The Beginning of a Routine...

So I’ve been with my host family for almost two weeks now (it’ll be two weeks tomorrow). It’s odd to say, but there’s already a “normal” routine. Last week there wasn’t much of a routine – being in a new place, the Ramadan holiday, etc. But now I’ve settled in. I’m beginning to know my way around the town I’m in, and even the next town over (where we have to go to use the internet). The food, for the most part, has been wonderful. Most of you know what a picky eater I am, but I’ve only turned away one or two things because of not liking it (and I am trying it first, I promise). And I feel like I’m given enough to feed 6 of me at each meal, so I feel bad that I can’t finish everything. But at least now I know how to say I like it, but I’m full in Azerbaijani. Hopefully soon I’ll actually be able to help in the kitchen.

The language is going well. I think I’m always going to feel like I could know it better, but it’s amazing to think that just three weeks ago I didn’t know any Azerbaijani, and now I’m learning all sorts of vocabulary and how to make small sentences.

As you know, right now I am considered a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT). This weekend everyone in my training group (AZ6, the 6th group of volunteers to come to Azerbaijan) is taking trips to visit various Peace Corps Volunteers (they arrived in June 2007) around the country that have volunteered to host 1 – 3 of us. Right now, in training, we’re fairly sheltered. We’ll have help getting to the bus station, we have our LCF to go to if we have communication problems with our host families, etc., but these volunteers are out on their own, so we’re seeing what it’ll be like 3, 6, 9 months down the road. It’s exciting to meet the current volunteers and hear some of their stories – right now everything is so up in the air for us as far as not knowing what city we’ll end up in or what job we’ll be doing – so we’re living vicariously through their experiences.

Well, that’s about it, hopefully I’ll get on next week to let you know how my site visit went. I’m going to what is supposed to be a very scenic part of Azerbaijan!