New Years and Mountains

It rained New Year’s weekend. At the time, this was a miserable development. The day before, my computer told me, it was almost 60 degrees in Baku. While we were there the temperature dropped to a high of 40-some degrees, dashing my hopes for another chance to wander around the Old City during the day. Instead, I spent the days in the lovely Hotel Cenub, at the Peace Corps Office Lounge, and at various restaurants. Not that this was all bad, mind you. I got to sleep in, something that hasn’t happened since PST Sundays. I got to rummage through the shelves of books in the Peace Corps lounge and came away with all sorts of literary goodies—two of Clavell’s Asian Saga, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Michael Chabon’s Gentlemen of the Road, and the Azerbaijan love story, Ali and Nino. The other non-food related highlight was having a meeting about the ABLE summer camp we run for Azeri boys from across the country. I signed up to help out with Supplies, Site Location, and most excitingly, I’m tentatively going to be in charge of the ropes/challenge course at the camp. Genesee Valley experience for the win.

Now, to food. I got to eat some non-Azerbaijani food. I finally made it to McDonald’s, and had my first Azerbaijani Biq Mak. I also got Indian food, falafel, and Chinese food. I haven’t craved Indian food since I got back from India, now two years ago, but darn it if Azerbaijan hasn’t made me have Indian food cravings. We visited Finnegan’s where I had another Guiness, and then we celebrated midnight at a small bar called Stranger. There, we were allowed to put our own iPods on and basically packed the place both nights. We tried valiantly to find karaoke, but were out of luck on New Year’s and when we finally found one at the Chinese restaurant, it was booked by, unsurprisingly, Chinese. There is a plan afoot by one volunteer whose family is from China to book it for his birthday, so there’s hope somewhere down the road.

The one downside, as I’ve said, was that it was rainy and cold, and the cold continued to hold over the country on my trip back to Ismayilli on Sunday. But Monday morning, I walked out of my house to go to the IREX center and post office, and happened to look up. The mountains surrounding Ismayilli were covered with snow. While we had struggled through the grossness of cold uncomfortable rain, the mountains were receiving a beautiful snowfall. Breath gone. Feet stopped. Staring more than an Azeri seeing their first foreigner picking their nose. There was the pick me up I needed after a gloomy (fun, yes, but gloomy) New Year’s weekend.