My living space.

A few people have asked about what my living space is like. Here it is.

My living space. 

The holidays in Azerbaijan.

Happy New Year!

One of the fountains in Sheki freezing over.

My first snowman

This is my washed sweatshirt after hanging outside all night... frozen!

 I hope you have all had a good start to the New Year.  I definitely missed all of you very much. Thanks so much for the Christmas packages, fb messages and Skyping. I know it’s a busy time of year and I really appreciate the time people took (and the expense with packages) to do all of those things. THANK YOU!!!

Today I was looking at the new pictures on the wall of my favorite people back home… while eating a piece of homemade jerky. Im so blessed to have such wonderful friends, but it also means that many of my favorite people are always thousands of miles away. The holiday season definitely makes that distance seem even longer and the twinge of homesickness slightly sharper.

The lights in Sheki came on about 5 days before New Years, so I’ve had a little extra spring in my step. But the holidays are always a little tricky abroad. Living in another country often feels like you’re being tugged in two totally opposite directions all the time. It’s tough balancing out how much I like living in Azerbaijan with all the people I love here…and how nice it would be to live in California near all the people I love there. The holidays are one of those times that makes it achingly obvious that there’s no clear or easy answer as to where I’d rather be.

A skinny shakta baba for New Years.

Why is the crocodile in this New Years display?

The New Year's tree in the city center.

For Thanksgiving, the American Embassy had all the  volunteers to Baku and hosted a huge dinner for us.. complete with Turkey and pumpkin pie. I was very blessed and was able to stay at the home of my new friends , one who is a teacher and one who works in the embassy. They opened their home to me and a friend, made us welcome and gave us a place to stay that was full of love…. And baconJ

This year, I shared Christmas with other PCV’s here in Sheki. It was fun, relaxing, beautiful and bittersweet. I had a huge touch of home as a friend Skyped me into the Christmas Eve service at my church. I made a tree out of paper (a big deal for me) and put my package from America under it. I loved it

My wonderful site mates hosted Christmas for alot of volunteers.

Everybody made something wonderful!

For New Years, I spent the night with my counterpart and her family. They were generous enough to share their family traditions with me and made me feel welcome!!  It was fun, relaxing, beautiful and bittersweet!!

I talked a lot about American holiday traditions with Azeri here. Sharing a tradition that’s so different also opens up fun conversations about some of the just ridiculous things about culture. Black Friday sales? Madness!! So while celebrating the holidays abroad is definitely bittersweet, it’s wonderful to sit down and recognize that even though it’s hard to live so far away from your friends, making new friends abroad and creating your own mixed-up international traditions is a great way of having a tiny piece of home with you. 

New Years at my wonderful counterparts house.

Fireworks on New Years Eve

Me and my counterpart's aunt.