I'm Alive

Since my last post things seem to have settled down around here. On Friday, the police did indeed come and take a report (that is an entire blog post in and of itself, which I probably can't write in its entirety because I would be leaving out important parts due to this being a public blog). Now to clarify something, I wasn't notifying the police with the expectation that these young men be caught, instead I wanted my neighbors and my little neighborhood here to know that I know the police and, what's more, that I will call them. The calling had the wanted effect, after the police left I met about 12 of my neighbors, the women specifically, which was exactly what I needed.

My neighbor across the hall gave me her phone number and said "You CALL me if you have ANY problems and I'll come over and kick some butt." Okay, actually I'm ad-libbing there because I didn't fully understand what she was telling me. There were a lot of hand gestures and she made a "sweeping leg" motion. She may have actually said, "I take karate" or "look at this hip dance move" and really I wouldn't be able to tell you. (There are some people I understand clearly in Azeri and some people I just nod at while thinking, "I have no idea...." I understand what I must look like when I make that face, mostly because my students use that same nod and blank expression.) However, in the context of the conversation, I think that's probably the closest to what she said. Additionally, there is a family that owns and runs this teeny store kitty-corner to our apartment building. It is extremely close to my apartment. I had chatted with them a little before this whole debacle and when they heard about what happened, they told me "You come out on your balcony and you yell quietly [how do you yell quiet?] and we'll come catch them!"

Knowing your neighbors is essential. People keep checking in and asking if I've had any problems since, I haven't. And what's more, I have not seen those young men hanging out around here since. I know one lives in my apartment building, but he is keeping out of sight and I have no problem with that at all.

So my summary is, for now, I'm staying in my apartment. I feel good about the decision and *fingers crossed* hope to continue to. In the meantime, I've been really busy with work and visiting students. Things are going well.