Jesus Christ

I really do have a desire to start writing again. Today, I will just say one brief, but important thing. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that He lives! I just loved Church today. I was fighting tears all day as I just kept feeling how much I know Heavenly Father loves me and that Jesus Christ understands all of the pain and trials that I am watching so many of my good friends, family, and others going through right now. He understands because He has experienced it all. The atonement is an amazing gift that He has given. I just feel really blessed today and grateful to Heavenly Father for all of my wonderful friends and family. I hope you--whoever might actually read this--know how much He loves you too. Counting blessings ...

Gum

Do you ever feel like your a piece of gum? You are the gum that someone chews for awhile, spits out, and saves to be used in between meals. Then, they stick you back in for awhile until it is time for another meal and you are either saved for later or disposed of. One way or another, you will be disposed of at some point, so you just have to get used to the idea of being chewed up until every last bit of flavor and elasticity has been extracted out of you and you will be disposed of and then probably stepped on by someone else who really doesn't want me stuck to their shoe. Yes, that's the way I feel today. That is a little depressing, nevertheless, the way I feel and I needed to write it down somewhere.
My next post won't be so depressing; I promise. I'm in the writing mood these days, so I have a feeling I'm actually going to jump back on here and start writing about my life that really isn't so depressing, but rather, it is quite wonderful. I'm in the place where I need to be and where I've been prepared to be for a really long time. So stay tuned if you are actually paying attention to the fact that I'm writing something again after a year-and-a-half.

What is a Mormon?

Florists vs. Forests

Not the flowers from the story below, but flowers I received from one group of students on International Women's Day, March 8th, which is the closest thing to Mother's Day here. (This is what their bouquets are like ... a bit fru-fru with all kinds of extra stuff besides the flowers. I'm so not a fru-fru person, but I love flowers! I received a bunch more red roses that day! :))

So Rocky insisted that a funny I made today become a Blog moment, but really it is for Shawna! So here it is ...
It may not seem so funny to anyone who wasn't there, but Shawna said it was one of the funniest things ever (or something like that) and couldn't stop laughing. So after church today, we were just talking about Sean's experience of trying to get Shawna flowers for Mother's Day in Baku and the biggest, most beautiful bouquet he could find late last night was a few Gerber daisies that were sadly bending over at the head like his own head as I picture it with the description of the story. Anyway, during this conversation, Rocky said he has a "24-hour florist" nearby his house, but what I heard was a "24-hour forest" and I was a little confused for a number of reasons. One, because there is certainly not a forest near his house in the middle of the city. The closest thing to a forest is the little park outside next to his building. Second, why would a forest be a "24-hour" forest? Since when do other forests close? Okay, so I tend to have blonde moments sometimes if I don't think about my quick reactions like that one, especially since, if I had taken like two seconds, I would have realized the obvious fact that the context was about flowers!!! But no! I blurted out the question! Well, hopefully, that will make someone laugh.

Pics Finally ...

I took this picture back in February, but I have wanted to add it to my Blog forever. This is near my house and to the left is a major road that I like to play Frogger on once-in-awhile. It came to me one day that pedestrians in Baku are little frogs that just hope to cross these roads without getting hit when there are no rules or if there are no one follows them, because I can't ever figure out what the rules are. So basically you take you are risking your life anytime you step onto a street, because you never know what is going to happen. The sign depicts an accurate picture. All pedestrian crossing signs in Baku are of people sprinting like World-record-holding sprinters because you sprint across and take your chances as a frog dodging in and out of cars. More to come on driving (something I don't do) and moving about in Baku, which is the craziness I call my daily life even if I live next door to work.
Oh and I'll have to find a good description of the lady unveiling herself in the statue in the background.



My apartment building is the tall one on the left. I am about half-way up in the middle apartment, but I don't think you can see mine from this picture. The building that had the fire was the tall one to the right. The shorter apartments are basically what the rest of the apartment buildings look like in my neighborhood. And the pictures stapled on the plywood at the bottom of the picture are surrounding a giant hole that was another apartment building when I got here. That hole is being worked on 24/7 and I can hear the heavy equipment pretty much all the time. It will be apartments for some fancy people associated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs directly behind me.

The fire in November

Some of you may have heard this story at the time, but it is another one of those I need to add. One Friday morning in November I woke up at about 2:30 in the morning if I remember right. I don't know why I woke up, but a minute or two later, there was pounding accompanied by yelling at the apartment next door. I had no idea what they were saying and it didn't alarm me really because I often hear people talking loudly or other things in the echoey hallway outside my apartment at late hours of the night. It probably would have been a good thing to know what they were saying as I found out the next day the likely purpose behind the yelling. I lay awake for a couple of hours for some reason, yet oblivious to anything other than the annoyance of being awake in the middle of the night. I eventually went back to sleep, but the next morning when I went into the bathroom, I realized the power was out. Then, I soon found that I didn't have water either. I wondered why the water would be out when the electricity was out, so I deliberated on what to do. I was to meet with one group of my students that morning to go on a field trip out to an oil refinery. I had about assumed that it would be a showerless day, but I didn't really know who I should call to see if it was just my apartment or the building or what. I looked out of my windows to surrounding buildings and they all seemed to have lights on. However, when I received a call from my colleague who lives in another of the three apartment buildings in the complex, I knew it wasn't just me. It was more than just having the power and water out. She told me that there was a fire in the main controls in the basement of the third apartment building. She had woken up at the same time for some reason and soon after she started to hear people running around outside. Her apartment is on the side where she could see the fire when she looked out the window. She said the flames were reflecting off of and reaching toward my building. She tried to call me, but she had the wrong phone number for me. She tried to think of how she would be able to find me because she didn't know what floor I was on and was thinking about who she could call that would have my phone number if she thought she would need to get me out. Well, she watched the whole thing from her apartment on the ninth floor and then watched them eventually get the fire under control. In the meantime, the electricity was knocked out for all three apartment buildings and the Academy, which is attached to her apartment building. The electricity has to run in order for the water to be piped up through our buildings apparently, unless buildings have water tanks on the top, which we don't. Oh and in case you didn't notice, there are obviously not items such as fire alarms; thus, the fire alarm(ers) who knocked on the apartment next to mine. I realized that morning that "fire" would be a good word to know in Azerbaijani and Russian, because apparently no one else other than my colleague would have knocked on my door? I don't know.

So, my colleague and I went on the field trip and all other staff who weren't involved stayed around and ate a cake that was for the canceled graduation of another set of my students; then, they went home as the network was down and they couldn't even access the school's network through the Internet at home. While my neighbor colleague and I were on the field trip, the Academy arranged for a hotel for us for the weekend, because it was said that it would be three days before they got everything back up. So I asked a family from church to take my food from the fridge and freezer and then I was taken to the hotel. While at the hotel at around 8 pm, I received a call from someone from work, who said they actually had it back on and asked if we wanted to go back home. We decided to stay the night because it was already paid for, but we returned home the next morning. Yet another experience to make life exciting here.

Reflecting on this now seems like the wrong timing with the Haiti earthquake; I guess I remembered it because of that. It makes me very grateful for everything that I have. This week, almost every time I have taken a drink of water or brush my teeth with the water I buy and try to keep in good supply, I've thought of how blessed I am to have this water. Yesterday, one friend told me this story:

My 4 year old just told me that people are dieing in Haiti cuz they don't have water. She asked "can't we take them some?" I told her no they live too far away, but we could send some $$. Not convinced she said "well who makes the water? Do you have their phone number?" I love the way her mind works.

I am truly blessed in so many ways!

One blessing from this past week: I have survived the first of the insane intensive program I'm teaching in along with the other programs: total = 27 hours of teaching a week, let alone preparation. Which reminds me, I need to go to bed so I can be ready for another one!

"Doctors" and Hospitals in Azerbaijan

I have to tell my stories about going to doctors in Az:
When I arrived in Baku, I had to do a health check-up to make sure I didn't bring any diseases with me and that I was healthy enough to work here. This initial doctors visit was a bit of a wake-up call to let me know that I would want to avoid going to any sort-of medical facility if I could. It was a pretty scary place and I am pretty sure that the needle they used to draw blood ... yeah, pretty sure it wasn't a brand new needle, but they stuck it in me when they had me distracted with a side conversation and my head was turned. Also, the doctors were all quite interesting. The female doctors wore formals and high heels and a lot of make-up all with their lab coats. The facilities and the doctors sort-of reminded me of some old scary movie where they take people in and sedate them to do whatever they will with them. It was an eery place. I had to see several doctors for all the tests they did. The doctors asked me (mostly through an interpreter colleague) about any health problems I had, so I told them about my migraines and whatever else. The doctors all laughed at me, because I guess it was weird for me to actually tell them what was wrong with me since this was for a job. Apparently, most people don't actually say when they have health issues, no matter what, so that they can keep their jobs. Then, it was great that the one doctor who spoke a little English told me several interesting things like that I'm a very nervous person, which he could tell the moment I walked in, so my arrythmia is caused by me being a nervous, stressed out person. Then he said that the reason I have health problems is because I'm not married. That was my favorite. I asked him if I heard him right and asked my interpreter to ask him if that is what he meant. He did. Altogether, it was a very interesting experience.
Then, I don't know what possessed me, ... well I was convinced to go to another doctor in November by a couple of colleagues. They somehow got out of me that I was going to go to a cardiologist when I got to the U.S. for a couple of reasons. So they convinced me that I would save a lot of money and that the doctors in Azerbaijan are "very good" and "very qualified" and that the brother-in-law of the one colleague could recommend a very good cardiologist. I basically went mostly to humor them, but I was the one who was humored, or you might use another word, in the end. I knew I would probably end up still going while I was in the U.S. So, the one colleague went with me to interpret. Our driver eventually found this compound, that seemed like a military facility, or well, a result of the Soviet regime. The location and the set of buildings from the outside were pretty frightening. Then, when I entered, I thought I had walked into some old Soviet horror movie again. I can only describe the hallways lined with people all wearing black coats, standing and filling the entire hallways on each of the floors all along the very long corridors. It felt like there were hundreds of people standing and waiting. They all looked so depressed and I wondered how long they would have to stand there and wait. I could barely move through the halls, and as you can imagine, I was quite the site apparently. Everyone stared at me wherever I went (which I'm used to, but this was a different type of stare). To make it even better, at least half of the people were smoking and once we found that we'd have to be waiting (when my colleague called the doctor on her cell to find out if he was there, which he wasn't for another hour), I asked her if we could at least try to find a window where we could stand and try to breathe in air from outside. So we found a window to stand next to where we were still surrounded by smokers and I went and stuck my head out the window. When I looked below, there was an entire awning completely covered with cigarette butts and packs and I quickly recalled where I was, a heart hospital!!! It all gets better. So when the doctor finally came, we were lucky to somehow be able to go in front of all of these people who were waiting immediately outside his office. However, all the nurses and people who had been waiting in his office stayed there! So this office was probably no bigger than 10 x 10 ft and there were two desks that completely filled the room by themselves. Yet, there was the doctor, three nurses, and about eight patients, my colleague and I. It became even better when he decided to examine me in front of everyone there ... no privacy whatsoever, wow! And of course not one person took their eyes off me the entire time. Then, whenever he asked questions, my colleague would explain whatever and then he would laugh and so would everyone else in the room. They all think I'm crazy! I guess I am crazy for letting them convince me to go! So he just kept telling me all of these things that really didn't make any sense from what I was asking my colleague to tell him. And then he ordered an ultrasound, so we went to another floor and I had an ultrasound. This doctor also found many occasions to laugh at me. Then! Yes, he said it too! "You have health problems because you are not married!" I laughed out loud in his face and shook my head and told him how ridiculous their conclusions are. So he proceeded to tell me all of the reasons he is a very qualified doctor and I couldn't help but laugh back at him. Then, we went back up to the other doctor who looked at my ultrasound and an EKG I had from the original health check-up and he decided to write me a prescription for my "neurosis" and something to make me "calm", because I'm obviously a very nervous person. I thought, okay here comes the sedation part that I imagined in these old psycho movies ... I think the movie I'm thinking of is called something "Green" and has to do with some green stuff but I won't go into any other details because it was the dumbest old horror movie.
Anyway, these experiences had to be shared. And for those wondering, yes I went to a real doctor in the U.S. and everything is fine and they didn't say anything about my marital status. Sorry now pictures of the compound for two reasons: This was prior to my camera purchase and it is illegal to take pictures of many unspecified buildings in Azerbaijan, for which I could be arrested. I may never have any pictures of buildings to share. In fact, I'm basically afraid to accidentally take pictures as there is no real list of what you can and can't take pictures of. Sorry! It is not as exciting without pictures!

Thanks to family and friends!

The month of November was completely full of interesting experiences and then there were those that I promised to recount from before that. Well, then I left Azerbaijan for more than a month at the end of November to go to Tbilisi, Georgia for a week with my Masters students on a sort-of field trip, then to Istanbul for a couple of days on my own, before spending most of the month of December floating around the U.S. to see most of my family in D.C., Monterey, and Nevada and many friends in Monterey. I returned to Baku to work on the 30th of December just to find that the Rector had given everyone the day off to make the long weekend with New Years and another Muslim holiday even longer. I'm glad I came back, though, because I did need to work that day to prepare to teach on the 5th, which was the first day after the holiday.

I have to say to family and friends who I talked to over the break and heard my giant list of complaints and reasons for not wanting to return after a number of issues that went down a little before and more right after I left for my break in teaching: I survived the first week!! Honestly, there is only one reason I survived this first week and that is the Lord. After much prayer, fasting, a blessing, and others' prayers (thank you!!!), I know that it was only through Him that I was strengthened to handle what I had to face upon my return. I'll save the complaints for those that I didn't see or who didn't hear about them, but I'll say that it wasn't pretty and it was enough for me to consider ending my contract early and not to return. However, the Lord had something else in mind for me and I returned; thus, he helped me work out many of the issues that I needed to and to rebuild the friendships and trust that I had built among faculty and staff and students. I have not seen the end of the difficulties and challenges, but I know that I'll continue to be strengthened and guided as to how to deal with them and to come out well in the end. Thank you again to all who have been praying for me!!

One of those reasons that I know I'm here is the same as I've mentioned in the past: missionary work. I continue to have opportunities to talk about my beliefs and even Christianity in general in spite of the laws against proselyting and other barriers. Everyone knows that I'm "Mormon" and Christian and they feel that they can ask me about anything and also tell everyone else that they introduce me to that I'm a religious Christian person. It will even be announced in a game we are playing with the new students tomorrow to get to know their teachers, because the English director decided to add one thing about me: "She's a very religious person." I'm glad I am seen that way and that people ask. One of my students from Mexico in the Masters program has been coming to church since my last Sunday here in November. I spent a bit of time with him today after church answering a lot of his questions and telling him about many of our beliefs. He asked me about baptism and then whether he could be a missionary like I was in Brazil. Unfortunately for the latter, he would be too old to go as a single male, so he'll have to wait until he can go with his wife. However, for the former ... oh there could be another trip to Georgia some weekend or something ... whatever we need to do. Moscow is too complicated with Visas, even if the area authorities are there.

Anyway, I had to tell this story also to let you all know I'm where I'm supposed to be at this moment. I don't know that I'll be here for another 8 months to fulfill the contract, but right now I'm here where the Lord wants me. I'll face the challenges I have to face with His help and then go when I'm supposed to.

Azerbaijani Culture Update after 2 months

I keep saying that I have so many things I want to share about what I'm learning about the culture. So here are just a few things I've learned:
It is interesting to work with mostly Azerbaijanis. This means that there are a number of frustrations, but I certainly have the opportunity to learn about and get used to many cultural things. Thus far, the most annoying frustration is the lack of planning. This word is not in the vocabulary. It's true! I've looked for it as I'm trying to learn the Azerbaijani language and it doesn't exist!! So, this is something I found out the hard way and I don't know if I'll ever get used to it. I'm not the most organized person in the world, yet I am still an organization and planning freak. I can't deal very well with people coming up to me and saying, "we are having an important meeting with the Vice Rector in five minutes," or "there is a presentation happening in a half hour during the lunch hour and you need to be there," or "there is a luncheon upstairs in ten minutes that you need to go to," etc. With statements like the latter, I've learned the hard way that I need to ask what it is for and who is going to be there and 20 other questions. I described the luncheon that I had with the Ambassador/Rector/Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs already in the Blog. That is just one example of when I needed to ask 20 questions to find out what the purpose is of all of these unplanned meetings, luncheons, presentations, etc. Otherwise, I find myself meeting all of these really important people with no prior knowledge or expectation. However, much of the time, I still don't know, because often the person telling me I must go, doesn't even know the purpose themselves. One day, I'm going to end up in a reception with the President of Azerbaijan and not even know it until I'm shaking his hand and someone is introducing me. I'm serious about this too, because there is a "plan" to bring him to the school as this school is mandated by the government, we just will not know until it happens at that very moment. So for someone who likes to plan and gets even my own classes cancelled at the last second or 45 minutes after it was already supposed to start because the students had to practice for their "fashion show" (yes, I am still teaching at the same school, diplomats and civil servants) or they are rescheduled post-poned, or whatever ... it is enough to make me crazy!!! And forget about ever making prior plans for anything or with anyone outside of the school! OK ... phew ... that is the most frustrating thing for me as you can tell.

Next, another interesting thing about working amongst the people, I learn about everything I do or have done that is offensive or is seen in a bad light of some sort in the culture.

First: I pluck my eyebrows! What a horrible thing! I am seen as spoiled and maybe even sort-of like someone who sells myself! Apparently, I am not supposed to pluck my eyebrows until after I'm married! They say they can either tell when women are married or not or if they have given themselves away otherwise if they pluck their eyebrows. Well, it may be a small thing, but it hasn't stopped me from plucking since I learned of this one.

Second: I learned awhile back that women don't sit in the front of the car. I only heard that it was just not supposed to be done from other Americans, but they didn't tell me all of the reasons. They are all married, so they probably didn't know all of the reasons. One reason they told me was basically a sort-of submissive one to the paternalistic society. They had also told me that if husbands were driving and no other men were in the car, then it would be okay.
However, I have had a couple of other experiences since being told that helped me to learn more. The first was when I was jumping in a taxi with three guys that I was going to play tennis with. They told me to sit in the front! Of course, they are all my colleagues and a little more Internationally experienced men, but I was still surprised. The one who had suggested I sit in front later told me that he thought I should sit in the front because I'm tall and he was trying to be a gentlemen. Obviously, I normally would not have questioned his intentions, but I did at the time, because he said you are "big" so you should sit in the front. I was a little angry because I thought he was saying fat, but found out later that he meant tall. It was all a misunderstanding partially because of my new limited cultural understanding and partially because of the language. (I should never have questioned the linguistic error, because my own father used to say I was a big girl, meaning tall.)
Then, a couple of days ago when I went to the Opera with another female colleague and her friends, they sort-of fought and laughed about who was to sit in the front with the driver who was the only male. We were all single, so they explained to me that it is not right for single women to sit in the front with single men. They said that the next day, anyone who would have possibly seen this would think that they are together. Just the night before I had ridden in the back with the single male driver of some friends of mine, who were not with us. We were the only two in the car, so I thought I should have sat in the back ... it is a struggle for me to know what to do. Then, when he took me back home, he invited me to sit in the front. So, of course, I live in a large city and don't expect anyone that knows us to see us together in the front, nor am I worried about it, but apparently this is not a good thing. Of course, with all of these things, there is always some level of understanding with foreigners. At least I have that going for me.

OK, this is just the beginning. I have so many more stories and pictures to share, but they'll have to be put off for another entry or 5 soon to come.

An important article

Since I have been in Azerbaijan, I have learned to appreciate the many freedoms and rights given to citizens of the U.S. One particular freedom that I have come to appreciate more is that of religious freedom. I am blessed to be able to attend Church meetings each Sunday, although there is not an actual chapel. Most churches and even some mosques in Azerbaijan have been destroyed in the past and I understand that this still happens on occasion as there is fear of radicalism. A different type of radicalism could take place in the U.S. if people are convinced that personal rights means something different than was outlined in the Constitution. I read this text from an address given to students at BYU-Idaho by Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle of the Lord, on lds.org, which helped me appreciate what could be fleeting even in the U.S. if the adversary succeeds in convincing people of his own definition of the freedom to practice religion.
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/religious-freedom

More to come soon about my life and the culture here in Baku. I have books in my head that need to be typed.

The Princess' Palace

The bedroom

The bathroom

The living room and balcony

The kitchen and dining room.
Yes, that is a washer under the stove-top in place of an oven. I like having the washer, but sad I don't have an oven.

I talked with several before I left Monterey about the possibility of having a "palace" for an apartment. This palace idea stemmed from Nicole who was here for a few months before I took her place. She has said that her apartment was like a palace. I didn't get the same apartment that she did, but I am happy in my own little palace. I love my apartment! It is nice.

So a funny story about having my own palace is that I have since been likened to the "Princess and the Pea" by my colleague who is over the International students and expats at the school. I have this strange issue with beds and my back. I honestly have the pickiest back and can't really sleep well in any bed in the world except my own (which is why I have a hard time getting rid of it even when I move out of the U.S.). To explain: Basically, I will wake up in the middle of the night with my entire back in so much pain that I can't move, turn over, nor sleep anymore. Taiwan was the worst, because I might as well have been sleeping on cement on the beds they have there. Anyway, I slept ok for about a week here, and then it started. So, I tried to make my bed in different ways with the multiple "comforters" or whatever they are here which seemed more like thick, heavy rugs covered in a sheet. Anyway, I kept discovering I had more and more in the apartment, so I kept adding them and sleeping on them instead of putting them on me. The result is basically the princess and the pea. There is the regular mattress, which is sort-of like a box spring ... well, not really ... I could feel every spring on that one. Then, there is a much thicker mattress (?) or cover (?), I don't know. Then there are 3 more comforter/mattresses. So I'm half-way there, as I believe the Princess had ten mattresses and could still feel the pea. I still feel the pe-ain myself, but it has improved.

The Princess and the Pea mattresses

One of the greatest features of my apartment is the unique set of light fixtures. Each room has its own style of light, but my favorite is the "Speck" lamp that reminds me of "Horton Hears a Who." It would probably remind others of fuzzy oranges, because that is basically what they are. Either way, I love it! I'm sure there thousands of tiny communities like "Who-ville" on those fuzzy balls full of dusty specks! I promise that they are dusty too, because there is constant construction all around me as maybe only half of the apartments are finished in this building and the one right next to me is completely a dust den of nothing but dirt, and cement dirt, so there is tons of dust that I try to keep up with! I'm sure I'm killing thousands of little whos all the time. :( It's better for me, though, I'm allergic to the little guys.

Horton Hears a Who Bedroom Light

I'm sure you can find some whos if you look really closely!

The Multi-mood spider light, with the blue light around the interior trim.

The kitchen light with another colored light around the trim

The hallway light with the lighted trim

Going Private?

So, I know I just joined the Blog scene again, but I'm thinking of joining the masses and going private. The issue is: limit to 100 people?? That is annoying. OK, so I like to claim I have a lot of friends and family that may want to keep up with my life here in Azerbaijan. If you would like to be one of those, let me know soon.

One month in Baku

This past month has been full of unexpected occasions, yet expected learning about a new culture that I new little about, the Azerbaijani culture. I have had multiple experiences that I’ve needed/wanted to write down. Unfortunately, time, limited Internet, and the Blog that doesn’t want to work on that Internet have all minimized my writing.

Pictures at dusk on a drizzly Sunday Tail Light Christmas Tree
Notice the interesting traffic patterns (Clue: There aren't any)

Two Mosques visible from my apartment

One of many more stories (to be written):
My third weekend I was told on a Friday afternoon that I was having lunch the next day and that I would be picked up downtown where I would be on a tour with students learning about some of the history of the city. I learned quickly enough that there is no fair warning of anything much here. This example was prime. I had just learned of the tour with the students earlier that day and now I was going to lunch. That information was all I was left with. The next morning, I decided that although I would be walking for 3 ½ hours, I had no idea what the lunch was, so I better dress a little better than my Saturday city tour dress.

While I was on the tour, I learned from the professor from Italy that apparently the two of us would be having lunch with the Ambassador, which one neither of us knew for sure. Although, he had a name he’d been trying to practice so he could greet him. We about determined that he was probably the Azeri Ambassador, but to where, we didn’t know. The tour was fascinating. The tour guide is Azeri and lives in Canada, but was here for a number of months. He introduced himself by saying that he was neither a historian nor a tour guide. If any other historian or tour guide could have that much passion, he would be a hot commodity anywhere. This tall Azeri had dug so deep into the history of every building in about a 4-block radius that I couldn’t have imagined a more thorough knowledge by any other living person. He carried a large accordion file with picture from the last 200 years. The pictures were of buildings that were there prior to Soviet occupation or of the buildings that still stood from past times. For example there is an old famous (in Azeri circles) novel that is a true story that took place in the area, entitled Ali and Nino, and he showed us the schools or what were the schools that Ali and Nino went to. The pictures also included photos of families or people, especially old oil barons. We saw many of the houses or palaces that they lived in from the outside, including many old smaller run down places that included many people during harder times. Thus, Fuad had found the descendents of these people wherever they were spread throughout Europe, Russia, and Azerbaijan or as far-flung as they had ended up due to wars, occupations, or other causes of dispersions. The descendents all provided him with pictures of their ancestors and of the homes, churches that had been torn down, schools, and other buildings. The three hours was seriously amazing. Luckily, I am to have another tour with him within the Old City walls (Ichirishahar) with a different group of students. I have been here a month and have yet to actually tour any of these buildings that are the tourist attractions of Baku.

Old City Tour to come

Luigi and I were picked up back at where we began the tour and stuffed into separate cars that belong to the school; complete with our drivers we have for the school. I drove about a half hour out of the city to Retro, a fancy newer resort that I believe was begun by the Ambassador himself. I rode in the car with an Azerbaijani co-worker who is the director of one of the programs. Most of the conversation on the way ended up being questions and answers about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He told me he is not atheist, but not religious, and that he was curious what others believed. I answered questions and described much of the doctrine when asked. He was quite impressed that I would have given up a year-and-a-half of my life to be a missionary, who wasn’t making any money, but being supported, by my own savings, my family, and other members of the church. He was amazed that someone could have that much passion about a religion to volunteer to tell people about it. It was a great conversation.
At the resort, we were treated to a feast over a couple of hours. I was very confused about the identity of the Ambassador and never really cleared up my confusion until the following week at the office with another colleague. I thought I had met him my first day at the school when I first walked in and that he had been introduced as the Rector, but I had been a bit dazed and confused that first day with my jet lag. In any case, during the feast he was the Ambassador, I was still unsure about who he was an Ambassador for or to, but guessed that he was the Ambassador to the U.S. based on much of the conversation. Many of the other foreign staff members were also in attendance at the feast. Much of the conversation was about political topics, which is expected when I work for the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. However, much of the conversation was about religion. Somehow it usually turns to that here, I’m finding. The group consisted of many religions (LDS, Muslim, Hindi, non-believing Italian Catholic, and others, I believe) and many who were not religious. The meal with at least 7 or 8 courses was fabulous. After each course, my plate was cleared and a new plate and utensils appeared with the constant whisking around of the wait staff. It was fascinating and I felt like I was being treated like a princess. I think that we must have dirtied at least 100 plates and 300 utensils during the course of that meal. In any case, the most interesting part that I wanted to recount came during tea at the end. I had already refused wine and all other like substances that they nearly poured into my glasses several times. Then, tea somehow became more difficult. I refused the first waitress who came along with tea and confused her completely. The Ambassador noticed and asked why I wouldn’t drink tea. He said, “you are in Azerbaijan; you must drink tea.” I just sort-of smiled and didn’t others around me shifted uncomfortably, because some had already discovered that I don’t drink tea on previous occasions. Luckily, the conversation moved on and I thought it had passed. Then, a ninja waiter who noticed I didn’t have one mysteriously placed another cup in front of me. The Ambassador spoke up and said, “there, now you have the choice again, to drink or not.” He waited and watched while I said something about not drinking tea and his wife asked if I’d rather have coffee, which I also refused. Everyone sat watching me to see what I would do as the Ambassador seemed to be expecting me to make the choice and I just left the tea in front of me and looked on. The Vice Rector sitting beside me, knowing my beliefs, relieved me by taking the cup and saying, “here, I’ll drink that.” That settled it, and the conversation carried on. I didn’t know how much I was offending, and hoped I wasn’t, but the Vice Rector saved me as far as I could tell.
The ride home was with the Italian and the other American who also asked me all about the Church. Actually, the American already knew a lot because she is the admissions director and had been a recruiter at a university in Pennsylvania, where she did a bit of recruiting at BYU. Thus, she had done her research on the LDS culture. However, the Italian professor had many misconceptions and had a very negative idea of the Church and was not afraid of expressing it. I again answered many questions and basically provided the history and the entire basis of our beliefs and the doctrine throughout the entirety of the drive home. It was not well received by Luigi, but Janice was generally interested and much more receptive.
I believe I mentioned in my original Baku Blog that it is against the law to proselyte or to preach about religion here. However, I can answer questions when asked. Prior to that day and since, I find that I am asked about the LDS Church and my beliefs two to three times a day, mostly at work. I am glad that I am allowed to openly answer questions and that many are impressed by much of what we believe, especially the importance we place on the family. Families are very important in the Azerbaijani culture. Also, many are surprised constantly by the practices pertaining to the Word of Wisdom and the Sabbath Day. I have several who watch out for me when it comes to both. For example, I have had meetings cancelled on Sunday by the Vice Rector because he knows I go to church and that I don’t work on Sundays, or I have had other colleagues who will tell me not to eat something because it has coffee or something in it. It is nice that they recognize that I actually do not only believe these things, but that I try to live them too and they genuinely want to help me to. It is impressive as most are Muslim, but not practicing or religious.

Rug Shop on Ramazan

From Old to new Baku

Thanks to the Branch President and his wife, I now have pictures!! They lent me their camera, so I've taken just a few to at least have something to show.
I have much to say, and definitely won't get it all typed.
First, if you've been in tune with my frustrations of being able to get onto Blogger this past week, I'll say that there is the possibility that I might switch to another Blog. If so, I'll let you know. I'm guessing that my problems have to do with the Internet service that I have at home, but I don't really understand.

Icharishahar (Old City) Double Gate

I have had a four-day weekend which is almost over, but it has been nice to sort-of catch up with my new life here in some ways and to exercise, etc. Early this afternoon, I decided to take a walk down to the Old City with the camera I had lent to me. I wanted to accomplish two things: exercise and take pictures. When I was in the Old City walls, I got caught as I was taking pictures of the "Flying Carpet" shop. I was glad to talk to the people who work there and I was well taken care of. They quickly got me into the shop and said they'd take my picture, which resulted in an hour and a half of intimate details about rug-making, the many types of weave for lamb's wool, camel, and silk, and which are the best (Azeri, of course), etc. Actually, it was quite interesting and now I have a much greater appreciation for rugs and why they are so important to the people of this region. Now I understand Scott McGrew and the important rug purchases while in Morocco. I just didn't expect to spend so long on my walk. I do hope to buy one before leaving. In the meantime, Ruslan, who spent the hour-and-a-half describing the rugs to me, has offered to give me a tour of the Old City, because he used to give tours there. I think I'll take him up on it, because I know I'll learn a bit more than if I were to do a self-guided tour.

Ruslan dressed me up for a picture in the rug shop

2 1/2 Weeks in Baku, Azerbaijan

I am finally sitting down to write about my new life. Unfortunately, I do not have a camera, so photos will have to follow once friends share some with me and once I acquire a camera.

As many know, I became quite ill in the last couple of days before leaving Monterey. I don't know if I got the stomach flu that I was exposed to while visiting most of my family during that week or if it was me just being overwhelmed by everything happening. In any case, I received a blessing at church that day and quickly recovered to the point that I could function somewhat. With the help of my Brother and Sister-in-law, I was somehow able to get everything in my suitcases and to the San Francisco airport on time.

My 24 hours of flying and traveling were mostly without incident. The one incident that I will recount occurred when I arrived in the airport in Baku. I hadn't slept much until the flight from Istanbul to Baku, so I was a little sleepy when I arrived and started through customs at midnight local time. I went through the customs gate quickly and gathered my luggage. I thought I was set to go, but on my way out the door, I apparently had one more set of customs clearance to go through. I had a security guard stop me and say that he needed to scan two items of my luggage. I don't know how he chose the two that he did, but he selected my large red bag and my carry on suitcase that had all of my books and teaching materials. As they went through his scanner, he asked me about the books and what books I had. I went through extensive questioning as he didn't seem to believe that I was here to teach English. He asked about my religious materials that I also had in the suitcase, and continued to hold onto my "Preach My Gospel" book. When he asked whether I had any other religious material, I pulled out a small Book of Mormon and he said he wasn't worried about that one. His questions basically alluded to an unknown problem to me (at that time) that they had recently with some proselyting. It is illegal here. So of course, with a title like "Preach My Gospel," ... In any, case he continued to ask me about this school, because he said he'd never heard about it. Eventually, he asked for my email address because I didn't know my local address or the address of the school. So I received a series of emails that I felt obligated to respond to about such things as I shouldn't have come so early because schools don't start until this week. But I stopped responding once he told me that he would like to keep emailing me to practice his English.

It took me a week to get over my jet lag and much longer to learn most of the names of the people I was introduced to only about 12 hours after arriving when I was barely coherent enough to stand on my feet.

I began to teach the Tuesday after I arrived on September 1st. I am teaching English Content Writing and Editing to students who are just beginning the first Masters of Arts in Diplomacy and International Relations at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. This group consist of 2/3 Azerbaijani, 2 Mexicans, 2 Czechs, 1 Pakistani, and 2 Kenyans. I've been involved in the revamping of the English portion of another program that the Academy has, which is the Advanced Foreign Service Program for people who already work in the various ministries. In the meantime, it was announced that we will begin a Bachelor's program next year at the same time our main campus is supposed to be completed. Their current idea is to begin the first year as entirely intensive English. Therefore, we will begin to come up with the curriculum for that first year. I will probably enlist the MIIS Curriculum Design class to help with at least a portion of that curriculum as my former Professor, Peter Shaw, kept indicating that he would love to have the students help with any curriculum that we would need. I knew that I would be doing much more than teaching, and that is proving to be true.

Now for those who would like to know about my life here. I'll begin by explaining that I arrived toward the beginning of the Holy month of Ramazan (Ramadan). For those who don't know, many of the more religious Muslims fast during the day and eat at Sunset. I say "many" because most here are Muslim, but they aren't necessarily the strictest or the most religious. Some fast some days, but not everyday and some don't fast at all. I haven't found one who fasts everyday yet. Of course, there are some things about women, that doesn't allow them to fast everyday of the month. But I won't go into that, as I feel that it is very sad that the adversary makes it out to be a bad thing to be a woman, because at certain times they are not pure and cannot fast. Anyway, my point is that I've celebrated many an Iftar or break-the-fast dinners with the ADA staff. This meal that I've shared with many of them is a feast. I feel like I eat so much that it wouldn't matter if I fasted the next day, because I wouldn't need to eat for 24 hours. Not to demean the tradition, because I don't know if I could fast for 28 days straight and only eat dinner every day. The traditional meal as I perceive it, consists of some type of salad without lettuce, various cheeses, bread, some fresh vegetables, often some pickles or not fresh vegetables, a mayonnaise salad (Russian) that reminds me of a Brazilian salad I always ate, another salad that is more like a creamy dill dip, and several other things to start with. Then, there will be several other courses, which could be sac ((Sodge) meat and vegetables cooked on a pan similar to a wok), kebab (many meats cooked without a stick), or plov (a yellow rice with various things on top like an omelet-like thing, different meats or whatever on top). I have had just a couple of other things, but these tend to be the main things. Then, there is always tea with different types of preserves that they just eat by itself. Sometimes Halvasi (similar to Baklava) will accompany the tea.

Some are awaiting my accounting of the trip I took last weekend with many of the students based on my comments on facebook. If only I had something to write on last weekend, I made many observations on this trip which told me a lot about the culture. We traveled by bus to Sheki (near the Georgian border), which is about 200 miles from Baku. It took us 7 hours to get there and 7 hours to return. One reason for the length of the trek: There is extensive construction unlike anything you have or will see in the U.S. unless perhaps you are 80+ years old. And just as an aside: Driving is insane here. I thought it was scary an insane in Taiwan, but this is much worse. I describe it as improvisation. The few laws I can decipher are red lights and one-way streets and generally driving on the right side of the road, but even these laws don't always apply when not convenient. I decided from day 1: I will never drive here! I would never survive. In any case, the construction that we drove through was through the "land of desolation." Not a green speck in site. We were driving through brown hills for what seemed like hours on dirt roads that were had potholes the size of large troughs every couple of feet. Needless to say our already scary looking bus had to drive somewhere between 5 and 20 miles an hour the entire construction route. And once on the way and twice on the way back the bus quit during this construction on the way up hills. It would take awhile to get it going again each time. It was a bit worrisome that I might be stuck in the land of desolation without a bush to go behind when nature called or worse, for the entire night.

Once we suddenly drove out of the land of desolation into the green and paved yet still pothole ridden roads, I thought I had woken up in a new land. From the 4 million population city of Baku, to the land of desolation and then to the land of promise. It was suddenly beautiful and got to be more beautiful as we drove closer to the North. (Apparently there are 9 of the 11 types of climates in this tiny country of Azerbaijan.) Other reasons the trek was so long: There is a tradition of stopping at "rest stops" for tea. These randomly placed rest stops that are all different are just on the side of the road and they ranged from all sorts of atmospheres outdoor: from a large table or set of tables that seats about 50 people or a bunch of gazebos in the forest where there are also tree swings and other entertaining attractions and then you sit down and have tea as described above. I can't go on without saying that I was glad for my Taiwan preparation of the holes in the ground used in place of toilets. I was so disappointed to see one again, but glad that I had experienced this previously. And of course, just like Taiwan, it is necessary to always have your own tissues or suffer the consequences. Then, you just hope there is some water to wash your hands and maybe some soap, but if not, there is always hand sanitizer in the purse. Again glad for having already experienced all this in Taiwan ... The biggest problem with stopping for tea is that we would stop for at least an hour.

In any case, the trip was the most adventurous. However, Sheki, which is along the "Silk Road" was a really nice town to visit and see the palace of the Sheki Khans, a World War II museum and several other museums and other interesting buildings, including an old Albanian Christian church or temple from the first century in Kish. For more of your own reading pleasure and to see some pictures that I am not providing, see: http://wikitravel.org/en/Sheki

Other observations on this trip:
There are parks and tea houses everywhere that are full of men playing Nard, a game similar to or that looks like Backgammon. Women are actually not allowed to enter these parks or tea houses. Actually, I've noticed that I probably see at least 20 men to one woman everywhere I go. I don't know why, but there are always men everywhere in the streets either walking around, or playing on the card table they've set up anywhere including in the middle of the streets in some places.
Everyone honks constantly and similar to the rest of the driving, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to any of it. I can't figure out what honks mean. I mean even with cows and sheep all along the entire trek to Sheki on the side of the road or in the road, the bus driver even honked at them. I don't know what good that does. Needless to say that with the road the way it was and the constant honking, there was no way to sleep on that bus.
There will be children and adults all along the side of the road in many places trying to sell hazelnuts, or other nuts or fruit that they have in bags. They would be placed about every fifteen feet each trying to wave down the bus and all cars traveling past to get them to buy these things. Of course, the bus driver honked at them too.
I'll have to recall some of my many other observations from this trip last weekend, which I was able to do as the students basically spoke Azerbaijani to each other except when occasionally they would decide to ask me random questions or the Italian professor who was sitting in the opposite end of the bus as me. Or occasionally, I would have different students switching out/kicking out the current occupant to come and sit by me to chat for awhile. In any case, most of the weekend, I was just an observer and a bit less social than my normal as I can't speak Azerbaijani or Russian. Azerbaijani classes begin soon? They keep telling me "next week," but it is like "tomorrow" that never comes. So we'll see.

More stories to come about my life here in Azerbaijan ...
About Church, missionary opportunities (of sorts), ADA community, my apartment, lunch with the Azeri Ambassador, etc. Anything else anyone wants to know about, let me know.

Flying in the Cessna

Just enjoying the ride.

Receiving instructions before taking over!

Riding along while Nicole is receiving instructions to fly in the front.

After the flight with the Cessna.

I think at one point in my Blog I mentioned that Nicole and I were given the opportunity to fly in a Cessna with our good friend and my cuz Chris. This was back in May-ish, but since I've been so great at Blogging and also at getting Nicole to send me the pics, it has taken this long to put these on the Blog. So here's another adventure in the World of Rebecca!!! Yes, I got to actually fly the plane for quite awhile as we flew along the California Coast, seeing the beautiful Big Sur coastline all the way to San Luis Obispo where we stopped for lunch. Then Nicole flew us most the way back just inland along the 101. This was one of the most exciting things I've ever done! If I could afford it, I'd get my pilots license!!!

What's Next???

Good question. That has been the question since I finally finished my Graduate program officially almost two weeks ago! The answer is yet to be determined. I am looking for jobs and trying to figure out where I need to be, whether staying in California, back to D.C., Texas, Spain, Italy, Brazil ... who knows? I'm working on it.

So for anyone who used to follow my Blog and gave up on me actually updating it, I'll try to get back to letting you know what's happening. And for now, here's a quick summary of what happened to me and why I sort-of disappeared from the Blogging world or even with keeping in touch and letting you all know what was going on.

In April, I turned in my program Portfolio, which didn't pass. It was a bit devastating for me, but honestly, I didn't have time to complete it the way I had wanted to nor in a satisfactory manner that would allow me to pass. I had been working too much and carrying 16 credits at the same time, which is insane for this enourmous elephant of a task. Therefore, I sort-of dropped out of communication with most people and buried myself in a hole of devastation at first and then a pile of work. I worked like crazy to try to make ends meet all summer. The summer was insane with many jobs, including Program Coordinating and Teaching for a language teacher training program for a group of Elementary and Secondary teachers from Korea. It was the busiest job of the summer, but was made busier by carrying at least two or three others at the same time. Of course, this all had to end and I had to learn to say no to other possible teaching jobs or other work in order to re-do my portfolio. At the end of the summer, I basically had 3 weeks to complete the whole portfolio! I felt like I had about started over with the two main theses, the position paper and the B1 Revised project. I somehow got it in and three weeks later found that I had passed, pending a million revisions. I felt like I did the portfolio a third time! But, luckily my revisions were approved and the portfolio conference (similar to, but not as intense as, a thesis defense) went well. Then, I found out about a week and a half ago that it was official as far as my department was concerned ... I was done and received my Master's!!!! Now that it is official, I can post my graduation pictures, even if I didn't actually walk or even pick up my graduation robes that I had paid for. My roommate, Nicole, made me put her's on so that I could at least document the event that won't ever happen because I was too proud or embarrassed or whatever at the time, when I didn't feel I deserved to walk in a graduation I wasn't actually graduating in. Whatever ... hindsight is 20/20 ... and I missed out, but here are a couple of pictures in celebration of actually graduating.

You can tell that the robe was not mine, but Nicole's (a bit too short :))

Just a switcheroo for documentation purposes.

It's finally official!

So now, with the lovely economy the way it is, I'm looking for employment, hopefully with benefits and also sufficient to cover my insane grad-loan debt payments! Since the portfolio has been done, I've been extremely busy with doing freelance copyediting and yes, for those who know me well ... I've continued to be stressed and lacking in sleep in order to do it. Well, that is the way deadlines go. But of course, the deadlines were all at the same time ... last week. Now, there is a lull, so this week is when the really serious job searching will happen. And something has to happen quick ... or I've got to get a lot more copyediting freelance work soon.

Alright, there is a bit of an update for ya'll. I hope that you are all doing well and that you'll forgive me for having dropped off the face of the earth since April, seven months ago!

Sidra is Pocahontas, but who am I?

You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Less than three weeks left!!

I am tired of looking at my crazy monkey picture of myself from over a month ago. Actually, I'm not really looking at it ... but I'm sure you might have been and would be sick of seeing such a psycho picture. So instead I'm including two of my photos I placed in a photo contest here at MIIS. I received a third place for the "Seasonal View of Austria" but nothing for the butterfly. The butterfly is my favorite though.

Just a quick update, so I can get back to my 10 projects I have left to do or finish. Besides the 10 projects, I have a comprehensive final and the expected revisions on my Portfolio once I get it back this Friday and find out my fate.

I am staying in Monterey for most of the summer at least. I'll be working more hours for the Modern Language Journal and possibly teaching a Business English class for the English for Academic and Professional Purposes Intensive English programs here at MIIS. If the enrollment for the class isn't high enough, they are going to pay me to come up with the curriculum anyway for future use. Beyond that, it is still a mystery ... Some things have popped up as possibilities and I'm waiting to hear from others that I've applied for. I haven't really had time to apply for the majority of the ones that I've been interested in, unfortunately. Well, rather than tell you about my lack of time, I'll get back to my projects and applying.

Graduation is May 10th!!! Then, that is it for school for me!!! I've got a line up of books I want to read, places I want to go, people I want to see, and as my Dad told me to do ... my blank calendar for the week after graduation now has an "S" an "L" an "E" an "E" and a "P" on Monday through Friday! Great advice! I don't know what that is, so I'll find out!

My Birthday

Birthdays ... who wants 'em? Well, they come anyway, so we may as well enjoy them! Nicole planned to take me to dinner with some friends and then we had cake and ice cream at our house.


Me the scary monkey, on my birthday. :) (Oh and Nicole gave me some great monkey slippers as part of my portfolio writing outfit, for our many late nights ... so I guess I'm monkey from my head to my toes.) My actual birthday is tomorrow, but the day is booked with my "singing tour" as Nicole, my roomie, calls it, so we couldn't celebrate tomorrow.


Nicole, me, Anna, Gunnar, and Elizabeth at my birthday party.


Anna, me, and Chris and Rayna (my cousins).