Have You Heard? Its Actually Spring!

Its a bit of a relief to be typing this post in the company of myself right now.  I  knew one of the main reasons I wanted my own apartment was to host friends without having to abide by the rules of propriety while living with an Azerbaijani family (really, this sentence could be written-I don't want to wear pants in summer).  But this week was pretty substantial-from Saturday to Thursday there was at least one person staying over.

But I think we all needed it.  Our entry into April has been a relief, no more winter holing us up in our blankets, in our sleeping bags, next to our heaters.  We are ready to explore the world we once knew.  April has also been a very expensive month for everyone; all of our refrigerators, pipes, and stoves must have forgotten how to properly function in spring.  We've all been humbled a bit by sudden 20, or 40, or 80 dollar costs thrown at us.  We all needed a break from our own (broken) homes and time to visit someplace else, in the company of our own culture.

Thankfully, mother nature has been kind.  This week the flowers and trees decided it really was spring and from Tuesday to Saturday trees went from barren winter bones to full spring blossom.  One of my favorites times in Denver is the first substantial spring rainfall, where trees are literally shaking with excitement because they've been parched so long, and in about 48 hours they transform into spring.  It was awesome to watch the transition happen so quickly here; refreshing and renewing.

If you haven't yet seen, I encourage you to check out some of the photos I posted from Xinaliq (HERE).  Glendene, Emily, and I took a day trip to this highly recommended, very remote mountain village, on Tuesday.  Its quite traditional, and modernity is only slowly and haltingly making itself known them.  The village is practically vertical and a path to the neighbor's house is a steep climb lined with rock walls of old old houses on one side and straw and manure bricks-used to heat the homes-on the other.  We decided to pay a couple extra dollars to have lunch with a host family which was really enjoyable.

In other exciting news: Hip-Hop From The Land of Fire will soon be an online radio show.  Details are still being worked out (such as what time) but I'll begin work on a weekly hour-long segment on Azeri internet radio station grupfm.com next week.  Its a little amazing to me to think that Hip-Hop From The Land of Fire is more than half a year old.

Exciting things are in the works, and I'm glad to still feel motivated about my service as I get closer and closer to the end.