It's amazing to be in such a historic city to be reintroduced to America. We both realized that living overseas really makes you aware of how great America really is. It also makes you really appreciate the sacrifice that the generations before us and all the soldiers right now are giving to protect our way of life. So, I'd like to thank all of my friends and family who have served and are currently serving in the military.

Secondly, I want to try and keep a list of the little things that make America great and things that we never noticed before we didn't have them. So, here goes the first installation:

Transportation: Paved, quiet roads, no honking, yielding to pedestrians, stop lights, clean efficient metro, TAXI METERS, crosswalks, sidewalks.
Grocery Stores: What do you mean I don't have to go to 5 different stores to get dinner?
Food Delivery: Yeah, I can get used to this.Hot running water whenever you want it. No waiting for the water to heat up to take a shower. And you can drink it to boot!
Toilet paper and flush toliets...EVERYWHERE!
Friendly strangers (not that they weren't in AZ, it's just different)

Well, that's about it for now, I can't wait to have more to write about today!

Drinking tap water...

2008-05-05T12:20:00.001-07:00

That's right, folks! I am currently drinking a glass of water I got straight from a tap! I didn't boil it! I didn't run the boiled water through a filter! I'm drinking it straight!

Why - you may ask. Well, about 25 hours ago we got on a plane in Baku and about 1 hour ago we landed in Washington DC. I (Carolyn) have been having some back trouble and the Peace Corps medical office decided it would be a good idea to send me (and my dear husband) to DC to have it checked out. We will go see the doctors tomorrow morning, and won't really know much until then. Tonight we're going to go to Safeway (!!!!), do laundry (!!!!!!!!), take baths (!!!!!!!!!!!) and go to bed early - a really nice bed (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). We are excited about these plans. :)

I've never been to DC and I think we'll get a lot of time between meetings and appointments to do some sight seeing. That will be fun!!

If it isn't obvious, we are really positive and I'm feeling pretty good! So, don't worry about us, but keep us in your prayers! We will keep you updated!

Spring Sprang!

2008-04-27T05:02:00.001-07:00

I hear it's just getting to be Spring back in the good old Willamette Valley! Well... it's Summer here, so I thought I'd post some pictures of our Spring here in Mingechevir!

Spring was full of friends, family and fire!

My mom and step dad came for a visit in March... pictures of that will follow in a blog when I get a package with photos from mom...

We went up to Qebala to visit a friend and got to see what life is like in the village. Some of you might remember last summer when Russia wanted the US to use a radar station in Azerbaijan instead of Poland or wherever it ended up. The radar station is in Qebala and you might be able to see it in the photo of me and Gulnaz...

Novruz is THE holiday in Azerbaijan. It is the Azeri New Year. I think it's Muslim as well. It is made up of the four Thursdays before the Equinox and the Equinox itself. Every Thursday represents either fire, water, wind or earth. People jump over fires to leave all their troubles behind them in the old year. We had a great dinner with our family while mom and Steve were here, and yes, we did jump over the fire! We also had a fun dinner with our friend Elvin and jumped over more fires. We went to some celebrations in town, ate lots of baklava and did some heavy duty egg fighting...

We also had the Writing Olympics. I'm on the committee for this, so I wanted to be sure Mingechevir had a good turn out. And did we ever! We had 65 students from 12 different schools come to participate! We also had 6 university students particpate. Out of those 71 kids, we had 13 regional winners, 3 national winners and our friend Elvin placed 3rd in the national contest! Yay Elvin!! I was really proud of my students and happy that Mingechevir will be well represented in the book we publish of all the winners from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.

That's pretty much our Spring in a nutshell... check out our Picasa album for all the photos!!

Happy Spring!!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Azerbaijan and Peace Corps

2008-04-15T01:49:00.000-07:00

So, from the title of this post you can probably guess what it's for. This idea spawned out of a few e-mails that we have received over the past few months, so we decided to keep it around for posterity. If you have any questions about anything Azerbaijan or Peace Corps related, please feel free to e-mail us at: jesse (at) velcrotoes (dot) com or carolyn (at) velcrotoes (dot) com. Before we get to the questions, we want to extend a warm welcome to the next wave of Peace Corps Azerbaijan volunteers, AZ6. So, without further ado:

Did you bring a computer with you? How does having/not having a computer workin your life as a volunteer?
I think there are probably 3 volunteers who didn't bring computers. It works very well to have a computer. You can save time at internet clubs if you can write emails at home and take them on a flash drive. If you or your host family has a land line, you can use dial up internet at home. We watch movies all the time on our computer. It pretty much kept us sane during cold winter nights! :) The PC lounge in Baku has a DVD library where other PCVs add and take DVDs. There are also a couple stores in Baku where you can buy 3 manat DVDs of films that are just coming out in theatres in the States. So, if you don't bring a computer, I would highly recommend at least bringing a portable DVD player!

Do you find that being married alters your experience or not (especially for Carolyn-how is being a married woman different from being single?)
Being married is very different than being single. There are pros and cons. First, depending on how old you are (we are 26 and 27), you will constantly get the question, "Where are your children?" or something similar. It is quite strange to them for us to be as old as we are and to not have any children. We just say, "We can't have children and be volunteers at the same time. We will have them in 2 years, God willing."They understand this phrase, God willing, or Inshallah. Second, I feel that I get less harrassment from men because everyone knows I'm married, so that's good. There are some harrassment issues for single women in Azerbaijan, but that also varies from town to town. Don't worry about it, though! Third, you get twice the living allowance! Yay! When the time comes to move out on your own, you will each get the allowed amount, but you will only need to get one house! For example, you both will get 85manat (or so) per month for housing, but your rent should be around 80 or 90, so you get to pocket the rest!

How much Azerbaijani did you know when you arrived?
None. Well, we knew some animals, but that's all. Don't worry about language. I don't think anyone knew more than a few words (numbers, animals, greetings). If you want to get a jump start on it, there is a great free program called Before You Know It that will get you some basic words.

Are can openers really that hard to find?
Yes. Bring a can opener (or a swiss army knife with a can opener on it), head lights and a cork screw if you like wine (although Azeri wine is not especially well-known for being good).

New 6/19/08:
We thought since people are starting to prepare for leaving for AZ in September, a packing list or two might be helpful. Here are two lists, the first assembled by AZ4 and the second a rough outline of what we took.

In addition to those things we'll list some things that might seem frivolous but ended up being some of the stuff that made us happiest while we were over there:

Down Comforter
Cotton Sheets
Good Pillow
Laptop
World Poster and Atlas
Headlamps (one plus a spare)
Frisbee
Flash Drive
Photographs: Family, Homes and whatever from America to start conversations
Card/board games. Think Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan.

And some stuff we wish we wouldn't have taken:

Bathroom stuff, i.e. shampoo, soap, toothpaste, etc. You can buy almost any brand of this you want over here.
Snow boots/pants. Chances are you won't be in a part of the country where it snows and if you are you can have someone ship them over later.

Additionally there is a listing of other volunteer's blogs, full of information here.

Azerbaijani Cuisine

2008-04-04T12:02:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! Time for the next installment of my editorial blogs. I’ve decided to go a bit of a different route this time, delaying my bazaar expose for a few months to let the local fruits and veggies reappear. So, you might be asking yourself what this one is about. Brace yourself, because here comes:

“Azeri Cuisine”
or better known as
“Uhm, I’m Not So Sure About This…”

Azerbaijani cuisine has a long history and the people here are very proud of their foods. As Peace Corps volunteers we were amazed and intrigued at the strange and interesting food that we encountered during our service. Then the second week began and the wonder began to wear off.

Due mostly to the constant repetition of eating with a host family, many volunteers have found the food situation in Azerbaijan to be a bit tiresome. True, there is some variety lacking in the diet and true, the nutrition of the meals leaves a lot to be desired, however there are some real treasures in this country. The country has an amazing talent for the food they make and if you are lucky, you can have some truly exquisite meals here.

So here we go, on our culinary “Tour de Force.”

Dolma
Now, I’ve had dolma in the States before, but nothing like the dolma that exists here. Dolma is essentially a meat and rice meatball wrapped in a vegetable. There are many kinds of dolma, mostly differentiated by what the meatball is wrapped in. There are of course grape leaf and cabbage, the most common. Then there are the slightly more exotic kinds that tend to be seasonal, like tomato, pepper and eggplant. And lastly there are the specialty kinds that I’ve only heard rumors about, so far I’ve only heard of potato. With Carolyn not eating meat here, we’ve discovered that meatless dolma is referred to as “liar dolma,” which makes me smile every time I hear it. Liar dolma is normally made with rice, carrots, cabbage and pomegranate seeds inside. I find dolma especially delicious on the first night and following day. The next two days of leftover dolma are not quite as good.

Kebab
Everyone here thinks that Azerbaijan is where kebab originated. Whether this is true or not, kebab seems to be very prevalent in this part of the world. There are two main types of kebab: lule and tika. Lule is ground meat (usually mutton) mixed with herbs and salt that is formed into…well, I don’t know how to describe the shape better than saying “turd-like”… lengths about 8 inches long. Tika is chunks of meat (again mutton) and each piece has some sort of bone in it. Where these bones come from on the animal is a mystery to everyone except the butcher I’d imagine. Now, don’t go thinking there’s a lack of variety here for kebabs. Oh no, they will kebab anything: fish, chicken, pork (if you can find it). I’ve even spoken to a volunteer whose host family kebabed a turkey for her “Jesus Holiday.”

Ash/Plov

If you ask any Azerbaijani what their national dish is, chances are this will be the first thing out of their mouth. Plov is another staple of Azeri cuisine. Although you really only see it at big family gatherings or weddings or funerals, you can always count on someone having a big steaming plate of plov. Plov is a rice dish that is made with dried fruit, chestnuts, chicken and saffron. At wedding ceremonies there is always a special time of the night when a plate of plov is brought out and presented to the bride and groom (usually near the end). This is no ordinary plate of plov, however, partly because it roughly the size of a small village and partly because it is covered in sparklers that are threatening to burn the whole place down. Needless to say it is very exciting for a number of reasons.

Dovga
This soup is rather infamous with the Peace Corps crowd. From what I have found, we may be some of the only volunteers who enjoy it. This soup is made from sour milk (like a thin yogurt) and is cooked for about an hour or two over low heat. Greens are mixed in (what exactly these greens are, I have no idea), but they are mostly flavorless and provide the soup with some substance. Dovga is normally served cold in a cup or small bowl and one can drink it, although I like stuffing it full of bread and letting it soak in. Our host mother makes an awesome Dovga, and that may account for our liking it so much.

Piti/Bozbash
These are two dishes that are extremely common in the day-to-day life of an Azeri. I am not exactly sure how it is made, but I will give it a shot. First they fill a pot with water then throw in a half kilo of the fattiest mutton you can find. Add quartered potatoes and boil all day to extract all the fat from the meat to soak into the potatoes. Now here comes the variation: Garbanzo Beans! In Piti, you add beans to the mix, while in Bozbash you just leave it be. I have eaten by far more Bozbash in my time here than Piti, in fact I have eaten so much bozbash in my time here that since we’ve moved out on our own and started cooking our own food, that I’ve actually come to miss it. At least for a minute or two.

Borsch
This is another soup, which is normally made in the winter. It’s a great hearty soup that is perfect for warming you up on those cold winter days. From what I can tell its base is beets and cabbage. Along with the beets and cabbage are onions, carrots, potatoes and mysterious seasonings. I think most people are fond of this soup, even our site mate Cindy is learning how to cook it!

Levenge
This dish I’ve heard all about, but never had the chance to experience it. This is because it primarily comes from a region in the south of Azerbaijan, around Lankaran. Essentially it is a whole chicken that is stuffed with nuts and other things then baked in a wood oven. I’ve heard it is especially delicious and I look forward to trying it soon.

Kete/Qutab
Kete and Qutab are made the same way, just with different things inside. First you must make a lavash round (kind of like a tortilla). This is done usually on a dome-shaped piece of metal balanced over a fire. You then fill the tortilla with filling, depending on what you are making. For Qutab it’s meat and for Kete it’s the mystery greens. The greens look like spinach, but are a bit more acidic. There also might be some parsley, coriander or green onions. After filling the lavash, fold it in half, cover it in butter or oil and throw it back on the grill to warm everything up. I suppose it’s kind of like an Azeri Quesadilla without the cheese. While they are pretty good, it’s hard to eat more than one due to the amount of grease.

During Novruz, the spring celebration holiday that was this past week, there was a city-wide celebration in the center of town. During the celebration every school in the city set up a little area and commenced cooking copious amounts of Kete. Of course since we are the main attraction wherever we go, we were bombarded with offers of free Kete. We managed to get away with only a few handfuls (and a couple pocketfuls) of Kete, sweets and fruit.

Hash
BOM BOM BOMMMM!! (Ominous music booms). This is the most “unique” dish in Azerbaijan. The one you see on the Travel Channel and immediately say to your spouse “Hey I heard there was a fascinating special on Sub-Particle Quantum Physics on PBS today, let’s watch that instead!” Yes friends and family, this is the cow-head stew. First you must buy an entire cow head. Horns and all. Then, you take a blowtorch to it and burn off all the hair. Next, put the head into a pot and boil overnight. The next morning, get up early and nush! Traditionally this is served with vodka, I can only presume to get the taste out of your mouth after eating it. I have only had the leg-and-hoof variety of Hash, but our site mate Nate has eaten head Hash and said that the taste most closely resembled what cows smell like. You know, when you are driving past a dairy farm and you smell that smell? That’s how it tastes. What a way to start your morning!!

Tendir Bread
Now, if you haven’t realized already, bread is an all-important part of any meal here in Azerbaijan. It should be at every meal and make sure to have plenty of it! We recently hosted a meal for some Azeri friends of ours and made biscuits, which we considered to be a bread substitute. Oh how we were wrong. They sent their son out to run to the store to fetch a loaf for the table. What egg on our face! However, not all bread is the same here. There are many different kinds, but by far the best is Tendir. This is made in a wood oven and from what I know they make the dough then slap it onto the side of a dome-shaped oven to cook. It is absolutely delicious, especially when it’s hot and fresh. So if you ever find yourself in an Azeri restaurant, be sure to request the Tendir bread.

“Nush Olsen”
This actually isn’t a food, but a saying. It translates into English as “Bon Appetit.” I find it funny that a word, when translated into English can only be approximated by a French word. Anyhow, this is said whenever food is presented or whenever a person enters a room where people are eating. I love this saying. In fact it is one of the things I think will be permanently replaced in my vocabulary. I’m not sure what it is about it, but there’s something particularly satisfying when you set a plate down in front of someone and exclaim “NUSH BABY!!!”

Pictures: 1. Cabbage and grape leaf Dolma, made by our host mother. 2. Lule Kebab at a local restaurant. 3. Ash made by our host mother. 4. Dovga made by our host mother. Not the best picture, but you get the idea. 5. Dushbara soup at a local restaurant. Not really piti or bozbash, but greasy enough to be honorary bozbash. 6. Borsch, not our picture. 7. This is actually our Thanksgiving turkey that we cooked up, since we have never actually had this dish. 8. Kete that was made by a friend of ours. The picture after that is Mike at the Novruz celebration with his share of the loot! 9. Hash (before picture) Again, not our picture. 10. So if you look closely, Bonnie is putting a candle on my Tendir bread for my birthday :) 11. Nush Baby!

Inflation

2008-04-01T04:02:00.000-07:00

I think this is a very interesting image. It shows inflation changes from 2007. If you still aren't sure where we are, look for the little orange country right above Iran and to the left of the Caspian Sea. Then look at our fellow orange countries... Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Myanmar...

I'm not really allowed to give any political opinions on this blog since it's open to the public, but I thought I would share this.

Me and me fellow volunteers have been filling out living allowance surveys, hoping that our monthly stipend will refect the information on this map. For example, last year bread cost 20 qepik. Today it is between 30 and 40. That's a 50% increase! Can you imagine if you went to Safeway today and bread had increased 50%?

On another note, Peace Corps Volunteers in Ukraine are now getting their living allowance in Euros. That doesn't seem right for some reason.

Just something to think about...

-Carolyn

2008-03-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!!

We've gotten a bit behind in our blogging, so here comes the first in a few updates over the next few days or so. (Inshallah!)

My 6th form class had an English program a couple weeks ago. My counterpart Gulnaz, another English teacher and I helped prepare the students for a 45 minute presentation done all in English (aside from my speech in Azeri!). They did a play about paper, a play about an old lady, a play about Cinderella and sang five American songs - River by Bill Staines, Bingo, You Are My Sunshine, Hush Little Baby, and Farmer in the Dell. There was also lots of information about the English langauge and English speaking countries. It was a lot of fun to prepare with them. They are my favorite class and work with most of them in other clubs outside school.

Here are some of them getting final makeup on. Sema is putting purple eye shadow and a mole on Gulnay who played one of Cinderella's wicked step sisters.
Here is Sabina telling about the United States of America. They also had a presentation on the UK, Azerbaijan and Africa.
Sabina and Nubar in the Dirty Paper skit. It was great!
Zarah is the Fairy Godmother giving Vasila's Cinderella her new beautiful clothes.
Here's the whole cast, me and Gulnaz. It was a fun day! All the volunteers in Mingechevir came to watch. The Mingechevir TV station came and there was a 5 minute segment on the nightly news. I didn't get to see it, but I heard all us PCVs were on it, even some of my speech! :/ At least now I can say I've been on MTV. :)

Welcome, Antonio!

2008-03-06T21:52:00.000-08:00

Our lovely little nephew was born Tuesday the 5th at 5:27pm. But for us he was born on the 6th, so that's his birthday to us. He is 8 pounds, 3 ounces and 20 inches. Isn't he wonderful? We are so excited to meet him! Congratulations, Heather, Erik and Antonio!

Big news from America!

2008-03-04T22:17:00.000-08:00

Our nephew Drew will have a cousin sometime today and a brother or sister in October!

My sister Heather is in the hospital right now, so say some prayers for her! And my other sister Jen is 9 weeks pregnant so say some prayers for her too! So exciting!

Happy Birthday!!!!

2008-02-28T03:20:00.000-08:00

I had a nice 27th Birthday in Azerbaijan!

Our friends Kelsey and David came to visit from Ali Bayramli and Goranboy! On the Friday before my birthday, we had Nate, Mike and Cindy over, too! We always like having friends over at our house.

Saturday was a beautiful day in Mingechevir! We walked down to the River Kur and enjoyed the Spring-like weather. I made a barbeque chicken pizza for lunch a la Pegasus.

Kelsey gave me the wonderful cake! It was actual cake mix from America!!!! Very exciting!
I also want to wish some people Happy Birthday. I've been very bad at keeping up this year, mostly because I forgot to bring a calendar with everyone's birthdays.

So...

Happy Birthday

Aunt Kim!

Phoebe!

Cole!

Alex!

Angela!

Brit!

Hillary!

And, I'm sure I'm still forgetting people, so please accept my sincere appologies!

We love and miss everyone!!!

More Adventures in Grooming...

2008-02-19T08:54:00.000-08:00

Jesse decided he was done with his beard.
He decided to chronical his experience...

And the finished product... meet Cowboy Jesse!

I did some grooming myself. I decided I wanted some bangs and layers.

Maybe if this Peace Corps thing doens't work out, we can open our own salon here!

Or Jesse can open a Saloon.

What do y'all think?

Politics

2008-02-14T00:46:00.001-08:00

Hello friends and family! Carolyn here. I just wanted to say a little bit about the elections going on in the States right now. It's the first time I can remember that so much emphasis has been placed on the primaries. It seems like there's a media frenzy going on over there, on the other side of the world!

It feels strange to be so separated from all that's happening. I bet you can't turn on the TV, radio or walk down the street without being bombarded with campaign news, ads, signs, and more! Because we're here, we have to actually seek out news and information.

So, what did I do? I searched! I'm still not 100% decided, but I wanted to share a link. I'm sure most people know about the League of Women Voters and how they stive to bring unbiased information to the voting public. I've just spent some time on their website and feel it is a good way to learn about candidates and issues. http://www.vote411.org/

I hope everyone is having a nice Valentine's Day! Jesse is in Baku for a conference, and I'm in Mingechevir, so that's kind of sad, but oh well! We will have a nice dinner of baked potatoes or something when he gets back on saturday!

Housewarming!

2008-02-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had some of our friends over for dinner, a movie and games! I made chili and cornbread, and they were quite a hit! I love it when I am able to make things that taste like America... comfort food has a whole new meaning!

Here is Nate, Aiching, Jody and Jesse curled up on our sofa enjoying some TV of DVD.
This is Mike, cornbread and Jesse.
Kate likes chili! Nate likes cameras!
Aiching and Jody adding the secret ingredient to our home-made khalua... powdered vanilla... actually powdered vanilla is kind of lame, but it's all we have here in Azerbaijan! Jesse, me, Jody and Nate after watching The Kite Runner... It was a very good film (not even close to the book, which I just read last week), and it was really interesting to see the similarities between Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. They use many of the same words we do (beli, jan, bibi, inshallah, mashallah, baba.... ), and there some cultural things that were hilarous. I'm sure if we had been in a theatre in America, people would have thought we were crazy because we laughed at a lot things that we're necessarily funny if you didn't understand the culture from which it came. Anyway, it was a good film, but read the book first.
We watched the Obama "Yes We Can" speech song about 10 times. I still haven't decided for whom I will vote, but this is a very impressive song and speech. It's a very powerful message he is presenting, that's for sure. Hopefully whoever wins in November will have the ability to bring our nation together better than the past few presidents. That's my hope.

Here's the gallon of khalua we have in our closet now. I hope it lasts for a while... :)

Consider our house warmed!

New Digs

2008-02-08T04:55:00.000-08:00

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!

Check out our Picasa album for more pictures! There's a link on the right.

and here http://picasaweb.google.com/dabnut

Numbers...

2008-02-05T04:55:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Jesse here. I just wanted to post a blog with some numbers of interest that have happened since being here, just for fun. So in no particular order:

60: The combined number of pounds we have lost since coming here 7 months ago.
1605: The number of text messages I sent during my first 7 months of being here.
120: Number of minutes I spend walking to and from work everyday.
$7: The amount of our readjustment allowance (salary) per person per day.
$3: The amount a typical Azeri teacher makes per day.
$1.50: The amount a retired Azeri citizen receives per day.
44: The approximate number of Turk Döner sandwiches I ate while in Sumgayit.
$.10: The cost of one pound of fresh, local, vine ripened tomatoes in September.
$.90: The cost of one pound of fresh, local, vine ripened tomatoes in November.
$1.50: The cost of one pound of old, imported, over ripened tomatoes in February.
$10: The cost of one bag of chocolate chips in Baku.
189: The number of hits on our website in September from a .gov extension.
5: The number of days it takes to get over a good case of food poisoning.
55: The number of people who came with our group to Azerbaijan.
8: The number of people in our group who have returned to the States.
47: The number of people who came with the group before us.
14: The number of people in the group before us who have returned to the States.
8: The number of people in our group from Oregon.
95: The temperature in our room at 10:30 at night on September 1st.
55: The temperature in our room at 1:30 in the afternoon on November 27th.

Fun, huh!?! On a side note, my office just had DSL installed so I will have reliable fast internet. Now, don't go thinking this will improve the quality of the posts...no, no, no...same old Jesse and Carolyn. Bye for now!

Here Fishy Fishy...

2008-01-27T22:59:00.000-08:00

I was able to snap a pic today in the Bazaar of the aforementioned fish that are swimming up our water pipes. Apparently, apart from being a bit of a pest, they are also considered food. That just gives me the heeby-geebies. I also found out that their official name (according to the salesman) is Ilan Baliq (Snake Fish)!

Winter-timeee and The Livin’ Is Easy…

2008-01-21T23:35:00.000-08:00

Well, not exactly so easy, but interesting at least. We came back from our trip to find our city covered in snow, which from what we hear is very unusual. Since then temperatures have been in the 20-25 degree range at night and just above freezing during the day. This has created a bunch of ice everywhere. Not only is that a problem for transportation in general, but for our water supply and general comfort.

We have been fairly lucky in that our water only completely stopped for one day so far. Our water lines completely froze and we more or less had to survive on the water we had stored up prior to that. In the neighboring city of Ganja, they have had whole swaths of the city out of water for weeks now. In this case you must go to a central point where the water is still running and fill buckets to take home. Yeesh!

Another problem with our water is fish. Yes, fish are actually swimming up the pipes and clogging our faucets. Our host father has had to pull fish bits out twice now and I’m sure he’s not yet done for the season. Now, that might be gross enough for you, but there’s more. These fish are weird snake-like fish, resembling mini-eels. They sell them in the bazaar and every time I see them they throw my upchuck reflex into a frenzy! I’ll try to snap a picture next time I can.

As for our general comfort, I suppose we don’t have much room to complain. Compared to other volunteers, we live in relative luxury. We have a gas heater in our room and even though we get the dregs of the gas line it still manages to keep the temperature between 50 and 55. We can have daily showers if we want to tough out the walk to and from the shower, whereas some volunteers get bucket baths once or twice a week. In fact, we have a friend who lives south of us and she has a ¼ inch of ice on her windows and even on her walls and has stopped getting baths altogether. She has to make the two-hour journey up here every couple weeks to take a shower at a friend’s house.

However, it’s not all bad. Carolyn took advantage of the snow yesterday and helped our host brother make a snowman and we’ve had several days off work due to snow. It’s kind of funny, Carolyn and I have been spending so much time together that we are starting to get worried of what will happen when we have to go home and get real jobs and not be able to spend 20+ hours out of the day together!

Photos: 1. Walking down our street in Mingechevir. 2. Snowball fight with our host brother, which I dominated at due to my exceptional snowball making skills. 3. Icicles on the neighbor's house. 4. It just wouldn't be winter without the giant neon palm tree! 5. Just chillin wit da homies!

Our Web Album

2008-01-15T04:46:00.000-08:00

As promised pictures have been uploaded...

http://picasaweb.google.com/dabnut

Nush Olsun!

Back In The (Former) USSR!

2008-01-14T04:37:00.000-08:00

Well, first things first. Let me tell you about our Christmas before I get to telling you about our trip to London and Istanbul. Even though we live in a Muslim country and they don’t celebrate Christmas, they have a strong left-over Soviet influence. This affects a lot of things including the desire to have a decorated tree at this time of year. The week before Christmas they have a holiday where they sacrifice a sheep in honor of when Allah gave Abraham a lamb to kill instead of his son, Isaac. Sound familiar? We’ve been eating that sheep even since we came back. Yum! Anyway, they don’t have Christmas trees, but they do have Yeni Il (New Years) trees! They even have a Shaxta Baba and a Qar Qiz! Shaxta Baba means grandfather frost and Qar Qiz is snow girl. They are basically Santa and his granddaughter, but they don’t give gifts. They just come and stand by a Yeni Il tree and have their pictures taken. I digress. We were able to buy a little tree and lights at our bazaar and my lovely sister Jennifer and her family sent us fun ornaments, so our little room felt very Christmassy!

On Christmas Eve we went to Baku to have dinner and go to church with some of our good friends here in Azerbaijan. We went to a good Mexican restaurant (there was even a band singing classic rock dressed in Christmas costumes… it was just us and a group of British oil men…). After dinner we walked around Baku singing Christmas carols and getting stared at. Then we went to a midnight mass in English at the Catholic Church. It was the only church with a service and it ended up being really nice. It didn’t really feel like Christmas, but it was nice to be with a group of people celebrating.

On Christmas all the other people from AZ5 came into Baku for our In Service Training (IST). It was good to have everyone together again and the training went really well. We had two days full of meetings, trainings, inspiration and fun! We spent Jesse’s birthday with friends at IST and went for Thai food for dinner. Now onto….

LONDON

Day one:
Oh, what a fantastic holiday! It was so nice to be in a place where we are easily understood and where we could walk down the street and not feel like we were in a fish bowl! I think we did everything we wanted to, and ate lots of good foods we had been missing.

The first thing we did on Sunday the 30th was get gingerbread and eggnog lattes at Starbucks! They were just spectacular! Then we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral where we attended a mattins service. It was absolutely beautiful. Everything was sung by the choir and we were sitting under Wren’s magnificent dome. It was a great way to begin our London vacation.

After church we took a Double Decker bus down to the Tower of London and took a tour with a beefeater, saw the jewels then walked across the Tower Bridge. We had fish and chips for lunch with a good beer for Jesse and cranberry juice for me (I had been craving it for months!). We walked along the Thames past the Globe and went to the Tate Modern. There was some interesting stuff there, but it was crowded and not really what we’re interested in, so we just took a quick look in all the galleries. Then we walked home past London Eye, Big Ben, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street. We ended up eating dinner at Wagamama, which is one of the best restaurant ideas I’ve ever seen. It has really good Asian type noodles and stuff. It’s set up in a really interesting, inventive way. And it’s really yummy!

Day two:
We had a really nice New Year’s Eve. First thing in the morning we bought tickets to see "Cabaret" that night, then headed down to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. We got the best seats that Rick Steves recommended to us and waited. We were about an hour early and definitely got some quality people watching in. The actual Changing of the Guard was a little less entertaining, since it was a slightly played down version of what usually happens. There were about 8 horses that rode by, without the fanfare and band. It was still cool.

We walked past the Ritz and down Bond Street to Oxford Street. We saw some amazing stores, decorated beautifully for the holidays. We obviously couldn’t afford anything on our Peace Corps incomes, but we did make our way to the sales at H&M. I got a shirt for 1 pound and a pretty coat for 10! Jesse also got a rad shirt for 1 pound. I love H&M!

After shopping we went to an Afternoon High Tea at Brown’s Hotel. It was fun to get all dressed up, go to a fancy hotel on a fancy street and eat some fancy sandwiches! We totally didn’t feel like PCVs! It was a really nice, relaxing way to spend a cold London afternoon and I think I had the best scones of my life!

When we were stuffed with tea and such, we went to "Cabaret." I had seen this a couple times in the states, but this production was far better than I’d ever seen. It was a lot more risqué, with full nudity at multiple times, but this just really led to more powerful imagery at the end when the Holocaust is alluded to. It was beautiful, and I think you all know how I feel about musicals!

We walked out of the theatre into 700,000 people celebrating 2008. It was about 10 and we were planning on going back to St. Paul’s for a New Years celebration with a brass band, but it turned out to be impossible to get there. All the tube stops around Leicester, Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square were closed and we ended up walking all the way from the north end of Leicester to Victoria Station. We almost celebrated New Year’s on the subway, but made it to our hotel at about 11:45. We got Burger King and watched the clock on King’s Cross Station turn over the New Year. It was fun to be with the 700,000 people, but also nice not to be stuck in the mess of people trying to leave the city on the subways after midnight. It worked out perfectly if you ask me.

Day Three:
We started the year by visiting Westminster Abbey. What a beautiful museum! We were really lucky, because it was almost deserted. We got to spend as much time as we wanted looking at all the memorials and altars. It ended up being both of our favorite places we visited in London. We lit a candle and said a prayer for Eugene and St. Mary’s Church. It was really nice to be in Anglican churches again, both St. Paul’s and Westminster.

When we left the museum we walked up Whitehall and got a place up front for the New Years Day Parade. There were a ton of marching bands from the States, but my favorite was this little band of kids and their director. They were so into what they were doing, it was awesome.
After lunch at an Italian restaurant, we went to see "I Am Legend" at a movie theatre on Leicester Square. It was really expensive and really scary, but it was really fun to go to a movie in a theatre.

We then went down and rode the London Eye Ferris wheel. It was dark and rainy, so the city was sparkling as we rode the half-hour ride. It goes so high and has amazing views of Parliament, Big Ben, St. Paul’s and the rest of the city. It was Jesse favorite thing we did and he took some really great pictures during the ride.

Day Four:
The day of museums. We got up early and went down to the British Museum. They had China’s Terracotta Army on display, but we had to go really early to try and get tickets for the exhibit. There was already a really long line and they said they would only have about 500 tickets for the day. We waited and everything worked out perfectly. The permanent collection galleries opened at 10 and we got tickets to the Terracotta Army for 10:50. So we spent almost an hour looking at all the antiquities in the museum. The Rosetta Stone and Parthenon statues were the most interesting, along with the sarcophaguses and ancient Egyptian and Assyrian (that’s basically where we live) statues.

The Terracotta Army exhibit was really interesting. My Granny saw this in China during her travels, so it was really special for me to see it. She gave us a horse figurine from there that I always loved (I wonder where that went…). It was interspersing that the first emperor of China created this massive city of terracotta people because of a desire to become immortal when he died, but even more interesting than that is he began this project when he was only 19 years old! They showed how they built the men and even showed what they would have looked like in their full colorful splendor.

After the British Museum we ate at Wagamama again and went to the National Gallery to follow Rick Steves’ tour of the museum. He definitely hit all the good works! We saw Michelangelos, Botticelli’s "Venus and Mars," Raphael’s "Pope Julius II," Leonardo’s "The Virgin on the Rocks," Titian’s "Bacchus and Ariadne," Tintoretto’s "The Origin of the Milky Way," a Rembrandt self-portrait, Caravaggio’s "The Supper at Emmaus," and of course the Impressionists, our favorites. We saw Van Gogh’s sunflowers, Monet’s lily pond and Japanese bridge, Seurat’s bathers, and Cezanne’s landscapes.

Then we popped into the National Portrait Gallery and took a quick look around at the more modern portraits and some of the temporary exhibits. They also had a photographic portrait contest that was advertized all over the tube, so we wanted to check out the book for that.
That night we went at sat in the front row of "Avenue Q." It was a really fun show and I thought it was neat to be in the front row, because we could see all the work the actors had to do changing between all the puppets. Sometimes an actor would have a conversation between two puppets for whom they provided both voices. It was funny and defiantly not appropriate for the children in the audience, probably expecting Sesame Street!

After the show we went to an all you can eat sushi restaurant. Jesse had been planning this for months, researching the best sushi restaurants for value and quality. He chose a very good one! We had just ordered when the hostess sat two people next to us at the bar… and they turned out to be our friend Whitney who’s a volunteer in our group and her sister! Crazy! We knew she was in London, but hadn’t gotten in touch with her! It was fun to meet her sister and compare crazy reverse culture shock stories from being in London. Plus, the sushi was great and we definitely got our money’s worth!

Day Five:
It was starting to snow as we flew out of England and when we landed in Istanbul, there were a few inches of snow blanketing the city. We checked into our hotel which was absolutely beautiful! It had heated floors in the bathroom, a bathtub (! We both took our first bathes in over 6 months), MTV, BBC, CNN, NBC, and an incredible view of the sea and a 16th century mosque. Come on, when you’re in Peace Corps, even TV channels are amazing, don’t judge us!

Day Six:
Our hotel had a free breakfast, but it didn’t really compare to the one in London (ham, baked beans, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, toast, marmalade, sausage… yum!). We were back to bread, salty cheese, cucumber and tomato, just like Azerbaijan, so we just opted for cold cereal.
We went out onto the snowy cobblestone streets to find the Sultanahmet, which contains the Hippodrome, Aya Sofya, Topkapi Sarayi and the Blue Mosque. It was only 5 minutes away (so, if anyone ever goes to Istanbul, contact my step-mom and she can book this amazing hotel for you! Thanks, Deena!), and the walk through the Hippodrome was fascinating. There is an Egyptian Obelisk of Theodosius carved in 1450 BC that Constantine brought to Istanbul in 390 AD.

We first went to the Topkapi Sarayi, that is the Topkapi Palace or just the place where all the sultans lived. It was started in 1453 and lived in by sultans until the 19th century. We went straight to the Harem to have a look around. It was massive and interesting to see how the sultan, his family and his concubines lived. It turns out that the western idea of what a harem is isn’t quite accurate. It wasn’t a den of sex and drugs as far as we could tell. It was really just the private apartments of the sultan and the other 400 people he had to have around him. We also saw some royal jewels, carpets but completely missed seeing the Prophet room where they keep Moses’ staff and a hair from Mohammed’s beard! Oops!

We then walked down to the Aya Sofya in Turkish, Sancta Sophia in Latin, Haghia Sofia in Greek and The Church of Divine Wisdom in English. This was amazing. It was built by Emperor Justinian in 537 AD. It was considered the greatest church in Christendom until 1453 when Mehmet the Conqueror turned it into a mosque. There are many beautiful mosaics in the church that have been covered and uncovered multiple times. They were created in the 9th century and mostly portray Christ, Mary and saints. It was really impressive to be in a church so important to Christian history and built so soon after Christ’s life.

After eating a mediocre Azeri-ish lunch we went to the Grand Bazaar. We had a lot of fun shopping around in the bazaar. We were trying to find tiles, hookahs, lanterns and jewelry. We talked to a lot of shop keepers and ended up buying three beautiful tiles we will frame when we get home, two hookahs, one for us and one for our host father, and coveting a beautiful lantern that was too expensive. Jesse took a photograph of it that we will also frame and be glad to at least have that! Many of the keepers were impressed when we could speak Azeri, which is very similar to Turkish and were surprised when we said we lived in Mingechevir, because westerners never live outside of Baku.

When we were done shopping we bought some baklava for later and went to the Blue Mosque. It was very beautiful with amazing tiles covering the walls. It was also interesting to go into a functioning mosque. It was built in the 17th century.

We had Domino’s pizza delivered to our fantastic hotel and thus ended our vacation. When we got back to Azerbaijan, it was covered in ice and snow, but we finally made it back to Mingechevir on Sunday in time to have a snowball fight with our host brother (Farid and I totally beat Jesse). The snow still hasn’t melted, but at least it’s better than the miserable heat in the summer! We had a fantastic trip, but it’s always nice to be back somewhere familiar…

P.S. - We are going to upload a web album with more pictures from our trip ASAP, so keep checking back.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-23T00:44:00.000-08:00

2007-12-11T03:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

This year marks the first time both Carolyn and I were outside of the States for Thanksgiving. It gave us a great opportunity to see how another culture celebrates this wonderful holiday. From what we could tell Azeris treated the day like…drum roll please…the same way they treat every other day! Turns out Thanksgiving is pretty much just a Western holiday (who knew?!?), so our good friends on the Peace Corps staff and in the embassy were nice enough to put together a nice little party for us. In honor of this wonderful event I decided to write a little poem (in true Robert H. Williams style.)

Twas’ the week before thanksgiving and plans were being made
For a feast so grand that the memory would not soon fade

Volunteers were cooking and packing their food
And journeying to the capital in a festive mood

When, at last, the party had arrived
Our embassy friend flung his door open wide

All our friends came together in one great big room,
The odors of the villages cleansed and perfumed

First we told stories and caught up on old times
Then came the food and talking stopped on a dime

There was turkey and stuffing and green beans, OH MY!
We had soda and juice and even pumpkin pie!

Everyone ate ‘til they were ready to explode
And staggered back upstairs for the talent show

There was singing and dancing and stories galore
And one strange act that left everyone calling for more!

After the songs were sung and the story finally finished
The time came to go, with the spirit far from diminished

So we all made our way home, our bellies full
And everyone had good reason to be thankful.

This party took place the week before thanksgiving actually occurred, so we were left to prepare our own celebration on the day of. We all gathered at our friend Mike’s house and had our site mates Nate and Cindy over. Mike’s girlfriend Kate joined us from Ganja and our good Azeri friend Zamira joined us for her first ever Thanksgiving. We were lucky enough to find a frozen turkey at a local store (we believe it was imported from South America!) and we managed not to burn it! With some help from packages from the states we had mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cheesecake and green bean casserole.

Being here really has made us aware of what we should be thankful for in life. We are of course thankful for our good friends and family. We are thankful for the thoughts and prayers they send to us (not to mention packages and letters!). We are thankful for great site mates and great PC staff members. We are thankful for all the amazing friends we have made our family here in Azerbaijan. We are thankful for the little things back in the states like having a bathroom inside the house and familiar food. We are thankful for music and laughing and playing games.

Most of all I think we are finding that we are most thankful we have each other.

Pictures: 1. Jesse and Carolyn at the house where we stayed in Baku, all dressed up and clean looking. How bout that?!? 2. Some of the amazing food volunteers brought to the Embassy dinner. The Ambassador's chef made the turkey and gravy and all the volunteers brought sides and desserts. We took cookies. 3. Clockwise starting with Carolyn: Carolyn, Joyce, Kelsey, Dave, Amber, Katie, Tor and Shams (one of the greatest Azeris in the world) at Thanksgiving, before the talent show. 4. Avril Lavine and Kelly Clarkson a.k.a. the Lankaran boys Ash and Tom. They did a great VH1 Storytellers performance... I'm sure it can be found on uTube. 5. Our Thanksgiving miracle: frozen turkey in Azerbaijan!!! Looks good, huh? 6. Nate, Mike, Kate, Jesse, Carolyn, Zamira and Cindy. The best site mates (plus some) in Azerbaijan! 7. The greatest Thanksgiving tradition of them all: nap-time. 8. Happy Thanksgiving from Azerbaijan!!

P.S. People have been asking about our Holiday plans so I will share. (this is Carolyn now, btw). For Christmas we will travel to Baku for our In-Service Training. We will be with all the other AZ5s at the same hotel and I'm sure we will go have a great Christmas dinner together. The 26th and 27th is the Training. We will get to be with friends for Jesse's birthday on the 27th as well! We will take the night train on the 28th to Ganja where we fly to London on the 29th. We will be in London for New Years and about 4 days, then on to Istanbul for 2 and a half days. We get back in Mingechevir on the 5th, and back to work. This is a much needed holiday and we are very excited to see more of this crazy world!

2007-11-28T04:40:00.000-08:00

For our second anniversary we went to Sheki for the weekend. Sheki is a mountain town about an hour and a half away from here by bus… probably 45 minutes by taxi. It is nestled in the valley of two foothills of the Caucuses. We have been looking forward to visiting Sheki since we first heard we were coming to Azerbaijan.

When we got to the hotel, it was dark, cold and rainy. Since Sheki is a small mountain town, they often don’t have electricity or gas. This was one such night. Luckily the Caravanserai has a generator and they started that up when we got there! When we made our reservation we asked for the simple room. Getting to Sheki we realized that means there is no heat, so we upgraded to the deluxe. Well worth the extra money to have heat in our room if you ask me!

The Caravanserai is an old hotel that was used as a stop for the caravans of camels and goods on the silk route. It is an amazing place! It really felt like we were transported back in time.

There is another hotel in Sheki – the new hotel or Besh Ulduz (5 Stars) as the taxi drivers know it. We chose to stay in the Caravanserai because of the history and ambiance, but that didn’t stop us from eating every meal at Besh Ulduz! They have Americanish food. We ate very well during our anniversary weekend. My favorite was the creamy corn soup and I think Jesse’s favorite was the tomato soup. We also had cheeseburgers, club sandwiches, omelets, spring rolls, pizza and fried rice! Every meal we had in the restaurant, we ran into someone from America. The first night there were two men from the South who were traveling around the Caucus region. The next day we ran into a family of Americans who are working for BP in Baku. It’s weird to see Americans and overhear English conversations, since there are no other English speakers in Mingechevir.

On Saturday we went to the Khan Palace. We took the tour in Azerbaijani, so I’m not totally sure of the history of the palace, but I know one of the Khans built it and it’s very beautiful. Our vocabulary doesn’t quite include historical and artistic words quite yet. We couldn’t get anyone to give us an accurate date for when it was built, but such is life in Azerbaijan. There are amazing stained glass windows that are constructed with glass and wood frames, with no nails or anything. It was beautiful. All the walls inside the palace are intricately painted with wildlife and historical battles. The palace sits on a hill in an old walled part of town. It was very beautiful.

At lunch at the Besh Ulduz, we ran into Dwight and Joel. Dwight was studying her Azeri and Joel came to show us around town. We walked down to the bazaar, which I though wasn’t as cool as the bazaar in Mingechevir. Home town pride, you know? We also got to see Joel’s house, which has the most amazing view of the old walled city and over the city, past minarets to the other side of the valley. Sheki is what I imagined when we were told we were going to Eastern Europe. It’s an old city with cobbled streets and cultural significance. It was great.

We all met Dwight for dinner at Besh Ulduz and then went to Charlie’s house for poker with Jenny and Maria. Charlie is from the third group to come to Azerbaijan, Jenny and Maria are from the 4th. They had made popcorn balls and playing poker was fun.

Photos are: 1. The courtyard of the Caravanserai Hotel. 2. Our hotel room. (Mom, Steve, George and Debbie - You will LOVE IT!!!) 3. Me on our balcony. 4. A view of the Caucuses. 5. Jesse at the Khan Palace. 6. Me with the famous Wolf Man of Sheki. This guy walks around with his stuffed wolf and will light up the eyes and take a picture for a donation. 7. Joel and Jesse walking down a cobbled hill.

Mystery Produce!!

2007-11-11T03:30:00.000-08:00

Azerbaijan is the land of interesting produce... Here are some examples.

Not produce, but a pretty purple flower in front of an outhouse at an IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp in Barda. I thought it was pretty. The flower, not the outhouse.
The cabbage here is HUGE. I mean really, really huge! It puts the word "head" to shame, because it's the size of a yoga ball!
Persimmons are in season now. It's kind of disappointing, because I always think they are orange trees, but alas, they are persimmons. I like oranges better.
Speaking of orange... here's a crazy purple carrot held by the beautiful Mere who lives in Barda. Who ever heard of a purple carrot?!?
These are the true mysteries. We found the bumpy thing in a square in Mingechevir and picked it up. There are a bunch that fell from the tree. We are scared to eat it. The little thing is in abundance in the bazaar. It tastes familiar, but like a candy I've eaten.

If anyone can identify these fruits, you win!!! Please leave a comment if you know what they are!

Halloween Ziyafət!

2007-11-11T03:16:00.000-08:00

We had our first experience with patience in Azerbaijan last week. Last Friday (the 26th) we spent hours and hours at Mike’s apartment helping him and his girlfriend Kate prepare for a Halloween party to be thrown the next day at School 3. It was really fun getting ready; we got to eat Kate’s spaghetti and Mike’s M&M cookies. We were making decorations, carving pumpkins, planning games and baking cookies until about 11pm. The next morning we went back to Mike’s to finish getting ready. Cindy and Bev came over and helped me peel grapes. Not an easy task. We hailed 2 cabs, loaded everything into them, and drove through rainy Mingechevir to School 3.

When we got there, Sevil, the teacher Kate knows at School 3 was talking to the director. We took everything back to the auditorium to set up. Sevil came back and told us we had to see the director. She informed us that it would be impossible for us to have the party that day. (This would have been no big deal to us, except that we gave up going to the Nar Festival to throw this party!! I was really looking forward to the Nar Fest; apparently last year they had a nar that weighed 2 kilos or something… that’s a big nar!) We planned to do the party on Monday morning. We learned we must be patient and learned that as Mike says, "The more you plan something, the more likely it will fall through." Such is life in Peace Corps, at lease in Azerbaijan.

On Monday we walked (again in the rain) back to School 3. We set everything up and about 30 kids came. Everything went really well! Jesse ran the pumpkin carving station, I helped out with the mask making, Mike led the gross out table (goo, peeled grapes, spaghetti, severed hot dog fingers), Kate played pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern. When all the kids had done every station, we had a pumpkin walk. All the kids got cookies and the winner got one of the carved jack-o-lanterns.

I was really impressed with the group of kids we had. We were told that creativity isn’t really encouraged in schools, but these kids were very creative! Some of the masks they made were amazing and artistic! They did a great job making unique jack-o-lanterns – one even had a moustache and uni-brow. Appropriate.

It was really neat to be part of a Peace Corps project! Even though it wasn’t our project and Kate isn’t even in Peace Corps (she lives in Ganja and is working on her masters degree), it was still good to see how parties work and it was fun to be involved in it.

Kate and Mike leading Pin the Nose...

Some of my favorite masks!

One of Jesse's jack o lantern groups with their finished project!

Six little Jack o Lanterns Sitting on a Stage...

Transportation in Azerbaijan

2007-10-31T04:25:00.000-07:00

Hello ladies and germs, Jesse here! I’ve been thinking for a while of doing a series of editorial posts on general life here in Azerbaijan. I will present a wide-range of incredibly interesting topics and if nothing else good reading to put you to sleep. So far I’ve come up with: "The Bazaar: Can you REALLY get cheaper tomatoes at the next booth?" and "Electricity and You: How to stay safe when working with bare wires." I have big plans for those topics, but those will have to wait because you are currently reading the first in a series I like to call:

"Transportation in Azerbaijan: Wow, That Was Close!"

I suppose I should start off with a brief explanation of Azeri Money. The basis of the monetary system is the Manat. A Manat is composed of 100 gapik, much like the US system of the Dollar and Cent. At my local exchange hut here in Mingechevir the Manat is currently trading at 1 Dollar = .846 Manat, thus making it slightly more valuable than the Dollar. For all intents and purposes, though, I usually round up to a one-to-one exchange rate. Now, on with the post.

The main form of transportation within cities is on foot. Pedestrians do not have the same privileges afforded to them in the States, nor are they subject to the same restrictive regulations of America. This means that while there are crosswalks painted on the roads, traffic in no way recognizes the existence of them. On the other hand you are free to cross the street wherever and whenever you see fit, no matter if it is in the middle of a block, on a red light or diagonal through an intersection with a roundabout full of traffic from construction and a police stop. Although dodging traffic can sometimes be a nerve-racking experience, nothing scares me more than an empty intersection. I just stand there wondering "Okay, where are you gonna come from, you sneaky taxi?" Crossing the street can most often be equated to a game of "Frogger," wherein unless you are extremely old, young or police it is best to stop and let the car determine where it wants to go and then make your next move.

If you have a ways to go within the city or wish to travel to another city the preferred method is by minibus or "Marshrutka". These are usually the size of a full-size van and have seats for 15 passengers. In-town a ride costs 20 gapik and longer trips vary according to distance (to Mingechevir from Baku it’s 5 Manat). Not only are these usually the cheapest/faster option, but also the most likely to give you good stories for when you go home. Few marshrutkas run in the early morning and evening, so whether it is a courtesy or sheer greed, the driver puts every passenger he physically can into the automobile. I have consistently been on marshrutkas with 18-20 passengers (3-5 standing hunched in the aisles) and once topped out with 27 passengers (wait, who’s hand is that?). For all its seemingly random behaviors, there are a few set rules to riding in the marshrutka. If a man is sitting and a woman gets on the bus and there isn’t a seat for her, you must give her your seat. This is, of course, if you are not sitting in the front of the bus or in the back with all men. Women have been spotted in the back of marshrutkas before, when a group of them take over and oust the men, however a woman in the front is olmaz (never, ever). Marshrutkas are frequent to break down, have a flat tire or be lacking windows.

They also drive almost constantly (since they only make money when they are driving) and I was in a relatively new marshrutka yesterday that had 450,000 Kilometers (279,000 Miles) on it!

Taxis also abound in every city, no matter its size. It is without a doubt the best way to travel in terms of comfort and speed, however they tend to be a bit expensive. In Mingechevir it is 1 Manat for anywhere on one side of the river and 2 Manat if you cross the river. Baku taxis start at 4 Manat and go up from there. A taxi from Baku to Mingechevir runs a spendy 40 Manat, but you can buy just a seat for 10 (although for a 5 hour trip, this is low by American standards). Other than that it’s pretty much the same as U.S. taxis. Try to figure out what language the driver is speaking, tell him you don’t speak Russian, wonder if he really needs to answer that text message while he’s lighting a cigarette and passing a truck at the same time.

In terms of personal automobiles there seem to be three choices: Mercedes, BMW or the Russian-made Lada. By far the majority of cars you will see on the road are Ladas or some derivative thereof (sedan, stationwagon, 4x4 and traditional). Ladas are legendary in Azerbaijan as being an all-around miraculous automobile. Not only are they capable of breathtaking speed, cat-like agility and all-terrain driving but also are able to move an entire dining room set, complete with 6 chairs, table and hutch, in one trip. You can take a Lada up a mountain side, through a creek or just drag race it on the beach if the feeling strikes you. All of the Ladas I have ridden in have seat belts installed in the front (although with nowhere to buckle them in) and are completely void of the restraints in back. Seating for 5, including driver, although I have heard legends of miserly PCVs fitting 7 in a single car. These cars cost about 3,000 Manat new, while the Mercedes and BMWs seem to cost roughly what they would run in the States.

Unfortunately for us, Peace Corps does not allow us to drive a car or ride on a motorcycle during service, which from the looks of traffic so far is an exceptional idea.

That brings me to motorcycles. While they are far and few between, they always are interesting. From what I have seen there are two different styles of motorcycles. Those that are straight out of WWII (sidecar and all), and those that are used for more utilitarian purposes. These "working" motorcycles are more like three-wheelers with a large covered space in the back for trucking stuff around. They carry anything from building supplies and oil to cabbage and hundreds of loaves of bread.

Oh yes, and the horns. Every vehicle here is equipped with two horns. One normal, like you would hear on any car around the world, and one special horn. The normal horn is used for expressing things such as "Hey, don’t forget to look before crossing the street" or "I am passing you, please don’t run into me!" The second horn usually sounds like a ambulance or air-raid siren or even like those toys we used to have as kids that would make the fake missile shooting sounds. This horn may be used for the same things as the normal horn or for more elaborate discussions such as: "Would you like me to stop and pick you up?" or "Hello brother, are you going to be at the tea house tonight?" or "What do you think of the tense geo-political situation in southern Turkey?" You can hear these types of conversations late into the night, cars chatting away.

There are also trains that run throughout the country, although mostly on a Rayon to Baku route. Fares generally run 1-2 manat less than marshrutkas, but take 1-2 hours longer. For example, the train from Mingechevir (which also runs through Yevlax, Ujar, and Kurdimir) to Baku takes roughly 7 hours while a marshrutka takes around 5 hours. There are several night trains that run to communities throughout the country that leave about 9 PM and arrive in Baku about 6 AM. This is slow going, but you can get a sleeper car and from what I hear it’s pretty comfortable. Mingechevir touts one of the most comfortable trains in the country, it’s electric (so there’s no smoke and it’s relatively quiet), it has air conditioning and they even serve tea! How nice is that?

Other forms of travel include planes and boats. The boats run from Baku to Turkmenistan and Kazakstan and I’ve never heard of anyone taking these boats (especially because Peace Corps doesn’t allow us to ride on motorized vehicles on inland waters). Planes fly regularly out of Baku and have a few major airlines operating out of it (British Air and Turkish Air), along with some smaller national and discount airlines (AZAL and Baltic Air). Aside from Baku, there is an airport in Ganja, out of which flies (from what I can tell) one airline, Turan Air. They fly to several locations including some in Russia and to Istanbul on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We will be flying this airline when we take our vacation in December, flying into and out of Istanbul. Cost for this flight is 240 Manat roundtrip per person and you can book your flight one month in advance. Tickets are in true Azeri style; hand-written.

Aside from the modes of traveling, there are several sayings with which you will need to be familiar. The first is "Mashallah." Which means "Protect us from the Evil Eye" and is usually seen painted on a ceramic blue and white eyeball-looking thing. I’m not quite sure what the evil eye is or how it originated, but it seems pretty straightforward. The second is "Allah Gorursun" which means "God Forbid." This is normally written across the front or back windows of the bus in big letters. The translation on this one strikes me as a little odd, but yeah. The third is actually not a saying you want to hear in reference to your trip, but you should know anyway. "Inshallah" means "If God wills." I say this because it is normally used to mean "Probably not, but maybe." So when you ask if a bus is going to a certain destination and the reply is "Inshallah," it’s probably best to find other transportation. In other situations the use of Inshallah is perfectly fine and normal and is closer to its true meaning. Such uses include: "When will you have kids? In four years, Inshallah." "Will you come back to visit? Yes, Inshallah."

Finally, to wrap things up, no editorial blog would be complete without a small mention of the oil and gas situation here in Azerbaijan. Even though Azerbaijan is exporting banner amounts of oil, the price of gas remains relatively high in my opinion. From what I’ve heard the price is fixed by the government, which recently upped the price. That means that the gas stations paint the prices on their signs since it changes so infrequently. Currently the price is 55 qapik per liter, or for you lazy readers out there $2.44/Gallon. To me it seems a bit high for the oil supply that this country has, but who knows.

Will the price come down in the future? Inshallah.

We are still around...

2007-10-22T04:01:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would post something so everyone knew that we are still alive and well. It's been a while. Jesse is working on some great blogs to put up, but they're not quite perfect yet. So keep checking back... it will be soon and totally worth the wait!! Hope all is well on the homefront. It's almost autumn here.... inshallah!

Photos

2007-10-04T23:16:00.001-07:00

Photos are apples, not quite Deterings, but still tasty! The lasagna we made at Mike's house, also the red over I mentioned in a previous post. Our bookcase with fun things that make us happy - photographs, Roger the frog, Azeri dolls made by women in Barda, Leroy Jenkins, the book Katrina made us, etc. My new haircut! Our bed and world map. Our room and windows.

Enjoy!

Also, there's a new blog below...

Never in our lives would we have thought we would...

2007-10-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

…be awoken every day by a rooster crowing.
…put our down comforter on our bed when it reaches 80 degrees… brrrr!
…hear prayer calls from our bedroom.
…live in a time zone 12 hours different than Oregon.
…learn a language from the Turkish language family.
…walk by a woman selling live chickens out of the trunk of her car everyday at a bazaar.
…live so far away from an ocean.
…live in a country bordering Iran and about 300 miles from Iraq.
…need to have something translated from Russian to Azerbaijani in order to understand it.
…be mistaken for a Russian or German everyday.
…share a squat toilet with 15 people.
…live with a woman fasting for Ramadan.
…be so happy to eat at a McDonalds four times in one weekend.
…see pomegranate trees in every yard.
…live in a former Soviet Republic.
…see Elton John in Baku
…get so many shots and have to take anti malaria medicine.
…plan a week-long vacation that includes both London and Istanbul.
…burn our trash.

Let's see... I cut my hair. Ever since I got here, my hair has been falling out a lot. I think it's the poor diet, heat and stress. It happened to a lot of us. No big deal. It was getting gross, so I decided short hair falling out would be less messy than long hair. I stood in front of my mirror and cut away! I'd never cut my own hair before, but I think it went well. :)

Mingechevir, Baku and Elton

2007-09-27T23:30:00.000-07:00

Buckle up, this is going to be a long one!

We have been in Mingechevir for two weeks now. Everyone was right… once you get to site everything changes. Training was grueling. Training was hot. Training was long. Now we have more freedom! Yay! We still have to answer to a host family, but our host family is awesome!

Our host father, Tahir is a retired sports teacher. He’s 54 years old. Bibixanim is our host mother and we call her Bibi. She’s an art teacher at my school. She’s in her 30s I think. They have a son, Farid who is 11 and is in one of the English classes I might end up teaching. He’s really cool, very sweet, helpful and funny. There used to be a dog, Shaka, but we haven’t seen him for awhile. Tahir said he went hunting, we hope he comes back. He’s an awesome dog – a rarity here! He reminds me of mom and Steve’s dog Cabby, he lays the same way that she does.

Our family also rents a couple rooms to female college students who study here in Mingechevir. There are about 9 of them and it’s really great to see them here! Usually if a woman wants to go to college, she has to live with family members. It’s almost like a dorm here for them, and I think that type of a living situation is really good and fun! They are really nice girls and they giggle a lot. They like to watch Jesse help with things like laundry, cooking and dishes. If one of them notices him working, she gets the rest and they stand around giggling. It’s very cute.

These past two weeks I’ve been going to school 13 and watching various English teachers give their lessons. There are 12 English teachers and I need to pick 2 or 3 to have as my counterparts. I like quite a few of them, so that makes my choice both easy and difficult. It’s easy because at least there are multiple teachers who I feel I could work with, difficult because how do I decide?! I’m supposed to teach 15 hours a week, so I suppose I’ll just pick the teachers, watch them in their classes then choose which classes I want to work with. Wish me luck!

Jesse has spent the past 2 weeks observing different parts of his office. I’m sure he’ll correct me here, but his business gets money from Oxfam and gives it to people who want to open small businesses. This week Jesse has been going to loan officers to visit some of the people who have taken advantage of the business. He’s visited stores, barbers and drank a lot of tea. He really likes the people he works with and is excited to figure out how his skills can best help them.

This past weekend we went to Baku (sin city). There were 34 of the AZ5s there (out of 51) and 15 or 20 AZ4s. It was a lot of fun to catch up with our friends and hear how their first week had been. Everyone is pretty happy with their sites. As always in Baku, we indulged our tastes with a plethora of culinary experiences. Chicken strips, nachos, mu shoo pork, sweet and sour chicken, Big Macs, tuna melts, Americanish pizza. Good stuff!

Jesse had to go back on Sunday night, but I got to stay for a meeting on Monday. Two amazing things happened Sunday night. First of all, I got to stay with Shane and his wife. Shane did Peace Corps in Bulgaria about ten years ago and he met his wife there. Now he’s in Baku doing something with the embassy, so they live in embassy housing. Oh my god. When I walked into his house I felt like I had walked through a vortex into America. It smelled like an American house, it had American furniture, American carpets, two – TWO- refrigerators, a toaster, dishwasher, American children! It was heaven. It gets better. They had a phone that is a free direct line to America with no delay! I wasted no time in calling my parents and Katrina (I would have called everyone, but there were other PCVs waiting and I didn’t have everyone’s number…. Next time I will take everyone’s number!). It was amazing! Amazing!! After I was done on the phone, I lounged on the couch and watched BBC. At one point I thought to myself, "Oh, my gosh! I haven’t forgotten how to do this!" You see, there is no lounging in Azerbaijan.

The second amazing thing was that I saw Elton John in concert. Below is what I wrote about the experience in my journal.

Photos are as follow: 1. Carolyn (with the backpack Katrina made) and friends walking down a Baku street. 2. Our house in Mingechevir. 3. Our kitchen. To answer some questions previously asked, that oven is not used. There is a little electric oven that everyone in AZ has. The stove is gas. So far the gas, electricity and water have been more or less constant. As you can see, this house is a step up from Sumgayit Station. 4. These are the lovely chickens that live right outside our window. They like to wake us up very early and we eat their eggs. 5. Shaka. 6. Part of the Elton John concert extravaganza! 7. Me looking very dirty and happy at the Elton John concert. 7. You can see Elton sitting at the piano if you squint!

Elton John Bakida

I live in Azerbaijani and I went to see Elton John. Not exactly what I expected to do during my first week as a PCV. Although not very common to the PC experience, I’m sure I will remember the experience well.

First of all, buying the tickets was an experience. Unlike with Ticketmaster, we were able to barter the price down to 10 manat. How could I pass that up?

Second, we had to breech multiple polis checkpoints to even enter the stadium. There was a throng of people being blocked by officers when we got there. I don’t know it it’s because I’m reading a novel about the French experience of WWII, but I felt like my companion and I were in a military zone attempting to reach the other side of freedom. We got through the first line of guards by showing our tickets and by, as far as I can tell, being Americans.

We walked 100 hundred feet of no man’s land into a group waiting at a fence. Every now and then the gate would open a foot or two and the crowd would force a few lucky survivors in. The music was starting so I approached an officer and said, "Niya biz gedmirik? Billetlar var!" Somehow he understood and took us to the gate. We were in!

But it didn’t end there. We were herded through a metal detector that went off for everyone (but no one was stopped…). A guard felt my backpack and seemed concerned, "Bu nadir?" I don’t know the word for sunglasses, but got the point across that I had my sunglass case in my bag. We walked to the fourth group of officers waiting at the stairs to the stadium. We were ushered to the next group of officers lining the top of the stadium, and then ushered to better seats than the ones on our tickets.

From across the field, Elton was a small dot of blue satin and sequins. He looked great, and sounded fantastic. For the first half of the concert, the crowd was mellow, a few people dancing in their chairs. But then Elton started "Sacrifice." The Azeris sang every word passionately. The stadium became aglow with everyone’s cell phones and lighters waving over their heads. It was quite beautiful. The same happened during "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word." I admit it – I am a fan of Elton John. I grew up listening to him and knew all the words of most of the songs he played. It was interesting that those were the songs that the Azeris in their 20s knew. I feel like in America it would be "Tine Dancer" and "Your Song" that would get the crowd response. Nevertheless it was amazing to be surrounded by thousands of people singing retro British pop at the top of their lungs with thick Azeri accents.

Elton and his band played all his biggest hits, those listed above along with "Crocodile Rock," "Candle in the Wind," "Benny and the Jets," "Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me," "Philadelphia Freedom," and "Burn down the Mission." I was especially excited to hear "Daniel." I’ve always loved that song. I think because Daniel is my brother, and he is older than me and he’s going to New Zealand, which I imagine is like Spain.

All in all, good times were had. It was a great cross cultural experience and I learned a lot.

Pomegranates

2007-09-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

There are a couple of surefire conversation starters here in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanis are always interesting to hear about money in America. We get questions like “How much does a house cost in America?,” “How much was your plane ticket to get here?,” “How much do teachers make in America?” It always feels a little weird to tell them that our plane ticket cost $1,400. We always have to quickly explain that WE don’t have that kind of money, Peace Corps paid for it. They love to hear that their house would sell for $100,000 if it were in America. They are astonished that teachers make SO MUCH in America!

One of our favorite things to tell them is that a pomegranate costs about $3 in America and that they’re very trendy. Pomegranate (nar) trees grow here like weeds. We drive through huge orchards on our way from Baku to Mingechevir. Every garden has at least one pomegranate tree growing.

The other night our host dad made chicken in a pomegranate sauce. There is always an open pomegranate on the dinner table to munch on for dessert. You can buy pomegranate juice in the store more easily than you can buy orange juice. And it’s not even pomegranate season yet. They say early October is when they get good… We’ll let you know!

Our New Address

2007-09-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! We have officially moved, so our address needs to be updated. Here it is:

Jesse/Carolyn Williams, PCV
Central Post Office
Samad Vurgun Kuc 20
Mingechevir, AZ
AZ 4500

We really like to get letters, packages, pictures and blog comments, so keep em coming!!!

The World Has 51 New Volunteers

2007-09-13T23:56:00.000-07:00

It’s official. We are no longer PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) and now we hold the illustrious title of PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers). We’re really in this crazy club now. On Wednesday, all 51 trainees got dressed in our snazziest clothes, went to a cultural hall and swore in with the Ambassador from the States. Before the ceremony, I went to have lunch at the Gaya (the restaurant pictured in the previous post) with some of my favorite girls here. It was a lot of fun. We got "salads" and "French fries," in quotes for obvious reasons. Bonnie practiced her speech a little bit. She was chosen to present a speech in Azeri and another woman (Tor, who happens to be from Portland) did a speech in English. Anyway, it was fun and we left.

We got to the cultural hall and went inside. Now, I just have to say that when I joined PC, I was picturing being dirty and sloppy for about 2 years. I didn’t feel like this was a place where PCVs should swear in. It was a beautiful building with huge columns in the front. Inside was very ornate. Plush chairs, ceiling moldings, curtains, red carpets. Not only that, all of us soon to be PCVs were very sharp looking. The men were supposed to wear jackets and ties and the women dresses or suits. I even went to the show bazaar to buy some dressy shoes, since I didn’t bring any.

I think this deserves its own paragraph: Our site mate, Nate is one of those guys that funny things just happen to. While we were visiting Mingachevir last month he was sitting in his room when he heard a crash outside his house. He went outside and a car was upside down in front of his gate. The driver climbed out, totally unhurt. Soon the police were there and their solution was to get a bunch of guys together, turn over the car, tie it to another and tow it away. I digress. The day of swearing in, Nate had gotten dressed and went out to his living room. His family decided he wasn’t dressed well enough and proceeded to give him a white double breasted blazer, white leather shoes, a "diamond" ring, pocket handkerchief, and style his hair. They insisted that he kept the whole ensemble.

We all sat down in our seats and the ceremony began. There were at least 6 news cameras filming the whole thing. They played both national anthems and I must admit that I got a little choked up when the Star Spangled Banner was played. People from different ministries spoke. As did our Country Director Zoltan, our training officer Shams and the Ambassador. When she was done, we stood up, raised our right hands and swore in. I have to say, I had been feeling very strange since the night before. I have wanted to do Peace Corps for so long that I couldn’t believe I was swearing in officially. Also, training was so hard that I couldn’t believe that we had made it and were actually going to become VOLUNTEERS. It was very surreal. It still is. I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer. Crazy!

After the ceremony we went down to the "Dove" and did some culturally appropriate celebrating. We popped a bottle of Azerbaijan’s best champagne and spent some good time with the rest of the AZ-5 group (the 5th group of PCVs in Azerbaijan). It was hard saying goodbye that night, because we have become so close over the past couple months. It will be weird not seeing people everyday, not hanging out at the Dove and eating at the Gaya.
And thus ends training and begins service.

Pictures: 1. The ambassador administering the oath to us. 2. Donny, Carolyn and Jesse looking very snazzy. 3. Introducing the one-and-only NATE SPARKS everyone!!! 4. Jesse shaking hands with Zoltan, country director. 5. Jesse’s training group in Tug Zavod from left: Dwight, Bev, Mahira, Jesse, Brian. 6. Bonnie, from Carolyn’s cluster being interviewed on Azeri TV with her host mother. 7. Woo WOOOOO! Champagne for everyone! From left: Bonnie, Kelsey, Carolyn, Jesse. 8. Carolyn, Jen and Anais (just barely) IN the dove. 9. Sally with some random English in Sumgayit. 10. Leaving Sumgayit (most likely for good.)

Haircut

2007-09-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

Hi gang – Jesse here. I just wanted to drop a little note about my first Azeri haircut experience. It was very exciting to say the least, let me tell you!

The time had come for me to make that big step, my ears were hidden and my neck was looking a bit stray dog-ish. I decided to go to the barber that we pass nearly every day on our way to our recreational hang-out by the Caspian. Luckily there was no line and I got right in. I sat down, had the normal conversation: where are you from, do you like it here, how do you want your hair cut? I said I would like it like his (which I didn’t, but when you are sitting under a sweltering barber’s cape with a mop on your head you say crazy things!). He began by wetting my hair down with a spray bottle, which really just added to the sweat that was already there.

He then picked up the scissors.

In what can only be described as a real-life Edward Scissorhand’s experience he commenced the cutting. He continually opened and closed the scissors, dipping close to my head, bringing them back to survey, going back and moving on to the next spot. It was absolutely out of the movie.

This continued for about 10 minutes, with chunks and wisps coming off with alternating flicks of the wrist. When he had decided that was sufficient he turned to the electric hedge trimmer. Yes, folks it looked like any other hair trimmer but had the true sound of nothing less than a soviet-era lawn tool. He cleaned up the edges then proceeded to hover over my entire head, picking up any errant hairs. This made me particularly nervous since just the smallest twitch could be disastrous. Alas, he proved himself professional and I proved myself a statue.

From there we went to the straight edge. Now, I have reservations about these in the states, but my general reaction to my fears here seems to consistently be “Hey, they do it, so it can’t kill me, right?” I said nothing, he pulled out a fresh razor blade, dipped it in a bottle of something (I would guess alcohol) and went to work. Again, a true professional, no blood!

Normally this signals the end of the haircut for me, but he asked me if I’d like a wash to go with it and after 30 minutes of sitting in 100+ degree heat under a cape with hair stuck to my face, I couldn’t resist. I moved to a new chair, put my face down in a sink and he shampooed and rinsed with cold water. The strange thing about this, obliviously, is that I thought I was going to drown having my face down. This proved not to be the case, but the shampoo did flood into my face and ears meaning he had to wash my face off and stick his fingers in my ears. Now, I know this may sound weird, but that was delightful!

So that was it. I came out unharmed, feeling much better and looking relatively good. My bangs are about 3 inches long while the rest of my hair is ½ inch, which seems to be the style here, but hey I can’t complain! All of this for 2 manat plus 1 manat for the wash. I only have one thing to say to future Azerbaijan hair-cutees:

Always get the wash.

Pictures: Pretty random this time. 1. Carolyn and I at the one fancy restaurant in Sumgayit. 2. Our friend Sally holding our friend Kelsey at the University in Sumgayit. 3. Dancers at a recent cultural event after we did a beach clean-up. 4. Our friend Jane and us at the “Dove”.

Baku & Ming

2007-08-26T05:49:00.000-07:00

Baku

Last Saturday we went to Baku (in Azerbaijani it is spelled Baki but the I doesn’t have a dot, making the sound like the y in symbol) for the day with my language group and my LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator). We got to town at about 9 and went straight to McDonalds. That’s right, Big Mac for breakfast! Nothing better! McDonalds is in a square called Fountain Square and it’s where a lot of ex-pats go. There are a lot of Western things around, like fancy clothes stores that are impossible on a Peace Corps budget.

After breakfast we went up to Martyr’s Lane. This is pretty much a huge memorial to everything that’s happened in the last 25 years of Azerbaijan’s history. In 1990, the Russians came into Baku and massacred about 250 people – mostly men who were going to what they thought would be a peaceful meeting with the Russians. They were surprised by the Russian tanks; a few were able to escape. Ayten, my LCF, grew up in Baku and her father had gone to the meeting but was able to make it home that night. There are also very many graves for people who died in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia, when Armenia occupied a very large area of Azerbaijan’s territory in the 1990s. Martyr’s Lane is on top of a hill looking out over the Caspian and Baku’s skyline.

We then went to the Peace Corps office, which is very nice and very air conditioned. After getting the tour, we headed back to Fountain Square for nachos with some current volunteers at Tequila Junction. The nachos were good and the restaurant was full of British ex-pats in the oil industry. It was fun to hear English again!

We then went into Old City, which was built before the 7^th century, maybe even 500 B.C., depending on what source is used. We went into a carpet shop in a cave made using egg yolks as spackle. The shop owner told us all about what to look for when buying a carpet and told us some of the history and common symbols used in Azerbaijani carpets. It was a very interesting experience, but I think the man was a bit disappointed when we turned out not to be rich American tourists. We then saw the Maiden’s Tower and Shirvan Shahs’s Palace. They are both old. Older than America.

I really liked Baku. It was a lot cleaner than Sumgayit. Down in the area by Fountain Square, it has the feel of a European city. There are beautiful buildings and lots of ex-pats. It was great to not have people constantly staring at us, since there are so many European people. We live in a constant fish bowl everywhere else in Azerbaijan, so it’s great to know that there is a place we can go and just blend in… at least for the most part.

Mingachevir

This week we got to visit our permanent site in Mingachevir (pronounced ming etch a veer). It is a great town. It’s very beautiful and green. And CLEAN! We stayed with our host family. They are amazing! Tahir, the father is a retired sports teacher and the mother, Bebe is an art teacher at my school. They have an 11 year old son named Farid, who is very quiet and sweet, so far. Their house is very nice, a lot nicer than where we are now. Our room is nice and airy, with 3 windows that open into their garden full of pomegranate, apple, plum, kiwi and filbert trees.

My school is about five minutes from our house. I walk through the Bazaar to get to school; we’re about a block from the Bazaar. Jesse’s walk is about 25 minutes, but it’s a pleasant walk, he says. There are three other volunteers in our town, two of whom are from our group, AZ5. Nate lives right around the corner from us and Cindy lives in an apartment down closer to the river. Mike, from AZ4 is awesome. We’re so lucky to have an AZ4 site mate to show us the ropes, and Mike is one of our favorites. He and his girlfriend (an American named Kate who is not in PC, but lives in Ganga) had us all over to his apartment for quesadillas and chocolate chip cookies. Good times!

All in all, we are very excited to move to Mingachevir next month. We love the other PCVs going there, the town is great and our living arrangement is pretty darn good.

Photographs: 1. Greta, Bonnie, Barbie, Jen and me. This was when they announced sites for all the volunteers. Our shirts are from a Turkish soap opera. All the kids have these shirts. We also decided to have Crazy Hair Day. Our language group is the best and most fun! 2. McDonalds in Baku. Good stuff. 3. Me and Jesse at Martyrs Lane, Baku in the background. 4. The carpet shop in the cave. 5. Baku around Fountain Square. 6. Sunset on the river in Mingachevir.

Mexicalian In The AZ

2007-08-15T01:28:00.000-07:00

As of today, we have less than 25 months left here in Azerbaijan. We swear in on September 12th and begin our service on the 13th. Then we have 24 months in Mingachevir. It’s still hot. It’s been over 100 degrees most days in August, but we are adjusting.
In my last post I wrote that we took our mid-training language tests. I achieved Novice-High, which is what TEFL volunteers need to achieve, so that’s great! I don’t feel like I really have enough language to be dumped at site, but most of the people I’ll work with will have English skills. Jesse got Intermediate-Low which is the next step up from Novice-High. CED volunteers need higher skills so he still has one step to go until he reaches Intermediate-Mid. He’s very good at speaking Azeri and his basic communication skills are amazing. He’s good at miming and talking until he knows he’s understood.

Last Sunday all the Sumgayit Station trainees invited our friends over to Jen’s house where we created a Mexican wonderland! Jesse and I made salsa, Barbie made tortilla chips out of lavash, and we had fantastic bean and chicken burritos. Good stuff. It’s always a lot of fun to get a bunch of us together for something that feels "American." We all live around Sumgayit in smaller communities and we are able to see each other in Sumgayit most days if we want to, but since we’re all doing different things (TEFL, CED, and Youth Development), our schedules don’t always match up. We do get all Sundays off, so that’s a good time to have fun.

This last Sunday we had an Italian feast, again at Jen’s. Jesse and I made a penne casserole, Jen made pesto spaghetti, Bonnie made bowties with vodka sauce, Barbie made garlic bread and Jane brought lettuce from Baku for a salad. Jesse and Tom made SG (super garlic) Chicken – an original Azerbaijan recipe. It’s so nice to relax with Americans every now and then! We’ve also come up with an amazing tradition of having the men do the dishes. I’m pretty sure that this was the first time in the history of Sumgayit Station that men (or even a singular man) have done the dishes while a group of women lounged on a porch. We’re changing things here in Azerbaijan! Maybe if some Azerbaijani men see our men doing the dishes, they will decide to lift a finger in their own kitchens… well… at least we’re planting a seed.

Before the Italian food, we went into Sumgayit with our family. We went with our Nana, host father, his sister, her kids and our niece Maleyka. We had chay (tea) at a café, walked on the beach (I even got my feet wet for the first time… I still can’t believe that I live right next to the Caspian Sea… whoever would have thought I would live here?!?!), got a professional photo taken with the Sea in the background, the kids rode in toy cars and we ate ice cream. We got to the city in a marstruka that a friend of the family’s drives. We even drove it on the beach!! There are always cars and marstrukas on the beach, which still feels a bit weird to this Oregonian.

Keep the emails and comments coming!! It’s so nice to get to the internet café and have things to read from all of our friends and family back home! It really does help us get through this crazy time and it’s so nice to know that we’re still in your thoughts! Real mail is great too!!!

Photos: 1. Barbie’s chips with our salsa… looks like Emerald Valley Salsa, doesn’t it? 2. Jesse doing the dishes in a typical Sum Station sink. 3. Jesse prepping dishes, Donnie washing, Nick drying, Nate supervising. 4. The proud men with clean dishes. 5. Americans in Azerbaijan… our street. 6. Jesse and Nubar, our niece. She ADORES Jesse. 6. Jesse and Nubar hunting for seashells (the Azeri word for seashell translates to Fish Ear) 7. Jesse, Rovshan and the marstruka at the Sea. 8. Vy, Tom, Jen and her host sister, Bonnie (in the red), me, Jeff and Kelsey at the Italian feast. 9. A cow eating the trash. This is where we take our trash to be burned every few days or weeks. 10. Jesse walking up to our gate. It’s the cement block/ rusty fence to the right of Jesse across the street. 11. Our courtyard. The window that Jesse’s head is blocking is our window. Notice the chickens. 12. Our kitchen. 13. Jesse being silly with the kids. Nubar, Elman and Elshan. Nubar’s bundled up because the temperature dropped to about 90 this evening. 14. Me and Maleyka watching Jesse and the silly kids.
We will add more pictures of our house later!

We are going to.....

2007-08-04T03:37:00.000-07:00

Mingechavir!!!

That's right, we found out yesterday that on September 13th, Jesse and I will be moving across the country to Mingechavir! I will be teaching in School #13, where there is said to be an internet room... :) Jesse will be working for Finance for Development, doing micro finance type stuff. We are very excited! There are some other neat people in Mingechavir and some of our good friends close by in Ganga! That's about all we have to report... just same old language classes and sector meetings...

Lovely Sumgayit Station ---->

With our friends Sally
and Jane in Sumgayit
<-----------

Qali Alti

2007-07-28T03:10:00.000-07:00

Today is 90 degrees and cloudy. It’s great to be so cool for a while!!! It’s a great respite from the heat! I never thought I’d say that about 90 degrees… Such is life in the “Land of Fire,” which is what the word Azerbaijan means.

Carolyn here. Hey y’all. We’ve had a busy couple of weeks. We’ve been doing our daily 4 hour language classes, Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and Community Economic Development (CED) trainings a few times a week, playing with our friends and just exploring Sumgait. We take marstrukas into Sumgait most days for various reasons. We have to go in to catch different marstrukas to our sector (TEFL and CED) trainings in other outlaying communities. We go in for the internet café… we’ve found a great one finally!! It’s centrally located and get this…. Kind of air conditioned!! Sumgait has an Almali Market which has *some* western comforts. We’ve found Pringles, pasta, Russian spaghetti sauce, toilet paper, Dannon yogurt, Ecuadorian bananas, nuts and Snickers “peanut butter.” It’s also air conditioned.

There are also some restaurants around town that we’ve found and enjoy. There’s a Turk Doneri place that’s great. A doner is a sandwich with carved meat, cucumber, tomato, parsley, mayo and “ketchup.” It’s good stuff. Down by the “Dove,” a huge statue right by the Caspian, there are a bunch of outdoor restaurants that serve kebab, dondurma (ice cream), kola (cola), and piva (beer). A couple days ago Jesse and his language group found a restaurant where they serve complete meals. I honestly don’t think I’d had a balanced meal since Guba until we went to the restaurant with my language group yesterday. I had a boneless, skinless chicken breast, potatoes and a carrot and pea salad. I thought I was in Heaven. It was kind of expensive, but there were other things on the menu for 1 manat, which is about what you pay for a doner or something less healthy. If you can’t tell, I’m very excited about this!

Last Saturday we had a Cultural Event. We drove 3 hours in nice busses to Qali Alti Castle. When we got there, we all hiked up the mountain. Jesse made it all the way to the top and enjoyed looking around the castle and amazing views of Azerbaijan. I took a wrong turn with some other girls and got a bit stymied. I ended up turning around and helping one of the other volunteers back down. It was still very pleasant to spend some time in a cool, green forest. After the hike we all had lunch in the forest. It was fun to spend some time with all the trainees together.

Last night we went to our site mate, Bonnie’s house where we made pizza and studied. We were all given a cookbook put together by previous Azerbaijan PCVs and there was a pizza dough recipe in it, along with lots of other recipes we are excited to try when we get our own place! The pizza turned out really well. We used what we think was Gouda cheese, and it was surprisingly close to real American pizza. The best part was that Bonnie has a ton of basil in her yard, so we used copious amounts on the pizza!!

Today we had our mid-training language tests. We had to sit down with the woman who runs the language training and answer questions and talk in Azerbaijani. I think they went pretty well. Jesse’s language is coming along very well, mine is a little slower to come, but that’s what I expected. Jesse is good with languages, which is good because as a CED volunteer, his language needs to be at a higher level than mine since I’ll be working with English teachers and speaking in English much more often.

This week I start teaching summer school here in Sumgait Station. I will teach two 45 minute English lessons a day to between 7 and 15 kids with my friend and site mate Jen. I’ve never taught English before, so this could be very interesting. We also don’t know how old the kids will be, nor do we know their skill level. Wish me luck!

We get to find out our permanent site this Friday, so that’s what we’re looking forward to this week! We’ve been interviewed and assessed by PC staff, so hopefully they’re working hard to get us in the perfect site! We will let you all know as soon as we can, so you can Google map or Google Earth it and check out what it looks like!

Pictures are as follows: 1. Me in front of the Dove in Sumgait with the Caspian in the background. 2. The view from the top. 3. Jesse and Donnie (Oregon native, Southern Oregon graduate, just like my sister, Jen!) at the top with the castle in the background. 4. A Flower at the top. 5. Our Nana making lavash. This was a pretty cool process to watch. She expertly rolled the dough to be paper thin then put it on the fire where her daughter turned it a couple times until it was cooked. It’s basically just a huge tortilla, but it’s an amazing and welcome alternative to the chorek (bread).

Just a Quick Note

2007-07-22T04:29:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that my Granny died on friday. If you didn't know, she was sick and this was very expected and gradual. She died in her sleep and I know she's in a great place with my grandfather. I am doing very well, Jesse is taking good care of me and I have some great friends who are wonders to talk to. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm doing just fine, in case this news travels through the grapevine and people become concerned. Granny was an awesome lady and I'll carry some of her last words to me with me forever, "We had a lot of fun, didn't we?" That's just about a perfect thing to end on, if you ask me!

We'll update soon with more pictures... love to all!

-Carolyn

Barda!

2007-07-20T01:23:00.000-07:00

Salam! Let’s see… since our last update I (Carolyn) was officially initiated into Peace Corps. That’s right, I hurled my brains out and had other *ahem* issues for about 9 hours! Welcome to Peace Corps, Carolyn!!! I think I ate something bad and my stomach got mad at me. The PC doctor sent me some Pep to and Gatorade, so I’m back to normal.

This past weekend we got to go visit some current volunteers at their site. We travelled 6 hours by marstruka to Barda. A marstruka is basically a VW bus sized van thing that they stuff full of people and drive a billion miles per hour. We drove over a mini mountain and into the huge lowland of central Azerbaijan. The countryside was beautiful and vast and reminded me quite a bit like northern California. Rolling hills of brown grass with trees and bushes that are very similar to things back in Oregon/California… or maybe Eastern Washington near the gorge.

We got to Barda and were greeted by some current volunteers. They were great and so much fun! The first night we went to Ina’s house to have chicken tacos. Yay, American type food! Ina lives in a great house on her own with lots of privacy and a great yard. We hung out there with the volunteers and other trainees who travelled with us - people had some beers and it was a great bastion of Americanism!

The weekend was filled with softball, chicken cacciatore, beer, movies, Americans and good times! We got to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel that is training. We were told over and over again, “Make it through training and your world will change.” We are so busy these days and totally overwhelmed. We’re trying to learn the language, figure out our jobs while dealing with the immense culture shock! It will be great to get to our sites with enough language to survive on our own!

Right now we’re in week 4 and we will find out our permanent site in week 6. We are really looking forward to knowing where we’re going. We’re hoping that we will be in the mountains in the north, so any prayers or positive thoughts of that nature would be greatly appreciated!

As always, we hope that this finds you all well and happy! Take care and sag ol!

Pictures for this week are as follows: 1 Jesse hitting a HOME RUN at the softball game in Barda. That’s right, a home run. That’s my husband, folks. 2 Us in front of the Nushaba tower in Barda. It was built in 1322. It was said to have three tunnels running from it – one to Baku, one to south Azerbaijan and one to Istanbul. Pretty cool stuff.

All Moved In!

2007-07-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! We are co-authoring this post to ensure accuracy and professionalism. Things are great here in Azerbaijan. We arrived and were immediately wisked away to Guba, where we stayed in an Olympic training center. The days were jam packed with information that we need to survive in (and not get kicked out of) the Peace Corps. The accommodations were nice, we each had our own bathroom with a shower and hot water and western toilet. We also had air conditioning, wahoo! There was a pool at the center, however you are required to buy a swimming cap prior to entering, which was a bit steep for our new Peace Corps budget (5 Manat). The food was really good, nothing too scary :) Breakfasts consisted of bread, hard-boiled eggs, bread, honey, pendir (cheese), bread and chay (tea). The bread/honey combination was fantastic. Lunches and dinners were similar, starting with tomatoes, cucumbers, bread and a few other various salads and moved on to bread and soup followed by the meat, bread, pasta and/or potato dishes. In case you haven’t guessed it yet, the only thing Azeris like more than tea is bread. It is served with every meal and is thought to be a sacred element in the culture. There are even rules for handling bread: never throw bread away, either eaten by people or animals, if it falls on the floor you are required to kiss it before putting it back and never place your bread upside down.

After a few days at Guba (Northern Azerbaijan), we moved out to our host-families in communities around Sumgayit (near Baku on the Caspian). Much to our amazement, Carolyn and I were placed together in the same host family! Carolyn studies in the same town where we live and I have a short 30 minute walk everyday to my group in a neighboring village. Our host family has been very friendly and large (along with being very patient!). From what we can tell there are 15 people who live in our compound, there are always people coming and going so it’s a little hard to keep track. There are 5 houses that are connected yet separate, so there is no shortage of someone to talk to at any given time. In our house we have Nana, grandmother, her son Sahib, his wife Asmar and their son Rovshan. In the next house is Nabat, daughter of Nana and her 16 year old daughter Maleyka. Behind us is Sahib’s brother Mais and his wife Sedaget and their sons Elshan and Elman. To our left is Mustafa and Nami, brothers who are seemingly unrelated to the family. Also in our house is Nubar, who is Sahib’s other sister’s daughter – the rest of her family lives up north.

Most of our time at home is spent with Nana (while eating or sweltering in the garden) and Maleyka, who patiently works with us on our language. The heat is incredible here, however there is almost a constant breeze which makes it quite pleasant most of the time. From what I can tell my little REI thermometer that I’ve brought is either broken or it hasn’t dropped below 85 the whole time we’ve lived here. My morning walks are usually between 90-95 and my afternoon walk today topped 100.

Our overall living conditions are pretty darn nice. We have our own huge room to ourselves with a window and a fan to keep us cool. We have running water, which is constantly on in a sink in the garden. We have hot showers in the morning (although we prefer to take cooler ones due to the heat). Our toilet is interesting. It is a squat-style toilet about two feet long and eight inches wide with a constant stream of water flowing through it (due to the sink draining to it). We have electricity when we need it and are able to charge our electronics with a borrowed voltage regulator. The food has been really good. Lots of cucumbers and tomatoes and bread, yum!!!!

On the 7th we threw a Fourth of July party (a little late, I know) with both of our training groups. We each brought a few people from our host families and had a nice little shin-dig, complete with hot dogs, potato salad and all! I had to give a little demonstration (see picture) on how to assemble the hot dogs, but I think they were a success. We played Frisbee, duck-duck-goose, the Hokey-Pokey and the Azeri version of Red Rover. Lots of fun (and sugar) was had by all!

We hope everyone is doing well, we hear it’s hot in Oregon, but just remember these two little letters when it gets too hot: A C. Sag ol!

Pictures from top to bottom: 1. Everything we brought for the next two years in our hotel room in Philly. 2. Everyone packing up to move into host families at Guba. 3. Jesse and Carolyn on the Caspian Sea at Sumgayit. 4. Carolyn's language group on the Caspian. 5. The whole gang at our '4th' of July party (Jesse taking picture). 6. Jesse demonstrating how to assemble hot dog. 7. Carolyn and Nubar.

We're here!

2007-07-01T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. we have made it. We are currently staying with a host family together, yay! I (Jesse) will be training in a neighboring city while we live together with a host family. It is really really hot here, but we are near the sea so it provides a nice breeze most of the time. The language is amazing and compltetely different from anything I have ever experienced before. We are doing well, the food is great. we will put up pictures later (the line is a bit slow now). Hope everyone is well back home!

We've arrived!

2007-06-27T00:34:00.000-07:00

...at least for now! We are in the Istanbul airport, awaiting our flight to Azerbaijan. Google, in all it's greatness has translated everything into Turkish, so if there is something weird here, sorry! Our flight went well, 10 hours is a long time on a plane, but it was a smooth flight and it seems like they were feeding us every 2 hours or so, so everyone was happy. it's really humid here, as it was in New York as well. It's a little bit crazy going everywhere with 53 other people, but we are managing fine. Checking in in New York was full of long lines and sweaty people. We've currently been traveling for 18 hours straight. The Istanbul airport is neat! they have burger king, starbucks, oregon chai (!!!!), and Hermes, Cartier and Burberry. Very interesting dichotomy! We're all still in good spirits, excited to get there! Heres a picture for the time being.

Everyone all together at the hotel:

Off We Go!

2007-06-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well we're almost off! We leave tomorrow morning for Azerbaijan! Our staging was informative, the general outline was as follows:

Day 1: 2-7 PM Registration, Welcome/introductions, safety and support, anxieties and aspirations, nuts and bolts (money!). And paperwork!
Day 2 (today): 8:30-6 PM, Managing risk, PC Policies, Cultural adaptation, bridge to pre-service training (in-country) and departure details.
Day 3: Depart!

So we depart tomorrow and it goes something like this:

9:30 AM: Depart hotel, drive to New York JFK airport
4:30 PM: Fly out of NY on Delta to Istanbul.
9:40 AM, Weds: Arrive in Istanbul, Turkey.
1:15 PM: Fly out of Istanbul to Baku, Azerbaijan
~5 PM: Arrive in Baku, catch bus to Guba, 3 hours away.

Guba will be our first training site and then we move on to other sites. That schedule goes like this:

June 28: Guba, Olympic Center
June 29: Guba
June 30: Guba, First night with host family
July 1: Sumgayit City
July 2: Sumgayit City, begin Pre-service training. We will be living with the same family for the next nine weeks.

Soooo....They tell us we will not be able to reach a phone (much less the internet) for the next few days, so don't worry, we will be back as soon as possible! Hope all is well!

Staging in Philadelphia

2007-06-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Hello from the East Coast! We made it here just fine yesterday, got cheesesteak sandwich and promptly passed out. It had been a long couple of days leading up to it... we were tired. I think Jesse slept about 13 hours straight and I slept 12 hours off and on! Phew!
This morning we got up and went to Old Town. We saw the Liberty Bell and went into the building were they held the first congress and senates. It was really neat to see where our nation was born, right before we give two years of our lives to serve our country. Then we came back to the hotel where we had training for 6 hours. We met all the other 52 volunteers. It turns out there are 7 of us from Oregon and 2 or 3 from Washington. The Northwest is very well represented!!

I also want to take some time to send our thanks and love to all our friends and family! It means so much to us to know how much support and love being sent our way. You will sustain us during our journey, there is no doubt about that! We also cannot wait to come home and be able to share our experience with everyone! We love you all!!!! Please keep in touch!!

Thanks for reading, we'll try to update again before we take off for Baku. Please leave comments, email us or send us letters. All our contact information can be found in the Contact section on velcrotoes.com.
On a side note: OOOOO-SSSSSSS-UUUUUU!!!! OREGON STATE! FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!! How 'bout those Beavs?!?!?

D-I-isney-Y

2007-06-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

Whew, our California adventure is done... we're back in Eugene. We had a really good time visiting lots of our family members and doing tons of fun things!

June 1st we flew into LAX where my aunt Nancy picked us up. We drove through Bel Aire and Beverly Hills into Hollywood. We walked around the walk of fame and outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. We had lunch at Mel's Drive-In. We went to Huntington Beach and met Mal and Dick for drinks and walked on the beach.

June 2nd we drove with Nancy down through Newport Beach to have lunch in Laguna Beach. We went back to Huntington Beach and had dinner with Harlin.

June 3rd we went to Disneyland and California Adventure with Mallory and Harlin. We were there from 9am til 11pm. It was a long, fun day! We went on Space Mountain, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Tower of Terror, California Screamin', Bear Mountain Water Ride, Soaring Over California, The Tower of Terror again, Soaring Over California again then Indiana Jones again. We even found wine in California Adventure! It was a long day, but so much fun with Mal and Harlin.

June 4th we went back to Disneyland by ourselves. We didn't get there until 10, but we still got a lot of good stuff in! We went on Snow White, Pinocchio, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Peter Pan, Small World, Buzz Lightyear, and the Jungle Cruise! We left at about 3 and took the long way home, through Long Beach. When we got home, we looked at Micheal's photos from his time in Peace Corps in Chad. He was really helpful with advice and positive words for us. It was good that he was so positive and supportive about us going, having already done it himself.

June 5th we flew up to Concord to spend time with Jesse's grandma. We had lunch at In-n-Out Burger then drove up to Mt. Diablo. It was a beautiful day, so it was nice to drive through a park and get out and look around at the top of the mountain. Jesse made spaghetti for dinner with his grandma and his aunt Mary.

June 6th we drove to Bodega Bay to have lunch with Jesse's aunt Liz. Then we drove up the coast to Fort Ross, an old Russian trade port. Then we drove back though Bodega Bay down to San Francisco by way of the Golden Gate Bridge. We had dinner in the city at Scoma's on the wharf. It was excellent seafood! On the way back to Concord we stopped to see Jesse's aunt Rose. It was a long day with lots of driving, but lots of great sites along the way!

June 7th we hung around Jesse's grandma's house, Jesse helped her with some things around the house and spent some good time with her. Then we took BART to Oakland where we went to sushi with Annie and her brothers John and Richard. Good times and good food! We flew home the next morning, thus ending our California adventure!!

Now we're in Oregon, counting down the days until we leave. We're down to 12 days now. It feels very crazy. I'm anxious and excited. Part of me wants to stay here longer and part of me is so excited to get on with it!! I'm sure this is how I'll feel until we leave, with the emotions exponentially growing!

Thanks for reading!
Carolyn

Vay-Kay

2007-05-31T10:21:00.001-07:00

We've been unemployed for a week now. Loving it! Right now we're in Portland visiting various people. Last night we met up with a few other people going to Azerbaijan next month. It was great to meet other people who are feeling the same excitement and anxiety that we are. I think it's neat that there are so many Pacific Northwesterners in our group. It will be good to have some shared experiences with other volunteers.

Tomorrow we head down to Huntington Beach for a few days. I can't wait to go to Disneyland!!!

Our Itinerary

2007-05-22T10:47:00.001-07:00

Here's where we are going to be, in case anyone wants to get ahold of us in the next month:

May 22: Carolyn's last day of work!
May 23: Jesse's last day of work!
May 22-26: Eugene hanging out with Kenton and Katrina
May 26-28: Albany with the grandparents and Jesse's Parents
May 28-June 1: Portland with Granny, Uncle Steve and Aunt Kim, Aaron, Maybe Rayne, meeting up with some other AZ5 recruits
June 1-5: Huntington Beach with Nancy, Micheal, Mallory and Disneyland!
June 5-8: Concord/Oakland with the Gallagher clan & Annie
June 8-11: Roseburg with Jesse's parents
June 11-14: Eugene with Carolyn's grandma
June 14-18: Eugene with Dave and Deena
June 18-22: Eugene with Steve and Debbie
June 23: Depart Eugene for staging in Philly!
June 25-26: Depart for Azerbaijan!

Yikes, it's all coming so fast!!

Aspiration Statement

2007-05-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

We got to this a bit late, but it's done. From what I've read of other people's aspiration statements mine is a bit sparse, but we've already been accepted so really I'm just trying to give the country directors an idea of what I'm all about.

Here it is if you want to look over it: Jesse's Aspiration Statement

Packing, Packing, Packing....

2007-05-22T10:14:00.001-07:00

So we are all moved out of our apartment and moved into the storage unit & garage. We still have to pack our stuff out of the garage and into the attic before we leave but it is pretty much organized into boxes. We have also started packing to go to Azerbaijan, putting some stuff into our luggage that will sit until we leave (snow boots and the like). However, we have made a list of stuff that we are taking over with us based upon the official list and the unofficial list made by RPCV.

Our list is here: Packing list.xls

and the other list is here: AZ Packing list.doc

Hopefully this helps anyone else who is trying to pack, especially married couples!

Here We Come!!!

2007-04-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

(We're leaving for Azerbaijan on June 24th!)

Our timeline

2007-04-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post our timeline to how we got into Peace Corps.

June 27th 2006- Submitted application
July 13th- Phone interview
August 16thth - Nominated for EE or CA leaving September 2007
October - Sent in medical packets
November - Jesse dentally cleared
January 2007 - Carolyn dentally cleared
March 23rd - Medically cleared!!
April 9th - Invited on website.
April 13th - Received mail invitation and accepted to serve in Azerbaijan!

As of right now, we're still WAITING. This is the worst part of the whole process. Getting medical clearance was bad, but I was in control of all of that. If I hounded enough doctors and got all the paperwork done, I knew I could get clearance. But this is worse. We know that there is an envelope floating around the US with our future in it. We know it has all been decided, but we're just not privy to it. I suppose I'll have to update this timeline once we get actual departure dates and everything.

In other news, I am so excited that Jen had Drew!! He is a very cute baby! I can't wait to go meet him!

**** I have to add a bit to the timeline...*****

New Baby!

2007-04-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

Check out our new nephew! Drew Thomas Taylor. Yay!