Creativity and Volume: Crank it to the Max

Two musical artists in particular have had an exceptional 2010. Swedish dance queen Robyn and global hip-hop superstar Kanye West. This isn't characteristically uncommon for either of them, they are highly talented artists with lots of past successes, but this year was exceptional for both.

Back in late August, Kanye began releasing a free track each week under the guise of his G.O.O.D. Friday mixtape. The high consistency was only matched by the high calibre of each track. Many of these tracks made it in one form or another onto his near flawless album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. (Read an amazing review here).

Early in 2010 Robyn announced her Body Talk series, which would be a three part series released throughout the year. Each album had at least a few tracks that were dance-pop perfection. And, as soon as one album was released, a video, mp3, or live performance of a new song previewing the upcoming album was released.

We frequently hear that volume is the key to success and improvement. The best way to become a better writer is to write more, a better painter is to paint more. Volume of output is a key part of the creative process, the more work you produce the more likely you'll produce good work. I find great motivation in Kanye West and Robyn this year, to produce more and more and know that some of it will be amongst my best.

Thanksgiving, Azerbaijan style

Happy belated Thanksgiving from Azerbaijan. Its sort of a weird phenomena to celebrate Thanksgiving outside of the US. This is a purely national holiday and, though some Azeris are familiar with this US holiday it is largely unheard of. We were minimally accommodated by Peace Corps, having language class in the morning and no afternoon classes, but maximally accommodated by one of the trainees' host family. They let 20 Americans take over their large kitchen and dining room for the evening.

Having been assimilating the Azeri culture for so long, we were almost aggressive in asserting our American-ness and preparing a feast. We had all the necessary elements-a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, wine, a control freak, massive cleanup. It was wonderful, like a little slice of America.

However, procuring these items was very Azerbaijan. The mashed potatoes for 20 people were all mashed by hand, with a fork. And in order not to be thought of as alcoholics, we purchased our bottles of wine across 5 stores in 2 different cities. But the best example of this was the turkey Matt brought. From day 1 of thanksgiving planning, Matt said he would be providing the turkey. And 25 manat later, Matt had purchased a good looking, fully alive turkey which he named Adolf in order to prevent any bonding issues.

On Sunday, I received a call from Matt stating that he was rushing home to kill the turkey. It was sick and his family told him he would need to kill it that day. Obviously I rushed over to Matts to ensure I could see this. Arriving at his house, Matt, Emily, and I saw a 'failure to thrive' turkey. It was lying in his box, looking up with eyes that said 'lets get this over with'.

The turkey was brought onto the lawn and, after Matt was shown how to restrain the bird, which was already still as a corpse, he was handed a knife and the international 'cut off his head' sign was made. Matt took a deep breath and started at it. The family was roaring with laughter and Emily and I couldn't help but laugh, whether out of nerves or absurdity. Matt is sawing away with a completely dull blade, akin to the knife my host mom uses to tear bread and spread butter, lamenting the complete inefficiency of it. After about 5 minutes the deed was done and after another 2 hours Matt's heart resumed its normal beat.

Its Khachmaz!

Last week were our site announcements and it was a very exciting, if not nervous, meeting of the TEFLs. One by one our names were announced with our region and we went up to the map to try and figure out where that actual region was. I'm not too good with Azerbaijani geography yet so when Khachmaz was called, I was excited to be called but clueless on where or what I would be going to.

The more I learned the more excited I get. Khachmaz is the northern most region in the first (eastern most) finger. Thus we get some of the most temperate weather throughout the year. The region is ancient and has been densely inhabited since early human history with numerous artifacts and settlement areas left. I will be living in Khachmaz the city, which has a population of about 66K. It is very close to the Caspian and the city enjoys a bit of tourism due to the nice beaches. It is considered a beautiful city by Azeris and there are many parks and fountains in the city.

The school I will be teaching at is one of the largest schools in the region. It is only 3 years old and quite big, about 1200 students and over 100 teachers. There are 16 English teachers and they teach a minimum of 18 hours a week, which is very uncommon for Azerbaijan. Speaking with my counterpart, it sounds like we also have a library and a computer lab. The Azerbaijan teacher organization, Zeta, for Khachmaz is based out of my school, and in fact out of my counterpart's classroom. Also, I'm less than 2 hours away from Baki so if there is anything at all that I need, I can easily take a day trip to Baki and get it.

In general I am excitedly waiting to go there. Obviously I must manage my expectations, everyone is going to a wonderfully fantastic place before they get there, but it sounds like the school has been eagerly awaiting my arrival and the Zeta chapter is very active. In technical training we've been talking a lot about ways to run the classroom and there seems to be an unspoken idealism of effectively transferring western styles of teaching to a hungry and motivated audience.

Speaking with current TEFL volunteers it is confirmed that the teachers we work with are excited for us and passionate about teaching, but they must also work within the constraints that are presented to them. In general a teacher will teach in the morning, rush home to do housework and clean the house, and then tutor children privately, which is where they actually make money. My main goal is to focus on interactive teaching techniques that require little to no setup or preparatory work, believing that these activities and methods will be most readily used when I am gone.

Getting Lost in Baki

Here are photos from our past trip to Baki. It was our first visit so we quickly broke away from the birthday crew who wanted to drink and worked on getting lost in the city. It is a beautiful city, worthy of its place amongst other world cities, with lots of fountains and public art.

Getting Lost in Baki on Flickr

On Matt's and my fountain scale, we rate this a 4.

1st wish: more toilet paper

Hear no evil; see no evil; speak no evil

22 years a man does not make

In my host family, there are three adult children. Two women are married and out of the house. The youngest, Elşan, is a young man of 22 years but acts, and is treated, far more like a boy and the baby of the family. He declares himself right and others (me) wrong with the confidence of a 14 year old and demands attention from his mother similar to one younger than that. Though closer in age to me I continued to feel more and more that we had very little in common.

The Azeri men I have most actively enjoyed the company of tend to be older than me, in their 30s and have families. This past weekend I spent a good 4+ hours talking with my host sister's husband, Tehran, about everything ranging from operating systems to religion, from career movement to his kid's judo lessons. Elşan would drift in and out of the room and Tehran never really made an effort to include him. If he did it was usually in a way adults might address a young teenager, not as a young man.

In AZB there is not much of a spectrum between youth and adult. In the US, we see varying degrees of responsibility granted as we become older which help develop our maturity. We may go away to college, start to pay our own bills, move out of the house, etc. In the United States adults will ask for adolescents' opinions or include them in discussions to help 'train' them to be an adult themselves. In AZB one is considered a child basically until one is married, even if you have a full time job and are contributing to the household budget. Even at 25 my LCF confirmed she is still considered a child in her family and addressed as one.

This realization has helped me in a few ways. Since arriving to my host family i've been placing undue pressure upon myself in forming a relationship with Elşan. As he is relatively close to my age I've been looking at my relationship with him as representative of my ability to form relationships with those in my community who are not my students. It's been a relief to release myself from this pressure, recognizing that similarity in years lived is in no way a basis for a relationship.

But wait, there's more..

Also, here's a ringtone for your phone that is a 5th grade class of Azeri children singing the ABCs.

copy and past link into browser to download: files.me.com/joshehr/thim36

Yoga and Goal Setting

This past week I accomplished a goal I set for myself back in March, 26 weeks of daily yoga. The focus wasn't a perfect pose or flexibility, but to strengthen a commitment to my practice in preparation for upcoming life abroad. I can state that I have improved many of my poses and achieved greater flexibility. But the true gain was in taking my practice away from the realm of exercise and into the realm of body awareness.
I found that what was most useful in achieving this goal were the same items that were most useful in achieving goals at Apple and grad school, and will most likely be the most useful in achieving my community development goals in Azerbaijan. They are discovering what tools are most useful; identify what is unnecessary; measure progress; know what you're measuring.

1) Discover what tools are most useful.
I found the most useful tools for this goal was a simple 10 dollar foam block and a yoga book (Light on Yoga) that contained detailed photographs and instructions of all the postures, plus a massive 300 week recommended curriculum. These were the two most useful items I obtained for this, both of these allowed me to gain confidence in performing poses and helped keep my practice accurate and appropriate for my level.
Aggressively pursue what is truly useful towards your goal. Many times I try not to do something because it will cost a little bit of money or take a bit of time to set up. But my delay costs me lots more time or money because of inefficiency or apathy. Having the right tools to accomplish a task makes one want to accomplish the task. This extends beyond physical tools, like a foam block, to life skills such as leadership or public speaking skills.

2) Identify what is unnecessary
A few weeks in, I found my studio completely unnecessary and unhelpful. I would force myself to go too often and began to associate daily practice with a negative chore. A class at my studio felt more like a cardio workout rather than a yoga class. Once I canceled my membership it was months before I went to another class, but this time it was at a place that furthered my goal in the form of a six week series that was designed to give extremely detailed instruction to the 15 most fundamental postures.
By eliminating what is extra you keep your plan focused and reduce the risk of burning out on side projects that don't truly help. Though it may sound like a good idea, and maybe at some point would show itself to be a good idea, it may not be a good idea for the specific stage you are at in. And deciding to take it up might not just distract you, it might prevent accomplishment.

3) Measure progress
First starting out, I would notate what I had done each day and what my focuses for the upcoming week. As I got more used to this new habit of daily practice my notation switched to weekly, identifying the current routine I was on and focuses for the week. I also would mark up my book and write down any extra pieces of information to keep in mind.
Whether it be work or personal, I find that tracking progress is one of the most helpful things I can do and most difficult habits to get into. It requires reflection instead of action and is easy to push to the side while you are busy with all the other things in life. But when we give ourselves time to do this we can see if we are making headway, identify if anything needs to be changed, or simply validate what we've already achieved. Finding time to measure progress in the Apple Store was extremely difficult but well worth it. After some time with the numbers, I knew who to praise and thereby reinforce, who to follow up with and thereby course correct, and the new behaviors to focus on in order to not just achieve our forecasts, but blow them away.

4) Know what you're measuring
Measuring progress is important, but measuring the correct variable in your progress is more important. When I first began, I tracked the time I spent daily on the mat. This was great for a few days of early enthusiasm but quickly started to frustrate me as I continually felt my daily practice was inferior to a 60-90 minute class. I assumed I wasn't going anywhere. Eventually I switched my tracking of time to tracking of routine completion. Each week I would identify the routine to practice and tracked my completion of my identified routine. This kept the focus where it should be, routine vs. time, and kept me motivated.
Many times we default to the variable we have most frequently used as measurement in the past thereby restricting our creativity of what might be a more accurate assessment. In grad school when I switched tracking my progress in paper writing from pages written (measured in pages) to pages of outline written (measured in paragraphs) I ended up writing better papers, faster, and more enjoyably.

This is probably the best thing I've done so far

Each day we have been brining 5 new vocabulary words to language class with the end goal of writing a story in Azerbaijani. I assumed that this would be a total b of an assignment, and it was, but it was also really really fun. The following is my story. Its sort of one part 'Just So Story' and one part myth of Echo and Narcissus. Translation at the bottom

Bir varidi, bir yox idi bu dişi medusa okǝanda üzdü. O gozel dişi medusa oldi. O yaranliq okǝanda, heykǝlin arxasincain üzdü. Bu gozel heykǝl ölmüş şǝhǝr Atlantisdǝyib. O derhal heykǝl sevilib. Dişi medusa hǝr gün, hǝr dǝqiqǝ, heykǝlin yanindayınıb. Amma, heykǝl hǝç vaxt medusayın rıyakalıq cavab vǝrmib.
Bir gun tısbaḡa dişi medusayilǝ üzüb.
"Bu heykǝl sǝnin yanındayın niyǝsǝn?"
"Mǝn sevilir"
"Amma aydin başa düşmǝyir"
Vǝ yuxda tısbaḡa üzdü. Dişi medusa heykǝl heyat gǝtirsin. O yeyanǝ şey tikǝdǝlǝr özü vǝrmǝk fikirlǝşsin. Tikǝilǝ tikǝ onva vǝmdi vǝ dişi medusa kiçiyi ve kiçiyi işigli yaraşdı. Vǝ bir gun, sonra keçmiş vǝrdi, ruh yaraşdı.
Vǝ bu mǝdusa tutqun niyǝdir.

Once upon a time, a jellyfish was swimming in the ocean. She was a beautiful jellyfish. In the dark ocean she swam past a statue. This statue was a beautiful statue from the lost city of Atlantis. Immediately, the jellyfish fell in love and began to woo the statues love. She never left its side and the statue never returned her affection.
One day a sea turtle swam by and saw the jellyfish besides the statue.
"Why are you besides this statue?"
"Because I love him"
"But he is not alive"
The sea turtle then swam away. At that moment the jellyfish resolved to bring the statue to life. The only thing she could think of was to give pieces of herself to bring him to life. Giving piece by piece, she became lighter and lighter until one day she became as a ghost.
And that is why jellyfish are translucent.

This is my awesome cluster

We are definitely the best Cluster of our trainees, mainly because we have the most fun. From bottom to top, left to right: Matt, Michael, Alec, Carrie, Emily, Josh. Lale is our super amazing LCF.

Basically, we're all getting fat

There really aren't many things for Peace Corps Trainees do to on a day off in Azerbaijan. There are no movie theaters and not many restaurants to frequent. In addition there is a strong gender distinction that limits the amount of places that unmarried men and women can be together. Women aren't allowed in the cayxanas (teahouses) which are the main place of socialization for men and there are few other public places to go.

Thus, on our elusive days off, there is usually one thing we do do. Binge eat. We are living in a culture where it costs 50 cents for a coke and I can, and do, buy hohos in kilos as opposed to individual packages. Peace Corps told us that many people experience of weight gain of about 15 pounds. What they didn't tell us is that its usually due to us stress-eating turkish cookies and paprika flavored lays.