Salaam from Baku! I have made it here safely and I’ve been adjusting to life here for the past couple of days. It’s been very interesting and good so far- I’m taking the move a lot better than I ever expected. Baku is quite the city. It’s hot, dry and sunny everyday. The city itself isn’t actually that large and I’ve managed to grasp a bit of it after a couple of days. It’s windy with tons of one-ways (that not all drivers observe- more about that later), construction EVERYWHERE, completely run-down sidewalks or sometimes just dirt. Some of the buildings are super modern and even quite beautiful, whereas other parts of town are probably what most of you are thinking it looks like. I don’t want to quite use the word “slum” but there’s a lot of side streets with little one-story houses made out of anything you could possibly think of. The people here are a lot nicer than those I encountered in St. Petersburg- a lot more willing to help a foreigner out, more polite and understanding. It’s a refreshing change from Russia. The people here are physically pretty dark and slender. Everyone has dark brown/ basically black hair, big dark eyes, darker skin, darker eyebrows, etc- very Persian looking. The women are all incredibly tiny- as are the men. Most men are about 5’5, if that. Clearly I stick out… no one has light brown hair, let alone my hair color or complexion. There’s no hiding that I’m a foreigner so I don’t even bother. A lot of people stare at me and the other Americans I’m with (one guy earlier today even tried to take a picture of us... hilar) and always come up to us with their broken English and attempt conversation. I’ve learned the best way to get rid of these people is to respond in Russian saying “we’re Swiss!!” because absolutely no one knows what the Swiss look like/ speak, so they lose all interest. I’m able to get around with my Russian as almost everyone speaks it here, and everyone here is at least bilingual. Azerbaijani is the main language (which is basically a different form of Turkish, with a couple of different letters) but most signs are written in both Russian and Azeri. Azerbaijani has some English letters but also some strange ones, like upside-down e’s and odd q’s and weird s’s and c’s. I’m starting to get the hang of what it means and I can read the letters which is becoming very handy in trying to get around town on the buses and metro.
The bus system is incredibly difficult considering every street is a one-way so buses go a circular route- ie you can get to one place going one way but you won’t be able to take the same bus back. I got to this internet café via metro and bus and it’s going to be an adventure getting home. Sometimes buses don’t always go the same way they went previously- typical. The other day I was on a bus where we were literally on a 4-lane one-way street and the bus started barreling down the wrong way and had to do a u-turn. Another time I was on a bus so packed that the doors couldn’t close and I was on the last step (1 foot from the pavement) holding on the to bars of the doors for dear life hoping I didn’t get flung off. And this is totally normal. This city functions in strange sort of chaos which some people seem to have mastered and tough shit if you haven’t. I’ve gotten used to looking at what buses are near my apartment and then noticing where they are in other parts of town whenever I’m out walking around. I have learned to love bus 288 as it is everywhere I’ve been going recently. The metro is also a bit of a disaster- “2” lines but who knows how they actually work. Thankfully, as I said earlier, developing a beginner’s understanding of the language is incredibly helpful in deciphering where I need to go.
I live in an apartment right near the U.S. Embassy in a pretty nice part of town. My apartment itself is really nice- AC, 3 balconies, washer, stove, shower, etc. I only get water certain hours of the day (7-11 AM, 6-10 PM) and occasionally if we’re lucky water will randomly come on in the afternoon, but never enough for a shower. In order to get hot water, I have to turn on this thing called a kolonka to heat the water about an hour before I need to shower which means I have to get up in the morning, push a button, then collapse back in bed. Slightly miserable, but it’s pretty standard here. The fact that I have water roughly 8 hours a day is enviable for a lot of people so I can’t really complain. The only really annoying thing about it that I can never wash the dishes at night, or flush the toilet, or wash my face, and I have to use bottled water to brush my teeth. I am slowly getting used to this system though.
More to come later.
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