Enjoying every bit of Azerbaijan
Posted by Þóra Elísabet - 19/06/09 at 09:06:31 pmIt is my twelfth day here in Azerbaijan and so far I have not had enough spare time to sit down and write a proper text about how it is here – which shows how well the people here have welcomed me.
Trying on some traditional Azeri shoes
I arrived here in Baku early in the morning of the 8th of June (no Moscow as I hoped for). Hikmat from the IFMSA (The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations) picked me up at the airport and brought me here to the International Youth House of Baku. I went directly to sleep and didn´t wake up until I heard a few voices discussing who “the sleeping girl” was… and when I opened my eyes there were three smiling girls standing around my bed, it felt like summercamp :) Those girls were my roomates for a few days here. The youth house was full of people, mostly from Eastern Europe, because a seminar was being held here about human rights so for the first few days I shared a room with four other girls and there were around 40-50 people living in the house! No room for boredom there…
With my Azeri-girls; Kama and Nailia
On my first day here my friend Kama (aka princess of Baku) showed me around the city and when I just got back the guys at the youth house asked me if I wanted to go out for a drink with them. Although I was supposed to be at the hospital early the morning after I decided to go – lucky for me they just meant out for tea. Laughed so much about it in my mind ’cause I’d prepared myself for a hangover and everything :) We took the metro to the center, where I discovered an interesting fact… You know how when you´re on the metro and some weirdo walks in – guy with a comb in ten different colors or whatever – how everybody looks at him and then look the other way pretending not to be looking at him at all but keep on secretly glancing at him…well here I am that weirdo!
Farít (cardiosurgeon), Ermanno Mazza (chief of cardio-ICU and cardiosurgeon), Murad (anesthesiologist) and me 
On my second day in Baku I went to the hospital. I’m studying/working/hanging out (it’s always a mistery what medical students are doing at the hospital) at a hospital for oil workers. On the first day there a very kind doctor showed me around the hospital and introduced me to all the people we met on the way…only like 50-60 people which all had Azeri names that I had never heard before!! So you can imagine how many names I remembered the day after… I was placed at the cardiosurgery department and the cardio-intensive care unit and the people there are awesome. There are no scheduled surgeries for next week though because of the doctors summer-vacations (I was supposed to stay at the hospital next week also) but the Italian chief of the cardio-ICU has invited me to come again in October when they will start a pediatric program to make amends.
Naída, me, Zara and Tarana (ICU doctors)
What surprised me the most at the hospital is that the majority – or at least half the doctors there are women. For some reason there was no doubt in my mind that most of the doctors would be men so this was a very unexpected and nice surprise! When I note this to the people here they can’t imagine why I would think that women here wouldn’t be doctors! And as far as I can see there doesn’t seem to be so much inequality between men and women here – but of course I haven’t lived with a family here so I don’t know what happens inside the walls in Azeri-homes. I’ve noted some differences but nothing that I would actually call inequality. And as far as the veils go then there are actually more women wearing veils in Copenhagen than here!! There is even a statue of a woman down town who was the first woman to “drop the veil” in Azerbaijan – so they even seem to be proud of not having the costum of wearing it.
Not a common finding.. but these can be found as public toilets..
Another thing here that surprised me, or well, maybe I should rather say confused me was the toilet paper issue. First I thought that they were always out of toilet paper but when it was getting quite obvious that toilet paper was just not “fashionable” here I decided to ask what was up with that… And apparently they use water to rinse “those areas” after going to the bathroom, but instead of asking someone to show me how they do it I decided just to bring my own toiletpaper wherever I go.
Another thing noteworthy is that the traffic here is crazy! After crossing the street a couple of times and almost loosing my life (or at least some toes) I started asking people to hold my hand while crossing… or well, I started off by jumping into peoples arms when the cars were about to hit me and from then on they offered to hold my hand. So ridiculous, I know! But I’d rather loose all my coolness than my life!! But it´s all better now… I´m crossing the street all by myself these days!! The little Icelandic girl is growing bigger and bigger by the minute here in Baku.
Well I guess that´s enough for now – will give you more pieces of my Azerbaijan-puzzle soon. Take care!
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þetta er ábyggilega mjög skemmtilegt skil inná milli hvað þú ert að segja:p skemmtu þér úti :***
Comment by Eygló Brá — June 19, 2009 #
Vóh, ég bjóst líka við að fleiri menn væru læknar þarna en svona veit maður nú í rauninni lítið um lönd eins og Azerbaijan. En þetta virðist allt vera svakalega spennandi og ég vona að þú munir skemmta þér vel og læra margt þarna úti, en ég held að það sé engin spurning einu sinni.
En í sambandi við klósettpappírinn – ég lenti nú bara í því í New York þegar ég gisti á heimavist í FIT að herbergisfélagar mínir voru ekki á því að gefa hvor öðrum klósettpappír þannig flestir fóru alltaf með sinn eigin klósettpappír inná klósett! Spes… þá var nú ekki komin kreppa þannig ég splæsti nú bara klósettpappír á baðherbergið og var ekkert að spá hvort fólk væri að stela MÍNUM klósettpappír eða ekki! Maður þarf greinilega ekki að fara lengra en til New York til að lenda í furðulegum klósettvenjum!
Comment by Rakel Sólrós — June 20, 2009 #
Hahaha já það er nú ekki nískan sem er að hrjá fólk hérna
Mér er boðið út að borða nánast daglega.. pappírinn er nú varla dýrari en matur 
En maður þarf oft ekkert að fara langt til að uppgötva nýja hluti, en alltaf gaman að fá smá “challenge” á gömlu gildin svo maður hugsi þau frá nýjum vinkli 
Kreppasmeppa, ég myndi ennþá pulla þig á þetta og kaupa klósettpappír á línuna ef það væri málið 
Comment by Þóra Elísabet — June 20, 2009 #
Gaman að lesa þetta hjá þér elskan.
Margt lifir væntanlga ennþá frá tima Sovétrikjanna i Aserbajan hvað samskypti kynjanna og möguleika til mentunar varðar. Mér finnst svo frábært að þú hafir tekið þennan valkost til námsþjálfunnar! Njóttu hverrar studar. Eg finn að þú sígur i þig eins og svampur hvert sem leið þin liggur. Það er stórkostlegt! Eg gleðst svo innilega fyrir þina hönd.
Astarkveðjur, EDDY
Comment by Elsa Strandberg — June 20, 2009 #