November... WOW!!!

Sounds as if there are some sore losers out there. Don’t worry, I’m thinking up a new challenge for all of you and an even better prize. Maybe I’ll send some chicken Lavangi to you, but odds are I’d eat it first so all you’d get is a pile of bones. They’d still be delicious, though, you can bet on that.

As you all know, the last two weeks were incredibly busy. I had Ben and Magda stay at my house the week before the party, and then the party was general insanity. We made costumes mandatory or else you weren’t going to be granted entrance into my compound. People started to arrive Friday night, and we bought 10 chickens stuffed with Lavangi and 10 pieces of bread to feed everyone. It lasted about 8 minutes. Later that night, I was talking with some friends when someone came up to tell me that my neighbors were at my gate and wanted to talk to me. Thinking they thought we were too loud, I asked everyone to quiet down and to turn the music off. I got outside and two of my neighbors drag me over to one of their houses where one of their sons is waiting inside. They bring me in and tell me that he plays keyboard and that they want him to come to my house now and the next day to provide music for us. I thought it was very nice and told them so, but that it was unnecessary. Instead, they gave me a cd of music for us to play and told me again and again that they are my sisters. So, now I have two older sisters to look out for me in my neighborhood. Good stuff.

Saturday afternoon brought more people and lots of awesome costumes. One guy, Nate, dressed up as Gwen Stefani, but his costume wasn’t all that great and he just looked like a creepy dude. I called him Glen Stefani the rest of the night. Ashley and I dressed up as Ron Burgundy and Brian Fantana from the movie Anchorman, and as always, we were a huge success. Jane and Joyce went the commercial route and dressed as the Chiquita Banana girl and Land o’ Lakes Girl. I am still collecting pictures from everyone that was there and hope to be able to post more next week. I have put up a few to tide you over though. All in all, the party was a great success. There was a little bit of trouble though, as Joyce playfully slapped (shoved)me, causing me to lose my balance. I hit my head against one of the windows in my living room/hallway and got a cut above my eye. I had a pretty nasty bump too and got quite the shiner, but it’s almost all faded away back to normal now. My house is also just about back to normal thanks in large part to Jane, Joyce and Tor, an AZ5 Volunteer. Others chipped in before they had to leave, but these three stuck around for the bulk of it. I decided to stack all the garbage in my garage until I could figure out how to get rid of it all. It’s a little ridiculous, but I guess three days of Halloween festivities is bound to make some trash. I also want to thank all of the parents that sent decorations and anything else Halloween related. My garage was decked out and I had decorations all over the house as well. It was awesome.

This upcoming weekend a bunch of us are headed up to Ganja for a Luau/Pig Roast. I’m not sure the pig roast part is realistic or will ever actually happen, but it has been discussed and I am certainly holding out hope. Either way, there should be a lot of volunteers getting together to celebrate November, or something like that. Man, I hope we get a pig.

Besides cleaning and recovering last week, I was very busy writing a grant proposal for my host organization. A lot of the work had already been done, but I needed to fit everything into the grant applications specific guidelines. This is still for the Lankaran tourism booklets that we have been trying to produce. It came down to the wire, but I got the application in Friday evening and so now we are playing the waiting game. This week at the office we are welcoming two new lawyers into the office that will be here mostly part time. One of them is friends with the lawyer that used to work here so I know him pretty well. The other one recently graduated from University in Baku so I will be getting to know her. Aygun will fill in as a lawyer when the others are gone but will mostly be working as the office administrator. She’s very excited to finally be back to one job as she has been the only lawyer and office administrator the last couple months. So my office is finally getting back to normal and things should calm down a little bit, just in time for winter. Aside from all that, I’m also busy preparing for the Thanksgiving Day PCV Talent Show. I’m sure most of you remember Ashley and I performing a Bon Jovi classic last year (remember the youtube.com video?). Well, this year should blow that completely out of the water. As usual there is a great air of secrecy to our plans and so no one else knows what we have planned until we walk out on stage. It makes it more fun that way.

So everything is going well over here and getting back to normal. November has been very busy so far and will continue to be with Ganja this weekend and then Baku the weekend after that. It’s nice though, because as it starts to get cold and dark by 5, things tend to slow down to a crawl. With the office getting back to normal and with Aygun having some more free time, I will be starting Russian lessons this week or next. I figure it will be a good challenge and it couldn’t hurt to know a little bit if I want to go visit Russia next year. We’ll see how it goes. I’m thinking of a new challenge, like I said and will get that up soon. Other pictures posted besides the obvious are Rikki the Mexican eating Ina the Bulgarian Flavored Taco, Ben as the Jolly Green Giant and Ram as a transformer. It only worked from the side though, he looked absolutely ridiculous from the front.