Monsoons, Small Children, and Fiances

So remember that one time that California is in a drought? Well I've never seen so much water in all my life. Water flowing in the street, all over my bathroom, just coppius amounts everywhere. Then I get an email from Elaine asking how the weather is, my reply "Like SoCal." I got home and it was freezing cold, then the next day I sewar a monsoon hit. It was windy and rainy and oh my goodness when I looked out the window the trees were horizontal. Whoda thunk? So ultimately I lied to Elaine, because immediately after said email it all changed. Now it's back to normal but who is the sexiest person ever? ME! Why you ask? Because I wear my thermals under my tights and no one knows! Yup, if it's chilly at all you will find me pretty darn warm!

All of us TEFL folk have been teaching this week. In the classroom trying to turn their lessons into fun hours of learning. It's going pretty well I'd say. They are all very excited to hear us talk and we love when they get into the lessons. Beca and I are a team and we've each had one meh class and 4 super fun ones! I'd say that's a pretty good statistic! I have yet to unleash teh ball of knowledge but I think next wekk these kids will see it in it's glory!

Today I was riding with my freind Mary in the marșrutka to Sumgayıt. If I haven't said it before, marșrutka's are make shift astrovans with about 16 seats and people standing on top of that. Well we were in the back and Mary was on my lap because of the lack of space. I told them a fake name and explained I have a fiance. This does not deter these men. One informed me that I will be his Ceyranbatan fiance and the other showed me a photo of a wedding and pojnted to me as the bride and him as the groom. Through awkwardness poeple were leaving and I saw our school's Dean of Students! She was awesome and tut-tutted them so they stopped! We got off at her stop and thanked her profusely and had a fun little Azerglish converstaion.

All in all, pretty good week so far.

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Trip to Agsu

I spent a few days with an AZ6, Rachael carter, in Agsu. It was about 2 and a half hours on a marșrutka (think astro van with seats scrunched in for 16, but people standing in the non aisles) away from Ceyranbatan. It was so much fun and Rachael made Mac and cheese, burritos, and grilled cheese with tomato soup. I did not realize how much my body truly missed these foods until she mentioned it. She lives in a cave! Not like an actual side of the mountain cave but her room is so far under the house that the sunlight doesn’t quite come in. Like a cave, super fun. We went to school and I got to see what the next two years could potentially be for me. Not as scary as it could have been. Pretty cool and her counter part was really into their co teaching which gave me loads of hope.
We took a few walks into town and on one journey the statue of Heydar Əliyev was uncovered. It was all gold and his name was not complete so it just said “Hey”. By far the best Heydar statue. But the park wasn’t quite finished so when I went back the next day to take pictures it was covered up and his name was nearly completed. ☹ In town I did find the coolest ball ever. It has the English alphabet with pictures and words to match all over it. Bear in mind that Q is Quarenden with a picture of an apple, but the rest are pretty darn close. I call it the Ball of Knowledge, and since Knowledge is Power it is also the Ball of Power!
I’m back in town and we’re on a weird schedule. On Monday I do my Practicum, which is just a fancy way to say that Beca and I will be doing supervised teaching. We have a few lesson plans but tomorrow I think we get our official topics so this weekend I will most likely be writing loads. But Sunday is Fun Day! I will hopefully be at the beach playing soccer or just hanging out with friends that I haven’t seen in a while!
So all in all Rachael was awesome, I have a Ball of Knowledgeable Power and I start teaching on Monday. Wish me luck!

OMG almost forgot. Hmom and Hsis were teaching me verbs using my Ball of Power and they got a bit too into it. Hilarious. The best part had to be when they were playing faux volleyball and Hmom wacked the ball into the light and busted it all over my room. I was crying I was laughing so hard. Super Maman had a different meaning that day.

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My first squat toilet experience.

After sending this to my family and friends I realized that the world should not be deprived of this story. So here you go!
“I didn’t use a squat at the hotel, and my host family has a western style toilet. It doesn’t flush, you just take the bucket out of the tub and thrust water down it, no tp either. There’s a hose-ish thingy that you clean with and I’m perfecting the air dry method. Anyways at school I really had to pee the first day. We went downstairs and the nearest bathroom was by all of the small children. That being said, many azeri people don’t clean restrooms. They think that since what you do in there is super gross, why spend time to make it fancy or remotely sanitary? So I’ve already lost some weight and my ring can easily slip off. You may think you can see where this is going, but you do not know to what extent. I already mentioned that this was near the small children and it was so friggin gross. Well that entailed poop filling the squat area because there is no bucket of water to clean the area off. Well bad a bing, bad a boom, my ring slips off with my skirt over my head and reflex kicks in and I pick it up. MY HAND WAS IN A MOUND OF CHILD POOP! I cannot fully describe this experience, it’s impossible to convey the disgust and absolute hilarity of this event. I go to wash off my hand and of course, no soap! With the water I at least got all visual remnants off my hand and ring. Then I walked through the hallway with my hand & ring as far away from me as possible. My entire cluster (6 of us) were laughing so hard that we were crying and I had to tell my teacher what happened. She of course lost it as well and helped me get soap, dish soap in the kitchen of course. Anyways, that was Tuesday and we still randomly start laughing about this, tears and all.

So as you go throughout your day, realize that I’m fine and well looked after. And also, no matter what happens at least your hand wasn’t in a mound of child poop with a skirt over your head in a squat toilet in a country where you can’t speak the language.”

For those of you wondering, yes I’ve become more advanced with the squat, so no worries anymore!

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