Life in the Fast Lane

One month down, 26 more to go. Holy shannigans it has been a busy couple of weeks. I went on a little trip to visit a current Peace Corps Volunteer down in Beylagan, a region in south Azerbaijan. The Peace Corps has everyone visit a volunteer to see what their site is like, check out actual classes, see the community development they have been working on, whether you prefer village life or city life, and of course.. to have a little vacation from the grueling hours of PST. Then this week we have an interview to see what our preferences are for our permanent site placement, another interview to determine what our language ability is mid way through our training, and the biggest thing of all, practicum has started.
So far I have had one class go really well, one class go mediocre, and two classes completely fall on my face and bomb. Both of those were really horrific. However, I think everyone needs a couple of those to figure out what to do better and learn. It can only go up from here, right?
I forgot to add some captions for my last pictures I posted. One is a picture from "The Dove" in Sumgayit. It's a really pretty area right on the Caspian, that has a couple of restaurants where all of the trainees hang out year after year. Also, I added a picture with another volunteer, Stephanie, (the one and only other ND volunteer) and our host grandmother, and also her mom. For clarification, her mother and my father are brother and sister. Also, we are related to two other volunteers, so birthday parties are a hoot.
Everything else in between these crazy times have been fun and frustrating and busy and sad and crazy and every emotion under the sun. I am currently using another PCV's computer right now to write a quick blog and update you, so I have to keep it short. But once I can figure out a way to get my jump drive hooked up to the internet cafe computers, I'll have a lot to tell everyone. Everything in Sumgayit is in Russian, though, to cater to Foreigners, so it's hard to navigate. Hope all is well in the States!