Anecdotal Evidence

A few random things that have happened recently that I wanted to share/remember:

- There is an old man who sells individually wrapped portions of cotton candy. He is usually found sitting in places where lots of people walk by (the big stairs leading to our park, an intersection, etc). The other day I saw him near my street, sitting beneath the shade of a tree, with his cardboard box full of cotton candy in front of him. The box was labeled STERILE SYRINGES (in english). I can't decide if that's a recycling WIN or FAIL...

- I was walking near the post office by an empty plaza, behind an older gentleman who was walking in front of me. I heard quick little footsteps behind me and turned to see a running toddler with the biggest smile on his face. I looked to see where he was running to when he passed me to get to the old man. He grabbed the man's hand and looked up at him with those huge eyes that only kids have and said "Baba!" (Grandfather!). The old man looked down at his grandson, laughed, and picked up the child into his arms.

- I was having a conversation with one of my friends/students about Neruda's Poema 20, "Puedo escribir los versos mas tristes esta noche." We read it in English and then had a discussion on love. She shared with me a saying someone had told her once, "Love is forever, but the candidates are always changing." I laughed in agreement. We continued talking until it was time for me to go, when she said "Jessica, let me tell you something, it is something I tell to all my friends: Let yourself to be in love."

- I was coming home after a few days in another town, tired from all the travel, and I hobbled my way off the marshrutka at the stop near my house. As soon as I touched ground, I saw one of my convo club students coming towards me with a huge smile on his face and a bag full of alcha (unripe plums). He gave me the bag and said he remembered that I wanted some fruit (I had mentioned it in a previous convo club), so he gave it to me as a gift and said "Nuş olsun!"

I'm not really a fan of cats. Sorry catlovers. I don't like how they look at me with those evil eyes and sinister gazes. And they have those claws that hurt like a mofo when they try to latch on to you. But I can see the appeal. They're loyal and c'mon, who doesn't think kittens are the cutest thing ever? I mean who can deny this face?



That said, the other day the strangest/scariest/funniest thing happened to me. I live in the basement/ground floor of a house that I share with a host family. It's not really a basement because I have pretty large windows, but my floor is a few feet below ground level. This is important to note, because it means that from the outside, my windows go down to the floor. Since it is kinda basement-y, my place tends to get a little muggy and is usually in need of ventilation, especially once it starts getting warmer out. So I've been leaving one of the upper windows open. EPIC FAIL!

Why was it an epic fail you ask? Well, because the other night I was sleeping (I am a deep sleeper and can stay asleep through anything) and woke up for some reason in the middle of the night. I was a bit cold so I tried to pull the covers over me, except I couldn't because they were unusually heavy. I reached over to check if I was just tangled in the quilt when I felt FUR. FUR!!!!

I let out a small scream and sat up in bed, not really being able to see because it was too dark. I looked next to me, and saw that there was a giant grey cat just lying there! By the way, I DON'T OWN A CAT.

"OH MY GOD," I said to myself out loud. I stood up from the bed and shooed the cat off, and it proceeded to jump off and just sit on the floor staring at me. I then ran towards the cat yelling "GET!" so it would go away. It finally got the message and ran towards the windowsill, jumped 3 feet to climb on the sill, and then another 3 feet to jump out of the small window that was open. I then hurried over and closed the window, and in disbelief and shock went back to my bed and fell asleep again. It was 4AM.

Upon waking in the morning my mind was filled with questions. How the hell did that cat know how to get inside? Had he been in here before? Have I been unknowingly sleeping with an effin cat the entire time I've lived here?? Does this cat just go around jumping into people's houses/beds? If its that easy for a cat to get in and just chill on my bed, have other animals been comin' up in here too? And then the full realization set in: I SLEPT NEXT TO A STRAY CAT, W. T. F. !!

So yeah, that happened. Which means I'm still not that big a fan of cats.

Eurovision 2011

I CALLED IT! I'm about 95% sure that when I first heard Azerbaijan's Eurovision 2011 entry "Running Scared," I told someone that we would win. AND WE DID! WOOOOOO YEAH TAKE THAT OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE EUROVISION CONTEST! In the rare chance that you have no idea what I'm talking about and haven't heard the song, here it is:



You may be asking yourself, 'But Jessica, WTF is Eurovision?' Well, it is a song contest held annually in which participating European countries send their 'best' (usually internationally unknown) song/artists. Each country's selection gets to sing their song on live TV, at which point viewers in all the participating nations must vote for their favorite (citizens cannot vote for their own country). Apparently the contest has launched a few unknowns into stardom, including ABBA, who won in 1974 for Sweden, and Celine Dion, who won in 1988 for Switzerland. If for some reason you want a more in-depth history/description of the contest wikipedia's got you covered.

This year's contest was held last weekend in Germany, and aired in Azerbaijan in the middle of the night because of the time difference. The country that wins the contest each year gets to host the competition the following year. Last year's winner was Germany's Lena who sang "Satellites," hence why the 2011 contest was held in Dusseldorf. Here's last year's winner:



Since Azerbaijan won this year this means that next year's contest will be held in BAKU! I am both excited and angered by this news. Why? Because I'll be leaving in December which means I won't get to be here for all the Eurovision festivities next year. It'd be like living in South Africa for 2+ years and then moving a few months BEFORE the World Cup. It's going to be EPIC! I want to go! So if anyone reading this would like to sponsor me for a return visit to Azerbaijan next May it'd be greatly appreciated... ... ... no? no takers? Oh well I tried....

And on that note I will leave you with one of the best Eurovision songs Azerbaijan has ever submitted:

It Makes Me ILL

For some reason, I’ve been getting mad sick lately. Well, at least sick more often. Since January I’ve gotten a cold (or something like it) 3 times, and each time it’s pretty much made me bedridden for at least 2 days. So either my immune system sucks, or something is changing here in Zaqatala. I’m going to assume that it can’t be me and blame it on global warming, because that’s clearly the more logical solution.

One of the bright sides of being ill frequently has been that I’ve done two things: 1) caught up on tv show watching (who knew the West Wing was so good?!?) and 2) experimented with soup making. I’ve made noodle soups, lentil soups, and most recently (with the help of my sitemate Jane) a matzoh ball soup! Yeah, you read that correctly, matzoh ball soup! Apparently I had to move 9000 miles away from New York to know what a matzoh ball was.


“But Jessica, where did you get the matzoh?”
Well faithful reader, Jane and I were given matzoh when we stayed in Oğuz during our Easter trip. The host family we stayed with were given matzoh by a friend who brought it from Israel, and I don’t think they liked it too much because they pretty much gave us the entire package! So yeah, we made matzoh ball soup, and it was delicious.

I don’t know what it is about soups that cure colds, maybe its all mental, but luckily its worked on me during the miserable times I’ve been ill this year.

Easter in Nic

So last week was Easter, which is not a holiday that is typically observed in Azerbaijan. I got the chance to visit one of the few places in the country that celebrates Easter – the village of Nic in the Qəbələ region. This village is home to the majority of Azerbaijan’s Udi Christian population, the rest of whom (I assume most likely) live in Baku.

On Easter Sunday I traveled with 5 other PCV’s to the main church in Nic, where we were greeted by one of the leaders of the church community who spoke a bit of English as well as Azeri. We walked around the Orthodox church and made our way inside – just in time to listen to (what I assume was) the sermon given by (what I assume was) the priest. I keep saying “what I assume” because I understood about 5% of what was going on – everyone was speaking Udi, a language I didn’t even know existed before coming to the village.

My lack of understanding aside, it was awesome to be there and experience a whole new kind of Easter, one resembling in no way whatsoever my Easters back in the Heights. After the service everyone went outside and mingled around the church grounds. We met a couple from America who was visiting the village as well which was cool. We were then invited by the leader of the church to sit down to have an Easter meal with the community – an invitation we more than happily accepted.

Cue guesting experience. The male PCV’s went to sit with the men, and us ladies sat with the ladies. We sat at the end of a long table along with some women we met who were visiting from Baku, as well as some who lived in Nic. We drank tea, talked about why PCV's are in Azerbaijan, ate delicious pastries, and got to try a delicious Udi specialty made with rice and meat (that reminded me of un asopao!). Unfortunately I made the rookie mistake of overloading on bread and pastries in the beginning so I wasn't able to finish my entire plate.


All in all, a great time… I got to eat good food, meet new people, learn about a different culture, and spend an all around fun Easter Sunday.