Happy Turkey Day to All!!!!

I’d like to start off with a tragic tale from my time being 12,000 miles away from America. My dad sent me a copy of an article about the new KFC Cheese Snacker. I literally started drooling reading about this delicious invention that I probably will never get to enjoy. Then I had a few college football games Spencer mailed me (the OU/TX was still painful to watch even though I already knew everything that happened) and they had food commercials all throughout them. It’s been over 4 months since I left America and my stomach misses all of its non-healthy and completely delicious foods I used to feed it on a regular basis. I’m home sick for food…ha ha ha, seriously….

Well typical Lenkeran Fall/Winter conditions hit this week. It is 46 degrees, windy and rainy out at 3pm and has been like that for the past couple of days. My stove in my room has been on a constant burning cycle lately. I’m lucky to have that thing. Tom has named his room Tundra, Frozen because you constantly see your breath in there-no heater/fire. Nothing makes you feel good like going outside in the cold rain to take a scalding hot shower and then back out into the cold wetness to get back to your room! Rikki George came to visit Tom and I this weekend-our first official visitor! We walked around town, played Monopoly and Yahtzee, watched movies, and our families cooked fantastic meals for our guest-a nice bonus for Tom and me! We had grand plans to take her to a soccer game in the new stadium and to the hot springs outside of town, but the weather kept us in doors most of the weekend. She seemed to have a good time and hopefully that will lead to other people coming to visit us all the way down in the south.

I’ve decided it’s long over due that I dedicate one of my silly little blogs to my Nene. While I understand that this may cause many people to stop reading immediately for fear of a boring write up of a 69 year old woman, I encourage you to give it a chance and we’ll see if you don’t find yourself jealous of my living situation.

A little background and context information for you first:
I have lived with Nene Yagut for 9 weeks so far
It is only the two of us in this house 24/7, with the exception of random visits from my friends or her kids and grandchildren (besides our 2 chickens)
She has 5 children (3 girls and 2 boys)
She is 69 years young
She was a Russian teacher for 37 years and has lived in Russia for parts of her life

Ok, now for the fun stuff:
Nene talks to our chickens way more than necessary
She constantly tells me she’s a teacher, not a cook/clothes washer/cleaner/etc.
She constantly tells me I’m a 29 year old baby she has to take care of (which is true)
Now she calls herself a baby because she constantly drops food on herself while she eats
Every time Tom has been to my house she asks him his parents’ names and jobs in AZ
Now that I have my iPod stereo, she comes in my room when I have music on and just starts dancing (which is freaking hilarious-if you have seen that James Brown doll/toy that plays his music and dances, that’s what she looks like)
She talks to me about getting me married a few times each week
She wants me to become fat because she’s fat and we would match (that took me forever to translate and now I kinda want it to happen for shits and giggles)
She now tells me about her dreams each morning, and she has some crazy ones!
The other night I was eating some soup for dinner and she got out a huge hunk of goat meat and proceeded to chop it up on the same table 6” from my plate with a huge knife and pieces of raw meat flying around….nothing makes soup better than raw meat everywhere
She constantly complains that her “old” neighbor lady comes over to talk to her and old women are boring
She complains about having to do work around the house even though she has a maid that comes two days a week to clean our small house for her
I’ve had a runny nose for a few days (I slept in a freezing cold hotel room and then it rained for 3 days-no wonder I have a cold) and she blames it on the fact I only sleep with 2 blankets on my bed when it’s 60 degrees outside. I now have 5 blankets on my bed at all times until I go to sleep and rip them all off because it’s freaking hot out
She hates villages and refuses to visit her friends in them unless someone dies or there’s a wedding
She loves McDonald’s cheeseburgers more than Azeri food (one of the top 5 reasons I love her so much)
She can fart in her bedroom, no less than 1 concrete wall and 20 feet away from me and I can hear, feel, and smell it-that’s power baby!
One night she told me that if I eat raw garlic and onions for dinner I will be healthier-no biggie right? The next morning she followed that up by telling me if I rub my entire body with garlic that I will be healthier (and smell fantastic I assume!)
Tom, Rikki, and I were watching the “Batman Begins” movie Friday night, Nene comes in and sits down, and during one of the violent fighting scenes at the end of the movie just starts cracking up laughing. Well this sets Tom and I off on a major giggle fit and Nene just joins right in. The three of us were doubled over and crying at a completely not funny part of a Batman movie. It was awesome!!!

Not much else to report. We are going to Baku Friday to go out on the town, Saturday we are going back to my old village to eat at their new café, then off to the Ambassador’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and the talent show. Tom and I gave Rikki a sneak peak and she assures us we are as bad as we think we are….

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Eat a ton and take a nap for me!!!!

The following pictures are of: Nene by the grill, Nene and I preparing our kabobs, and my entire host family and Tom (Arzu-mom that’s my age, Namiq-GM dealership manager in Baku, Tom, Me, Nene, Muhammad Ali-brother, Lela-sister)