Hectic Holidays.

I've been a bit MIA this past month, but I assure you it's for good reason. With the arrival of our new sitemates and the holiday season sneaking up behind us, this season has been particularly festive and filled with socializing and work. So, since I haven't updated as much, I'll just take you through the highlights.

Sitemate arrival. We got 4 new sitemates this month! With the arrival of new people, there were also welcome dinners, tours around town, general hanging out, and getting to know the new Ming family (while not forgetting those who've left).

Lale's return. Lale's back and I'm SO happy about it!

Sitemate Sean's birthday. Sean is one of the new sitemates here in Ming and, for his birthday, his friends came into town and spent it with him. We had great food, played fun games, and overall had a great time.

Christmas baking with my girls.

My girls came over after Sean's birthday festivities to bake Christmas cookies! As you (might) can see, the cutting out of cookies weren't the most traditional, but it was delicious and fun all the same. We made sugar cookies and chocolate mint.

Visitors!. Ming's had a ton of visitors this past month. As always, fun, but also tiring.

Sitemate Laura's birthday!!!. Laura is our Christmas baby, so we started celebrating early with a Chinese inspired dinner with homemade fortune cookies! I made fortune cookies for the first time in my life and, let me tell you, it wasn't nearly as easy as I thought they'd be. Some of our favorite 6s came to town to celebrate the birth of Laura and we played games all through the night.

Sheki Christmas. Sheki Danielle hosted a TON of PCVs for a Holiday Hoorah and it was great! There were cookies, Christmas movies, music, the fabulous hotel, Secret Santa, hot showers, and warmth (both company and temperature wise). What else could've we asked for?! Thank you Danielle for a great time!

So, friends, Merry (belated) Christmas! Happy (belated) birthdays to Natalie and Sarah, too! Next up, Baku New Years.

Baku Goodbye Tour: Rooftop Movies and Metkarting.

I came into Baku on Friday to begin the rounds of saying goodbye to people I've come close while in this country.  There's a lot of goodbyes going on, some see you laters, and a very few (for me) definite plans on actually making those see you laters into realities.  I was in Baku so early, primarily, to spend time with Kim, my Fulbright friend who's a pretty cool cat.  She used to live with Irina, the friend who gave me the pregnant cat.

My first night in town, I had dinner with Kim and some of her friends.  I got to meet new people, enjoy a new group of company, and, probably the most surreal part of the night, I ended up at a rooftop movie overlooking a lit up Old City and the Caspian.  It was probably the most picturesque sight I have seen here, but I didn't take a picture.  I simply took it all in and watched Rushmore on the roof amongst new personalities.

Next on the agenda was Kim's goodbye party, which was the major reason I planned this trip in.  Kim made a delicious cake, we ordered pizza, hung around the house until we left for metkarting.  I don't think I can express how strange and awesome this metkarting really was, but I'm going to try.  We go down a creepy little hall to arrive at a huge open air area.  We cross a bridge and there's a pool next to us.  We look to the right and see 3 large white canopy beds.  In front of us was a bunch of tables and several lounge areas as well as a dance floor, a couple more bridges, and a DJ's area.  That's not even the best of it... all of this was inside a go-kart track!  What!?

This was the pool.  There are 2 shower heads at the end, too.

This was, to put it lightly, the most random thing I could've imagined for this country.  But, as we found out, random is awesome.  In true Peace Corps fashion, my Nalgene kept me and several others company and it's contents was strong.  So, what else do you do at a wild club with a ton of expats?  You have a dance party and you metkart.  Sweet.  We stayed there for the majority of the night and left too early, we realized upon arrival of somewhere else.  C'est la vie.

Kent and Kim's amazing Matrix moves.

Rob rounding the track.

That was my first 2 nights on this trip of goodbyes.  They were incredibly surreal and pretty much completely awesome.  

Heradazzlus and Shinanigans.

(Alexis, Jackie, and me being hippies)

Last week, I went off to Lankaran for a bit of work and play.  The work aspect was helping Jackie and Jane with their Yay Kamp for Arts and Crafts week, which truly proved to be an exhausting and fun experience.  The play?  Beer Olympics.

Beer Olympics?  What?  Kim?  What?  You?  Those are probably a few of the key things floating through your head about this revelation I've made about myself and my activities...  well, then, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.  Being a bit off character and doing something I never even thought about doing during college (when kids are supposed to do mess like this), I decided Azerbaijan would be the best place to partake in these shinanigans.  And, let me tell you, it was fun.  Getting dressed up was a ball, hanging out with too many people was great (and a bit overwhelming and insanely intense), and playing various games was pretty fantastic. 

My team was a super cool one.  We were Heradazzlus.  Each one of us have Philosophy as a soft spot in our hearts and all 4 of us have the formal studies finished or are about to begin.  We had Bev, who was the biggest sport during the craziness, Alexis, Charlie, and myself.  We all wore togas that were bedazzled (yes, bedazzled), had appropriate head bands and accessories, and wore our nerdiness on our bare arms.  Fabulous.  

Lankaran was a great time.  I was able to further get to know some of the kids that are leaving in the next month or so as well as reinforcing friendships I started almost a year ago.  I got to travel down south, take some day trips with neat people (of which I'll write more on another time), and experience something that I pretty much avoided for 3 years.  I also learned something about myself, too... apparently I'm a beast at Flip Cup.  Awesome.

Mingechevir at its finest.

Ming Fling: July 4th

Mingechevir was a hot spot for the country this July 4th and, as much work and stress as it was, I believe it was completely worth it.

Months ago, while preparing for a hub night, an idea sparked in Cindy's kitchen.  The basic thought was to throw Cindy a massive birthday party at the reservoir with good people, great food for the grill, and spectacular festivities for all.  This was not born just out of sitemate love, but also because she shares her birthday with America and we thought we needed to do it up right.  

Somehow between that time and this past July 4th, the event grew into an all day thing including a weird presentation, America themed everything, educational centers, field day games, Capture the Flag, softball, 80+ kids, 13+ translators, 4 random English speaking guests, and 30+ PCVs (without Cindy).  Holy cow!  And, don't worry, we did not forget the after party.

Alexis did an amazing job with all the post daytime event's happenings and we had a party that I'm pretty sure we'll be talking about for a while.  The reservoir was pretty beautiful, swimming was incredible, dance parties were had, grilling was done, s'mores were hoarded, punches were thrown, music was listened to, chats were had, drinks were drank (probably excessively), and, I think, fun times were had by all.  

The beauty of my 4th here was that it probably consisted of everything I would've done at the beach in Wilmington, if I were there.  It was a very surreal and amazing time.  Looking forward to the 2nd Annual Mingechevir 4th of July next year!