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

…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. :)