Everyday stuff

I apologize profusely once again for my lack of regular updates, but between school recently starting, my continuing translation project at the local history museum, and a debilitating bout of extreme laziness I haven't had the gumption to get off my butt and come to Göyçay to post anything. At the behest of my step-mom I have included some pictures from around town to give you an idea of what I see every day, and hopefully more of these to come in the future once school gets a bit more stable. Also is a pic of my host-mom with her grandson (I guess techincally my host-nephew) and my host-dad sporting the awesome shades I bought in Istanbul.

So, in case you didn't gather from the above paragraph, school is underway. Here in Azerbaijan, that means about a month of absolute anarchy in every public school across the nation, followed by a week or two of relative stability, followed by yet another bout of chaos and then things finally settle down about two months into the process. Right now we're at the one month mark, and things are seeming to finally be set and in order, but I'll not be fooled too easily. I refuse to write down a set schedule for myself until the end of this month, just so I don't get frustrated when I show up for a class at 8am on Friday and find out it's been moved to 1pm on Tuesday.

You may be wondering what all the chaos is about. Suffice it to say that despite the public perceptions--and realities-- of a huge overbearing beauracracy which controls every aspect of everything everywhere, in real life it is basically left up to the schools to figure things out for themselves. This means that the crisp, clean and freshly prepared schedule sitting on the vice-principal's desk is turned into a worn out messy pulp of repeatedly erased paper by the capricious whims of teachers and students alike. Requests are made and arguments insue regarding what time what teacher teaches what class with consideration given to their own personal schedules outside of school, which all conflict with one another. Since my schedule is centered entirely on when I teach, I usually just sit back and watch the chaos or go sit outside when it starts giving me a headache.

On the positive side, now that I've been at school a year I am much more prepared for the job and much more readily accepted by teachers and students. My language skills have improved dramatically over the summer, due to hours spent sitting around by the store near my house and randomly being invited as a guest to tables by complete strangers at the local restaurant. This means when kids start getting out of line I don't have to wait for the teacher to get them to sit down and shut up, because I can yell at them myself. I've decided the height of basic conversational language proficiency is being able to yell at children when they misbehave and yell at grownups when they piss you off. Also, since I've had a year to become accustomed to the local schools I'm not the least bit surprised when a teacher doesn't show up because of some phantom sickness caused by something that doesn't actually make people sick, like cold liquids, wind, or sitting on the floor. I've learned to take it all in stride, and it has made my life decidedly less stressfull. If only I could convince Magnus to be so passive instead of crying incessantly for something--I'm not even sure he knows what it is.

Speaking of Magnus, he has become my official wildlife control agent for my yard. If it has a pulse and resides in the general area surrounding my house, he has murdered and devoured it with extremely extreme prejudice. I found half a frog in my kitchen last week, and two weeks before I found enough feathers to cover the better half of a full-grown chicken strewn all across my porch and yard. The chicken itself was nowhere to be found, so he either got eaten or escaped with decidedly less plumage and a very informative lesson on the disposition of felines towards potentially tasty birds.

That's all for now. If I have some time left at the internet club I'll try to post some more pics I took at the bazaar today. Peace.