Bak-who?

A question: if you think that playing in Japan, Romania or Russia is a strange/unique experience, ripe with stories and exclamation marks and raised eyebrows, what do you think about someone playing in, say... Azerbaijan? Yes... Azerbaijan. I ask because our very good friend Tammy is playing there with two other Canadians. We caught up on skype the other day, and I had to ask her if I could share some our conversation, not only because it was hilarious, but because the comments and questions highlight my complete and utter absence of knowledge with regard to Azerbaijan. Well.... I did know that it was part of the USSR, and ummmm, yup, that's about it. So here are snippets of our conversation, condensed...

me: Azerbaijan-Azerbaijuju, how is it? How is the coach? Training? City? The people? - weird?
T: It's a little Romania-esque here, but worse... The coach seems fine, the gym is really nice, and the dorms we live in are okay - but no water sometimes, which is annoying...

me: And it's normal there? city? any horses and carts? many strange men? How typical are these questions...
T: SOOOOOO many strange men... it is very Russia, no one speaks English at all! So, getting in a cab is a real treat.

me: I can't even really imagine what it's like... Azerbaijan... really? Can you shop? What city are you in?
T: I am in Baku... everything is in Baku, it's the capital.

me: just laughing at how I know absolutely nothing about Azerbaijan, other than that Baku is the capital, there are strange men, and you are there...
T: So many strange dudes who profess their love for me in like five seconds because I have blond hair... EVERYONE here is dark... So we get stared at a lot... we have two black girls, a Japanese girl and me with blond hair... stare fest!

me: And is there normal stuff?
T: I'm going to Istanbul for New Years, so will do some shopping there for normal people stuff b/c there is no store here for that..
me: um so what kind of stores are there there? can you find food that you can eat or is it all shwarma? aaaaahhaha (nice question)

T: there is shwarma EVERYWHERE, but the grocery store was nothing like a Carrefour - so I'm going to ask where to go... like, I need a towel... where do I get that? Ya... it is another world - a level above Romania....

There is more, but that is the gist of the conversation. So, I decided to google Azerbaijan, and educate myself a little bit.




Azerbaijan gained independence from the USSR on August 30, 1990, and is now home to more than 8.8 million Azerbaijanis, of whom over 2 million live in the capital - Baku. With an area of 86,600 square kilometres, this nation could fit into BC no less than 10 times; their currency is the Manat (1 Manat = US$1.25), and the per capita GDP is between $5000 and $9000 (in Canada that figure is between $39,000 and $45,000). There are some other really interesting things that set Azerbaijan apart from some of its neighbors; it was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world, and is also the first Muslim nation to grant women equal political rights with men. To boot, they did so in 1918, two years before the US (and eight years before the UK) got around to it (women got the vote in Canada in 1918). (As an aside - New Zealand was the first country to grant universal suffrage (1893); there are some countries where women still can not vote, such as Saudi Arabia.) It is situated on the Caspian Sea, and shares borders with Armenia (to the West), Georgia (Northwest), Russia (North) and Iran (South) - Baku is on the coast. It sounds like it's hard to make generalizations about Azerbaijan because Baku seems like it would be so different from the rural majority of the country. Baku looks not half-bad for a city - I think if you were living in the Az you'd want to be living in or close to the capital. Having said that, the pics on Wikipedia make it look like there are many a bee-autiful place, with mountainous areas and rolling hills, rivers and lakes. Popular sports are soccer (surprise) and chess (surprise); wrestling and backgammon are also popular... interesting. And that's about all I've got on Azerbaijan. At least now, I know where it is.

I know that Azerbaijan is not Azerbaijstan, but the question of the "stan" countries came up when I was talking to my mom just now, and neither of us really know where all of them are. The suffix "-stan" is Persian for "place of", and applies to countries, regions, provinces... but if we're talking countries, there are seven of them: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. There are lists of other stans, including regional, fictional, and satirical (Absurdistan). And with that - I'm out.