Monday, March 26, 2012

Here It Comes...

...after five months of frozen water and frozen toes, we're finally starting to thaw. This past week Azerbaijan celebrated the Novruz holiday - a Zoroastrian tradition celebrating the spring and the new year - which means we got a nice week off. In the last few months we've hit several major milestones - 7 years of marriage and a 30th birthday. Also, we're now well past our halfway point and have gotten our official "close of service" date - November 9th -- see y'all around Thanksgiving!  Here are a few shots from the last few weeks...

The first sign of spring in our backyard - a little color in a world full of gray does good things for the soul, my friends...
 
My AzETA Counterparts - Humay and Shahla. Shahla is pulling out one of Humay's hairs to do a little fortune telling - a Novruz tradition for most women in Azerbaijan.

Most of the "fortune telling" has to do with marriage and babies. Shahla's taken Humay's hair and wrapped it around my wedding ring - they dip it in the water three times, then count how many times the ring hits the side of the glass - that's the age they'll be when they get married...

In an Azeri classroom - "Dream Babys"...love it...

A statue in one of our favorite parks - she seems a little weepy - I think i would be too if I was sitting in the snow all day.

...Soviet Swan...

Sunset in Ganja
Ganja's Russian Orthodox Church

The "Bottle House" -- a Ganja attraction - a house...covered in bottles...and other stuff

The Birds
In Ivanovka - a little Russian village in AZ


Friday, March 23, 2012

My Micophone Event

Following is a link to a video about the open microphone event we started in our city....

My Microphone Azerbaijan

Friday, March 2, 2012

Youth Environment Club

We helped start the city's first student run environment club. Here are a few pictures they took around the city to raise awareness...