It's the Final Countdown

Well this is officially my last night in Cairo and my last entry from Egypt.

At one point here I envisioned having this grand summation of my experience towards the end- something that captured the evolution of my adjustment and my insight. However I do not think that I am even remotely aware yet of what has happened and what will continue to happen as I carry this trip with me, as a part of me, for the rest of my life. All I know right now is that I feel so humbled and grateful for all that has been given to me, all that I am priveledged with, and all that I take for granted. I wont venture to say that I am a new person, a changed woman, or that I even grasped a sort of self awareness that was previously beyond my reach- I think to ascribe to that line of thinking is to confuse traveler's enchantment and nostalgia with what is actually taken away when you take off. I think I encountered a struggle- a struggle with my own ignorance, a stuggle with my own naivety, a struggle to adjust, a struggle to make choices that would shape my future. I think I hit lows I've never faced before, feelings of lonliness and isolation, confusion and exhaustion- utter disconnect.

And where am I now? I'm ready to keep going on with my life. I'm ready to come back next year for another two months...I'm ready to plan a summer excavation trip to China or India, I'm ready for new challenges, new struggles, new confrontations, because while those lows were difficult, and perhaps never even appropriately countered with amazing days or moments- the reality that I am and was able to overcome them all, walk out of here with a determination to take on more, is a high that compensates for every wearing second that passed me. Knowing and proving to myself that I can find laughter with maggots on the breakfast table, comfort with a menstruation cycle in the middle of a desert, solitude in the backseat of a near death experience powered by a v-6 engine (if that), a shoulder shrug at mild food poisoning (heh my karmic retribution for driving my poor aunt michele to tears with the malaria bit)- it all shows me that even if I haven't figured out what I want for myself in life, I know that I'm on the right track- my adapatability to this situation has shown me that the things that I want for myself and to be able to offer to other people are not just idealisations, or goals to strive for, they are things I already possess and can demonstrate and utilize. I think I'm finally able to set aside the modesty defense mechanism and realize my strength and in doing so, actually use my strength.

In parallel with the archaeological scientific method upon which I have been operating day in and day out, I cannot simply ascertain these realizations as some form of Law of Kelly's Personality. I've merely made observations within different contexts, considering different variables, and so far have formed ideas, and questions for me to test...what I mean is, I don't expect that I will always be okay with challenging situations, I don't expect that I will always overcome every obstacle, or that I will always learn from every struggle, or that I will always be able to look back on hard experiences in a positive light- but I do know that I look forward to learning more- always.

I am sure I could extend this entry much further, as I am really bored, and too anxious to sleep, but I'v noticed that not all of you read my entries from beginning to end! And most of you probably think I've stopped writing alltogether- who knows maybe no one will see this but if you don't...then you don't know that I will be in Detroit in less than 48 hours!

Thank you for reading and traveling with me- a special note to my closer friends aka those of you who are most likely entitled to travel gifts, 2 things

1) I thought I was going to have an extra week to get shopping done, and so I wasn't able to get everyone everything I wanted
2) Most of the stuff here is junk and you don't want it anyways...I'm coming back next year, if you think of something you want from here, let me know and you have my word that i will get it for you. You don't have my word that it will stay intact or put together by the time it gets from here to there- but that is the essence of Egypt in itself...it really is insane..you would think that coming from the ingenuity that was the pyramid construction, that things would be of a magnificent quality, just goes to show you what happens when countries are poor in the modern world.

Otherwise I try to operate on the, if it made me think of you, i got it for you, basis- and consider yourself lucky if I didn't associate you with cheap, waste of space, junk!

Peace out Girl Scouts!

New Arrival Time

I was able to get an earlier flight out and so here it is:

New flight info

leave Cairo on Friday at 4:00 p.m.

Leave Zurich Saturday at 8:00 a.m.

Arrive in detroit THIS Saturday June 9th at 12:50 p.m. after customs and what not, should walk out around 1:30ish.

BREAKING NEWS

So the past few days i have been in and out of nauseousness. I don't like to write about my health too too much because I don't want to worry my poor aunts...However todays was exceptionally bad...I was just feeling not my best in the morning and then my professor and I went out to dinner at which point I became violently ill. I keep going in and out of a fever and chills, and essentially hate my life right now. Per his diagnosis, as he has had it too, it turns out that I most likely have managed to contract malaria, despite it not being the season for it. He has medication for it since he still gets attacks and so I am okay for now but either way, I need adequate medical attention as soon as possible, as well as blood work and so I am coming home early.

That is all i can write for now because i feel so terrible. This is not how I wanted to deal with coming home...










Just kidding!

Well about the malaria part- but not about the coming home early part!

Earlier this morning my professor realized that I am going to finish all of my work by either wednesday or thursday and so he decided to look into moving our flights so that I could come home early!

I was planning on going out of my way to surprise some of you, but I changed my mind. I just couldn't keep it in!

I'm not sure of the details yet, Richard is going to go down and see what he can work out. I could be home as early as this weekend! No matter what though it looks like I will be home before the 15th, giving me extra time to recover from jet lag.

yay :)

I should know by tomorrow what the new plans are!

6/3/07

So...I think I am kind of running out of things to say. I live in a nice place, which gives me a hell of a lot less to complain about...my work is almost done, and the parts of that which I could potentially vent about, I'm not technically allowed to discuss...I guess in short, the material i am sorting right now is just kind of "uninteresting" not in terms of what it is or what it means to be at the site, but just doesn't require a lot of thought process. Right now I'm just in a little "slump" which probably corrosponds appropriately to the phasing, but as a result just isn't really fun stuff to look at...but thats the thing with archaeology.,.a lot of the stuff you are looking at, is just crap.

When I was first learning how to sort bone, I was working with fauna from Turkey, and it was some of the best preserved material one could find. My professor of course did this on purpose since it would be the easiest to learn from. Then, this past year he had me working with fauna from Yemen, which was just absolutely awful...a lot of junk...but it was still challenging for me because i was not really good with the material yer and so the entire process still kept me engaged. The stuff I have now is inbetween the two, however now that I am really good at knowing what crap looks like, I get more cranky about having to sort and weigh and write about it...but I've already sneaked a peak at some of the last features I have to sort and they are much much better.


Today I saw my first snake- a viper. The egyptians killed it outside of the coffee tent. It was a female, and Richard showed me the characteristics so that I would recognize them in the future. That guy was probably what was keeping the mice away from our bones though...so now we have to guard the bones once again!

I haven't seen the gecko around either. I miss that guy.

My cough has improved a lot. It was really set off by that sand storm we had last week, so now that things are winding down I am doing much better.

It is supposed to be 104 on tuesday...Yuck!

Today is the Third already and here are some lovely countdowns brought to you by June 3rd:

Days left of work: 8 (at the most!)
Days until I leave for Zurich: 11
Days until I arrive in Detroit: 12

look at those numbers, so close but still so far..so fast but still so slow. Such an overall sense of the bittersweet.

Oh the Wonderful World of June!

Today has been heavenly- except for that wretched, pflegm filled cough of mine...but even that could not significantly drag down today. I'm sure perhaps to the disappointment of those who had their fingers crossed that I would realize that travel and time spent abroad was not the life for me, I am really enjoying things here now, and really do not foresee myself changing my mind about my insistence to travel and see the world. Last night when I went out to dinner with Richard, he told me of all his different field stories, ones in kenya, Iran, and Turkey...I'm sorry but I love this work and I want to have those stories too. There are definitely some down sides to this line of work as I have had explained to me. If you thought that there was drama at your job, imagine having to live with your coworkers for months at a time and in some rather obnoxious arrangements and environmental conditions. It's kind of like summer camp for adults, and this rings true of the field flings as well. What happens when you put a group of girls and guys together for a few months, in a foreign country without any other social network...convenience happens, convenience and hormones apparently, and it is all the gossip. I lucked out since I came towards the end and by now most everyone is gone, but I have been forewarned about some of the ridiculous things that go down.

So far i am still pretty content on doing my next work in China...even though I hate Chinese food. This of course would take place after my excavation apprenticeship next year in Egypt and actually I probably wont get into China for another year or two. But that gives me the time to start learning the language and developing research questions i want to pursue.

I spent most of today in bed, with a mug of coffee reading. If you know me, you know that this is perfection. I was actually reading my professor's report he just completed on the area of the site. It will be a good contextual component for my thesis. It was funny though, after he sent it and I told him I started reading it, he said, "well it's just a rough draft" etc...I told him that I wouldn't judge it too harshly and any commentary I have is intended to be constructive and not taken personally...this is funny because it is usually the exchange he and I have about my writing samples. Again it is just another instance where I find myself being acknowledged as a peer and not just a student, though I'm sure he doesn't really expect me to find any problems with his report...but hopefully I can develop some questions about it.

Most fridays i am off somewhere else around noon, but I was here at the apartments today. Since Friday is the Holy Day, call to prayer lasts for an entire hour, so this was the first time I had to listen to it for that long. Again you just kind of tune it out and it becomes background. At around 1:00 Richard and i left to get lunch. We went to that sushi place again. Delightful! He actually has an allergy to wheat and eggs so sushi works out well since he knows that he can get something there. The sushi place is in the marriot in Zamalek. Zamalek has that store Nomad that I like as well as the grocery store. While at the marriot, Richard picked up a paper and told me that he was going down by the pool to read, and that I was to walk to Nomad and shop. This was an excellent way for me to navigate around the town by myself and to also go shopping! And I walked there all by myself, again feeling liberated, and refreshed, and just very happy. A few cabs tried to follow me around asking if I needed to be driven somewhere. i exercised my little known arabic and would say, "No thank you, I walk" or "No thank you, I have no need"

So as expected, the more familiar I am getting with the culture, the language, and the area, the better I feel about being here which I'm sure is a relief to all. Regardless, I am looking forward to coming home, though part of me is wishing that I was staying in royal oak the rest of the summer. But I guess that just means everyone else will have to come to me in ann arbor!

Tonight we are going to have dinner at felfella. Yay! my favorite, and it looks as though we will be eating lunch there every day frm now on since the villa is now closed and meals are no longer provided. What an excellent excuse to try everything on the menu.

okay back to reading for me!

My weekend is winding down just as everyone elses is getting started. But I know what weekends mean...emails from everybody!! right? please?? :)

Michele you just got a novel from me. Hope you get an extra long lunch break!

byeeee everyone!

here are the pictures of the view from my balcony. The wires are from all the air conditioners.

5/31/07 Continued

This is a special post dedicated to Mr. Jay Goldenberg. Tonight I went out to dinner and had the best calamari to date. I told my professor that I needed to have a taste of it here in order to report back to you and he knew just the place to go. You go in and the squid is on ice and you pick the one you want. We had it grilled and it was absolutely wonderful...the best texture, not too chewy, just amazing! So if you decide to visit me next year while i'm here :) I will take you there and this time I will treat!

The restaurant also had amazing grilled eggplant and tahina. Boy do I love the weekends in Egypt.

I took a few photos before going out to dinner of my room. I will take a picture of the balcony tomorrow.

Here is my new big bed, a far cry from the twinner over at the villa:



Here is the closetish thing that im not going to use, because i actually come home in two weeks and don't feel like repacking again! I basically wear the same 2 outfits to work every day and then pajamas when I get home...no need to unpack when i'm leaving in another 14 days.





Here is me before going out to dinner, with the door open to my balcony...again i am being magical and doing the mirror reflection shot, but in order to do this i had to turn off the flash and there wasn't enough light in here so it's kind of a bad picture. I more or less wanted to show off my new scarf that I bought last week though. I love it.





And finally here is my air conditioner and how happy it makes me:





It is more than just savior from the heat. Because I can turn this on i can keep my windows closed which means no dirt and dust can blow in and cover all of my stuff, as it has been the past month, and also no mosquitos can get in.

Another perk to living in the apartment is that it is just me, Richard, and for the next few days this other woman Camilla. While I was told it was okay to walk around the villa in shorts and whatever tank tops if I wanted, i still kind of felt disrespectful since muslim men and women do live and work there. The only time i wore shorts was in my room with the door closed. Now I can wear them and not worry so much, because no one is here.

I am a bit frazzled right now because I know that I will not sleep in very late. Even this morning I woke up at 5:00, 40 minutes before my alarm went off. It is going to be a long day tomorrow if I wake up at 5:00 and have nothing planned to do...although 5 am my time should mean that plenty of you are online to entertain me....so keep that in mind! I can also now leave my computer on more since I don't have to worry about it overheating.

I may actually venture a walk on my own tomorrow to this nearby store, but we'll see how I am feeling.

That will end my post for today.

Thank you to the people who actually go out of their way to keep in touch. It really means a lot when you take the time to see how I am and let me know you are checking up.

5/31/07 Post Move-in

I just finished moving into the apartments and all i can say is, what an upgrade. My room even has its own air conditioner and balcony. I feel extremely spoiled. The bed is HUGE and comfy, and I am a very happy Kelly, although it does take a bit away from the whole gritty archaeologist lifestyle. There's still plenty of dirt for me to deal with on site though, it's nice to be able to retreat to comfort, especially because the heat has been so bad. I will post pictures later on this evening.

In not so happy news, my cough is back and worse than before. If I were to really consider any reasons why I would choose to not come back here or continue work in Egypt it would be because of how it feels for me to breathe...and that's saying a lot. Few archaeologists would turn down work at Giza, but if I knew I had to feel like this for more than a few weeks, it would definitely be a factor in my decision. I find myself even less able to understand smokers if their lungs feel, in any way, the way mine do now....yuck.


Well i'm going to load up on benadryl and take a nap. Then it's shower time and out to dinner. It is the weekend here in egypt..a glorious 36 hours off. There will be no exciting trips tomorrow though. My professor decided that in the interest of my health, that I should stay in and take it easy...it is also for his health too, whatever is in the air gave him an allergy attack as well. So far it seems to only be him and I with all the problems so maybe it's an animal bone thing!

I will post more later, probably bye for now

5/30/07

I was pretty crabby throughout the day and for various reasons. One, I did not sleep well last night since it was so hot. I also managed to break my fan at about 9:30...only I could break my fan on the hottest night of the year in Egypt. Per usual, my professor came to the rescue and made sure i was taken care of. The fan didn't help much though as I laid in bed, heat ridden an sniffley.

Here is the other reason I was irritable today:




I had to sort many of these. These sieves are full of fish bones...thousands of them...literally, i had to count them all.

So I start off with those messes. Organize them by type:






And then I look to our comparative collection, this being one single fish, and actually this is only the skull bones in this picture:




If you can get any sort of idea from these pictures, it is just a lot of very teeny tiny pieces to work with..and like I said, I had to count them all...but I couldn't just count mindlessly because, as you can see in the sieve, there are also plenty of rocks and nonfish elements. These are not to be counted and so, I must count bone, see rock, throw rocks, count more bone. Throw in some hot weather and 7 flies buzzing in and out your ears and you have the perfect formula for a kelly the grouch. I took periodic breaks to make a dent in the fly swarms and then I explained to them that if I had to get up again that they all would be very sorry...they did not listen, and true to my word, they all joined their brothers and sisters in insect afterlife. I imagine that if I were in Dante's inferno, one level of hell for myself would be giant flies with Kelly Swatters.


I was actually by myself for a large portion of the time, with the exception of the security guards...it was actually a little unnerving because if something went wrong I had no means of contacting anyone, plus i don't speak arabic. Richard had gone home early because his allergies were so bad and he did not want them to get worse and then later John had to go take care of some other things- so I was completely alone in the lab for a few hours. But it was okay, i just listened to music, killed some bugs, and counted some bones.


I had to take some pictures for National Geographic on behalf of one of the grants I recieved, so here are some of me working quite hard...although a lot of them are me staging working hard, because there's only so many ways that i can measure a bone for a picture...in fact i am pretty sure the one of me laughing is because I felt so silly staging measurements...some of them are authentic though, like me writing things down.

I compare and make a decision:



I Measure:






I "Measure" and chuckle to myself "hehehe":




I look at measurement and write:







I make any additional notes beyond the measurement:










This one was taken the next day. Richard was talking to Mark, the project director for the Giza Plateau Mapping Project and they were discussing some theoretical issues with excavation and interpretation while I was doing some analysis of cattle. Apparently what I was doing was relavent to a point Mark was trying to make, namely I think the size of cattle, and so he had Richard take a picture.






If you have been paying attention you know that I move tomorrow. If you haven't been paying attention...I'm moving tomorrow...to a lovely air conditioned apartment. It's close by though. But this means I need to pack, but not very much because I started packing last friday and really i just don't have that much stuff, at least not much that I actually use or need to take from my suitcase. Anyways, I am going to end on that note. Happy Hump Day Everyone!

Five/twenty-nine-oh! seven

Geoff has noted that it is funny that I consider 90 degree weather cool at this point...it's not even that I consider it cool...it's that I find those to be beautiful days. Today we actually had a sand storm. It's not as bad as they get, this isn't standard sand storm season, but when they do happen usually you can't see anything except redness from the windblown sand of the sahara. I took a picture from my bedroom window but it didn't do it justice, the haze is incredible...my hair was absolutely filthy though.






I am kind of nervous for what my hairdresser is going to have to do with it in order to make it healthy again. It is so damaged right now from the weather, from not being cut in a while, and from the water here. I figured out that it may also have had a hand in how terrible my skin has been lately. I'm broken out all alround my neck, so now I have a new hair policy...at no point while I'm here is my hair to touch any part of my neck or face. This requires sleeping with it up, which is something that I normally hate, but it really is helping. I don't know if my hair has ever been this long before, and so it makes sense that the oils and dirt from it being all over my face could be clogging my pores more than usual. I also switched to a different shampoo and conditioner at Richard's suggestion. Like I said, so far it is helping a lot.

My work is actually moving along very well...what at first seemed like it was going to be very difficult and daunting, has actually turned out to be not so hard, just tedious and annoying....but it is my job and I do love it. Today i realized one excellent perk of my job...no customers...i never wake up considering how busy or slow etc my day is going to be. It's a job where I just sit and think and figure things out. It's essentially just putting together a big puzzle...which is funny because even when i'm not working i am just doing other puzzles...crosswords, sudokus and others from this big book I have. Everyone makes fun of me for doing them during breakfast and lunch...but I don't know, i like keeping my brain occupied. Plus it's what my dad always did. Another habit I have picked up here, similar to my dad's, is that I started writing in all capitals. It just looks so much neater on my data sheets...my hand writing was getting a little out of control for them, but capital letters slow me down enough and force me to write more legibly. Speaking of data sheets...richard asked me how far along I was in entering mine...at first i was a little embarassed to admit that I had only done like 5.. (no I didn't do any last night like i said i would) he reassured me that i could do it whenever i wanted and that he usually waits until he gets home to enter his...that was a relief. I will probably save it for some bigger computer screens as well as a mouse...this macbook is just too tiny to navigated between 8 different excel spreadsheets.

Today i only had to work untik 3:30. At 4:00 a zooarcharologist from the American University in Cairo came over with a student of hers to go over some material with Richard. She is a delightful woman, very articulate. It was very weird though, to have this cluster of 4 zooarchaeologists discussing at length the differences between horse and donkey molars...but it was actually very neat...I wasn't treated like a student, I was treated like a peer. This also happened yesterday. Richard asked me if i knew what a certain archaeological bone he had was...not because he was trying to test me, but because he wanted to know my opinion...unfortunately i didn't really know...well I kind of knew, by default. It was an unfamiliar looking metapodial, and by default you should always check a pig if it doesn't look right...but when I thought that, I assumed that he operated under the same standard, since he is the one that taught me it, and I assumed he already considered and dismissed pig...i really just should have gone ahead and said it...could have really wowed the crowd.

Because of the high winds, all of the flied are migrating indoors and are worse than usual. Frequently i went on fly patrol with the swatter. I killed two that were having sex...fly and maggot birth control, i just spared us 3000 additional flies.

Also with these high winds, whatever is making me sneeze, wheeze, and sniffle is being blown into my face with much greater intensity. I took two benadryl and its helping, but on that note, I am tired and must lay down. Goooodddnight!

Attention

It is 107 degrees right now....every time I move, I think to myself...heh, I didn't know it was possible to sweat there!

The wind is outrageous blowing sand in my eyes, lungs, and hair.

It hurts to breathe a little bit.

And my allergies are kicking my ass


Sadface

But it's not so bad. The morning went by quick. We are going back to the lab but only for an hour which will be nice.

That is my update...the weather is supposed to drop back down to 91 tomorrow, but that means high winds tonight and possibly some sand storms.

5/28/07

I actually have work sitting right beside me...I will do work tonight, i will do work tonight, i will do work tonight....

Today was a pretty standard day at the lab...actually not so standard, my material just got extremely complicated for myself, but for the most part in a good way...a challenging way. I learned so much today and I'm sure I will learn more in the next few.

In the bathroom at the site there is this gecko that hangs out on the walls (I started using this bathroom after I got my period since there is a waste basket in there...I no longer use the mastaba spot), He is a pale yellow and blends in the the walls. The bathroom there, as I'm sure I mentioned before is just a hole in the floor basically...it's really hard to aim when you're a girl by the way. Anyways...the gecko is in there a lot since there are a lot of flies. He startles me every time I go in there. Today I saw him go for the kill and grab this huge bug with his mouth. I was most intrigued so i watched him wrestle it and prepare his meal. He kept shaking his head violently, bug clenched in his mouth. He then jumps back when he sees me...shakes his head some more and then the next thing I know I have a half alive bug whizzing past my face...yes..the gecko threw the bug at me. When I went inside and explained the story to Richard and John, Richard said that perhaps it was an offering and that the gecko was trying to please me...John agreed adding in that I do spend a lot of time in the bathroom...which is tue, because as most of you know I have the saddest excuse for a bladder, and here I drink 5 bottles of water and about 4-5 cups of coffee...maybe tomorrow I will keep track of how many times I pee...but maybe that is very unnecessary information, if you have spent an afternoon with me, you know how it goes. In fact, my first day here Richard took me aside to check and make sure I wasn't have intestinal/bowel issues already....it was a really awkward an embarassing conversation partly because I think he might not have believed me at first when I just said it was my bladder,,,but now I think he knows I was telling the truth since I'm a pretty consistent pee frequenter...

Oh wow..my entries have regressed into discussion of urination..I need to get out of here...

Another thing that has been bothering me is not being active. I work all day of course, but I just sit at my lab table. I don't do very much walking, I don't get a lot of exercise and I always led a pretty active life before coming here. I can't really do any exercise outside either because it's too hot, and jogging is not something you do in Cairo. Today, I was so desparate to do some sort of exercise activity that I tried to make a jump rope in my room...it didn't work. So instead i turned on some music and danced around my room for a half hour...laugh if you will...but there's nothing wrong with dancing by yourself after a long day's work.

Speaking of long day's work..tomorrow i don't have to work all day! I'm not sure if we are working a half day and finishing at 1:30, or if we are going to return after lunch and work until 3:30. Apparently we are meeting up with another zooarchaeologist that Ricahrd knows.

We are also only working half of the day on Thursday because we are moving out of the Villa and into the large apartment for the rest of the stay. After Thursday we are on our own with laundry and meals. I've been kind of spoiled these past 3 weeks in terms of that. We will probably eat a lot at that one delicious restaurant I write about. The other night between two people there was a plate of falafel, a mashed bean and herb salad called bassara, pita and baba ghanoush, tomatoes and cheese (which i didn't eat of course) and 2 cokes all for under 6 dollars...it's incredible...one of the best restaurants i've ever eaten at, with the best middle eastern food, costs less for two people, than my shampoo and conditioner did...less than 2 boxes of granola bars that I bought...it is unreal.

All in all,..yay for short weeks! It is almost the 29th...which means, only 16 days until I get on a plane! Only two more Fridays of Egyptian excursions.

5/27/85

Someone please look at the date....don't ask me how I managed to write that it's 22 years ago...ahem:

5/27/07

Today as I was heading downstairs for dinner, Maryann, the ethnobotnist among many other titles, stopped me and asked to have a word with me. Maryann is really sweet and so I was not immediately worried that she was taking me aside, but at the same time I was initially perplexed. She began by saying that she was getting ready to go out with Ana and Mark, two other project leaders to talk about who will and wont be working here next year. My heart sank. Richard and i had already talked about me coming back here next year, but was she pulling me aside to tell me otherwise?...I struggled to piece together the past few weeks at rapid pace, racing through anything I could have possibly done wrong and trying to come up with some sort of response to it. Was someone having a problem with me that I didn't know about? Had I done or said something inappropriate or disrespectful? I keep to myself a lot, so I could not imagine what she was going to say next. Well, it turns out, that that was just the sidenote for why she was talking to me now and not at dinner. She actually just called me in to say very kind, supportive, and encouraging things. She has been a tremendous help while I have been here and I look up to her so much. She constantly tells me how well I am doing and that she thinks that she and I are a lot alike, which is an amazing compliment, because she is so accomplished. She has worked all over, and she teaches in London. I could only hope to be that successful in my endeavors.

****



The weather is getting much hotter. It's the kind of heat that rolls over you, makes you break a sweat and take a long blink. You feel tired, and out of it, with intermissions of light headedness. As much as I want to drink coffee to combat the sleepiness I feel, I know that it is from dehydration and not from lack of sleep, or the need for caffeine. What I have been doing is telling myself that I cannot have coffee until I drink a bottle of water. By the time I down the water, i feel energized again and don't need the coffee, so it works out. It is pretty uncomfortable though. You walk by a window and it feels like you are walking by an oven. In the lab, I will feel like I am fine, but then i will stand up and realize that my clothes are damp from sweat.

My sweat dampened skin traps dirt into every crack and cuticle on my hands. I looked down at them today after I had been working a while. I thought to myself, wow...my dad would be so proud...so proud to know that his little girl followed his footsteps in picking up and seeing the world, living in new places...he would also be proud to know that my dirt crusted hands could rival his own- yes, that's how dirty my hands were today.

Given that the days are filled which so much dirt and sweat...naturally when I get home, I want to get into the shower. So far, I could vouch for the fact that the showers here have been great. The water works, the bathrooms are clean...but of course, that would be a statement spoken much too soon.

Today I got in the shower after work, much like I do most days. I start my shampooing my hair and letting it sit on there for a bit so that I can really get all of the dirt out. Meanwhile I lather up the rest of me, lots and lots and lots of soap. So I am doing this, the way I do everyday...then suddenly, the shower head starts spitting at me..a rush of pressure causes hot water to spout from the hose connected to the head and complete shower chaos ensues. Next, the pressure reduces to the point that only little droplets dribble down, having minimal affect on my sudd covered self. So I try turning the water off and turning it back on. Again I get this spitting response from the shower until it just stops working all together. So here I am, standing the shower, soap all over, shampoo in my hair utterly perplexed...perplexed, but not surprised. Okay,, the soap not a big deal...take a wash cloth and get it off. My hair...there was the challenge. Lucky for me, I am one of those terrible people that constantly has 4 or 5 half filled water bottles in my room. So I wrap myself up in a towel and trot down the hall to my room to grab some bottles...BLAST! Yesterday the cleaning people had taken all of my water bottles! I did have one though, but it was nearly empty. The sink in the bathroom wasn't working either so I couldn't fill it up there, and I did't want to walk downstairs in a towel to get more bottles of water for my hair. Quickly I think to try the sink in my own room. Eureeka! it works...so I start filling up my water bottle..done...scuttle back to the bathroom and rinse out the shampoo...but of course one bottle of water isn't enough, have you seen how long my hair is getting??? So i come back here to repeat- a situation where rinsing and repeating is actually necessary. Only this time, when I fill up the bottle the water looks like this:






I repeat, this water came from my faucet.


Now at this point I am incredibly distraught...I begin thinking...holy geez, how often is the water like this withut me knowing or noticing. Word on the street is that if you put your clothes, after washing them here, into a clean bucket of water, the amount of dirt that bleeds into the water is outrageous. So at this point...I can't even decide if i want the water to start working again knowing that theres a chance that that much dirt could come out.

Of course after a certain amount of time the water did start working again and i just did as I always do and rinsed the rest of my hair out without thinking about how dirty the water could be,,,but this had involved many trips back and forth to the bathroom, in my towel and shampoo saturated hair.

Well that is going to do it for the day in the life of a kelly in cairo. I took some benedryl because my allergies were out of control today. Apparenly date palm is in bloom...and apparently i'm allergic to it! I sound pretty gross...lots of sneezing and lots of snot, and lots of morning post nasal drip mmmmm....

I hope everyone has a good day off tomorrow. I will be working from 7-5 yet again~!

5/26/07

I don't plan on writing very much today.

In my material i found a human skull...this isn't really anything interesting or intriguing to my work, it is actually just an excavation mistake...it should have gone with the osetology specialist. It was still kind of cool to find though.

Today was pretty normal though...although I was startled from my sleep by my buzzing phone at 4:30 am, with a picture text message from my cousin. It was a picture of my brother's toe which is terribly infected and gross looking. I was quite confused. It took me until about mid afternoon to realize it wasn't a dream.

I did find these for your viewing pleasure. Videos of traffic in egypt...this shows them at slow pace though..things get even scarier when speed is involved, Notice all of the honking horns...this is what you hear all the time from everywhere in egypt. This is my "mood music" if you will...some people listen to crashing waves, some the lovely songs of humpback whales, other the chirps of crickets in the night...I listen to horns...and they are only to be outdone by call to prayer. The only time there is not rush hour traffic in egypt is on Friday when everyone is praying at the mosques

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYqhiFnuLSM&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmTIUKaLWBs&mode=related&search=

I think the fact that you can look up insane traffic specifically speaks on its own


Heres one forminside a car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-t6FZujJxM&mode=related&search=

whats hilarious about this last one is it makes it seem like people pull over for an ambulance..,a lot of times the ambulance turns on sirens just to get through traffic...however in my experience no one moves for them...in fact..i was in traffic, stuck next to one with the sirens blaring in my ears...I look over and the driver and the passenger are both laughing and having a cigarette...yes big emergencies.

Here is a clip will call to prayer in the background...it really is amazing how used to it you get...like i said, i sleep through it every night/morning, most people do not. This video does not actually do justice to how poor quality the speaker system is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPrbuHxi1w8&mode=related&search=

5/25: oh it's the 25th already! Oh snap~!

I am doing some massive multi tasking right now, mainly because I can't sit and write this blog while my room is the disaster that it is...so i started organizing my stuff and packing up for the move next week. But at the same time I am just really hyper so I clean a little, and then i come back to the computer and then i move around and eat candy and sugar and ahhh.

I think I have quickly readjusted to living by myself again. The perks of privacy have re-emerged so I am doing well.

Oh man someone just said enjoy your memorial day weekend....i didn't even know it was memorial day weekend..heh.

I slept so well last night. I woke up delighted, surrounded by a plethora of plushy pillows and a matress that doesn't leave half of my limbs tingling with loss of blood flow. Waking up in comfort put me in an instant good mood.

I also went shopping today. here is me before going into town. I took a picture of me standing in front of the mirror. This shirt is my trick method of adding long sleeves to tank tops!



here are pictures from town. A lot of this is 15th-16th century architecture and it was great to walk through, as I am a pretty big fan of medieval architecture.








I went into one of the mosques and it was absolutey breathtaking. When i came in, I had to take off my shoes and cover my hair. The sunlight ricocheted off the white floor, it was blinding.






This is the gate into town.


These right here were used to hang the heads of enemies in the past. From above we found the area where they would dump hot oil on the enemies as the walked under the passage:



We were able to climb the minerets and get an amazing view of mosque courts and other religious architecture in the hazy distance. In there is also an original piece of the wooden doors that managed to preserve. I also took a picture of the roof tops of peoples houses and sale shops...it's actually for a top secret theory my professor is working on.









This was on display inside the wall and mineret towers. They have been doing a lot to restore it and found these artifacts. I chose this photo op for obvious reasons if you can make out the blurb:


(I realized you can't...they are little coffee cups with an explanation on coffee making)

Here is a picture just of town. This is what most of Cairo looks like. Dirt roads and shop after shop after shop. The quality and range of merchandise is similar to american flea markets, only as my professor noted, these ones actually have fleas too.


I thought for sure I had captured a scene where a local had just defeathered a duck and cut its head off but alas, it was not in my camera...I'm sure you're all devestated.

I did not buy much at the Bazar. I got Marcia's gift and Megan's gift. Megan, I'm sure you know you are getting a snowglobe, because i hate shopping and you asked for one...but oddly enough, I asked my professor about it and he said he had never seen a snowglobe in Egypt. We looked everywhere for them but after a while we gave up and decided to leave. Imagine our surprise when we go to walk out of the Bazar and there is a stand with SNOWGLOBES. The guy really took advantage of me not understanding how egyptian pounds and dollars work. I was not able to haggle the price down by much. But megan let it be known, that my professor is DIGUSTED that someone he knows bought a snowglobe in egypt...I wouldn't be too offended though, he bought his wife lapis beatle earrings.

After the Bazar, we went to the Meridian and got sushi...I really do love getting spoiled on Fridays and eating in fancier places. It is a nice break. Once we finished eating, Richard took me to this store my roommate had reccomended that had fixed prices and higher quality merchandise. I got a lot of gifts out of the way there, including some stuff for me. here are some earrings I purchased:

HOLD IT! I just went to the earrings to take a picture of them and I realized megans snow globe broke... CURSES...no seriously...mummy curses...It was the tackiest snow globe in the world with a deformed Nefratiti- she had a lazy eye, oh blast!




heh I really don't know what i am going to do about that snowglobe...guess you might have to settle for a nicer gift meg, because i am never going to the bazar again haha...that is a place only to be experienced once! I really loved how tacky that thing was. The snowglobe, not the bazar.


Well that is it for today...i will probably proof read this later, but not now. Have a happy memorial day everyone!

5/24/07 updated 5:08

Dear Bloggary,
Today i only had to work a half day! usually the crew gets half of thursday and all of friday off during the excavation season, however now as the season wraps up and everyone frantically finishes analysis and reporting, they find themselves working through to the end of Thursday....but not this one! You would think that I would come home and be productive, but I really wasn't. i cleaned my room a bit and took a shower, and then chatted online.

My stomach was still a little off today...more and more I am growing skeptical of food choices, even though they often taste delicious, you never know how you are going to react to the bacteria here. I soon may find myself only subsisting on rice...However after we move we don't have people cooking the meals anymore and we will have to get them ourselves, so that will be more trustworthy. This morning i was working on my crossword puzzle and drinking my coffee, when I decided i needed more sugar...I left to get some and when I turned around, my good friends the maggots paid me another visit. i turned around and there they were wiggling about on my crossword puzzle (they must be coming from the ceiling). so i went to get a napkin to crush them and get them off the table...and did you know those things can jump? Here he is...he popped in the air after the flash:



Tonight we went into town for dinner. We ate at an Italian place. I just had pasta. Those were three very simple sentences.
I had a really good time and I tried the espresso there which was better than what I had in Zurich, but I also got to drink it out of a fancy glass.

I would like to take this moment to tell you all in Michigan that I do not want to hear you say how hot it is...when it's 88 here I contemplate grabbing a jacket...


Tomorrow is my day off and we are going to the Khan and the Bazarr I believe...the names probably aren't important, the main point is that tomorrow I am shopping. Now, I am not a big fan of shopping in the first place...and these places don't have fixed prices, it's all haggling prices down...because I have such a tremendous impatience for this sort of thing, presents for my close family and friends may not be as well thought out as they have been in previous vacations of mine. I dont even know what to get for boys out here...especially Kirk, that weirdo...I want to try to avoid really hard just giving people stuff that takes up space, but we'll see.

That should take up about half of the day and then i will HOPEFULLY do some work, either on my research design, or my area database. Then it's back to work on Saturday.


ALSO, i took my roommate's bed...it is amazing by comparison...it is amazing by default of being flat... I also now have soft fluffy pillows as opposed to the very uncomfortable one I had before. Finally some beauty sleep!:



Sorry that's such a boob shot...it's just the tank top, Egyptian water didn't give a C cup or anything like that.

Thats it for tonight, I need sleep now!



But lastly, Janel: I got your comment but I am going to keep it unpublished so no one else can read it. Give me your email and I will write you back about it.

Approaching 5/24

Two entries in one night....what is going on you ask?

I was able to pass out in my room around 10:30. My roommate was still packing up her stuff, but since I work in the morning, and worked all day today, I didn't have the energy to stay up with her. Not to mention dinner tonight made me a little ill (I wasn't the only one that's why I know it was dinner and not me being sick). Tally One for adverse throw up reaction towards food served in Egypt.

When I woke up an hour later, it was dark, the other side of the room was empty, and my roommate had left the once always oscillating fan situated with the cool air blowing only on me. She also left me some saltine crackers in case I was feeling sick again. And now here I am unable to fall back asleep. Part of me is sad, part of me is lonely, part of me is a little anxious. I guess i really didn't consider how comforting it was to have someone who every morning and every night is empathizing and relating to the things you are going through. And when I didn't want to go through those things, i could talk to her about something else to distract from the many thoughts driving my introversion. Now it is just silence and isolation and I almost don't know what to do with myself. She wasn't even here most of the time, and when she was she was usually skyping or texting. But all of the little things which helped make this living condition easier are now gone and it is an entirely new adjustment. By the 30th, I will also be packing to move into a different living space entirely.

It's life on the go, job in a suitcase, time spent alone, but it's still apart of a dream I want, and am still grateful for having received so far.

This entry was more so just meant to help me re-unwind and get sleepy again.

Didn't work much so I will read.

5/23/07

Sorry I missed the entry yesterday...I'm sure you were all devestated! I had to babysit after I got off of work and before I went over there I had to call my mom and wish her a very happy birthday. She is going through some hard times right now, though she is in good spirits which makes me glad. She sounded happy to hear from me. I actually had called her a few nights before in tears, so she considered her birthday present from me a "I'm feeling better" phone call.

That said, you should all know, that for various, not to be overly detailed reasons, I am doing much better here and I anticipate it to last throughout the rest of my trip. So hopefully no more downer entries- but still insightful ones! I also have pictures to post today, yay!

I suppose I will start with recapping yesterday. One of the professors here had to give a lecture. He has adorable kids that needed to be looked after while he and most of the GPMP members attended. My roommate had originally asked jokingly if I would help and I said that I would actually love to help. First of all, it's one of her last nights here so i wanted to hang out with her, plus I want to get in as much socializing as I can before she and her team leaves. Once they are gone, it is just Richard and I pretty much, After a week or so, John, the guy I babysat for, will come back and keep working in the lab with us, only he works on something else.

My roommate, whose name I never mentioned before, Ally, went over to John's around 3:45. I wasn't done working until 5:00 and then I called my mom afterwards. This means, that in order for me to babysit, I had to walk to John's...alone. That's right...I walked somewhere in Egypt for the first time, by myself. It wasnt icredibly far away or anything...maybe like a quarter mile. I made sure I was covered, my arms, my hair, my eyes...despite the fact that I was hidden under these layers of clothing in the 90 degree evening, I cannot begin to tell you guys how liberating it was to be able to walk down the street by myself. Of course I can never blend in completely here...the white skin still visible on my face, and the western apparel still brought on the attention of drivers who honked and hollered...but it was nothing that made me too uncomfortable, nor did it take away from how great it felt to just walk down the street.

Once I got to the apartments standard babysitting routine ensued. We watched Madagascar. I wasn't able to pay much attention to it. John's children are 2 and 4, and another woman who excavates here, Ana, her daughter was over as well. The kids were a handful so I only caught bits and pieces of madacascar. Alex, the 2 year old is in that "What's that?" phase. I told him that the shiny thing he could see in the street was a butterfly balloon, at least 37 times. Additionally, he still wants to be held constantly and any attempt you make to try and put him down is countered with exorcism qualitity body contortions. Rosie, the 4 year old, just had a lot of energy and was pretty much impossible to please ha! She made Ally pick out every tiny sliver of basil in her spaghetti. Then she wanted grape juice-but once you got it for her, she wanted tea- and then grape juice again. I made her a picture with her name on it which she hung on the door.

Babysitting was definitely tiring but I had fun. I am glad i helped, I have no idea how Ally would have done it alone with that little alex not having anything to do with being put down. It was also just a good way for me to feel more apart of the team. Alex had his birthday party tonight too, and the kids came up and hugged me...it's like being apart of another family out here, it is nice. Again, too bad everyone is leaving!

Oh man this entry is getting super long and that's without the pictures!

From time to time I remember that there are things i have been meaning to mention and haven't. As i sit here, itching, I think..boy what were those things...itching..ah hah! oh yes. So you heard me complain about mosquitos. Well let me tell you about this wonderful game we have here called- Guess the Bug Bite...this of course is because there are multiple bugs that bite you out here. If you have bites on your feet, they are from fleas. It's funny....I have never been the type of person to really prefer walking around barefoot. Sure in the summer I will sport some flip flops, but as soon as i'm walking around my room or house, I want socks. You would think I would be far more insistent on wearing socks here since everything is so dirty...at least to me that seems like the most forward logic...but I also only have so many socks here, and I don't like getting my laundry ready every other day...after working in the field, when i come home, the sweaty, sandy gross socks have to go. Afterwards I just never put socks back on. I usually hate wearing pants with socks...but now i do it all the time...which of course means, I have little flea bites on my feet. I know for some people, that feeling would be awful...knowing there are flea infested carpets and that they are snacking on your toes...I myself, just got over it...because wait until you hear what else we have....I will call upon a sweet nightly nothing:

"Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite"

Bed Bugs...yep we got 'em, and yep they bite us. Ally and I frequently spray down the beds with water and euclyptus oil which is supposed to help. It also makes the sheets a little damp which works out on the hot nights. You may be thinking..sleeping in damp sheets?? Yes...the theme of my travels is, adjust quickly, or lose your sanity. Wet sheets and bed bugs,,,and I swear to you, I've never slept better.

On the topic of bugs check out these guys:




These are flesh eating beatles. Remember my photos of the comparative collection of skeletons? The ones we use to compare the bones from the site to. Well...this is how we get the comparative collection. We get dead animals, either kill them, hunt them, fish them, or we get road kill. Our fish collection is quite small...so we have been doing this the past few days:





The beatles are floating in the water


mmmmm chow down beatles!


Then they dry out:






This all happens right outside of the lab. Did I get grossed out by the smell? No..we poured ammonia in there so it helped a bit, but it did smell kind of bad.



Today I finished week 4 material and started week 5. Keep in mind I haven't even worked 3 weeks yet, so this is very good news, I am doing quite well. Unfortunately I am not very caught up on data entry, or my reading...they are just very hard to focus on...it will get done though.

My cough here has actually gotten worse. I don't feel ill otherwise, just a bad cough. My chest is really tight, and last night it was actually kind of hard to breathe. I've been keeping my professor informed so that it doesn't get bad. He went and bought me cough drops today. This morning I coughed up mucus that actually had dirt and sand in it...it was pretty gross. I am starting to understand how my professor wound up with lung cancer without ever having smoked a cigarette in his life...simply working here for 20 years.

With that, I leave you with another photo of the Giza skyline...look at the beautiful haze.



and here are some more shots of tombs and pyramids...you know i nearly forget that I live and work here. The last photo is of the lab. The tent is where the little coffee making set up is.







byeeee everyone!