5/5/07 Happy Cinco De Mayo From Cairo!

I am in the process of figuring out the best way to organize my informational entries, and my pictures. I have yet to figure out how to integrate text and photos so that I can talk about each picture, as opposed to just having them all lumped together in the beginning or the end. I might create a new website where i can post photo albums and then just use a few on the blog when updating. As for now though, the days are incredibly long and exhausting and the wireless is slow, so this will have to do.

Last night I went to bed at 9:30 p.m. ( that's about...2:30 p.m. usa time). It is amazing how easy it is to wake up at 5:40 a.m. when you go to bed at 9! I slept so hard that I didn't even wake up during the 4 am call to prayer (the sirens and singing that occur to cue prayer) We had breakfast downstairs and then we all loaded up in this little van (think Little Miss Sunshine) and drove to the site. The site is only about a 5 minute drive. Let me tell you all about Egyptian traffic...it is chaos...madness I tell you...madness...for all of you who have ridden with me as a passenger and have witnessed me clutching the center council, gasping, frantically pointing at how close you were riding to the person in front of you, rest assure that I will come back a very different Kelly. Here, the traffic is absolutely absurd...I don't think you can even see clearly defined road lanes...and even if you could, that wouldn't stop the drivers from zigzagging everywhere without care. Turn signals? NOOOPEEE. Speed Limits? Nahhhhhhhhh. Horns? You betcha- in fact that's all you hear, is people honking their horns and refusing to use their breaks until absolutely necessary. After this, I don't think any single vehicular excursion in the states will be able to frighten me.

Also today, I started eating TOMATOES. I don't like tomatoes...but I was so hungry, and there was nothing else i wanted so, i had to eat this tomato and cucumber salad but, I don't like wasting food here, so I ate all of them. I guess they aren't so bad...I'm still not a big fan though.

Also, I have a feeling that by the end of my stay here I will drink my coffee black. Or at least be able to tolerate doing so.

Beyond those kind of mundane revelations, today was my first day at work. It started right at 7 am. I spent the first two hours washing bones and then Professor Redding and I walked around the area, and I took some of the pictures you see below. Afterwards, I waited for the bones to dry, learned how to ID some fish, and discussed my research design in further detail. Then I spent the rest of the day, identifying, weighing, and recording my data, Tomorrow night I will start putting it into my database. I will take more pictures of the lab and my work specifically, probably tomorrow.

The heat really isn't too bad either. The lab is pretty cool, and wearing jeans is not a big deal at all. It isn't nearly as uncomfortable as i thought it would be. The weather is so dry out here you do not even really sweat. However, there were various moments throughout the days where I would find myself starting to get headaches and feel light headed and naseous so even if the heat doesn't seem to be so bad, I still have to combat dehydration. I drank 5 big bottles of water today...which of course meant mucho peeing. There are no bathrooms and so you just grab a roll of toilet paper and wander through the nooks and crannies of the mastabas, pick a spot, and go to town. There are at least 2000 mastabas around the pyramids in Giza. For those that do not know, mastabas are mud buildings with chambers that housed burial sites. You read correctly...I pee on Egyptian crypts. And frequently I might add...5 bottles of water = Onslaught of Sucker Punches to Kelly's Bladder.

Well it is 8 now, and I am going to try and go to bed....10 hours working in the field require much rest.

I love and miss everyone!~