Our visit to Portland, Maine

Sevda, Saida, Irada, Tarlan, Zemfira
Ayan, Djamilia,Bella, Rustam, Adib





The morning after my sister arrived here flying some 20 hours over the ocean, we drove to Atlanta airport again to catch our flight to Portland, Maine. The 2.5 hours flight went pretty smoothly and kids slept the whole time.
We visited our friends, whom we have known since... practically birth. Djamilya is my Mom's close friend and we grew up in the same appartment block in Baku. Djamilya has 2 daughters who are almost the same age as my sister and myself, and we used to play together a lot. And her youngest daughter Zemfira is now married to another great friend of mine, a baha'i from Baku, Tarlan. So it was great to catch up with all of them and meet Tarlan and Zemfira'h 2 precious children. Rustam is almost 4 and Djamila is 2. We stayed with Djamilya and her older daughter Saida, and Isabella became good friends with her 7 year old girl Ayan. Ayan would read books for Bella, they did painting together and played a lot, and Bella still asks me when we visit Ayan again.


We stayed in Portland for 4 days, it was snowing a lot. I've never before seen such dry snow, it was like glittering powder, you can not even make a snow-man or play snow-balls because snowflakes just don't stick together. Although it was cold (23' F), we felt very warm and cozy with our friends who showed us a lot of hospitality and took us around to show us the city. Tarlan also drove us to Green-Acre, a Baha'i school founded in a mansion that Abdul-Baha received as a gift from Sarah Farmer. We also went to a children museum which was a lot of fun for the kids. I loved Portland with its fresh crispy air and proximity of the ocean.

A visit from Irada and trip to Maine

My sister Irada is coming for a visit in a week! I'm counting days now, I'm so excited!
She will be staying with us for 2 weeks leaving on the 28th Dec. Another thing I'm looking forward to is visiting my friends in Portland, Maine. We are going to Maine when my sister arrives, actually the next morning after she arrives to Atlanta supposedly at 5.30pm, we are flying off to Portland. She's going to have a long trip, but 2.5 hours of flight from Atlanta to Portland is nothing comparing to her 15 hours (at the least) flight from Baku to Atlanta with a stop over in Paris.
We will spend 3.5 days with my friends from Baku who are bahais and we grew up together and found the Faith together and became bahai on the same day! They have 2 children, almost same age as ours, but we haven't met their children yet neither they met ours, so kids will hopefully have a lot of fun together.
It's my first time seeing the country outside of state Georgia, and although it's cold there (I know, it's already snowing there, but that's what winter is supposed to be like, in my opinion) I'm looking forward to our trip, and my sister will be with us too, yey!!!