And my week of non-writing posts continues

These past 2 weeks I've been traveling around Azerbaijan. I friends in Goychay, Sheki, and Zagatala, with the city of Sheki serving as my central launching point. This was for two reasons: 1) I have two good friends there with a large house and 2) I helped with a Sheki Summer Camp.

Camp was great. I really love working with kids in non-classroom settings and they seem to get a kick out of me. I also got an opportunity to even out my brutal farmers tan (though at time of press, its basically reversed itself). It was an exhausting week, but really fun.

Anyway, you can see the pics from the day we took a hike at Sheki summer camp here. Some of my faves:

I Just Think 'Texas' instead of 'West Virginia'

In 5 days I'm going to find myself on a plane towards America, visiting home for the first time in 10 months. Pretty much the only thought in my head right now is "only 5 days, 5 hours, 10 minutes..."

Maybe its the thought of returning home or maybe its the sing-a-long voice of John Denver over the beautifully head-banging beats and reverb, but I cannot stop listening to Denver's Pretty Lights' take on Country Roads. Extra bonus-you can download it in beautiful 320 kbps quality for constant offline listening.

Country Roads-Pretty Lights Remix 320kbps FREE DOWNLOAD by prettylights

Some R'n'R in Sheki

I'm currently writing this in Sheki, in a house where everyone is lounging, napping, and generally being quiet. We're halfway through a summer camp on life skills with themes like responsibility, leadership, and teamwork and it is exhausting. Everyday we wake up at 7, bring supplies for the day's activities to camp, lead about 50 awesome and enthusiastic kids in four hours of activities. Then we trudge like zombies back to the house for some food, a nap, and a beer before retreating into a cocoon of silence. After a few hours we are all a bit more social and we eat some dinner before realizing how tired we truly are.

Thus is the life of a summer PCV. It's actually pretty outstanding. Prior to Sheki I was hosting friends in Xachmaz after the BBQ. Then I left to head to my friend Emily's village-a very small, very humid place where we socialized with the family where my main accomplishments were getting drunk with the uncle, completing 4 crossword puzzles, and beating Emily (numerous times) in cribbage. From there we spent a night in the city of Goychay, which reminds me a lot like Houston (minus all the "5th largest city in America" accompaniments).

So at day 4 on the road, I ended up at my main location: Sheki. One of the largest cities in Azerbaijan, Sheki is nestled up onto the foothills of the greater caucuses. The stadium where our camp takes place has a beautiful view of the verdant mountains and overlooks the rooftops of the western town. All the roofs are the same colors as those buildings at CU Boulder and a less manly PCV could easily become emotional over it.

Everyone is jealous that I am visiting America so soon and I'm beginning to fear the post-america hangover that will invariable happen. Earlier I was telling friends that it was like waiting for Christmas times 100, but now, sitting next to a sleeping friend in the dark typing this email with the descending rays of the sun creeping in and a beer on the floor next to me, well, it doesn't seem so intolerable.

Pics from Atlant and post-BBQ

Hopefully I'll have a link for BBQ pics from a friend up soon. But until then, make sure to check these out and get jealz.

4th of July! in Azerbaijan!

Happy (belated) 4th of July. If it wasn't already summer vacay you could be darn well sure that I would have taken the day off to celebrate my great nations independence/sleep in. The other side of the Peace Corps coin frequently feels is a repeating theme of asserting one's Americanness in a foreign culture, so it was nice to have a weekend dedicated to that very thing. Suddenly everything I did (or didn't want to) do this past weekend was because of national heritage. Looking back on the weekend, this means my heritage demands delicious bbq chicken, super fun water slides, and jungle juice-which is actually a pretty good sampling of just why America is so rockin'.

The weekend began with a trip to Nabran. Nabran is a resort in Azerbaijan in the Xachmaz region. The best thing about Nabran is that it is a resort town by East European standards, not by Azerbaijani standards. So bikinis, drinking, and smiling is par for the course. We began the day driving out to the beach to play volleyball while we drank our vodka infused watermelon (and of course-tea). Afterwards we headed towards Atlant, the biggest most extravagant resort in Nabran. Though a tad pricey, about 10 manat to get in, it was oh-so-worth-it. You first glimpse the crystal blue pools (stereilized with chlorine-yay!) through a forest of deck chairs and multi colored umbrellas. On one end you see a massive pirate ship, on the other side a tangled complex of water slides. And thats when you realize you have been transported to a magical place far far from Azerbaijan where no one cares that you are speaking another language or from a culture that doesn't care about wanting to have a good tan.

But the most fun had to be the massive inflatable toys you could rent in the pool and of these the best, by far was Egg Mountain. Egg Mountain looked like an 8 foot egg (surrounded by a massive inner tube) floating straight up in water. It had handles that you could use to pull yourself up onto it so people could play a pool version of king of the mountain. As it was completely top heavy the game invariably ended in capsizing the egg with people flying 8 feet in the air, over the egg, as it fell in a direction they were unprepared for. It was awesome and something that every American water park if they want to keep up with the Joneses We got back to the city around 10 o'clock exhausted but high on endorphins from the day, collapsed into bed knowing that the next day, our 4th of July BBQ, would continue the great weekend.

Glendene, Lannea (my sitemates) and I decided we were going to have a big 4th of July BBQ in Xachmaz for our American and Azeri friends. The one rule was that it would be completely American, which meant no slices of stinky cheese, no wedges of tomato and cucumber 'salads,' and absolutely no tea would be served to anyone under any circumstances. Between this and Atlant, word got out Xachmaz was the place to be this weekend and before we knew it we had 10 Americans who were coming from all over the country to join us. This helped extensively with our menu as we didn't want to take any chances on diluting our 100% American bbq offerings by asking Azeris to cook. We had all the staples: BBQ chicken and hotdogs (with buns), potato salad, pasta salad, fruit salad and watermelon, corn on the cob, chili, baked beans, chips and salsa, apple pies and cakes decorated like the American flag. It was one of the most stereotypical BBQs I've ever been to, let alone thrown. There was a lot of food, which was good because there were a lot of people-probably about 45 people in total-who came to devour it.

Normally when Americans share their food culture with Azeris they politely eat it and try to avoid any more. Not this time; everyone was pigging out on the awesome food laid out. We had American music playing and everyone was laughing and talking and having a great time. The Americans who visited helped greatly by circling around and keeping conversations going. Azeris don't talk to people they don't know at parties which is basically the opposite of American party culture, so it was nice to have a bunch of people mixing things up. This was especially a relief for Glendene, Lannea, and myself because it allowed us the ability to run around putting more food out, washing plates and forks, and ensuring we were good hosts.

This was the biggest event we had done yet in Xachmaz, and our goal was to host a party that could be a gift for all those people we looked at as counterparts in our community. The teachers we worked with and professionals who helped us along. The friends that made our lives tolerable here and the students that made our service worth continuing. It was pretty powerful to see our extended community, all in one place, enjoying a uniquely American offering.

The week of fun continues. My friend Emily is here this week and we'll head to Sheki together for summer camp towards the end of it. Make sure to check below for pics from Atlant and after the BBQ (I didn't have a moment to take pics during the BBQ but I'll get those soon