Qurban Bayrami

Happy Qurban Bayrami everone!

Today was a religious holiday called Qurban Bayrami which means a 'festival of sacrifice'. Although we didn't have any classes most of the places were open just like on a regular day.
Qurban Bayrami is a Muslim holiday about sharing with the others. It's to honor Ibrahim (Abraham) for sacrificing his young first-born son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of submission to Allah's command. Istead of sacrificing his son, Ibrahim was allowed to sacrifice a lamb instead. This holiday is then about giving what you ave best to your relatives and close friends. Because of the lamb sacrificed, during this holiday you can see lambs and sheep on the streets. Waiting for their final exectution. People kill them right next to the road, cutting off their heads and then taking out all the prohibited parts to eat. That is what we get to see today:

Regarding we had no class today we dicided to go on a little trip to the best fish house in the city. We had to take a cab over there and even it is still called Baku I would say I was some place else. Even living in Netfcilar for a month now was much better than what we saw today. Dust and dirt on the streets, houses that were barely standing, narrow roads that apparently fit 3 cars if you yell and beep long enough. TIA - what else can I say?

After the feast of freshly caught fish we got to see the Bibi Heybat Mosque. In the past the Muslims were not allowed to paint for example that's why they don't have such artistic heritage we do in Europe. What they did instead was building. Have I seen many things in my life but seeing the mosque was one of the most amazing experiences. It's the most beautiful thing I've seen here so far. It's so magestic, peaceful and astonishing. Of course we went inside. First thing we had to do though was to cover up which means the girls had to wear a hust over their heads. If you ever decide to go into a mosque you don't have to worry to carry the hust around becaue there's always a table with the ones you can borrow only to get in. Next thing was taking our shoes off. There were special shelves for the shoes and only after leaving them we could walk the beautiful carpet to the actual inside. It was really small and we could not take pictures. There was a fenced place for four tombs - one of them dedicated to Ukeyma Khanum, a a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The mosque itself was built in 13th century but was completely destroyed by the Bolshevick in 1936. It's been reconstructed in 1990s and remains a regional center for the Absheron Muslims.

After seeing the mosque we walked the Bulvar to sit in a nice restaurant for a cup of coffee only later that evening to walk into the coolest (and my first) pub in the city! As we were there for the first time we got samples of the beers they brawe themselves. One thing you need to know about the beer here is that light beer tastes like water. That's the reason we all ordered the dar one which was not bitter at all and in it's taste it was similiar to European light/medium beer. Also the medium beer they served us tasted and smelled like a' la grodzkie (KMWTN)...

It was a long day full of excitement and fun! Hopefully I will see more of them in the next 4 remaining months... ;)

And here's a little something about Qurban Bayrami in Poland: Qurban Bayrami banned in Poland

All or Nothing

To keep this blog running I know I should write what is going on, but the thing is… nothing. It’s very hard to live in this country when you’re used to Western type of living. You know, one day I asked a guy what do they do in their free time and he said ‘meet with friends’. Well, that is not why I wanted to become an Erasmus.
It is very different from regular Erasmus you know. Erasmus is known for its parties and zero responsibility. Here maybe I have no responsibility but definitely no parties either. It is especially hard for me as a geek that I don’t even have many things to do for school. Let me tell you why.

I do admire the western style of classes the instructors want to provide. Most of them studies in Western European countries and they want to share all they’ve seen with the students here. It is a shame they do not appreciate it. Before I came here I got in touch with one guy (author of the blog I recommend you: Życie na Marsie; all in Polish) who spent an EVS in Baku. He told me there’s a way to recognize if you’re passing a college student on the street because the only thing they carry is one 30 pages notebook…

It is true. Education here has no importance for the people. I thought it would be different In a private school but no. Nobody reads, nobody makes copies of the books, nobody’s prepared, nobody wants to speak in class. The way they study is they memorize everything they have in the book (if they have a book). The problem is for each class we only have one book to read. ONE. Please tell me how am I supposed to learn something about i.e. foreign policy of Azerbaijan if the book for this class is written by Minister of Foreign Affairs?!

That’s the academic part but wait till you need to get something done, for example immigration. For the immigration card you need to fill in a lot of documents. Luckily (or not…) the school helps us with this. The result is we need to wait for anything to get done for weeks. This is actually the third week I’m asking about student ID cards. ‘So you know when they will be ready?’, ‘No, sorry, I don’t know’

I am either about to kill somebody or become greatly patient while staying here…
About things I do except of school. It’s not gonna take long, believe me. I can’t go alone at night so I can’t go out. I don’t live in the center so there’s nowhere to go actually. I don’t dare to buy any alcohol, except of the crappy beer in KFC so the only thing I can do is ‘meet with friends’. I’m so glad for the other Erasmus girls because if we’re supposed to be bored than we’ll be bored together.

The locals are very friendly but not ‘let’s be friends!’ friendly. They will smile and say hello but they are very closed. The other thing is their English is very bad so even if somebody is nice the communication barrier stays in the way. It’s better if somebody speaks Russian but it’s hard to find such people here. Young people, I mean.
What else can I can, so far there’s hasn’t been much going on, really. I do understand though this post might be a little confusing so please, leave me a comment and I will clarify everything the best I can. Also, I will have something to do for at least 30 minutes so I will really appreciate that ;)