It's been a long time since I have written and there is a lot to write about. First, I will tell you about how my new classes are going. My classes are going good and I got good grades on my report card. Even though I'm in 7th grade which is probably a step up from the 6th grade challenge program I would have been in back in Seattle, I think I'm in the right spot. The only class that I've had trouble with has been writing. That is something that I was struggling with in the 6th grade program. However, I did get an "A" in my writing class which I am very happy about.
Second, I've made friends in my class and here are their names even though they might seem a little odd: Aditya B., Aditya M., Radu, Tengiz, and Tomoyuki. Both Adityas are from India and they speak Hindi, Radu is from Romania and speaks Romanian (before moving up to middle school I'd been friends with his younger brother Danny), Tengiz is from Azerbaijan and speaks Azeri and Russian, and Tomoyuki is from Japan and speaks Japanese even though he doesn't like to share it with us. Of course they all speak English a little bit, because Tengiz is in Intenstive English (IE), Tomoyuki and Radu still need help every once in awhile.
Third, for part of Christmas break we went to Sheki, it took 5 hours to get there from Baku. While there we stayed at a hotel called the Karvansari. The Karvansari was actually a place for the caravans of the Silk Road to stop and rest. In other words not much restoration was done because it was so freakishly cold inside. Mom stole all of the blankets which meant everyone else was freezing. In Sheki we went to a bazaar that had a Santa costume sadly places right next to it was a severed sheep head. Of course I had the pleasure of looking at the sheep head...and feeling like I was going to vomit. Also there we went to many museums where we got to do things that we would have been arrested for in the states such as our driver sitting on a bed that was several hundred years old and there were silks, etc from that time on the bed. We sat in a buggy from several hundred years ago. We can't remember who sat in it or why but we know it was somewhat important. Also we were able to put on medieval armor such as helmets with chain mail, a shield that we believe was old, too. Our driver wore an orange wig that looked like an afro. Our driver also took a gun off the wall and put the strap around his neck and was looking at it when the tour guide told him something, we don't know what she said, immediately following our driver looked at the gun and slowly tried to put it back on the wall. We went and saw stained glass windows being made which was cool and finally we went to the Khan Palace and saw the beautiful place.
Finally, for Christmas day we had a breakfast of chocolate chip muffins and strawberry cheesecake muffins sent from Mimi and Pa and Uncle Cody and Aunt Alona. We opened presents from Mom and Dad and currently we are still waiting for the other packages to come. That night we watched a movie and had a very good meal. Also, the weather here has been erratic. We've had lots of slush and rain but finally it has started to snow...a lot. There is probably a foot of snow outside right now but it's not snowing anymore, probably because it is too cold.
Well, that's all for now but my Mom says I will be writing more tomorrow. Ugh...
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
My, oh my, how time does fly!
Tim and I were just talking tonight how about a year ago at this time we found out about Quality Schools International (QSI). That seriously seems like yesterday. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we can hardly believe it is November. Things truly are very different in a foreign country. We are having a Thanksgiving lunch at school tomorrow. School is still in session. Then we are having a big Thanksgiving dinner for all of the staff and their families on Friday night at school. We priced turkeys here. A 10-12 pound Butterball turkey is $55. We didn't buy it. Fortunately that is something that the school does splurge on and we are very excited about that. I will miss Mom and Dad's stuffing. There is no pork sausage available here. No one eats pork. I'm rather bummed about that. I will really miss the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, but I might be able to find it online somewhere. Living overseas you really discover what you are thankful for. We are so thankful for all of you. We love you and miss you all but we know we are in the right place. I pray we are being molded to be used the way God wants us to be. I know we are trying to listen to and for His voice. We love you all so much. We wish for you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. Even though we aren't there in body, we will be there in Spirit. Happy Thanksgiving from each of us. Love, Tim, Heather, Jonathon and Joshua
Sunday, November 23, 2008
What I've been doing
Hello people! I want to tell you what I have been doing over the past few weeks! I became a middle school student. They moved me up because the school realized that ( of course I already knew this) I am super duper smart! Woooooooooooo-Hoooooooooo! See, I already knew that I had smartical particles in my brainacal! So, in middle school it isn't too much different from the 6th grade, except for the fact that I now have 7 periods instead of 6. My schedule is as follows: Earth Science, Language Arts, Break, Foreign Language, Math, Lunch, Literature, Cultural Studies, and 7th period on Monday and Wednesday is Drama, Tuesday and Thursday is Typing, and on Friday I have Homeroom and Assembly. So, being a middle school student isn't ver scary to me at all! In fact, it's even more fun.
Friday, October 31, 2008
As of late
Hello all. I hope you all are doing well. Things are going well over here in Baku. In the last week we have filled our house with "new" furniture. Last Friday was the US Embassy furniture sale. The embassy has houses for all of their personnel and they furnish them, just like our school does for it's foreign hire teachers. The embassy purchases furniture from the US, has it shipped over to its embassy's and then sells it off and purchases more every 5 years. The furniture is obviously used when we get it, however, it is much better quality then we can get here. So, the school sent someone to the sale. You have to have cash on hand and take possession of it the day of the sale. After the sale, furniture began arriving in the school gym by the truck load. It was cleaned and repaired, if that was needed, and then this week we were asked to go through and mark the things we wanted. We got a new dining room set that looks very much like our dining set from home. Its the little things that make your house your home. The boys didn't know what furniture we were getting. When they got home on Monday and we had new furniture, especially the dining room table, they were so happy. Both of them sat down at the table and said it's just like our table in Seattle. It was fun to have something in our house that helped make it feel like home for them. We got 3 couches/love seats, 3 dressers, 4 lamps, a coffee table, a bookcase and other things too. It really filled our house with furniture and more storage space. The furniture is all from the Drexel Heritage collection. It's solid wood, heavy and beautiful. We have been taken care of well.
This week we also had Spirit Week at school and then you could dress up in your "Halloween" costume on Friday. Tim was the hit of the week. It was time for him to cut his hair and so every day he had some sort of a different hairdo and beard/mustache change. Monday was stoplight day and he wore a red shirt, khaki green pants and a yellow tie. Tuesday was backwards day and Tim wore a button down shirt backwards and a tie, which of course was down his back and flip flops on the wrong feet. Wednesday was Wacky Tacky day and he went all out. First he cut some holes in his hair and then used that hair later with a glue stick to paste in various places on his head and hands. He shaved weird shapes into his beard and then he wore black gym shorts (in this culture men do NOT wear shorts) a white button down shirt which he used double sided tape to keep open and unbuttoned to show a large amount of his chest. He wore black dress socks, cut a hole in one toe and then wear flip flops. He put a belt on with the ensemble and one of my hoop earrings in his ear. He was a site. Don't worry I have pictures of him and will get them on the page. Thursday was toga day. He was a Julius Caesar of sorts, shaved off his hair and left only a mustache. Then Friday he was a white Barak Obama dressed in a suit, clean shaven head and face. There was trick or treating at school and a parade of costume. It was very cute to see.
Then to top off the day it was a half day and we had our first round of parent teacher conferences. For both Tim and I the conferences went well. I had 7 yesterday and I have 13 to go. I had a couple of tough conferences scheduled for yesterday but they went very well. I was very grateful. Right before the conferences I had a mother all upset about a number of things and so I was afraid that I would not go into the conferences without the right frame of mind. I had to stop and pray and Jesus certainly helped my let go and be ready and pleasant for the parents (who were nervous to hear about their children). As for the mother and what she was upset about, she is a person who really just is negative about everything. Every interaction with her is something negative about the school or whatever. I just feel bad for her. I honestly wonder if she ever has a good day, if she has an optimistic side to her and if she is a happy woman. There is never anything I can say to her that seems to help. I really do feel bad for her. She's passing off these traits to her daughter and it's very sad. I haven't had that conference yet. I will be in prayer for it.
Today we are off to soccer and the boys even have cleats. Thank you Tovars. They love them. We have been getting our boxes from people. Thank you so much everyone for your generosity. We appreciate all the little touches from home so much. The boxes take anywhere from 1 and 1/2 weeks to a little over 3 so far. Just so you all know. Well gotta go, perhaps I'll write more when we get to school.
This week we also had Spirit Week at school and then you could dress up in your "Halloween" costume on Friday. Tim was the hit of the week. It was time for him to cut his hair and so every day he had some sort of a different hairdo and beard/mustache change. Monday was stoplight day and he wore a red shirt, khaki green pants and a yellow tie. Tuesday was backwards day and Tim wore a button down shirt backwards and a tie, which of course was down his back and flip flops on the wrong feet. Wednesday was Wacky Tacky day and he went all out. First he cut some holes in his hair and then used that hair later with a glue stick to paste in various places on his head and hands. He shaved weird shapes into his beard and then he wore black gym shorts (in this culture men do NOT wear shorts) a white button down shirt which he used double sided tape to keep open and unbuttoned to show a large amount of his chest. He wore black dress socks, cut a hole in one toe and then wear flip flops. He put a belt on with the ensemble and one of my hoop earrings in his ear. He was a site. Don't worry I have pictures of him and will get them on the page. Thursday was toga day. He was a Julius Caesar of sorts, shaved off his hair and left only a mustache. Then Friday he was a white Barak Obama dressed in a suit, clean shaven head and face. There was trick or treating at school and a parade of costume. It was very cute to see.
Then to top off the day it was a half day and we had our first round of parent teacher conferences. For both Tim and I the conferences went well. I had 7 yesterday and I have 13 to go. I had a couple of tough conferences scheduled for yesterday but they went very well. I was very grateful. Right before the conferences I had a mother all upset about a number of things and so I was afraid that I would not go into the conferences without the right frame of mind. I had to stop and pray and Jesus certainly helped my let go and be ready and pleasant for the parents (who were nervous to hear about their children). As for the mother and what she was upset about, she is a person who really just is negative about everything. Every interaction with her is something negative about the school or whatever. I just feel bad for her. I honestly wonder if she ever has a good day, if she has an optimistic side to her and if she is a happy woman. There is never anything I can say to her that seems to help. I really do feel bad for her. She's passing off these traits to her daughter and it's very sad. I haven't had that conference yet. I will be in prayer for it.
Today we are off to soccer and the boys even have cleats. Thank you Tovars. They love them. We have been getting our boxes from people. Thank you so much everyone for your generosity. We appreciate all the little touches from home so much. The boxes take anywhere from 1 and 1/2 weeks to a little over 3 so far. Just so you all know. Well gotta go, perhaps I'll write more when we get to school.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
My birthday in Azerbaijan
My birthday was on Tuesday and it was amazing. I woke up to Happy Birthday's from my family. Mom and Dad called and I got my traditional birthday wish from them in the form of the song "Hey Heather it's your birthday" from Zoom. Thirty some years ago it was a record that you had to put pennies on...now it's at least a cassette if not a CD. Every year no matter where I am I get that birthday song. Then off to school we went. As we were getting close to school the driver was fumbling around with some CDs and was obviously looking for something. Then the song began to play and he turned up the music. It was the Azeri version of Happy Birthday. It had the same tune with a more jazzy beat. It was in English and Azeri. It was very sweet. At school I got cards from the boys and it was a lot of fun. I checked my emails and I had an email from one of the mothers of a child in my class. She speaks no English at all. Yet, she had sent me a simple email saying Happy Birthday. It was very moving to me. We have never had a conversation but she was one of the first outside of my family to say Happy Birthday. My paras arrived at about 8 AM and they were obviously talking about something. Then they asked me if they could have my attention. The presented my with my birthday present. The had gone in together to get me a Persian rug. It's a hall runner rug and it's beautiful. I cried. They also got me a CD of traditional Azeri smooth jazz. I have fallen in love with it. They were so kind. Kids came in with gifts. The mother (Yelena) who has sent me the birthday email brought me in a huge arrangement of orange roses. It was stunning. They brought me a gift, too. It's a purple ceramic purse bank. It's really quite cute. One of the mother's (Shirin) from Iran brought me a huge heart shaped basket with many different kinds of nuts in it. One family brought me green and gold porcelain plate with a dragon and gold etching on it. It's beautiful, too. I got a plant from some of my friends and a birthday pencil and some chap stick from some other friends. The tradition here it that when it's your birthday you bring a cake. So Tim and Jonathon found a beautiful cake with sunflowers all over it at a bakery our driver had recommended. It's amazing and we have been back a couple of times since. We put the cake in the faculty lounge and leave a note. Even before school started the cake was gone. It was beautiful and great. I brought ice cream bars for the kids in my class. It was a lot simpler than cutting cake and handing it out. We've had a couple of birthday's in class already and the cake thing is a nightmare. At the beginning of school I schmooze with parents while the kids work on a worksheet with the paras. When I got into the class to start I said, "Ok, is everyone ready." Apparently the word ready was the cue to begin singing "Happy Birthday" to me. It was very cute. Apparently I say the word ready every day. Who knew? On Tuesday's we have faculty meetings and this was a Tuesday so at the end of the meeting they recognized my birthday and everyone was very kind with applause. When the driver picked us up he again had "Happy Birthday" playing. We were going out to eat with friends (including our driver and his wife) to a Chinese restaurant called The Hong Kong. We had a great time there. The driver and his wife were late getting there because they had to feed the baby. We began to get worried. They walked in with a big beautiful Miss America looking bouquet for my birthday. It was so kind. The waiters brought a wine stand/ice bucket on a stand to put the bouquet in. The roses in this bouquet are huge. Like 3 or more inches high. They are amazing and still doing well today (Sunday). My birthday was amazing and people were so kind and generous. Apparently birthdays are a BIG deal here. Again, who knew? I felt very special. It was amazing.
Lock-in and Report Card
Yesterday I got to be in a 9 Year Old Lock-in at school. My Mom helped and my Dad helped. It was fun. I stayed up the whole time. We did games, made pizza, we watched movies, too. When I got home I was wiped out. I took my medicine and I was sleeping - in the morning. I woke up at 6:30 at night. I had dinner and went to sleep again and I'm still sleepy. This week I got report cards. I'm very good in all my things. I like PE the most. I got the best grades in PE. The End.
Yikes! I can't write 50 lines! I don't know what to write... Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, we went to a Chinese Restaurant for mom's birthday. It was called Hong Kong. I ate lots of stuff there. To tell you the truth, I don't even remember all the stuff I ate. What I do know is that the things I did eat were good. I got my report card already! At this school we have quintiles (which means that we get our report cards 5 times) and we actually call our report cards status reports. Now, I'm writing this because this time my report card didn't stink! I got all A's on my status report/report card! So there! The easiest subject is... MATH!!! Since there is no challenge program here, all the math is things I have already done. Like: decimal addition, decimal subtraction, decimal division, decimal multiplacation, fraction addition, fraction subtraction, fraction division, fraction multiplacation, how to estimate, ratios, percents, how to change fractions into decimals, how to change percents into a decimal, how to change decimals into fractions, how to change fractions to percents, how to change percents into fractions, rates, angles, types of triangles, polygons, lines of symmetry, integers (positive numbers and negative numbers), greatest common factors, least common multiples, and simpler than this! I'm almost on to the 12 year old math. Which I already know some of. During one of my favorite classes (Azeri) I'm way ahead of schedule too! I know: Greetings, the alphabet, shapes, colors, a bunch of words that go with each letter of the alphabet, at school (things at school), family,writing sentences, a bit of grammar, and some other things too.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Ok...I'm back!
Hello again all. This post will likely be disjointed. There is just so much to tell. So I'm going to write mostly stream of consciousness. Ok...last Sunday we went to an Azeri wedding. The chef from school got married. He apparently invited us, the director and his wife, one of the cooks and one of my paras and that was it from school. When we arrived we were treated like royalty. I guess it is a big deal to have Americans come to your wedding...actually it was just the reception. The party goes on forever and ever. We arrived at 6:00 and because we were there and maybe another 20 people where there too...one of the chef's friends that spoke English took us under his wing...insisted that the doors to the hall were opened so we could go and sit down. The person in charge at the hall then also took us under his wing. They escorted us to the very front table right where the chef would be sitting (Ilxan is the chef's name). The cook from school also arrived and he sat at the same table with us. The tables held 15 people. The cook sat across from us and down a bit. Other than that from school for the first two hours it was Tim and I. So the table...the table was covered with food. Every little tiny spot on the entire table was covered in food. I don't think I have ever seen so much food on a table. Then for the rest of the night they just kept bring more. Every 30 minutes or so it was like another course. There was not room to sit it on the table and so they just sat it on top of the stuff that was already there. It was incredible. When we left at about 9:00 there was food stacked about three high and they were still bringing out more food. They danced and danced and danced and Ilxan's mom came and got me and had me come out to dance. They had live video feed so everyone could see on video screens what was going on if they were too far away and lucky me...the video was on Ilxan's mom and me for at least 2-3 minutes. It was delightful. Ilxan's mom and dad then later pulled Tim and I both out. It was fun. Just like you might see on TV for a Russian wedding. Ilxan's mom kept hugging and kissing us. She thought I was something else I guess. She was so full of energy. We felt very honored to be there. When the director and his wife got there they said they will never forget that Americans came to their wedding. It will be something they talk about and remember forever. I felt very bad that we were treated differently that others just because we were Americans. I hate it that Americans are elevated above others in every country I've ever been in. Ughhh! This week on the 15th was the Presidential election here. I guess the last election was not peaceful so we were not sure what to expect. It was a national holiday here for election day but our school still had school. Several of our students didn't come to school. Some, parents wouldn't let them because of the last election and others because their parents were off and they weren't going anywhere. It was nice for me my class was only 14 that day. Wow! What a difference that was. I have a little Iranian boy in my class and his mother is the sweetest most beautiful thing you have ever seen. Her husband still works in Iran and he comes back on the weekend, which is Thursday and Friday in Iran. They couldn't find a good school in Iran for their son so they moved to Baku to put their son in school. He speaks strictly Persian but it's very smart and it catching on the English rather quickly. She is speaking only English to him and home and of course that is what he is getting at school, too. He amazes me with his sentences every day. Anyway on Thursday the husband came back from Iran and there were gift for me and all three paras. We all got a box of candy and the girls either got a compact with beautiful Iranian artwork on it or a wallet with beautiful artwork on it and I got the most gorgeously decorate box...they call them jewelry boxes. Every millimeter on that box is decorated and it is one of my most prized possession now. It is beautiful. I'll try and take a picture for you and put it on the blog. Obviously we haven't been putting up any pictures of late. Our internet has been HORRIBLE! Often times it take 10 or more minutes to load our homepage. There would be no possible way to upload the pictures. This weekend had been better but of course we have grades to do. Yesterday one of my paras, Shabnom is here name. She's thinking about coming to the US with us next summer and staying a little with each of the teachers. One of our teachers may get married next summer and she wants Shabnom at the wedding. They are the same age and really enjoy each other. Anyway all three of us went shopping yesterday. I needed shoes. Women's shoes are a treat and a half here. That's a joke. There are probably 3 men's shoe stores for every one women's shoe store. It's kind of funny. Anyway it's very hard to find shoes that aren't high heals because 90% of women where high heals always. Anyway I needed another pair of flat shoes that I could work in. Right now I really have only one pair that I can wear. We went to probably 10 different stores and finally I found a pair of shoes that I liked ok. Now that's a problem, too. Just because they have a shoe out doesn't mean they actually have it in any sizes. Fortunately for me they were well stocked in this shoe. Sizes are a treat here too. They have two European type sizes. One is similar to the US. In the US I wear a 9 1/2. In the European sizes I wear a 7 1/2. Also they have shoes in another European sizing and I wear a 40. At least I know now. Anyway, these better be the best shoes in the history of the freaking world because they were 200AZN which makes them about $250. Shoes are priced out of this world. However, I may have an in to cheaper shoes in the future. I discovered yesterday that one of my students parent own and store. I reminds me of like a hip Holister type store with no sexual overtones and it's only for women. Anyway they had awesome shoes there for 61 and 70 AZN. Of course they had one pair of shoes in the two colors they had them in but I can probably find out from the parents when the shipments come in and then get down there if I need another pair of shoes and of course they offer discounts, too. Another one of my families owns a very nice Turkish restaurant. Everyone is always talking about their restaurant. They have invited Tim and I to come and they will comp our meal. They are so sweet. Oh yesterday I bought Tim a present. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. I was looking at the Russian stacking doll "toys". They are beautiful and I've always wanted one. While I was looking I looked up and there was a Bill Clinton set. I wondered if it was a set of President or what and asked the seller to show it to me. He begins to unstack it. The biggest and outside one is Clinton and then it opens up to Monica Lewinsky, then Gennifer Flowers, then Hillary and then a cigar. Now I do feel some sort of outrage that they all have to be subject to something like that but at the time it was so surprising and cracked me up. I couldn't stop laughing. So, we own it now...guess my outrage was short lived...this will be one of those talk pieces, I'm sure. Well, gotta go. I need to grade and then I am having my hair done here for the first time. My hair is quite long now and I desperately need it colored. Because I have US Embassy students in my class I asked about a hair dresser. There is an American hairdresser here with her husband and she seams to literally cut hair for every American here. So today I got to her. I'm a little scared for the last 9 years I've gone to the same place and I'm very good friends with my hairdresser. Hopefully it will work out. I will have the boys blog later.
Wow! It's been awhile since we blogged.
Hi there everyone. I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since we last blogged. I'm avoiding doing grading and grades are due on Monday for the first Quintile so any excuse will work and blogging it is. We are all doing well. While I'm thinking of it...we are in desperate need of a good potato peeler and of chocolate chips. Both things we can't seem to find here. I know for sure there are no chocolate chips. One of the teachers packed 30 lbs of chocolate chips to get them through the year. We are enjoying our time here. Still amazed when we stop and think about it that we are actually here. It's starting to get cooler here. Highs for the next 10 days are in the mid 60's F and lows are in the 50's. Perfect weather if you ask me. We like where we are living and we love our landlord. Our driver is always teaching us more Azeri and we are teaching him English. It's very fun. The driver told Tim today in English "I love you, Tim. You are a super man." It was very sweet. We just think the world of our driver. Jonathon can carry on conversation now in Azeri. He's very proud of that and we are very proud of him. The driver is always saying, "Jonathon" and then he tells him something in Azeri and Jonathon tell us. It's pretty cool. Jonathon and his Azeri have gotten us out of many a jam now. His Azeri teacher says he is the best student she has ever had. He's studying right now what they would normally be doing in December if they were lucky. We have purchased a couple of children's stories for him in Azeri and he is translating them into English. We had heard that there was 1 bookstore that had books in English. When we got there we discovered that it was a Christian bookstore, too. I was so excited. We bought a lot of books there. The people were so nice there, too. Our driver talked to one of the managers for a long time and maybe there is hope for him to become Christian, too.
Speaking of our driver...we just missed being in a very bad accident yesterday. Literally missed it by a few inches. There was a large delivery truck on our left and a cement barrier for the bridge on our right. The truck apparently did not see us and pulled into our lane as if there was no one there. Our driver swerved to miss the truck, slammed on the breaks and we fishtailed all over the place and we were able to stop about 1 to 2 inches from the cement barrier. There are no real seat belts in Azerbaijan and so I was in the front seat and went flying all over the place. My knees went into the dash. Tim was in the back behind me and had turned to talk to the boys. He, too, got thrown around. The boys were fine. Tim and I were both sore last night and still a little today. The most interesting thing is that the driver of the truck (hearing all of the skidding I guess) slowed down and hung out is window to apologize. Then a couple of minutes later pulled over and motioned for us to pull over. The driver both got out. The driver of the truck was very sorry and he and our driver shook hands and kissed and then we all went on our merry way. Tim and I laughed because in the US if two cars pulled over after a situation like that there would have been no shaking of hands and kissing. Tonight we were coming home from a dinner at some friends house and the traffic was really snarled. Come to find out a driver had caught his front tire in a manhole that had sunk about 8 inches and he couldn't get out. As we were just about to get up to him about 10 men came out of the dark (it was truly weird) and helped him lift his car out of the hole. Then they all went back to their cars and left. In the US if you get a person or two to stop you are doing pretty good. It was pretty cool. There's tons more to tell you but it will have to wait until tomorrow. It's almost midnight and I am sleepy.
Speaking of our driver...we just missed being in a very bad accident yesterday. Literally missed it by a few inches. There was a large delivery truck on our left and a cement barrier for the bridge on our right. The truck apparently did not see us and pulled into our lane as if there was no one there. Our driver swerved to miss the truck, slammed on the breaks and we fishtailed all over the place and we were able to stop about 1 to 2 inches from the cement barrier. There are no real seat belts in Azerbaijan and so I was in the front seat and went flying all over the place. My knees went into the dash. Tim was in the back behind me and had turned to talk to the boys. He, too, got thrown around. The boys were fine. Tim and I were both sore last night and still a little today. The most interesting thing is that the driver of the truck (hearing all of the skidding I guess) slowed down and hung out is window to apologize. Then a couple of minutes later pulled over and motioned for us to pull over. The driver both got out. The driver of the truck was very sorry and he and our driver shook hands and kissed and then we all went on our merry way. Tim and I laughed because in the US if two cars pulled over after a situation like that there would have been no shaking of hands and kissing. Tonight we were coming home from a dinner at some friends house and the traffic was really snarled. Come to find out a driver had caught his front tire in a manhole that had sunk about 8 inches and he couldn't get out. As we were just about to get up to him about 10 men came out of the dark (it was truly weird) and helped him lift his car out of the hole. Then they all went back to their cars and left. In the US if you get a person or two to stop you are doing pretty good. It was pretty cool. There's tons more to tell you but it will have to wait until tomorrow. It's almost midnight and I am sleepy.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sports and languages
Hi everyone me & mom went to the Azeri zoo there was owls cats/foxes/cheetahs there were bears and camels too but my favorite thing was Monkeys. The monkey's had a few bananas in their cages. There were only two monkeys but one of the monkeys was crazy. Whenever you took a picture one of the monkey's would punch the cage and run away. There were ducks and swans, too in one cage with a big lake in it. You could only see one part of it through the fence because it was blocked by trees but it was really, really big. My second favorite thing was the swan and ducks. There were bulls and cows and horses and llamas. My third favorite thing was the llamas. Mom's class could only go towards the camels a little bit because the camels spit. They could only go towards the cage a little because they kept putting their fingers through all the other cages. Last Monday I was watching wrestling club and I said to the principal who is the wrestling club teacher "can I watch the wrestling club for a little while" and he said "I'll let you play in wrestling club if your Mom and Dad say it's ok." They said yes so I got to do wrestling club. Now to me wrestling club looks very fun because I get to use the new moves on my brother. We get to play fun games in wrestling and I know most of the kids, too. On Thursdays I get to do aeronautics. I like it because we get to make fun things like rockets and airplanes too. But only sometimes we get to make parachutes. Most of the people in aeronautics are younger then me. I get to be the only one that makes the good stuff because the others always mess up and the teacher makes them do it over again. I get to do French Club, too. I get to take French everyday anyway and I know all of the numbers up to 10,000. I know lots of words in French. I use to have French class in the US and I had a book with all the words in it but I forgot to bring it to Azerbaijan. In soccer me and my best friend Amar get to play and my brother, too. I'm really good at soccer almost everyone says so. There are no girls in soccer. It's on Saturdays so not very many people come. Sebastian who is my class played but he doesn't play anymore. My best friend Amar invited me to his house and I got to sleep over. He let me play his PSP a lot. I'd never played a PSP before. Amar came to my house yesterday. It was fun playing with him. He was scared so we called his Mom and Dad and they came to get him.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
I Don't Know What to Write About
I don't know what to write about!!! So, I'm just going to blab on about anything and everything... lalalalalalalalalala! I went to an Azeri Chuckie Cheese's , ladidadidoodeedoodledoop!!!!!! I know over 300 words in Azeri... and I love school. Ummmm, Dad is in Tbilisi, Georgia with the cross country team. He is the male chaperone, nobody else had a 1 year visa. The other day Joshua invited his friend from school over for a sleepover. Which was actually a lot of fun. But, he hasn't really had a sleepover at someone else's house so he wanted to go back home. I'm in the middle of writing a Cinderella fairy tale for my language arts class ( yes it is about a monkey and that will never change!!!!!!!!!!!!) with a really cool teacher, she teaches exactly like Mrs. Kenney! Drama class, which is being taught by Dad , everybody in the 10/11 year old program loves! So, all but one student is in drama, and the other kid is changing to drama after the first quintile (1/5 of our school year) which is pretty cool considering the fact that then finally I won't be the only kid NOT (YES! I SAID I AM MORE MATURE THAN THE TEN YEAR OLDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) goofing around. Well, that's all my puny brain can think of so... See ya!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Aeronautics Class!
In Aeronautics class I traced out airplanes and then I cut them out. We got to put paperclips on the airplanes. After that we got to color our airplanes. We had a competition then to see who's went more far. I enjoyed the aeronautics class. This class is an after school activity. The teacher speaks mostly in Russian and Azeri. I was the only one that didn't speak those languages. One of Mommy's paras was there to translate. That made me very happy. I'm kind of excited for next week.
Weird Hours and things going on
We've been sort of quiet this week. We've been busy trying to settle in and find a schedule and rhythm that works for us. We aren't quite there but we are moving in that direction. For me and my little Kindergarten class it has been an eventful week. Three children were sick this week and 2 threw up while they were at school. (Just loving that mess.) On Tuesday, one child cried most of the day, one asked me "who the boss was" and when I said, "I am", she informed me that "oh no, I am". We has a little discussion. Then after lunch as we were lining up for PE one of my children just turned around, unprovoked and punched another kid in the mouth, knocking one of his teeth out. That was a day for the books. We survived and had a very good day on Wednesday. Thursday, however, was not. Many children got to spend 5 minutes in time out over the course of the day and the paras where going insane right along with me. I sent a note home to the children's parents asking for help in reminding their children of the rules and then put our behavior policy and consequences down on paper for them to see. We had been asked to do that. Well, Friday morning was off to a good start. I was talking to parents as they came in and was in the middle of a conversation when a Mother stepped right in and said, "I need to talk to you." I told her that I knew that. Could she please let me finish my conversation. To her that was apparently not OK. She began yelling at me and making quit a scene. I asked her to please step into another room so we could at least be alone to have the conversation and she continued to yell but followed me. She proceeded to tell me that her child was perfect and that his being in time out the day before was unacceptable, that he had awards from both the 3 year old class and the 4 year old class for being the best. She told me that I was a horrible teacher that her child was not interested in school or engaged in school and that he was NOT to be put in time out. She continued to yell and wouldn't really let me get a word in edgewise. I told her we should probably go talk with the principal and that would she please wait. She followed me into the hallway continuing to yell. I asked her to stop being rude and to stop yelling while I found the principal. We visited the principal and he was awesome. Not because he took my side but because he really listened to her, suggested that no one was perfect and that this was a big change for the children from Preschool to the academic world, etc. He supported me completely and yet helped her to talk more calmly. She continued to say that I was a problem. She was a teacher and she could come and show me how things should be done. She explained that her sons previous teacher Miss Olga walked on water (and she does) and that Miss Olga was who I should model myself after. Once the mother left, I cried of course. I simply wasn't prepared for that attack. I went to talk with Miss Olga and she told me that virtually the identical thing had happened with her and this parent two years before. She said it took about 3 months for the mother to settle down and be more respectful towards her. She said that the mother was a rude person and that finally they just sent her to talk to the principal every time she had an issue (which apparently was a lot).
I learned a lot on Friday. The principal was awesome. He didn't tell me I was right but he was very encouraging to me. He checked on me at lunch and then at the all-school assembly on Friday he had a cheer for me as part of a skit for Student Council. I'm the student council advisor now. The principal is a strong personality and kind of stern most of the time but his kindness on Friday was beyond words. I learned that this is how Azeri women interact a lot. It's not unusual for Azeri women to yell at each other in passion. I wasn't really having an issue with what the mother was saying, She had every right to feel the way she was feeling. My issue was more with how she interrupted and how rude she was. I also thought about things all day and realized that I wasn't very nice to her either and so when she came in that afternoon to pick up her son I apologized to her for my behavior that morning. She accepted my apology. I told her that her son had been great that day and she said, "I know" and left. I was thankful for her willingness to accept my apology and very happy that it was Friday.
I have three paras now. Two of the paras worked with this mother for the last two years and they were scared about the days events. Finally at about 3:50, school gets out at 3:30, the paras asked if they could ask me a question. They of course wanted to know what had happened and then very gingerly asked me if she had apologized and I said no, I had. They looked sort of scared. Then at about 4:00 they asked me why I had done that and I told them because it was the right thing to do and that I had been rude, too. They said, "she'll think she won" and I said, "that's OK, I just had to do what I knew was the right thing". It was tough to swallow my pride and apologize but I had spent a lot of time in prayer and knew that was what I needed to do.
Friday night Joshua had his first sleep-over. There is a boy in his class named Amar and he an Joshua just adore each other. The mother asked me if it would be OK and we agreed on the times. When we picked Joshua up Saturday morning he was just glowing and the mother said they'd love to have him again. I was really happy for Joshua. We may have Amar (from Macedonia) over this weekend.
Now, I'm sitting her at 10:30 at night and guess what it going on outside? It seems that delivering of dump trucks of dirt takes place late at night. I don't know why but this is the second time this week that 2 dumps trucks (very HUGE dump trucks) have come to our neighborhood to dump loads of dirt next door to our house. They at about 12:30 am or so (at least that's what happened last time) the tractor comes to work with the dirt and smooth it out and move it around a bit. It's a crack up to say the least. Tonight the tractor is actually out there right now. The streets are full of people until at least midnight. It's very interesting. The Ulrich family is often in bed by 8:30 pm. Guess we haven't really acclimated to Azeri time schedules just yet. I'm OK with that. We love you all.
I learned a lot on Friday. The principal was awesome. He didn't tell me I was right but he was very encouraging to me. He checked on me at lunch and then at the all-school assembly on Friday he had a cheer for me as part of a skit for Student Council. I'm the student council advisor now. The principal is a strong personality and kind of stern most of the time but his kindness on Friday was beyond words. I learned that this is how Azeri women interact a lot. It's not unusual for Azeri women to yell at each other in passion. I wasn't really having an issue with what the mother was saying, She had every right to feel the way she was feeling. My issue was more with how she interrupted and how rude she was. I also thought about things all day and realized that I wasn't very nice to her either and so when she came in that afternoon to pick up her son I apologized to her for my behavior that morning. She accepted my apology. I told her that her son had been great that day and she said, "I know" and left. I was thankful for her willingness to accept my apology and very happy that it was Friday.
I have three paras now. Two of the paras worked with this mother for the last two years and they were scared about the days events. Finally at about 3:50, school gets out at 3:30, the paras asked if they could ask me a question. They of course wanted to know what had happened and then very gingerly asked me if she had apologized and I said no, I had. They looked sort of scared. Then at about 4:00 they asked me why I had done that and I told them because it was the right thing to do and that I had been rude, too. They said, "she'll think she won" and I said, "that's OK, I just had to do what I knew was the right thing". It was tough to swallow my pride and apologize but I had spent a lot of time in prayer and knew that was what I needed to do.
Friday night Joshua had his first sleep-over. There is a boy in his class named Amar and he an Joshua just adore each other. The mother asked me if it would be OK and we agreed on the times. When we picked Joshua up Saturday morning he was just glowing and the mother said they'd love to have him again. I was really happy for Joshua. We may have Amar (from Macedonia) over this weekend.
Now, I'm sitting her at 10:30 at night and guess what it going on outside? It seems that delivering of dump trucks of dirt takes place late at night. I don't know why but this is the second time this week that 2 dumps trucks (very HUGE dump trucks) have come to our neighborhood to dump loads of dirt next door to our house. They at about 12:30 am or so (at least that's what happened last time) the tractor comes to work with the dirt and smooth it out and move it around a bit. It's a crack up to say the least. Tonight the tractor is actually out there right now. The streets are full of people until at least midnight. It's very interesting. The Ulrich family is often in bed by 8:30 pm. Guess we haven't really acclimated to Azeri time schedules just yet. I'm OK with that. We love you all.
Today's Soccer Game!!! - September 13, 2008
Today was fun. First, Mom and I went to go pick Joshua up from his friend's house. It took a while because our driver didn't know where the apartment complex was...neither did we. The plan was to have Ammar ( Joshua's friend ) come over to soccer with us. But he changed his mind. So we got to school and soccer started 20 minutes later. When we began the week before I was the oldest by a long shot, well I'm the oldest elementry student in the whole school anyways, but this time my friend John was here! So we start our practice game later and my team was Me, Ibo, Chris, and Salman against John, Kip, Sebastian and Joshua. Our coach played for whatever team had the ball. My team won after my 4 goals and Ibo's goal to put us ahead 5 to 1. The one goal on thier team was made by John... before we had any.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Busy, busy
This week we finished the first full week of school. About Wednesday I told my students about my issues with getting used to my schedule. When I taught at the university, my typical schedule was M,W,F - in the office by 6:00. Teach from 8:00 - 9:20, then 9:30 - 10:50. Then in the office until 3. T,R - in the office about 9:30, there until 3. Sometime I'd have to teach a class on Tuesdays. Now? In the office about 7:30 (no actual office, no classroom to call my own). Class from 8:50-9:40, 9:40-10:30, break and prep from 10:30 - 11:35, class from 11:35 - 12:25, lunch until 1:00, class from 1:00 - 1:50, 1:50 - 2:40, 2:40 - 3:30, various duties and meetings after classes, leave to come home about 5:00. Lots more doing, lots less thinking time.
So, Thursday was open house, so we stayed at school until 9 p.m. Friday came home and collapsed (tired and still all dealing with tummy issues). Saturday was Joshua's birthday! So, to celebrate, we loaded up at 9:00 and went to school. They have a Saturday soccer time from 7-11 year olds, so the boys played from 10-11. Heather and I were in first aid training from 10 - 3:30. The boys played on the computer while we were in the training. At 5:00 we then went over to the school director's house for a big barbeque that was a thank you party to the custodial and maintenance staff for everything they've done to get the faculty homes and the school ready for the year.
Since Joshua didn't have much of a birthday, we spent today (Sunday) doing some things with him. We went to church for the first time here in Baku. After that, Miss Kelly, Joshua's teacher came with us to downtown Baku. We walked around quite a bit, ate at Sunset Cafe (a very American diner), bought a half dozen pirated DVDs for Joshua (they sell for about $3 each at stores all over the place - they're the only English DVDs that can be purchased), took a carriage ride, checked out rug stores, etc. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant here that we were told was really good. (Joshua really likes Mexican) It turned out that there really wasn't much on the menu that I would call Mexican (or even Tex-Mex). The "chips" were more like the spiced cracker bread that you get at Indian restaurant and the salsa was some kind of curry. Joshua seemed to like it, though (he got pizza).
Now we're home, ready to collapse, and in about 7 hours we'll get up to start another week.
Thanks to all who sent ecards, etc. for Joshua. He really enjoyed them.
So, Thursday was open house, so we stayed at school until 9 p.m. Friday came home and collapsed (tired and still all dealing with tummy issues). Saturday was Joshua's birthday! So, to celebrate, we loaded up at 9:00 and went to school. They have a Saturday soccer time from 7-11 year olds, so the boys played from 10-11. Heather and I were in first aid training from 10 - 3:30. The boys played on the computer while we were in the training. At 5:00 we then went over to the school director's house for a big barbeque that was a thank you party to the custodial and maintenance staff for everything they've done to get the faculty homes and the school ready for the year.
Since Joshua didn't have much of a birthday, we spent today (Sunday) doing some things with him. We went to church for the first time here in Baku. After that, Miss Kelly, Joshua's teacher came with us to downtown Baku. We walked around quite a bit, ate at Sunset Cafe (a very American diner), bought a half dozen pirated DVDs for Joshua (they sell for about $3 each at stores all over the place - they're the only English DVDs that can be purchased), took a carriage ride, checked out rug stores, etc. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant here that we were told was really good. (Joshua really likes Mexican) It turned out that there really wasn't much on the menu that I would call Mexican (or even Tex-Mex). The "chips" were more like the spiced cracker bread that you get at Indian restaurant and the salsa was some kind of curry. Joshua seemed to like it, though (he got pizza).
Now we're home, ready to collapse, and in about 7 hours we'll get up to start another week.
Thanks to all who sent ecards, etc. for Joshua. He really enjoyed them.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Our Address
Hello all ~ many of you have asked about our address. Well our address would do you no good. As far as we can tell there is no mail service here. Interesting to say the least. However, things can get delivered to the school so here is the address:
Tim and Heather Ulrich
Baku International School
Darnagul Qasabasi
Str. Ajami Nakchivani
Block 3097
Baku, Azerbaijan, AZ 1108
It looks like it takes about 2 - 3 weeks to get whatever you send.
For those of you that have extra space in a box or a desire to send us stuff, we need spices (they are pretty expensive here ~ Dad you know what we need. We use it on EVERYTHING), lighter (like the ones you use on fireplaces), Splenda (I like it the best), 3" 3 ring binders, pee chee folders with brad and pockets, and ink pens (like cheap Bic - all they have here is a sort of felt tip pen). I'll let you know if we think of anything else.
Thanks for thinking about us.
Today was an interesting day at school. First thing this morning and new student came to class. It was very funny. His parents apologized for his not starting on time they had just flown in on Sunday. Adam, their son was wearing a Washington Huskies t-shirt. They said they were from Seattle. What a small world? We chatted about Seattle and all that was going on there. It was very fun to talk to them.
The boys in my class were wild animals today. For some of them it was a very difficult day. They were constantly in trouble. Their last period of the day was music and 3 of them got sent to the principal. Apparently it was NOT a good experience for them. Please pray for them and for the entire class. They need to learn to listen, follow instructions, raise their hands and share. Apparently they didn't have to do that much last year. They are a darling group. We just have some basic rules we need to learn and life will be much better.
Love you all!
Tim and Heather Ulrich
Baku International School
Darnagul Qasabasi
Str. Ajami Nakchivani
Block 3097
Baku, Azerbaijan, AZ 1108
It looks like it takes about 2 - 3 weeks to get whatever you send.
For those of you that have extra space in a box or a desire to send us stuff, we need spices (they are pretty expensive here ~ Dad you know what we need. We use it on EVERYTHING), lighter (like the ones you use on fireplaces), Splenda (I like it the best), 3" 3 ring binders, pee chee folders with brad and pockets, and ink pens (like cheap Bic - all they have here is a sort of felt tip pen). I'll let you know if we think of anything else.
Thanks for thinking about us.
Today was an interesting day at school. First thing this morning and new student came to class. It was very funny. His parents apologized for his not starting on time they had just flown in on Sunday. Adam, their son was wearing a Washington Huskies t-shirt. They said they were from Seattle. What a small world? We chatted about Seattle and all that was going on there. It was very fun to talk to them.
The boys in my class were wild animals today. For some of them it was a very difficult day. They were constantly in trouble. Their last period of the day was music and 3 of them got sent to the principal. Apparently it was NOT a good experience for them. Please pray for them and for the entire class. They need to learn to listen, follow instructions, raise their hands and share. Apparently they didn't have to do that much last year. They are a darling group. We just have some basic rules we need to learn and life will be much better.
Love you all!
Monday, September 1, 2008
What's Heather been up to lately?
It's been a lot of fun adjusting to our new surroundings. I love the driving as insane as it is. There aren't very many rules for driving. It's survival of the most daring and that may be as close to racing cars as I get. However, today our one way road turned into a two-way road without warning. I guess you truly can do anything, anytime you want here when it comes to driving.
I'm loving my class. I'm supposed to have twenty-five students. Thursday I had eleven, Friday I had thirteen, and today I had sixteen. One additional student let me know that they would be on vacation for this entire week. So far I can account for seventeen of the twenty-five. I have Serbian, Indian, Russian, Azeri, Turkish, English (UK), American (that I know of) students in my class. I'm just now getting information sheets back from the parents so I'll know more when they are all returned. The children are full of hugs for me and being silly. They cannot for the life of them raise their hands before they speak. Two young men in my class crack me up. They raise their hands but then yell Mrs. Heather or teacher at me, over and over and over. It's hard not to laugh when they do that.
I have two wonderful para-professionals (para pros). Shabnam is Azeri and Sevendj is Russian. They are just a delight to work with. Shabnam helped out with the 4 year old class last year so she knows most of the children in our class and more importantly knows the ins and outs of the school. Sevendj is amazing, too. She comes highly recommended from the school in Kazakhstan. and she's doing well. She asked me last week if she was being too strict. I told her that she was doing just fine. She seemed to be worried about that. She said we were taught to be strict and I again reassured her that she was doing great.
I think everyone is still trying to figure out where they fit in and figure everyone else out at the same time. I know I'm still figuring people out and sometimes that is difficult for me to try and figure out if they are serious, stressed, preoccupied, etc. It makes things just a little more confusing. The boys seem to be adjusting pretty well but at bed time we tend to have emotional break downs from one or both of them. I'm sure part of that is because they are tired but I just can't help but think that some if it has to do with the adjustments. Tim and I are still having issues with diarrhea. The food is good, our bodies just aren't sure about it yet.
I am truly enjoying the more laid back pace of life. It's really good to be with our family all the time. I get to see the boys several times each day and I really love that. It's fun to hear the boys come home each night having learned some of another language. Jonathon is taking Azeri and Joshua is continuing with French. They both have their language classes 5 days a week. They both should be pretty fluent when the year is done, I would think.
I wish you all a very Happy Labor Day and we will post more soon.
I'm loving my class. I'm supposed to have twenty-five students. Thursday I had eleven, Friday I had thirteen, and today I had sixteen. One additional student let me know that they would be on vacation for this entire week. So far I can account for seventeen of the twenty-five. I have Serbian, Indian, Russian, Azeri, Turkish, English (UK), American (that I know of) students in my class. I'm just now getting information sheets back from the parents so I'll know more when they are all returned. The children are full of hugs for me and being silly. They cannot for the life of them raise their hands before they speak. Two young men in my class crack me up. They raise their hands but then yell Mrs. Heather or teacher at me, over and over and over. It's hard not to laugh when they do that.
I have two wonderful para-professionals (para pros). Shabnam is Azeri and Sevendj is Russian. They are just a delight to work with. Shabnam helped out with the 4 year old class last year so she knows most of the children in our class and more importantly knows the ins and outs of the school. Sevendj is amazing, too. She comes highly recommended from the school in Kazakhstan. and she's doing well. She asked me last week if she was being too strict. I told her that she was doing just fine. She seemed to be worried about that. She said we were taught to be strict and I again reassured her that she was doing great.
I think everyone is still trying to figure out where they fit in and figure everyone else out at the same time. I know I'm still figuring people out and sometimes that is difficult for me to try and figure out if they are serious, stressed, preoccupied, etc. It makes things just a little more confusing. The boys seem to be adjusting pretty well but at bed time we tend to have emotional break downs from one or both of them. I'm sure part of that is because they are tired but I just can't help but think that some if it has to do with the adjustments. Tim and I are still having issues with diarrhea. The food is good, our bodies just aren't sure about it yet.
I am truly enjoying the more laid back pace of life. It's really good to be with our family all the time. I get to see the boys several times each day and I really love that. It's fun to hear the boys come home each night having learned some of another language. Jonathon is taking Azeri and Joshua is continuing with French. They both have their language classes 5 days a week. They both should be pretty fluent when the year is done, I would think.
I wish you all a very Happy Labor Day and we will post more soon.
Joshua's vacation
On vacation I went to Grandmas house it was FUN I swam alot I cook at my Grandmas house sometimes. Mimis and pas house [2 grandma and 1 grand pa] I played lots.
Today in general
Today I had a lot of fun. I played basketball with my new friends, Ziya and John. Also today we had electives for the first time. Everybody in the ten and eleven year old class, except for Sophia, was in Drama! Which Dad teaches!!!!!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Favorite thing
This is Joshua my favorite thing about Baku is...shoping in bazares they have Fruit,Vegis , Meat,Cheese Too but my Favorite part is the games and puzzles.We get to walk together almost every day too a market.
Me what I'm doing and all that good stuff! =D
Hello world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's Jonathon! What are you peoples doing, if you're up in the middle of the night on a monday I'm at school on a Tuesday! If your reading at noon DO NOT CALL ME (even though I have no phone) 'CAUSE I'M SORTA' KINDA' ASLEEP!!! Now that you are certain that we are on different ends of the world , I will tell you about Azerbaijan. It is a country that has almost no people and is poluted. Now to ACTUALLY tell you what I'm doing. I go to school! Funny isn't it? I usually go to school in two more weeks, but over here they don't care about long summers it's all go to school at an awesome school sort of thing. Yes, I like school. We have math in the morning and we just do every problem by ourselves no waiting for anybody and our textbook for the whole year , I think , is all stuff I have done! Language Arts and reading in my three person class with an awesome teacher who actually sits down and journals or observes with us! P.E. for 50 minutes yes our P.E. teacher does everything with us too. Then my cultural studies teachers... I feel like I know them well... oh wait I do!!! They're my parents!!! So yep that is pretty much what I'm doing now, but there is more coming another day! See ya!
U.S. History class
Thursday was the first day of school. Things went quite well in terms of teaching. I have 50 minutes with each of my classes. I told them that when I used to teach, I often wasn't even warmed up until I hit the one hour mark.
On Thursday, the middle and secondary school students had an assembly to discuss some of the new school rules. This took place during the 2nd period. That's when my U.S. History course meets. So, I didn't have U.S. History for the first time until Friday. I had a starter activity for them - a list of 20 events from U.S. History that they needed to put into chronological order. It was just an icebreaker activity, to get them talking to each other. There were three groups and they were competing to see who could get the closest.
I watched and listened while they worked and got to hear things like "What was the Mayflower?" "Who were Lewis and Clark?" "What was Pearl Harbor?" You see, I have 9 students in my class. None of them are U.S. citizens, nor have any ever lived in the United States. A couple of them visited the U.S. once, though! While a few of the students are Azeri, one is Polish (father works for the Polish embassy), two are Scottish, one is Japanese (father works for the Japanese embassy), one is Turkish, one is Russian. Not surprisingly, their history courses have not included long units on the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving Day, the Lewis and Clark expedition, etc.
I believe this will be the most interesting class I have ever taught.
On Thursday, the middle and secondary school students had an assembly to discuss some of the new school rules. This took place during the 2nd period. That's when my U.S. History course meets. So, I didn't have U.S. History for the first time until Friday. I had a starter activity for them - a list of 20 events from U.S. History that they needed to put into chronological order. It was just an icebreaker activity, to get them talking to each other. There were three groups and they were competing to see who could get the closest.
I watched and listened while they worked and got to hear things like "What was the Mayflower?" "Who were Lewis and Clark?" "What was Pearl Harbor?" You see, I have 9 students in my class. None of them are U.S. citizens, nor have any ever lived in the United States. A couple of them visited the U.S. once, though! While a few of the students are Azeri, one is Polish (father works for the Polish embassy), two are Scottish, one is Japanese (father works for the Japanese embassy), one is Turkish, one is Russian. Not surprisingly, their history courses have not included long units on the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving Day, the Lewis and Clark expedition, etc.
I believe this will be the most interesting class I have ever taught.
Finally catching up
As some of you have emailed or posted on the blog, we haven't been keeping up for the last week or so. We've been trying, but it's been very busy. School began on Thursday, 28 August. We had meetings at school Monday through Wednesday, tried to set up our classrooms and had to get our curriculums all figured out. It has been a whirlwind. We've been leaving the house by about 7 each morning and getting home a bit before 6 most nights, trying to get some dinner cooked, spending some time with the boys, then hitting bed around 9. The temperature outside has been hovering around 90-95 each day, with 70-80% humidity. Just walking around the school, I have sweat dripping off of me. The classrooms are airconditioned, but many of the hallways and other sections of the school are not. The high school and middle school students are in a section of the building that had previously been offices leased to an NGO doing anti-drug education. After 2 years of negotiations, the landlord finally gave in and leased the rooms to the school. Exactly 1 week before school began, the school officially took possession. During that week, they tore out tiling, scraped walls, did lots of repair work, repainted, laid carpet, etc., etc. The airconditioners were wired up about 12 hours before school began on Thursday. It's amazing how well they did. Doing our setup of the classrooms on Wednesday, though, was incredibly draining.
There are only four teachers for the middle school and high school (not counting language instructors). I teach all of the history and cultural studies courses (This year, that's 10/11 year old Cultural Studies, 12/13 year old CS 2 - from the Fall of Rome to the Age of Exploration, 14/15 year old Modern World History, 16/17 year old AP World History and 16/17 year old US History), as well as a drama elective twice a week, overseeing two senior research projects and serving as the upper-secondary homeroom teacher (class advisor). Brian teaches all of the middle school and secondary science courses. Emily teaches the Literature and Writing courses (she is not an English teacher, however... in a school like ours, that implies something completely different! There are many elementary students who receive intensive instruction in English. Not "English as a Second Language," however... because for many of these students it's their third, fourth or fifth language!) Hal teaches all of the math for 10/11 year olds and up, as well as science for the 10/11 year old class.
So, things have been very busy! We'll try to get more posted on a regular basis now.
There are only four teachers for the middle school and high school (not counting language instructors). I teach all of the history and cultural studies courses (This year, that's 10/11 year old Cultural Studies, 12/13 year old CS 2 - from the Fall of Rome to the Age of Exploration, 14/15 year old Modern World History, 16/17 year old AP World History and 16/17 year old US History), as well as a drama elective twice a week, overseeing two senior research projects and serving as the upper-secondary homeroom teacher (class advisor). Brian teaches all of the middle school and secondary science courses. Emily teaches the Literature and Writing courses (she is not an English teacher, however... in a school like ours, that implies something completely different! There are many elementary students who receive intensive instruction in English. Not "English as a Second Language," however... because for many of these students it's their third, fourth or fifth language!) Hal teaches all of the math for 10/11 year olds and up, as well as science for the 10/11 year old class.
So, things have been very busy! We'll try to get more posted on a regular basis now.
Field trip
Originally written 23 August
The Turkmenistan group and the new Baku teachers took a field trip out to see petroglyphs. An area about an hour outside of Baku has a collection of cave paintings and cave carvings, along with a small museum. There are thousand of these carvings and tens of thousands of stone age tools that were found in the area. Some of the carvings and tools have been dated to about 50,000 B.C. There is also a carving in Latin that was made by the army of one of the Caesars, sometime in the first few centuries A.D. We had some very good views of the Caspian Sea during the drive and from the mountain with the carvings. Our tour guide was quite funny. He spoke English fairly well. The memorized speech was clear, but when he was in conversation he seemed to struggle for words a bit. His standard line was "Do you know why...?" If anyone tried to actually answer the question he would say "No, you don't know. I know and I have not told you yet." After about the fifth time, we got the picture that we weren't supposed to answer.
Once we got back from the field trip, we headed off for downtown Baku. We met the school director, the director of instruction and their families at the Old City. This is a section of downtown Baku that has walls and other buildings that are nearly a thousand years old. We ate in one such building, an old Kavanassary, where the caravans on the Silk Road from China used to stop. We had an authentic traditional Azeri meal.
When we arrived, there were already the starters on the tables. A selection of various meats, a plate of spices, herbs and vegetables, a stewed eggplant dish, and bread. While I enjoyed the beef tongue quite a bit, there was one piece of meat on the dish that was probably the worst thing I've ever tasted. It was chewy like a piece of carmel, sticking to my teeth and it had a salty, bitter taste. None of the people I asked seemed to know what it actually was.
The main course was kebabs or sashlik. Azerbaijan is known for its grilled meats. The beef and chicken were both excellent. The chicken was similar to Indian tandori chicken. Later they brought out some grilled sturgeon, too, which was very good. The sturgeon came with a pomegranate sauce that was very thick and sweet, like syrup. All in all, quite tasty.
Throughout the meal, they had Azeri singers doing some ancient road songs. Lots of wailing and discordant sounds. Jonathon especially did not enjoy that. A bit later, the belly dancer came out. After she had danced for a while, the school director leaned over to me and said, "This is about the time that she picks out someone to embarass." Of course, without fail, about 30 seconds later she locked eyes on me, came over, draped a veil across my face and pulled me on stage with her. I wasn't quite able to match her moves, especially as she made parts of her anatomy shimmy. She'd point at her chest, move around a bit, then point at mine and want me to do the same. It wasn't happening. I was able to shimmy my stomach a bit like hers, though. I just took the sides of my gut in both hands and shook it all around. It worked quite well.
She finally let me sit down, then embarassed two of the male teachers from Turkmenistan and then, much to my joy and relief, picked Scott, the Baku school director. So, he joined her on stage and plenty of pictures were taken by my colleagues. In Baku for one week and we already saw our boss belly dancing!
The Turkmenistan group and the new Baku teachers took a field trip out to see petroglyphs. An area about an hour outside of Baku has a collection of cave paintings and cave carvings, along with a small museum. There are thousand of these carvings and tens of thousands of stone age tools that were found in the area. Some of the carvings and tools have been dated to about 50,000 B.C. There is also a carving in Latin that was made by the army of one of the Caesars, sometime in the first few centuries A.D. We had some very good views of the Caspian Sea during the drive and from the mountain with the carvings. Our tour guide was quite funny. He spoke English fairly well. The memorized speech was clear, but when he was in conversation he seemed to struggle for words a bit. His standard line was "Do you know why...?" If anyone tried to actually answer the question he would say "No, you don't know. I know and I have not told you yet." After about the fifth time, we got the picture that we weren't supposed to answer.
Once we got back from the field trip, we headed off for downtown Baku. We met the school director, the director of instruction and their families at the Old City. This is a section of downtown Baku that has walls and other buildings that are nearly a thousand years old. We ate in one such building, an old Kavanassary, where the caravans on the Silk Road from China used to stop. We had an authentic traditional Azeri meal.
When we arrived, there were already the starters on the tables. A selection of various meats, a plate of spices, herbs and vegetables, a stewed eggplant dish, and bread. While I enjoyed the beef tongue quite a bit, there was one piece of meat on the dish that was probably the worst thing I've ever tasted. It was chewy like a piece of carmel, sticking to my teeth and it had a salty, bitter taste. None of the people I asked seemed to know what it actually was.
The main course was kebabs or sashlik. Azerbaijan is known for its grilled meats. The beef and chicken were both excellent. The chicken was similar to Indian tandori chicken. Later they brought out some grilled sturgeon, too, which was very good. The sturgeon came with a pomegranate sauce that was very thick and sweet, like syrup. All in all, quite tasty.
Throughout the meal, they had Azeri singers doing some ancient road songs. Lots of wailing and discordant sounds. Jonathon especially did not enjoy that. A bit later, the belly dancer came out. After she had danced for a while, the school director leaned over to me and said, "This is about the time that she picks out someone to embarass." Of course, without fail, about 30 seconds later she locked eyes on me, came over, draped a veil across my face and pulled me on stage with her. I wasn't quite able to match her moves, especially as she made parts of her anatomy shimmy. She'd point at her chest, move around a bit, then point at mine and want me to do the same. It wasn't happening. I was able to shimmy my stomach a bit like hers, though. I just took the sides of my gut in both hands and shook it all around. It worked quite well.
She finally let me sit down, then embarassed two of the male teachers from Turkmenistan and then, much to my joy and relief, picked Scott, the Baku school director. So, he joined her on stage and plenty of pictures were taken by my colleagues. In Baku for one week and we already saw our boss belly dancing!
It's a Small World
Originally written 23 August
This week we've had orientation meetings at the school with the other new teachers in Baku and with a group of new teachers from the school in Ashkabet, Turkmenistan. These meetings were supposed to include the teachers from Tbilisi, Georgia and from Yerevan, Armenia. When the invasion of Georgia began, all the teachers from the Tbilisi school were evacuated to Armenia. After the shooting stopped, they were brought back to their school and, at this point, still intend to start school as scheduled. Many of the students, however, are still in Yerevan, and may start school there, then move back to Georgia in a few weeks. Needless to say, both schools are scrambling at this point. So, the Tbilisi teachers couldn't come to Baku. The Yerevan teachers are trying to accomodate a number of unexpected students. Additionally, there is no border crossing between Armenia and Azerbaijan since they are technically at war with one another (even with a 10-year ceasefire), so travel is through Georgia... which wasn't the best idea.
There were five teachers and the director from the Turkmenistan school who came for the meeting. So, here's my prize winning small world moment. One of the teachers from Turkmenistan is from El Cajon, California (part of San Diego County). Not only that, she graduated from Grossmont High School - the same school my mom graduated from. Not only that, she had Don Henderson, one of my best friends from high school, as one of her teachers at Grossmont high. Not only that... I heard from Don Henderson for the first time in about 20 years on the day before I met Bethany, the teacher from Turkmenistan. He found my email contact via facebook. I am literally on the other side of the planet from San Diego (really... it's a 12 hour time zone difference between Baku and San Diego) and I meet someone who knows someone I know. Add in the odds that I just happened to get email from Don within 24 hours of meeting that person. Wow.
This week we've had orientation meetings at the school with the other new teachers in Baku and with a group of new teachers from the school in Ashkabet, Turkmenistan. These meetings were supposed to include the teachers from Tbilisi, Georgia and from Yerevan, Armenia. When the invasion of Georgia began, all the teachers from the Tbilisi school were evacuated to Armenia. After the shooting stopped, they were brought back to their school and, at this point, still intend to start school as scheduled. Many of the students, however, are still in Yerevan, and may start school there, then move back to Georgia in a few weeks. Needless to say, both schools are scrambling at this point. So, the Tbilisi teachers couldn't come to Baku. The Yerevan teachers are trying to accomodate a number of unexpected students. Additionally, there is no border crossing between Armenia and Azerbaijan since they are technically at war with one another (even with a 10-year ceasefire), so travel is through Georgia... which wasn't the best idea.
There were five teachers and the director from the Turkmenistan school who came for the meeting. So, here's my prize winning small world moment. One of the teachers from Turkmenistan is from El Cajon, California (part of San Diego County). Not only that, she graduated from Grossmont High School - the same school my mom graduated from. Not only that, she had Don Henderson, one of my best friends from high school, as one of her teachers at Grossmont high. Not only that... I heard from Don Henderson for the first time in about 20 years on the day before I met Bethany, the teacher from Turkmenistan. He found my email contact via facebook. I am literally on the other side of the planet from San Diego (really... it's a 12 hour time zone difference between Baku and San Diego) and I meet someone who knows someone I know. Add in the odds that I just happened to get email from Don within 24 hours of meeting that person. Wow.
Hiring help
(Originally written Sunday, August 24th)
Heather and I were talking yesterday or the day before. It feels as though we've been in Baku for a month or more - not because time is dragging by, but just because we feel so at home here. We've learned some basic Azeri and we're picking up more each day. Shopping in the markets and bazaars feels almost natural. Walking through our neighborhood, I think I say hi to more people than I did when I walked through the neighborhood we lived in in Lynnwood.
Some things that have happened since the last update. We had a meeting at school that included a chance to interview some potential drivers, nannies and housecleaners. We wanted a driver, simply because it will take us a while to get a car if we decide to go that route. I'm leaning towards not getting a car at all, though. There were only a few drivers to talk to. One was looking for something very close to school and decided to work with a group of single female teachers. The other had just bought a brand new Audi and was concerned about driving into our neighborhood (dirt roads with very big potholes). He was hoping for around 800 Manats (written 800 AZN) which is around $1000 per month. However, he knows a guy (there's lots of that here in Baku. Juan Tovar would fit in great!) He brought his nephew to our house. His nephew has a 3 year old Lada (a Russian car, very boxy like a Volvo, but pretty small. We'll get a picture). We negotiated with the nephew and our deal is this: Monday-Friday, he picks us up at our home at 7:30. He drops us off at school at about 7:45. Then, every day, we tell him what time to pick us up - it can change every day. Some days, we're done around 3:30, others not until after 5:00. We can even call during the day if we need to change the time. A couple of times per week, after he picks us up, he'll drive us to a market or bazaar. Then he waits while we do our shopping, then drives us home. One or two weekend days during the month, we will arrange to have him drive us if we want to go downtown, to the sea, etc. Then he'll drive us home when we want. If we need extra weekend days, we can set that up, but we'll pay him overtime. For all that, we're paying 300 AZN per month (about $360). Gas here is about $1.40 per gallon (.60 AZN/liter) - diesel is about $1.10 per gallon and most stuff runs on diesel. The only "drawback" with our driver is that he speaks about 30 words of English, while his uncle spoke fairly decent English. However, the uncle told us that about 4 years ago, he didn't speak English at all. He started driving for Americans, though, and studying on his own, and that's how he learned his English. So, that's his hope for his nephew. As we're driving, we point at things and say the English word, then he tells us in Azeri. He'll also ask how to say things. He's also practicing at home. He picked us up yesterday morning. When we walked out he had a huge grin and said very clearly "good morning." We have his uncle's phone number, and the plan is that anytime we try to explain something but can't get understood, we call the uncle and he translates for us. We've only done that once so far, though, and that was just the first day to confirm that we were going to contract with him (we took a test run to the market the day we met him, just to make sure he could drive and that the car would be comfortable enough.) Otherwise, we know our Azeri numbers through twenty and we know the words for home, school, market, etc. which gets us pretty far.
So, we got our driver and we're happy with him. The boys think he's really nice. He's actually a lot less aggressive than a lot of the other drivers we've ridden with or seen on the roads, which is very nice. I'd rather get there 3 minutes later than sit there with white knuckles the whole ride.
We had no intention of getting a nanny or housecleaner. However, our director and the director of instruction were talking about cleaning to give us a sense of what prices we might be looking for in negotiating with people. To have a cleaner come three days a week for 5-6 hours each time, they thought that between 250 and 350 AZN per month was reasonable. If there would be some nanny duties as well, then perhaps another 50 - 100. They both have women who come five days per week, who clean and do nannying, and they pay about 500 AZN per month. Heather and I looked at each other and thought "Hmmm..." So, we talked with a few women, found one who speaks excellent English (as well as perfect Azeri and Russian), and hired her. She'll come Monday, Wednesday and Friday at about 9:00 a.m. and stay until around 2:00 p.m. She'll clean, do laundry, iron our clothes (we line dry everything - there is no clothes dryer - they're pretty uncommon here). Additionally, we've arranged to have her cook a normal/common Azeri or Russian meal for us each Friday. She'll leave it in the fridge with heating instructions and the recipe. Then we can have it Friday or Saturday. For all that, we will pay her 300 AZN per month ($360 US) - that's about what we paid to have someone clean for us in Lynnwood twice each month for 4 hours at a time. If we need to, we can have her babysit the kids in the evenings for just a few manat each time.
That's our story of getting a driver and housekeeper.
Heather and I were talking yesterday or the day before. It feels as though we've been in Baku for a month or more - not because time is dragging by, but just because we feel so at home here. We've learned some basic Azeri and we're picking up more each day. Shopping in the markets and bazaars feels almost natural. Walking through our neighborhood, I think I say hi to more people than I did when I walked through the neighborhood we lived in in Lynnwood.
Some things that have happened since the last update. We had a meeting at school that included a chance to interview some potential drivers, nannies and housecleaners. We wanted a driver, simply because it will take us a while to get a car if we decide to go that route. I'm leaning towards not getting a car at all, though. There were only a few drivers to talk to. One was looking for something very close to school and decided to work with a group of single female teachers. The other had just bought a brand new Audi and was concerned about driving into our neighborhood (dirt roads with very big potholes). He was hoping for around 800 Manats (written 800 AZN) which is around $1000 per month. However, he knows a guy (there's lots of that here in Baku. Juan Tovar would fit in great!) He brought his nephew to our house. His nephew has a 3 year old Lada (a Russian car, very boxy like a Volvo, but pretty small. We'll get a picture). We negotiated with the nephew and our deal is this: Monday-Friday, he picks us up at our home at 7:30. He drops us off at school at about 7:45. Then, every day, we tell him what time to pick us up - it can change every day. Some days, we're done around 3:30, others not until after 5:00. We can even call during the day if we need to change the time. A couple of times per week, after he picks us up, he'll drive us to a market or bazaar. Then he waits while we do our shopping, then drives us home. One or two weekend days during the month, we will arrange to have him drive us if we want to go downtown, to the sea, etc. Then he'll drive us home when we want. If we need extra weekend days, we can set that up, but we'll pay him overtime. For all that, we're paying 300 AZN per month (about $360). Gas here is about $1.40 per gallon (.60 AZN/liter) - diesel is about $1.10 per gallon and most stuff runs on diesel. The only "drawback" with our driver is that he speaks about 30 words of English, while his uncle spoke fairly decent English. However, the uncle told us that about 4 years ago, he didn't speak English at all. He started driving for Americans, though, and studying on his own, and that's how he learned his English. So, that's his hope for his nephew. As we're driving, we point at things and say the English word, then he tells us in Azeri. He'll also ask how to say things. He's also practicing at home. He picked us up yesterday morning. When we walked out he had a huge grin and said very clearly "good morning." We have his uncle's phone number, and the plan is that anytime we try to explain something but can't get understood, we call the uncle and he translates for us. We've only done that once so far, though, and that was just the first day to confirm that we were going to contract with him (we took a test run to the market the day we met him, just to make sure he could drive and that the car would be comfortable enough.) Otherwise, we know our Azeri numbers through twenty and we know the words for home, school, market, etc. which gets us pretty far.
So, we got our driver and we're happy with him. The boys think he's really nice. He's actually a lot less aggressive than a lot of the other drivers we've ridden with or seen on the roads, which is very nice. I'd rather get there 3 minutes later than sit there with white knuckles the whole ride.
We had no intention of getting a nanny or housecleaner. However, our director and the director of instruction were talking about cleaning to give us a sense of what prices we might be looking for in negotiating with people. To have a cleaner come three days a week for 5-6 hours each time, they thought that between 250 and 350 AZN per month was reasonable. If there would be some nanny duties as well, then perhaps another 50 - 100. They both have women who come five days per week, who clean and do nannying, and they pay about 500 AZN per month. Heather and I looked at each other and thought "Hmmm..." So, we talked with a few women, found one who speaks excellent English (as well as perfect Azeri and Russian), and hired her. She'll come Monday, Wednesday and Friday at about 9:00 a.m. and stay until around 2:00 p.m. She'll clean, do laundry, iron our clothes (we line dry everything - there is no clothes dryer - they're pretty uncommon here). Additionally, we've arranged to have her cook a normal/common Azeri or Russian meal for us each Friday. She'll leave it in the fridge with heating instructions and the recipe. Then we can have it Friday or Saturday. For all that, we will pay her 300 AZN per month ($360 US) - that's about what we paid to have someone clean for us in Lynnwood twice each month for 4 hours at a time. If we need to, we can have her babysit the kids in the evenings for just a few manat each time.
That's our story of getting a driver and housekeeper.
Meetings from 22-8 - 23-8
We've been writing a bit offline for the last week and just haven't had the time and energy to get it posted online. We have Internet working well in our home now and a wireless network for all of the computers, so we should be able to stay on top of this a bit more.
Our meetings covered a lot of the basics of QSI including the philosophy, curriculum, etc. The more that Heather and I heard, the more excited we got. The methods they use and their overall mindset is so different from traditional education. It's going to be a bit more of a challenge for us as teachers, but it will be a lot more rewarding I think. In fact, the first night we came home and we called the boys in. We told them that after what we heard, we'll be rather hard pressed to ever put them back in a traditional classroom setting... so they're stuck here until Joshua finishes high school. Since they're both adjusting so well, that actually didn't phaze them. The only real question they had was if we'd stay in Baku or move to another QSI school.
Our meetings covered a lot of the basics of QSI including the philosophy, curriculum, etc. The more that Heather and I heard, the more excited we got. The methods they use and their overall mindset is so different from traditional education. It's going to be a bit more of a challenge for us as teachers, but it will be a lot more rewarding I think. In fact, the first night we came home and we called the boys in. We told them that after what we heard, we'll be rather hard pressed to ever put them back in a traditional classroom setting... so they're stuck here until Joshua finishes high school. Since they're both adjusting so well, that actually didn't phaze them. The only real question they had was if we'd stay in Baku or move to another QSI school.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
A few comments
We're back at school today for a while to talk with the school's IT guy about getting Internet at home and to meet with possible drivers (it will take at least a few weeks before we get a car, but I don't want to get one for a lot longer than that. It is incredible how dangerously people drive here!)
We have a few minutes before our meetings start, so we can get a few things down. We have an adapter for our computer so we can plug in at home now, so we can try to actually write these at home, then post them when we have a connection.
A few high points. Jonathon and Joshua have made a couple of friends in the neighborhood - Najaf and Murat. They are both Russian (I think), but they speak Azeri, too. Najaf speaks some English, so he and Jonathon have talked a lot. Jonathon is already my translator at stores! (He knows his numbers and a few other words in Azeri already). The two boys wait outside our house until they see one of us then they say "Jonathon - game?" to ask if the boys can come outside to play. We send the boys out to play in the street for an hour or two at a time. (It will make more sense once we get the pictures up.)
We've been to a few different markets. There are some that are the equivalent of an American supermarket, including some Turkish and Indian chains (Ramstore, New World Market, Neptun Market) then a bunch of stores that are smaller than an AM/PM or 7/11 store. There are also fruit markets that are set up all over that are like farmer's markets with dozens of different stalls. We also went to a bazaar on Sunday - it was a huge sprawling area built on a hill - probably six levels or more with at least a hundred and fifty or more stalls. I bought two kilograms of tomatoes (4.4 pounds) for 1 manat (about $1.25). Today I got a pound of red peppers at a store for about $1.50. Meat is expensive, and meat means chicken, sausage or salami - I haven't seen much other meat.
And... now our meeting. We'll write more later.
We have a few minutes before our meetings start, so we can get a few things down. We have an adapter for our computer so we can plug in at home now, so we can try to actually write these at home, then post them when we have a connection.
A few high points. Jonathon and Joshua have made a couple of friends in the neighborhood - Najaf and Murat. They are both Russian (I think), but they speak Azeri, too. Najaf speaks some English, so he and Jonathon have talked a lot. Jonathon is already my translator at stores! (He knows his numbers and a few other words in Azeri already). The two boys wait outside our house until they see one of us then they say "Jonathon - game?" to ask if the boys can come outside to play. We send the boys out to play in the street for an hour or two at a time. (It will make more sense once we get the pictures up.)
We've been to a few different markets. There are some that are the equivalent of an American supermarket, including some Turkish and Indian chains (Ramstore, New World Market, Neptun Market) then a bunch of stores that are smaller than an AM/PM or 7/11 store. There are also fruit markets that are set up all over that are like farmer's markets with dozens of different stalls. We also went to a bazaar on Sunday - it was a huge sprawling area built on a hill - probably six levels or more with at least a hundred and fifty or more stalls. I bought two kilograms of tomatoes (4.4 pounds) for 1 manat (about $1.25). Today I got a pound of red peppers at a store for about $1.50. Meat is expensive, and meat means chicken, sausage or salami - I haven't seen much other meat.
And... now our meeting. We'll write more later.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
We made it!
We made it. We arrived right on time into Baku on Thursday night (local time) - Thursday morning back in Seattle. Getting all of our bags and boxes together was a bit of an effort, but eventually we got them all loaded into the school's vans and were taken to our new home.
It looked a little dubious pulling into our neighborhood - dirt streets, garbage all around, but once we opened the door to the house, we were amazed. It is beautiful - we'll get pictures put up when we're able to. Two stories, beautiful wood floors in the entire house (no carpet at all). A huge kitchen, a living room, a bath room (and a separate toilet room) all downstairs, with a door out onto a nice size cement patio. Upstairs there are three bedrooms (actually, one is supposed to be a living room, but Heather and I have taken that one. It's huge!) Then there's a large hallway area that will actually be where the boys' desk and computer will be. It is truly amazing.
We met our fellow new teachers on Friday, were given a tour of the school, then went to a few stores to get some ideas of prices. Food is definitely not cheaper here than in the US. Some things are pretty similar, but some prices here are a lot higher.
We went to dinner with everyone at an Indian buffet near the Old City of Baku on Friday night.
Today (Saturday), we met up with our new teacher friends and went to get cell phones. Cell phones here are much more reliable than the wired lines. Email us if you want the phone numbers (but it'll cost you a lot to call us!) Then we came back to the school and got to plug in to the school's wireless internet.
So, just a quick word here to let everyone know we're alive, that we're settling in, and that everything is good.
We love you all -
Tim, Heather, Jonathon and Joshua
It looked a little dubious pulling into our neighborhood - dirt streets, garbage all around, but once we opened the door to the house, we were amazed. It is beautiful - we'll get pictures put up when we're able to. Two stories, beautiful wood floors in the entire house (no carpet at all). A huge kitchen, a living room, a bath room (and a separate toilet room) all downstairs, with a door out onto a nice size cement patio. Upstairs there are three bedrooms (actually, one is supposed to be a living room, but Heather and I have taken that one. It's huge!) Then there's a large hallway area that will actually be where the boys' desk and computer will be. It is truly amazing.
We met our fellow new teachers on Friday, were given a tour of the school, then went to a few stores to get some ideas of prices. Food is definitely not cheaper here than in the US. Some things are pretty similar, but some prices here are a lot higher.
We went to dinner with everyone at an Indian buffet near the Old City of Baku on Friday night.
Today (Saturday), we met up with our new teacher friends and went to get cell phones. Cell phones here are much more reliable than the wired lines. Email us if you want the phone numbers (but it'll cost you a lot to call us!) Then we came back to the school and got to plug in to the school's wireless internet.
So, just a quick word here to let everyone know we're alive, that we're settling in, and that everything is good.
We love you all -
Tim, Heather, Jonathon and Joshua
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