Haircut

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2010


Yesterday I headed out with my English-Azerbaijan phrasebook, determined to deal with my shaggy hair. Baku is full of "kisi salonu" or men's salons, but I had a hard time finding a "qadin salonu." I walked into the first one I saw, a little place full of chattering women.

Much merriment resulted when I pulled out my scrap of paper with the Az. words for "haircut" and "a little bit." An older woman in the salon came over and carefully said "I can speak English. I can help you." She asked where I was from (I've learned to say "America" instead of "the United States" which people don't seem to understand), then told me that the husband of the daughter of her sister is chief of embassy in Washington D.C.

Her nephew-in-law is head of the Azerbaijan Embassy! "So HE'S the one who wouldn't return my calls when I was trying to get a visa," I did not say.


WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

BACK TO SCHOOL IN BAKU


Even though I feel as if I've been teaching in Baku for months, today is the first day of school for local kids. So the metro was more crowded than usual (and this will be the usual from now on) and as I walked through the village, little groups of children headed up to the main road with their mothers.

Both boys and girls were looking very spiffy, unrecognizable from the grubby kids who've been playing in the village streets every afternoon. Boys wore dark suits, white shirts without ties, and girls wore fancy dresses or plaid skirts with white blouses and ties, some with giant white bows in their hair. Uniforms? or just dressed up for the first day? I'll find out tomorrow.