First Day Off

July 8, 2007

I just got done reading my post from yesterday and realized how many spelling and grammatical errors I had writing it after a long day. Just remember I warned you in the first post that this is in no way a way for me to demonstrate my vast literary abilities especially as I mainly write this at night while falling asleep.

Today I had my first day off and it was great. I took the bus into Sumguyait by myself and just wandered around and explored. The bazaar is amazing. I really liked going through the food area. There are so many different kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables and then there is this meat area that has all different kinds of animal meat being cut up with axes and random animal parts hanging on hooks. I really wanted a picture but as I was by myself and was drawing all sorts of attention to myself just by being there I thought I would wait until there was a larger group of us where it would be impossible to try to blend in and more accepted for us to take pictures.

After walking through the bazaar for 3 or 4 hours I went out and had a Donner, which is a very popular sidewalk food. There are these stands on just about every corner that have this skewer of stacked meat and fat that spins next to a heating source. They shave the meat off on a little fry surface where they sauté it with tomato’s and cucumber’s and then stuff it in a piece of bread with a white sauce and some red sauce. It costs about 30 qepik (or just over 30 cents) and will be enough to fill you up for a meal. I think I’ll probably eat these as a staple when I have to eat out just because they are so good and inexpensive.

Then I went to the internet café and tried unsuccessfully to post some pictures on my blog. Blog spot is in Azeri here and I can’t find the options button to figure out how to make it in English because it’s in Azeri. I can post blogs on it just because I can sometimes remember where the buttons are that guide me through that process. So as for pictures I will try to post some as soon as I can but it may take a little while.

After I got done I took the bus back home studied had another amazing meal and studied some more. I don’t think I ever studied this hard or much while I was in school. Living in a place where the majority of the communication is done playing charades really motivates you to learn the language!