5/6/07

I'm still working through this whole picture posting issue...( i can only post 4 or 5 images per entry) however, I might be seriously over estimating how many pictures I will take after the newness of everything sets it. But I know that I am still going to a lot of different sites on my Fridays off, so I am going to go aheaad and assume that a forum for posting more pictures in an album format is necessary- what is not necessary is proofreading my entries, or the use of commas.

Last night I went to be at around 9:00 again. This was good since I went to bed early (thanks to melatonin!) however I woke up at 4:30, unable to really fall back asleep. It didn't really matter though, because I was rested, and was fine throughout the whole day. I cannot emphasize enough how fast the work days go when you are doing something you really enjoy. I have thus far been consistently blown away when lunch time, or the end of the shift comes.

We have a little mice problem in the lab. Actually, it's a funny little mice problem. The first day we came in, we were cleaning out the shelves and getting the comparative material ready (I have a photo of this, it is all of the skeletons in the boxes). While doing so of course there were little mouse "presents" all around. At first we just shrugged it off, we didn't see any actual mice, so it wasn't really a big deal. However, when we got to the corner of the shelves, we lifted up this box and low and behold, there were a bunch of the animal bones! Those little sneaksters stole a bunch of the pieces from the collection and hoarded them off in the corner. We started opening the boxes to find that pieces here and there from each had been mous'd. The funniest thing was, they stole every last bone from the bull frog skeleton. Bull frogs beware! To prevent this from happening again, we set two mouse traps last night. Sure enough, this morning there were two hoppity little mice in the cages. We let them go though.

Here's what the comparative collection looks like (it's very small compared to what is at U of M) and also some of the stuff I sorted through today:






On the topic of animals, there are a lot of stray kitties that walk arounf egypt. I don't touch them because I'm sure they have fleas, and I don't want fleas. Speaking of bugs, while it is not malaria season, there most certainly are still mosquitos. I have more bites on my body right now than I got all last summer in Michigan. Good thing I brought some hydracortizone. The other night when I was walking around with some grad students, we also walked by a jackal. He didn't do anything though.


Here is a picture of my bed in the villa- the place where i zonk out at 9 p.m. If it looks comfortable, then I am merely a fabulous photographer. It is a wretched piece of furniture.




Here is a skyline of Cairo (don't mind the sand-dusty air) taken after i climbed atop some mastabas. Cairo has 22 million people, hence the terrible traffic. It is unreal how many people and buildings they manage to squeeze in here. It is also a very poor City. It is so different from any place I have been to in the states.



Working from my last entry, I thought I would detail my little walk to my designated pee spot.
Picture one I am walking away from the lab, Picture two I turn a corner, and picture three is the mastaba where I pee. While peeing I get an amazing view of the pyramids...you may be jealous, but also remember, I am peeing in the middle of a desert, and there are flying ants and jumping spiders, and I am in constant fear.





That's going to wrap it up for today. Hope you all enjoyed!