I remember when I was little and my family moved from Utah to Washington. I must have been about six years old and the move was a pretty big deal for me at the time though I don't remember much of it. I remember going to the train station and vague impressions of baggage carts and a spacious building, people hurrying about. Then later on the train being lulled to sleep by the rythm of the train tracks clacking away. Once we were in the new house I had a dream that I was back in Utah and when I woke up I hurried to the window to see if it was true only to be disappointed when I saw that i was still in Washington. Over the past few months I have often found myself having the same experience, only instead of walking to the window I will try and go back to sleep to try and recapture the faded dream. Mainly I think these dreams stem from a longing for the familar. As I become more accustomed to life here in Ucar however this desire for the familiar is fading and slowly being replaced by the strange fact that life here is starting to be familar. I have a routine and the language is every so slowly starting to make sense. I am even making friends and getting involved in the lives of the people that I live and work with.

There are still a lot of suprises though, for instance my host family frequently makes what is kind of like chicken soup with potatoes and onions and pieces of chicken. The chicken is usually still on the bone along with the skin. I know that some people like to eat the skin but that is one things that I am not a fan of and my host family thinks that it is wierd that I peel the skin off before eating the chicken. The other day I was eating this chicken soup and there was a particularly large piece of meat that I was working on. I had peeled the skin off and was picking it up to take a bite of what I thought was meat but as my teeth made contact I realized was bone. A little confused I turned it around searching for a tasty morsel when instead I saw an eye staring up at me then I saw the little waddle of skin that chickens have just above thier beak. I put the chicken head back in the soup but the eye was still staring right at me so I covered it up with a loose piece of chicken skin and pushed the bowl away. I think Azerbaijan is making me want to be a vegetarian.

Anyway here are some pictures of the places where I spend most of my time in Ucar;

Some of the students that I tutor

Computer Room at Akinchi

My orginization Akinchi

My room