Leigh in Azerbaijan

Teaching is over for me this term, but not without the price of being anxious all day about getting all the tasks done: relief teacher notes, ESL in the Mainstream organisation, meet and greet organisation (BP provide this wonderful service for ex-pats - collecting from and delivering to the airport), printing necessary notes for the PYP workshop, getting two completed Unit of Inquiry plans and other documents. I think I’ve covered all bases. I guess I’ll find out next term when I get back that I left out major chunks but there’s good people at school.  They’ll manage.

In Baku there’s no such thing as the SA ban on late night flights.  My plane leaves at 4.35am.  I get picked up at 1.50pm.   Snatches of sleep are the common fare when you leave Baku.   I haven’t packed yet but some fresh food has been cooked and frozen.

Teachers do serious travelling here in the holidays.  Someone’s going to Greece, another to Egypt, then there’s Turkey and plenty of other countries.  Makes sense really as why would want to spend your down time in Baku?

Azeraijan Carpet Blogger reported that DVD shops had been closed down over Christmas except for the ABC shops.  Thankfully they all seem to be open now, including the Hong Kong shop with all those great BBC series.  Does Azerbaijan have some agreement with the big companies like EMI has in India, where CDs all sell cheap?

Noreen from school is glad that someone is also going to the same workshop in Lisbon.  It is good to have someone to share the tension of making wrong decisions in airport terminals.  I’ve had some close calls.  My big mistake was inadvertently making arrangements to stay an extra day in Dubai on returning from Adelaide.  I think I made good use of the time.

Now for that packing.