My apartment

My apartment is wonderful, in the center of downtown, more room than I need (a separate dining room, which I'm using as an office), two bedrooms, a 2-room kitchen, living room, balcony, lots of storage. The entryway and stairs (up 60 steps) are dingy and dismal, which is typical of the entryways in these ex-Soviet countries, but at least no one uses my stairwell as a toilet, as they do in the building where I went to a party the other day. The apt. even has AC, which is great, because it's been suffocatingly hot and humid--it was a relief when it cooled off a little last week.

I lost electricity today but, again, a maintenance man from the school came out immediately and fixed it. The same guy who came to turn on the H2O a few weeks ago. We're getting to be buddies, with his fractured English and my fractured Russian.

More about water

After a week or so of buying small bottles of water, I finally "sorted out" the potable water situation. When I first arrived, I boiled tap water and drank it, but was warned that boiling removes bacteria, but not the heavy metals (here in petroleum city, plenty of those have leached into the groundwater).

So I took the short walk to Citimart, found the English-speaking manager, and bought a couple of big vats. A clerk trundled them down to my apartment and then up the 60 steps. I don't have to stint myself on drinking water anymore!

Fountains

Every square in Baku has a fountain, so it was a little confusing at the beginning to figure out which one is the official "Fountain Square."

What I've learned about water in Baku

When you're all lathered up in the shower at 7 in the morning and the water suddenly cuts off completely, it helps to have just filled a couple of ice cube trays. That's enough to rinse off with, believe it or not! This happened to me on day 3 in Baku. That was the day the new teachers went on a shopping trip to the Azerbaijan equivalent of Wal-Mart. We all bought big buckets.

After walking to school from the subway via the dusty village and through the trash dump, don't head to the restroom and squirt soap on your hands until you're sure the building has water that morning. This has happened to me several times, but I think NOW I've learned.

A worker from the school came right away and got the water running in my apartment, and the school's water does eventually come on...but, as in Ukraine, I can't take utilities for granted!