Discovering Azerbaijan：探索阿塞
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关于作者：80后海外汉教。做翻译，当记者；爱艺术，瞎捣鼓；户外运动狂热者，高加索进行时。
原文发表于厦门日报社《双语周刊》2016-4-27第四版
作者得知将被调到阿塞拜疆从事汉语教学时，对那边高原地区的气候饮食等问题充满担忧。但骨子里的求知欲和探索精神，最终促使她走出国门，踏上了这方陌生的土地。
而今在阿塞拜疆工作生活已逾一年，作者深深地爱上这片拥有悠久历史及独特人文的土地。
一切偏见，都源于不了解。让我们跟随作者的笔触，揭开这个神秘国度的面纱，探寻这个位于欧亚“十字路口”、东西方文化交融的国家。
When the Confucius Institute Headquarters official told me I would be dispatched to Azerbaijan instead of the US, I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. I was so unaware of the country that I wondered if it was in Africa.
Having lived in Azerbaijan for nearly six months, I am impressed by the time-honored history, gorgeous landscape and unique culture of Azerbaijan, which borders Armenia, Iran and Turkey and which straddles the border of Asia and Europe.
Situated four time zones west of China, Azerbaijan was previously a part of the Soviet Union. When Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev visited China last year, Chinese president Xi Jinping asserted the importance of the country to China’s One Belt One Road policy tying China to points west.
While the official language is Azeri and many older residents speak Russian, English is widespread only among younger students. Not speaking the language, my visits to the supermarket consist mostly of pointing at icons and hoping for the best.
At work, I communicate mostly in Chinese with my students, who are juniors in the university. English, pictograms and charades are my backups.
There are many bars in Baku, the capital city, which has a vibrant nightlife. Azeri cuisine favors mutton, beef and chicken. Local barbecued meats are quite popular. Seafood a luxury and not fresh -- the Caspian Sea is actually an inland lake.
Fruits and vegetables are used more as decoration for meat dishes than as independent dishes. Sweets are numerous and tasty. The chocolates, butter, cheese and diary products are pleasures for me, especially as a vegetarian.
Azerbaijan boasts rich reserves in oil and gas and luxury cars stuff Baku streets. That said, the currency has dropped dramatically in recent years along with the oil bust. With the exception of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijan is very safe and enjoys low crime rates.
Azerbaijan feels like an exotic melting pot of Western and Eastern culture. Baku is roughly equal to Xiamen in size and is home to two sites on the World Cultural Heritage list: the Baku Old City and the Gobustan rock paintings.
Traditional handicrafts include carpets and copperware. UNESCO lists Mukam, a traditional music form, on its intangible cultural heritage list. Popular souvenirs include carpets and paintings made from oil pumped from under the Caspian Sea.
Chinese tourists are newly eligible for a visa on arrival, with flights between Beijing and Baku costing about 3,000 yuan for a round-trip ticket. Like America’ s Chicago, Baku is known as the Windy City, so visitors are advised to dress for the weather.