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.

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.

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.