Unbalanced

I should start out with A MERRY Christmas to you all. And rest assured that I had an absolutely great holiday! But that is getting ahead of things as I have been away for quite a long time and there is much to chat up on.

Why Unbalanced? Well I believe it is the best way to describe the last few weeks and maybe even my life here or PC life in general. I don't mean unbalanced as in unhealthy. Although I may not be in my prime healthwise right now. Let me explain.
Life here like the roads are unbalanced you have to watch your step the whole way or you are likly to trip. You may also notice things here that make you think things are just a bit of kilter. A man talking on a cell phone while riding a donkey drawn cart. Things like that happen, you get used to it. I was at Rachel's host family's house the other day, they had just bought a new washing machine--amazing! The set it up and started to use it, it would shake violently. So they asked us what was wrond with it. We thought maybe the load was unbalanced then I suggested the floor itself maybe unbalanced. Her host mother pulled out a level put it on the machine and we looked for the bubble, it was off. Her mother then raised on side about two inches to make it level, and looked at me with a "see" look, I just kinda shook my head and let Rachel handle the explanation.

Other signs -- the beauty in the night sky, I was up in Xachmaz and walking home with Rachel and Rustin ( one of her sitemate's) and we saw Sirius, and noticed it was going crazy. It was a beautifully clear winter night and we noticed Sirius was changing colors and experiencing explosions. The star would flicker in white and blue and red. It also has color explosions off to either side of it in red and blue. We were drawn in staring up for at least half an hour!

IST (inservice training) went well! Exceptionally well. AZ4 ( my group the 4th group to serve in AZ) is known as an incredibly close group, we have maintained that, we are also known for our outgoingness (both in personalities and actually going out a lot) we maintained that too! Tuesday was travel day we all met up at the hotel, a huge group gathered in one room ordered lunch in hung out told stories and played cards while people kept arriving and cycling in and out to put things down take showers and what not. It was great to see everyone and I was very happy ( although furious that I was served up a devastating defeat in my favorite card game) I announced to everyone that I have a parasite, Rachel announced that she hadn't slept in 3 weeks and has gone loopy ( i confirmed that). Joy and I went down to the MAC store to see what the devil was wrong with my Computer- motherboard. So I went back to the hotel got back in time to put things down and venture out for dinner!
Tuesday was mellowish, dinner, quick stop and a bar and then back to the hotel to hang out and chat until midnight. No one could sleep though so I went to the first day of IST tired. It was language day and some unwanted attention talks -which got me upset, so afterwards I went out to coffee with one of the PC staff members, we chatted for 2 hours so by the time I got to the hotel I met everyone downstairs to go get pizza.

Pizza Holiday is not only the best pizza in Baku, it is run by the most generous dude ever. It was Mariko's Bday so we all went (roughly 40 of us). When we go there we get free drinks of whatever we want, the owner also stopped by to invite us all out to a bar after dinner, we accepted. Went to a Czech Brewery, where we all hung out for several hours, this was followed by going to the Key Club to dance, and he came with us there too! We were out till oh let's say 3 or 4. And I paid about 5 bucks that night- it was incredible!

Ist day 2 ended with an NGO fair, most of them dealt with English training stuff, not my scene. We left went the hotel showered, went to a scottish pub ran into some people we knew including a guy that was AZ1, who is always fun to chat with. we stayed there for who knows till 1 or 2. This place had the best burgers in town and the happy hour is a 2 for 1 deal so it was a good time.

Day 3 IST. Since it was the last night everyone wanted to dance and be together so we went to get nachos then to Pollo (aka Polio) and then to the Key club ( which is the best place to dance but the priciest place in Baku) getting back around 3! We really committed to having a great time in Baku.

The day after IST, woke up got dressed, got to PC lounge and ate, hung out with some AZ3 people and went to Indian and coffee! Got back to the Lounge and went to Church with Charlie, back to the lounge and then off to the night train to Sheki!

SHEKI FAMILY CHRISTMAS!!!!
ok my Sheki family christmas was a blast. Josh, Charlie and Keri who are all my sitemates, if any of you are still confused on that. and Josh and I are not at all dating or otherwise into eachother, if any of you are still confused about that--I'm talking to you CHAD.

So I had Christmas eve with my sitemates plus Melissa who lives nearby. We cooked and ate all day and later in the night Josh Charlie and I watched "a Christmas story" which I had gotten in the mail. We drank the Gluhwein that the guy from Pizza holiday gave me! It was warm, cozy and mellow- I could not have asked for more. Christmas day we woke up had left overs for breakfast (see it was dead on) Charlie and I cleaned his place decorated a tree and ate lunch. After that I went home, showered and napped for about 5 hours (seriously you read about the week I just had, I needed it!) woke up ate dinner and read the Pirates! until I went to bed and slept another 8 hours --awesome!

so that brings us to day! I hope you all had a great holiday, sorry if my absense from the internet led any of you to worry I am very well and very happy to be back in lovely Sheki!