Gearing up for a busy few months. The thing about getting married during the Peace Corps is that in the place of the standard “romantic” a couple enters into a drab and underwhelming amusement park of multinational bureaucratic paperwork/procedures. While other couples are busy sampling cakes and flipping through travel guides, we are running from one Baku office to another, only to realize that we need to go back to the Notary for yet another translation. To be fair, I have witnessed enough pre-nuptial couples to deduce that wedding planning State-side is rarely a walk in the park. As a result, I am trying to internalize this experience as a sort of equivalent of the more sinister parts of cake sampling that others experience everyday. Of course, the worst possible outcome for our counterparts is that they must settle for a three tier chocolate and live to fight another day. For our part, let’s just say that the potential outcomes of this long and expensive process are a little more grim. We are trying to keep up our good spirits, however, keeping the merriment and cheer going with little romantic gestures like treating ourselves to Indian or Korean food during our paperwork runs in Baku. In any case, it is nice to have a good support network, both at home and here which makes all the difference. We have decided that we will have a religious wedding upon returning to the United States—at which time, I may or may not indulge in a trip to the flower and pastry shop!
You’d think that would be it for news, but think again!...
Work has been keeping me busy as the softball season is about to begin. The Ganja ____ (we have yet to secure an official team name) has been at practice for about a month and our hopes are high. Many are veterans of previous seasons and some are new. All have dived in with great enthusiasm and I am very excited to see what happens—especially because our team boasts four Azerbaijani female players this year! In other news, work at the American Center continues to go well and I am particularly stoked about our new debate club—an idea borrowed from another volunteer in Lankaran. Conversation club continues and I look forward to the summer months when university students come back to the city and/or local students have more time to drop by the library for fun yet to be planned.
In addition to work and engagement business, I have registered to take the GRE yet again this summer. I have never been good with standardized tests and therefore this process is a somewhere around “tooth pull” in terms of pleasantness for me. Sometimes after my little study sessions, I am compelled to walk around the house with a chocolate bar repeating to “I am a fairly intelligent person” in order to resurrect the slain ruins of my self-esteem. Then I call Kathy and her no-nonsense-get-a-grip wit brings me back to reality. I realize that I can’t really complain because at least I am taking this test with English as my first name. Many of my Azerbaijani friends applying for study abroad programs must take the GRE to qualify. I can’t imagine taking this test in any other language besides my first language. While perhaps not textbook therapy/self awareness / meditation, these practices have gotten me through the first few months of testing and on the path to—while not enlightenment—less test anxiety and fewer ridiculous test-related breakdowns.
Beth,
ReplyDeleteWith my seminar students I recently visited Beth Jacob synagogue and there witnessed a lovely ritual in which a soon-to-be married couple were pelted with (soft) candy to wish them a sweet life. I'm wishing I could do the same for you as you work through the paper maze.
As for that GRE: you are a more than fairly intelligent person! Your a quite an intelligent, insightful, compassionate, and committed person!
LDL