Halloween
So Halloween makes the text books in Azerbaijan, but there is still a limited understanding of the holiday. We talked about the key words of Halloween like; jack-o-lantern, candy, trick or treat(which is a really hard phrase to say here!), costumes, skeletons, ghosts, haunted house... It was a really fun way to start the week and get out of our regular routine of talking about
favorite fruits, what is her/his name questions and answers.
In honor of the holiday, I was able to put some Stateside donated construction paper and scissors to use so all of my classes could make Halloween masks.
Thanksgiving
Joey and I traveled to the NorthWest of Azerbaijan to a town called Qax. The day before, was a beautiful fall day where we participated in a Georgian pilgrimage to a Christian church for honoring Saint George, eating much pork kabob and Georgian home-aid wine. Our American Peace Corps Volunteer Thanksgiving began with snow from the moment we woke up to the moment we went to sleep. A friendly turkey wandered into our friend's outdoor kitchen but was spared since it was not on the menu. We prepared some side dishes and walked to the Georgian restaurant for dumplings, Khajapuri, and mashed potatoes and returned for pumpkin
pie!
On Saturday, we were in Baku for our big Peace Corp Thanksgiving dinner and it was a wonderfully civilized, warm and a delicious meal!
5 Year Anniversary
So our big five year mile marker in our marriage resulted in a long bus ride from Qax to Baku. Due to the snow from the day before, it took a little longer than normal AND with a cracked seal on the window in front of my seat, my entire right side of my body was absolutely freezing. Joey being the wonderful husband he is, provided me an extra layer warmth with his coat. On the plus side, we did arrive in Baku and had a wonderful Turkey soup from a wonderful
embassy family that provided us housing for the weekend! Although this was not an ideal or remotely romantic anniversary, we were just happy to be with each other and cherish the thoughts of our big day 5 years ago and know we were surrounded by such amazing people then and now!
And now we're off to celebrate Christmas with volunteers from our region. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
