birthday round up

Happy Birthday to me… Azer- style (written on the 21th)

So let’s round-up the birthday thus far

“A very Pirate affair” rocked! I owe the biggest debt of gratitude to Mike who lent us his flat as he was out of town. A rotating group of friends hung out, slept, danced, washed clothes, watched dvds, sat about chatting, cooked, and or wore pirate hats all weekend. Basically, it was heaven. I am not exaggerating when I say that I believe that this weekend was exactly what I- if not most of my friends needed! So one more time with feeling –THANKS MIKE!

Prom was great, it was so unstructured that it turned into a two day dance, well played!

Charlie’s birthday was also good, mellow. I took him to dinner at the hotel- then we both crashed from the weekend. However, he is still receiving gifts from students so far he’s gotten some classics! I really liked the porcelain boy on a wire swing, and he got two different colognes so maybe they’re trying to tell him something hmmmmm!

My actual birthday was great from start to finish! Starting two minutes to midnight the texts started coming in from friends! I woke to a call from the states, Happy Birthday being sung by Popi, Steph, Doug and Kaz. Got to work, sung to again, and again and then twice more at lunch in English and Azeri- and a cake. In fact you could break the day into two things I did. EAT and try to help some orphans. But mostly eat. I went to lunch with Charlie, then with my office 9where I had to eat two pieces of cake). Then I went to a meeting at an orphanage with Josh to try to get them a volunteer for next year, and then another meeting at another orphanage. After that I went home, guess what was there MORE CAKE! After that Momi called and sang! Then dinner, then CAKE. Oh yeah and my host sister and mother sang to me in English it was Awesome. So when Josh and Charlie left for some reason Charlie asked if anyone had sang to me, I laughed and told them- several times. So I guess they either because they are Charlie and Josh or because they couldn’t be outdone by Azeri’s and Norwegians they sang me a spontaneous doo-wop rendition of Happy Birthday on my doorstep! Then my host mother decided that my puppy should be allowed inside to wish me happy birthday and allowed him to hang out with us in the living room (this is a first!) and I unwrapped my first Azeri present, and it was exactly what I was hoping for, a mug with my zodiac symbol on it. It is just like the one I drink out of every morning with their daughter’s symbol on it. I sat there for a little bit with my host mother and puppy but then it was time to put my birthday butt to bed!

So 27 was an awesome birthday, but just in case that wasn’t enough there are still packages on the way, I believe ol’ one tooth, my delightful postman has developed a sense of humor about package hording. I was certain I had packages there yesterday and he swears I don’t. But he kind of laughed at my determination. And with my own eyes I saw the package for Charlie and when Charlie came in, he said there was no mail for him. Well that’s fine it just extends the holiday, and I love it when he gets sassy! Also my computer should be on its way to Sheki today and I still have a dinner with the Norwegians sometime this week. So 27 is off to a roaring start and I would like to thank you all for making it so great.

five months

Ok, I just posted so this will be rediculously brief,
I have been at site for 5 months now! Love it still. I have one month of host family stay left and I really really like my host family, they are kind, loving and generous people. That said I have started the search for my own place. And I will leave you with this thought, apparently in Sheki when making clear what you need your place to have, you have to specicially mention that you'd like to be either shower or bathe there. Just a tip!

Alright! I am off to revel in some piracy!

The Prelude

Just a brief ‘shout out’ before beginning this entry, as is my way if I become aware of a new reader I just like to say hello. Zoltan our country director is now reading my blog, so hello Zoltan. But before any of you become overly impressed he is reading all of the blogs by pcvs in az it’s a new policy for the region.

But enough of that, policies are long and typically boring and I believe this entry shall be anything but boring!



Maybe some of you are unaware of just how much I love my own birthday. Let me try to explain it. I love it more than anyone over the age of 5. I really really love my birthday. I believe it should be a national holiday. I almost believe that our government arranged Presidents Day so that there would always be a three day weekend for my birthday. I start planning my birthday casually around August, and everything after New Year’s is hardcore planning. So the fact that there will be multiple entries about my birthday should not throw you, consider yourself warned and that is why this entry is entitled, The Prelude

So I am about to turn 27. I still can’t send text messages very well and I love Pirates maybe more than any healthy person should, wait strike that. My love for Pirates is plenty healthy. Ahhh… pirates.

Anyway, so how does one celebrate their 27th well, you should take the best parts of all the other phases of life. For example when you were 12 you had a good old sleepover party, check!

Then in high school (if you were WAAAY cooler than me) you may have had that party after prom, mmm check!

College saw great road trip parties, check! College also had a good deal of theme parties, Check! And the in college there were parties of extended length, the good old three day weekend party, Check. Hmmmm college did have some good times didn’t it. (at this point I would like to say a fresh shout out to all the parents reading my blog. Rest assured I did plenty well in school, so relax and settle down!)

And in Peace Corps you have the Marines, good God bless them. The can provide you with shelter and beverages, and even laundry facilities. (Sorry but if you don’t do all your laundry by hand then you probably are under appreciating your washing machine as we speak)

So if you throw all those things together I think you have a vague idea of what this weekend is going to be like for me. For this weekend will be… “A very Pirate affair”

when stressed

Dearest readers,


Here are things that you could do if you are stressed out.

1. Dance party. Dance parties can be private, involving just you, or many of your friends. They can be planned or spontaneous. And one of my favorite stress relievers is the long distance dance party. The long distance dance party is when you call up one or several friends and tell them to dance at the same time you are dancing. Trust me the long distance dance party is highly successful at relieving stress. (Most of my girl friends here are well connected to the long distance dance party network)

2. Going for a walk. One of the best ways to relax while walking is to go with a friend or colleague. Use the time to plan projects, discuss life or progress within on-going projects. A first rate stress reducer is the pastry or chocolate walk. A pastry walk is a walk to a bakery on the other side of town, pick up a pastry and snack on the way back to work. (any day I am in Sheki and it isn’t storming, Josh and I do this)

3. Crotchet. Preferably you should crotchet a cuddle blanket. This is good as a solo activity or in pairs.

4. Draw. Sit down with your friend and color; coloring books are ideal for relaxing coloring sessions.

5. Talk with friends. I suggest discussing new trends in piracy. Challenges facing ‘today’s pirate,’ Where to go on the off-season, or the chilling debate, is Santa a pirate afterall?

5. Cook with friends. Cook foods that are fun and challenging to attempt or foods that are familiar and soothing to prepare.

6. Spend a weekend in a hotel. Sometimes a change of scenery can help things.

7. Chocolate.

8. Ipod.

The winter can be long for anyone. And you should all know that I am still doing great. I just thought a list of what I do may shed some light into what my days here look like.What I do with momemts that aren't filled with community mobilization, or integration. What I do in those other moments, Yes I have done all of the above this week. Especially piratanical debates. Look not all of you celebrate the glorious month of February the way that I do, so I thought I would help you out a bit. As for me I have much planning to do to get to the highlight of the year, the coup-de-ta of celebrations. the day the puts the third corner in a pirate captain tri-corner hat, the humble 20th of Fevral

Four months at site

Four months at site

Well, as is becoming unfortunately more and more usual, I am late again on this entry. I think at this point in my service I am starting to see that there may be patterns. The day in the life description that you have all asked after is something I may just now be starting to see. Although, of course having said that, I know that I am about to reach an important new phase in my service. The phase where I am allowed to move out.

But again I am getting ahead of myself.

Here’s what my days usually look like. I get up around 8 am. I go through all the regular getting ready for the day stuff and go downstairs at 8:45 (on a good day, 9 on a late day). I eat breakfast. This is usually bread, butter and tea. Sometimes there is goat cheese or honey. I go to work, which is 10 minutes away, if there is no snow or ice. I work at my office 9-1. 1pm in the national lunch time, everyone seems to eat then. My office all eats together and we have a cook who cooks for us. I really like her, she is both nice and an excellent Azeri cook! After lunch people drink tea and chat. I sit there for a bit but, if the weather is ok Josh and I go for a walk after lunch. We run errands during our walk, like checking for packages. After the walk we go to one of our offices and have tea. After that it is back to work for about an hour and somewhere between 4-5 I leave work and go home. At home I talk to my puppy for a bit, go back upstairs change immediately into my pj pants. Once clad in comfy clothes I set up my ipod and listen to some music as I either read or crotchet. As you may be significantly unaware, since I never wrote about my visit with momi, we started making a cuddle blanket. It is currently about 2-2.5 wide and 8 feet long.

Last night I hit maybe the height of the depression of my laptop’s death, yes it is dead. Then, I realized I had the first two seasons of The Office on my ipod (the American version). I had watched it all during training but seeing how I have little else I can do while I crotchet… I watched it again last night, and dang it if it wasn’t funnier the second time around! I sit there mellowing out until around 6. Around 6pm is when the texting heightens, PCVs texting questions, texting cause they are bored or lonely, texting plans for the next time we will meet up. And also somewhere around 6 is dinner time. My host sister will come to my door and ask if I will eat and I stop whatever it is I am doing and go eat. After dinner, there is tea. I take my tea upstairs and go back to whatever it was I was doing before. Then I go to bed somewhere between 10-12. So there you have it. I am betting this is incredibly dull to read but it is my standard day and that’s what you asked for, I blame you all… for shame! Unless of course you found it interesting, and in that case I am taking all the credit.

As I have mentioned many times feel free to check Ash’s site when I am lagging, he has some good descriptions of what life is like here.