Last night marked another sleepless one for myself, which was most unfortunate because I feel like it really did take away from how much I could have really absorbed and enjoyed my day at the West Bank. However, as I mentioned to Dan this morning, at least with the West Bank being the land of the dead, I seemed to fit in well with my zombie like state of mind. Again I took a lot of pictures, but the internet/blogspot is being really touchy about uploading my photos right now. I have a full description of the Luxor trip documented, and about half of Karnak written up, so as soon as I can attach the images those entries will be available. I really put a lot of time into editting all of my photos and writing out descriptions of them...even to the point that I used in text citations! Seriously, they are like mini reports so I hope everyone enjoys them, not that I expect you to read everything, just scope out what you think looks cool.
Back to what I was saying....so I only slept for about an hour last night, and then I got up to have breakfast and head down to the site where I was introduced to Kaneawi, my driver for the day. His english was pretty good and he asked me a lot of questions. We went to the ferry and sailed across the Nile. There were about 5 or 6 hot air balloons scattered across the skyline. Kaneawi said that he used to work on the hot air balloons...at least I think that is what he said. The trip across the Nile is really short, only about 10 minutes. Once we docked he drove me back into the high cliffs, the same place where I visited the Valley of the Kings. I really wasn't sure what his duties to me were for that day, but a lot of the sites are really spread out across the landscape. Usually people travel in huge tour busses. He was quite sweet and had already planned out, what seemed to me a pretty good agenda. He would drop me off at a site, park, and wait for me to come back before driving me elsewhere. We started at Deir el Bahri, home of Queen Hatepshut's Mortuary Temple. Recall that Queen Hatepshut is one of the more well known instances where a woman held the throne over Egypt. Though famous for this title, she was probably not the only woman that assumed the role of pharaoh in Egypt. It is really amusing...when walking around temples and sites, Egyptians will always approach women with information about Hatepshut...they will show you where she is depicted in reliefs and hieroglyphs and really play on the hype of a dynastic feminism...not that I really mind or anything, I think Hatepshut was pretty badass too. However, I was kind of disappointed with her Mortuary Temple...I know a lot of it was destroyed and most of what you see is restoration, but I still had high hopes...again, lots of hype. The images against the high cliff backdrop though, are phenomenal. It was a completely alternative way to visually command and overpower the viewer that deterred from the previous trends in pyramid construction. I was really excited to see the birth collonade (actually I have found that any room where there are birthing scenes throughout all temples and reliefs really intrigue me...which is ironic because i hate babies). The Birth Collonade for Hatepshut was particularly important in representing her justified royal and divine right to rule. Since women were not allowed rule as Pharaohs, Hatepshut had to prove divine origin to legitimize her position. Additionally in her reliefs, she is depicted as male. As I said, i was really excited to see these images, but they were just really difficult to make out and I really just couldn't connect with the story and history the way i wanted to.
After Hatepshut's Temple at Deir el Bahri, I went to the Tombs of the Nobles. So the other day I had visited tombs of the New Kingdom Kings when I visite the Valley of the Kings. Visiting the Tombs of the Nobles was a superb way of comparing afterlife preparations between the royal kings and the elite who worked for them. I really enjoyed the Tombs of the Nobles, not only because they were just rich in color and structure, and all very different, but also, no other tourists were there. It was just me and who ever was overseeing the tomb at the time. Because it was just me (and because I had extra money) I was able to take pictures when normally people aren't allowed to...but that is not all i got to do. Allow me to backtrack. So this morning after breakfast Richard hands me something. It is a headband with a big ole light on it. A lot of times I just take things and figure out what I'm supposed to do with them later. So later comes, and I enter the Tomb of Userhet, scribe for Amenhotep II. By now this is the third tomb I've seen, and I'm kind of getting ADD about it, so I just kind of glance around. I peak around to the blocked off tomb shaft. Jokingly I ask if there's a mummy in there. Usually all mummies and such are removed, either having been looted some time in the past, or are on display at the Cairo Museum. So you can imagine my surprise when the guard tells me yes. I tell him I don't believe him and the next thing I know, he's removing the chain that blocks the entry. He asks me if I have a light...without missing a beat i bust out the headlight that richard had given me. The next thing I know, I am literally army crawling through the underground passage ways of Userhet's tomb. Heat hangs on me as I continue to inch over the dirt and rubble. The space is narrow, extremely narrow...think of it from this perspective. I love this stuff...haha i totally "dig" it...I'm not claustraphobic at all, and dead bodies don't bother me...and even I was seriously considering turning around and foregoing this experience. It was that difficult for even me to handle at the time, so if any of those things get to you, this could have been your nightmare turned reality. It was a good 3 minute journey into the underground, which as you can imagine seemed much longer and then there it was...the dismantled mummy of Userhet. The linen wrappings undone and charred black. The skull looking straight up at us and the pelvis to the right. The tomb of Userhet had been burned by the Coptics. All of the items were removed from the tomb, but because the mummy had been taken apart and burned, apparently the museums had no use or interest in it. Where the body was located was not the original resting place however, We moved further to where the sarcophagus would have been and there was the intact spine, sternum and vertebra. It was absolutely unreal. So yeah..that probably goes down as one of the most awesome things I've done.
After that, I really didn't know what could top it, and true probably nothing could, but I did continue to be impressed with everything else I saw today. I went and visited the site of Deir el Medina, which is a worker's town kind of similar in function and idea to the site at Giza that my thesis research was based on. Also here is temple, which from far away just does not seem very impressive, basically just ruin...but I actually adored it once I was inside. Kamil mentions that most visitors skip over it because it does not seem nearly as lavish or magnificent compared to Luxor and Karnak and others, but that such a choice is most unfortunate. I would have to agree and am very glad that I chose to go see it (I too almost passed when I saw the lil hike involved). Rich in history, this temple encompasses both trends in Egyptian and Greccoroman style. Again when the internet isn't being a pain, I will post images.
So even though I continue to be pleasantly surprised..(you know at some point you start thinking, you've seen one, you've seen them all, or that your brain simply does not have any more room to really appreciate any other ancient monument, image, or artifact) I am really thinking I want to just stop for the day. Had I been with other people I think I would have been even more antsy and counting down the time until we could leave. But since I was by myself, I was better able to self check and gather my patience...and boy is it a good thing I did, because the next thing I visited is probably my favorite that I have seen in Egypt so far. Seriously...I wish I could have photgraphed every inch of this place, and even then I could not even come close to giving you a glimpse that does it justice. I was in awe. If you are in Egypt, and you ask me what I think you absolutely must see, I will say, "Do not leave until you have seen the Mortuary Temple of Ramses II, or the Ramasseum." I will definitely detail, at length, all the images once i can post them...hell maybe I will even do an entire entry on it by itself. The place was just COVERED in inscriptions and large (LARGE) scale reliefs. I just tried to look for a virtual tour of it online, but couldn't find one, but if there was one I would post it. Haha sorry this entry must just seem like a big tease...
The Ramasseum was my last stop and then I went with Kaneawi to his village to see his house and his wife. He lived in a mudbrick house where some rooms had open roofs, while others were covered. It was along a small canal with a vast farm of the greenest land behind it. I don't see this kind of green in the United States ever...but I haven't really been to many farmlands throughout it either. He invited me in to have tea. He showed me around his home, showing me pictures from his wedding album. His wife had just finished making soup and it was offered to me. Now...this is where I started to go into a foreigner's dizzy. First of all, I'm a vegetarian...but I also know that turning down food would have been an extremely insulting gesture...or to even begin to complain or be picky about food in such a poor area of the world, and such a poor area of this country, would have been dispicable on my part, so meat or no meat, I was going to eat it. But, nonetheless, I do ask how its made...naturally, rural Egypt soup making is not done by purchasing stock at the store so the first answer I hear is, "Oh you boil the water...." Water Water, oh crap, I''m thinking. I remember earlier, kaneawi point out to me how they got their water, via a man and a donkey-pulled, wagon carrying a huge metal apparatus resembling a gas tank. Not to mention, there is not a single bottle of water in this home. At the dig site, all you see are boxes and boxes of bottled water...but of course, people cannot afford to use bottled water ( I probably couldn't either if the water wasn't safe for me in the U.S.!). And if you grew up on the local water, the bacteria is not a problem...however for me, and anyone else who doesn't live in Egypt, it would be, which is why when you travel to places like Egypt, or Mexico etc, you aren't supposed to drink the water. I had no idea what to do...do I turn down this soup, and the tea I know is to follow, because the water could make me really sick? Do I disrespect this man who has spent the entire day driving me around, talking with me, befriending me...Of course I know the answer...the answer is no. The answer is eat the soup, drink the tea, tell the story whether it turns out ugly or not. Well, I do try and leave as much of the water broth as I can, to which Kaneawi says, "Oh make sure you drink this part, it's the best." Bottoms up. I do it. I did it...and I'll let you know if I'm puking my brains out two days from now. Later when I came home and told Richard, he assured me that I would probably be fine and that I did the right thing.
Once we finished tea and talking, Kaneawi brought me back to the ferry and I sailed home. I took a shower, and then a much needed nap. Afterwards, i decided to walk to the store to get some pop/soda/coke. There were no cold ones, but the store merchant said he would get some, so i sat in the store and talked with some of the other men in there about my inability to speak arabic. I had them help me with pronounciation until he came back. At first he tried to scam me on the proper amount of change and I refused to leave the store until given what was owed to me. He finally did, and then I went back to the hotel and practiced more arabic with the hotel clerk.
Then i came up stairs and started writing! Now I am going to go get some dinner. Upon my return I will retry with the pictures.
A note to my family: not that I expect e-mails everyday or anything, but KEEP ME POSTED ON THINGS TOO. Ahem...me reading Janel's ambiguous away message about the hospital inspired an onslaught of fear and worry, and even though I know she's okay, that's not very fair! I want to know things that are happening there too...that goes with everyone. Let me know what is happening, AS IT HAPPENS, in your lives, back in the states.
(as always, i abstain from proofreading)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tuesday 2/26/08
So I definitely went from the girl who sleeps all day, to the girl that barely sleeps. Like clockwork, my body, unable to sleep through the night, wakes me up at around 2:30 a.m. despite any time that I fall asleep, and despite how much sleep I’ve managed to accumulate overall in the days before. My only explanation for this is that 2:30 a.m. Egypt time is around 7:30 p.m. U.S. time and my stomach is saying, “KELLY WAKE UP, it’s time for Aunt Marcia’s Dinner!” Only there is no Aunt Marcia’s dinner for me to eat at this odd hour. So instead I toss and turn. Monday I was unable to fall back asleep and therefore I wound up being awake from 2:30 a.m. all the way to 10:30 p.m. Four hours later I was awake again, quickly finding myself repeating the same pattern. Originally I thought going to bed too early was the culprit and that is why I stayed up until 10:30 even though I was really ready to sleep much earlier. Now that that does not seem to be the case, I will have to go to sleep earlier tomorrow and just accept and brave the late hour when it coaxes me again from my slumber. That being said, it is going on 2:00 p.m where which means I've been awake a good 12 hours now. It has been another wonderful day in Luxor. At 6:30 I went down for breakfast. After I was done eating I switched rooms again. Now I am actually staying in Mark Lenher's room. It is much bigger and the internet works from inside the room so I no longer have to sit in the hall way in order to use it. The only thing is that a lot of Mark's things are still in here and get worried that he is just going to show up in the middle of the night or something! I like it though. In this room are water steamer/boilers so I can make my own tea now if I wanted to. I was pretty much done moving around and ready for more touring of the city by 7:30. I began at Luxor Temple, which is really a 5 minute walk from the hotel. I spent about an hour and a half there taking pictures and going through with my guide book. Sometimes it is really great to have someone who knows a lot about sites and monuments and history go through and talk to you about everything you are seeing, but I enjoyed going solo as well. Everything was done at my own pace, I could look at the things that I found interesting and at no point was I zoning out. This book is absolutely excellent too. It divides the temple into various components, maps it out, labels it, and refers to the map when explaining significance and context, so I knew exactly where I was, what I was seeing and where I was going next. Once I finished at Luxor, I came back to my hotel, grabbed some more batteries for my camera, and went to the site at 10:00 for second breakfast. There I was hooked up with a driver to take me to Karnak Temple. Karnak took me a bit longer to get through, but it was stunning. It is much larger than Luxor Temple and there were times when I would be completely isolated, hidden away from anyone and I could have probably stayed there all day without a single person running into me..it's that huge and divded. Karnak really blew me away....it is like a huge monumental palimpsest. Seeing Luxor and Karnak on my own finally inspired me to learn to read hieroglyphs, something I never really was interested in before (haha when I told Richard his response was, "oh boy.."). I'm sorry I just can't stand to be looking at something andbe shrouded in mystery. Anyways, I am going to look into some books on that. After finishing Karnak Temple, I walked home...it's about a 2 mile walk from the hotel so not too bad. I get so excited now about the fact that I can do so much in Egypt on my own now. Last year I would have never felt safe enough or comfortable enough to go anywhere alone, and now I find myself independent on most occasions. I am still careful though. I always have my headscarf and I know this area really well now. I havent yet deal with arranging my own cab ride though...that will be quite the experience. I really appreciate how supportive Richard has been and how aware he is of when to guide me and help me out, and when to let me stand on my own....though I suppose it's a mentor's job to recognize and balance those kind of things.
Anyways, I am going to work on organizing the posts for the Luxor and Karnak trip. I took over 100 pictures today, so its going to take a bit to organize it all and to explain the images. 100 may seem a bit excessive, but i am going to be teaching one day and you never know what kind of stuff I'm going to need. For now, I am going to wash my face for the 3rd time, because I still seem dirty from the walk home, and read/nap...though napping is probably a bad idea if I was to try and overcome this 2:30 am business. Tomorrow it's back to the West Bank to see more of the Land of the Dead!
Anyways, I am going to work on organizing the posts for the Luxor and Karnak trip. I took over 100 pictures today, so its going to take a bit to organize it all and to explain the images. 100 may seem a bit excessive, but i am going to be teaching one day and you never know what kind of stuff I'm going to need. For now, I am going to wash my face for the 3rd time, because I still seem dirty from the walk home, and read/nap...though napping is probably a bad idea if I was to try and overcome this 2:30 am business. Tomorrow it's back to the West Bank to see more of the Land of the Dead!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday 2/25/08 West Bank Valley of the Kings
Today was hands down, the best day I have ever had in Egypt. Here was me at the beginning of the day ever so excited about my travels to the west bank!
Despite the fact that my wonky jet lag has had me up since 2:00 am, it has no bearing on how absolutely awesome today has been. Waking up at 2 did not thrill me by any means, but it also did not surprise me. I tried to fall back asleep for a while and then I just gave up. Quite randomly one of the movie channels was showing Halloween 2. I watched a little bit of that and did some reading. I’m nearly done with the Luxor Guide Book Richard got for me and I’m also finishing up Middlesex as my fiction fix, or fixion. That is all besides the point. Today I made it a point to wake up early and stay up! Even the staff has started calling me, “Girl who sleeps all day.” That’s pretty sad seeing as though the entire point of me being here is to see the sites. I mentioned yesterday that I was supposed to head over the the West Bank today with Mouhson, one of the excavators here. He was also going to see to it that I had a permission letter to get into the sites since my aniquities pass has not yet arrived. Unsure of what time that all would take place, I met Richard for breakfast at around 6:30 where I had coffee for the first time SINCE THURSDAY….rarely do I bust out the Jesus Christ…but Jesus Christ was that a beautiful thing…3 cups later and I was finally feeling fabulous and 100% Kelly. After breakfast, Richard gave me his cell phone so that Mouhson could call me when he was ready to go to the West Bank. So I stayed up the entire time only to wind up being too antsy by 10:00. At 10:00 I decided to walk to the office where the field school classes are taught to see if I could find Jessica, the osteologist specialist here whom is supposed to trade me my American cash for her Egyptian pounds. She wasn’t at her office so I walked with the librarian archivist, Mari back to the site to see what was going on with the West Bank excursion. When I get there Mouhson says that he is unsure if he can go anymore…which I had kind of figured at that point and in the event had already started replanning, thinking I would hit up Luxor Temple instead, it is afterall, a really close walk from the hotel. However, instead he tells me that the is going to have two of his friends drive me there and that they will take me to pick up a letter from the director to ensure that I get into all of the King’s Tombs in the Valley of the Kings for free. I look over at these men, both complete strangers to me. I had that nervous unease start to radiate from the pit of my stomach. He explains everything to me again, these men work on a site in the Valley of the Kings…they will drive me there, show me where they are working, get me my letter, and then I can walk around on my own…once I am done, I go back to their site and find them and they will take me home. I wont lie, I was not 100% comfortable with doing this. The men seemed to speak very little English, and if anything happened I did not have a phone, or a good understanding of the area I was going to, and again that ugly language barrier never makes any situation seem like a good one. However, I know that my team would never put me in harms way, so I got into the car. This was a pretty long car ride which took us deep into the small Luxor villages. One guy turns to me and says, “These are the local roads, not the main roads.” This begins what will continue throughout the rest of the day an onslaught of sarcasm, banter, and inside jokes. I respond with something along the lines of, “Oh you don’t say…not the main roads eh?” He laughs. I start asking questions since talking to him makes me feel more comfortable about the car ride. Later, he points to this building and says, “That is Carter’s House” (Carter is the archaeologist who discovered Tut’s Tomb). Pretending not to have heard what he said I say, “Ohh that’s YOUR house, how fancy.” We get closer and closer to the Mountaineous landscape beyond which lies the hidden tombs of New Kingdom Pharaohs known as the Valley of the Kings. By this time in Egyptian chronology, pharaohs no longer bury themselves in Pyramids. Pyramids, despite having many trick passage ways and chambers, continued to be unsuccessful in guarding the sarcophagus, mummy, and treasures of the dead kings. Preservation and protection of these things were essential to the maitenance of a life after death and so new tactics were adopted. The Moutain Peaks, still resembling the pyramid, and the primordial mound of creation, became symbolic aspects of the landscape that the kings could utilize for their tombs, however instead of being buried within huge mortuary constructions like pyramids, they would have their tombs cut into the rocks and hidden within the Valley. The pictures really do not do justice at all…even I, someone who has been studying Egypt for a bit, and even took a class just last semester, had no idea what to expect when my journey began.
Sure enough once we got in, winding through and through the steep limestone cliffs, they brought me to the site they were excavating. I was introduced to another man whose name I can pronounce but will probably make a fool of myself if I try and spell it (phonetically it's Al fifi). From what I gathered he was leading the excavations on the site but I am not allowed to discuss any of the things he told me. It was great though, he brought me up where no tourists are allowed to go explaining to me all of his ideas and why they chose to excavate there, what they are finding and I was able to have a dialogue with him about it, and ask him questions. After that convened, he introduced me to the director who woud give me the permission I needed to enter the various tombs (to enter tut’s tomb alone is 40 dollars/80 pounds). All that coffee this morning must have really put my on my game because I seemed to be hitting it off with everyone. I nearly felt like an archaeological celebrity, getting to walk around with the people who worked there, given personal tours of the tombs, and all while laughing and having a great time. I mean, yeah I went into Tut’s tomb, I saw king tut’s mummy, I went into Tutmose III tomb, probably one of the most successful military leaders within Pharaonic Egypt, and I went into Ramses the VI tomb (but even I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside so anything interior I stole from google- and so can you! ahh nevermind it's taking to long to load)…but nothing could really compare with the experience of talking to Egyptians, about their own history and being apart of their cohort in a way that we could make fun of other tourist and other americans haha! I didn’t even care about seeing the rest of the tombs, I just wanted to hang out. But I did learn an incredible amount, beyond what I had read and been taught so far. In Tut III tomb, you could see the grid that would be laid out before the inscriptions of heiroglyphs were placed. Most of the time though, as soon as I was being told something, I was finishing the sentences (both correctly and incorrectly that is). Upon leaving, the guy who had been taking me in everywhere says, “I didn’t get her to say ‘Wow’ not even once!” It’s kind of like playing hard to get…the less impressed I seemed, the more impressed they seemed! Eventually it was time to return to the East side. By the way, that the kings were buried on the West bank of the Nile is not an accident. The west is considered the land of the dead. Since much of Egyptian mythology follows the sun, Amun being the Sun god, fertility, birth, and renewal are associated with the east since that is where the sun rises, and the west is associated with death and the setting sun. Instead of driving all the way back, we were dropped off at the ferry and just took a straight shot across the Nile back to the East side, side of the living, where my hotel is, where the site is, and where Luxor and Karnak Temple are. Here are pictures of the from the Nile Ferry Ride. You can just barely see the Mountains outlined.
I went to the site after my trip was over, ate some lunch and talked some more to Mouhson (again I’m pretty sure I’m spelling this wrong, but that’s better than what I originally thought…I originally thought they were calling him Molsen, which strikes my memory as a type of beer, which also may be spelled differently). He said he may be able to set me up to talk to yet another person from UCLA, which would be so so awesome. I just sat back and turned to him and said, “You know, you just met me yesterday, and you’ve already done so much for me (arranging my trip to the Valley of the Kings, getting me a permission letter to the sites, UCLA, also seeing if we could get my room changed so that I could have a better view)…his response was, “You don’t meet people everyday that are this passionate about this kind of work.” I hope I never take for granted what it means to love what you get to do.
To top things off, I came back to my room and this is what the housekeeping women had done:
The past two days I have been not letting them clean my room because I’ve been sleeping when they came by…finally today I let them have at it, and they made me a swan out of my blanket haha and a flower out of my towel, leaving other flowers on my bed.
Tomorrow is Tuesday! I am going to wake up bright an early and go visit Luxor Temple. Afterwards, I will make my way down to Karnak. Wednesday or Thursday, I will return to the West Bank and see more things that I was unable to see (Deir el Bahri, Queen Hatepshuts Mortuary Temple, Tombs of the Nobles etc). Then Friday I head back to Giza! I am so excited to begin excavating. It is a really weird thing…I love archaeology, I love my work, I love my research, but at the same time…all throughout I have had this HUGE piece of it missing…that being I was completely unaware and unfamiliar with the methods and techniques that give rise to archaeology in the first place…mapping, surveying, digging, flotation, identifying features and I’m sure those are only the token words that I know right now…the adventure’s only beginning…these shoes are still too clean for this nomad’s liking.
Despite the fact that my wonky jet lag has had me up since 2:00 am, it has no bearing on how absolutely awesome today has been. Waking up at 2 did not thrill me by any means, but it also did not surprise me. I tried to fall back asleep for a while and then I just gave up. Quite randomly one of the movie channels was showing Halloween 2. I watched a little bit of that and did some reading. I’m nearly done with the Luxor Guide Book Richard got for me and I’m also finishing up Middlesex as my fiction fix, or fixion. That is all besides the point. Today I made it a point to wake up early and stay up! Even the staff has started calling me, “Girl who sleeps all day.” That’s pretty sad seeing as though the entire point of me being here is to see the sites. I mentioned yesterday that I was supposed to head over the the West Bank today with Mouhson, one of the excavators here. He was also going to see to it that I had a permission letter to get into the sites since my aniquities pass has not yet arrived. Unsure of what time that all would take place, I met Richard for breakfast at around 6:30 where I had coffee for the first time SINCE THURSDAY….rarely do I bust out the Jesus Christ…but Jesus Christ was that a beautiful thing…3 cups later and I was finally feeling fabulous and 100% Kelly. After breakfast, Richard gave me his cell phone so that Mouhson could call me when he was ready to go to the West Bank. So I stayed up the entire time only to wind up being too antsy by 10:00. At 10:00 I decided to walk to the office where the field school classes are taught to see if I could find Jessica, the osteologist specialist here whom is supposed to trade me my American cash for her Egyptian pounds. She wasn’t at her office so I walked with the librarian archivist, Mari back to the site to see what was going on with the West Bank excursion. When I get there Mouhson says that he is unsure if he can go anymore…which I had kind of figured at that point and in the event had already started replanning, thinking I would hit up Luxor Temple instead, it is afterall, a really close walk from the hotel. However, instead he tells me that the is going to have two of his friends drive me there and that they will take me to pick up a letter from the director to ensure that I get into all of the King’s Tombs in the Valley of the Kings for free. I look over at these men, both complete strangers to me. I had that nervous unease start to radiate from the pit of my stomach. He explains everything to me again, these men work on a site in the Valley of the Kings…they will drive me there, show me where they are working, get me my letter, and then I can walk around on my own…once I am done, I go back to their site and find them and they will take me home. I wont lie, I was not 100% comfortable with doing this. The men seemed to speak very little English, and if anything happened I did not have a phone, or a good understanding of the area I was going to, and again that ugly language barrier never makes any situation seem like a good one. However, I know that my team would never put me in harms way, so I got into the car. This was a pretty long car ride which took us deep into the small Luxor villages. One guy turns to me and says, “These are the local roads, not the main roads.” This begins what will continue throughout the rest of the day an onslaught of sarcasm, banter, and inside jokes. I respond with something along the lines of, “Oh you don’t say…not the main roads eh?” He laughs. I start asking questions since talking to him makes me feel more comfortable about the car ride. Later, he points to this building and says, “That is Carter’s House” (Carter is the archaeologist who discovered Tut’s Tomb). Pretending not to have heard what he said I say, “Ohh that’s YOUR house, how fancy.” We get closer and closer to the Mountaineous landscape beyond which lies the hidden tombs of New Kingdom Pharaohs known as the Valley of the Kings. By this time in Egyptian chronology, pharaohs no longer bury themselves in Pyramids. Pyramids, despite having many trick passage ways and chambers, continued to be unsuccessful in guarding the sarcophagus, mummy, and treasures of the dead kings. Preservation and protection of these things were essential to the maitenance of a life after death and so new tactics were adopted. The Moutain Peaks, still resembling the pyramid, and the primordial mound of creation, became symbolic aspects of the landscape that the kings could utilize for their tombs, however instead of being buried within huge mortuary constructions like pyramids, they would have their tombs cut into the rocks and hidden within the Valley. The pictures really do not do justice at all…even I, someone who has been studying Egypt for a bit, and even took a class just last semester, had no idea what to expect when my journey began.
Sure enough once we got in, winding through and through the steep limestone cliffs, they brought me to the site they were excavating. I was introduced to another man whose name I can pronounce but will probably make a fool of myself if I try and spell it (phonetically it's Al fifi). From what I gathered he was leading the excavations on the site but I am not allowed to discuss any of the things he told me. It was great though, he brought me up where no tourists are allowed to go explaining to me all of his ideas and why they chose to excavate there, what they are finding and I was able to have a dialogue with him about it, and ask him questions. After that convened, he introduced me to the director who woud give me the permission I needed to enter the various tombs (to enter tut’s tomb alone is 40 dollars/80 pounds). All that coffee this morning must have really put my on my game because I seemed to be hitting it off with everyone. I nearly felt like an archaeological celebrity, getting to walk around with the people who worked there, given personal tours of the tombs, and all while laughing and having a great time. I mean, yeah I went into Tut’s tomb, I saw king tut’s mummy, I went into Tutmose III tomb, probably one of the most successful military leaders within Pharaonic Egypt, and I went into Ramses the VI tomb (but even I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside so anything interior I stole from google- and so can you! ahh nevermind it's taking to long to load)…but nothing could really compare with the experience of talking to Egyptians, about their own history and being apart of their cohort in a way that we could make fun of other tourist and other americans haha! I didn’t even care about seeing the rest of the tombs, I just wanted to hang out. But I did learn an incredible amount, beyond what I had read and been taught so far. In Tut III tomb, you could see the grid that would be laid out before the inscriptions of heiroglyphs were placed. Most of the time though, as soon as I was being told something, I was finishing the sentences (both correctly and incorrectly that is). Upon leaving, the guy who had been taking me in everywhere says, “I didn’t get her to say ‘Wow’ not even once!” It’s kind of like playing hard to get…the less impressed I seemed, the more impressed they seemed! Eventually it was time to return to the East side. By the way, that the kings were buried on the West bank of the Nile is not an accident. The west is considered the land of the dead. Since much of Egyptian mythology follows the sun, Amun being the Sun god, fertility, birth, and renewal are associated with the east since that is where the sun rises, and the west is associated with death and the setting sun. Instead of driving all the way back, we were dropped off at the ferry and just took a straight shot across the Nile back to the East side, side of the living, where my hotel is, where the site is, and where Luxor and Karnak Temple are. Here are pictures of the from the Nile Ferry Ride. You can just barely see the Mountains outlined.
I went to the site after my trip was over, ate some lunch and talked some more to Mouhson (again I’m pretty sure I’m spelling this wrong, but that’s better than what I originally thought…I originally thought they were calling him Molsen, which strikes my memory as a type of beer, which also may be spelled differently). He said he may be able to set me up to talk to yet another person from UCLA, which would be so so awesome. I just sat back and turned to him and said, “You know, you just met me yesterday, and you’ve already done so much for me (arranging my trip to the Valley of the Kings, getting me a permission letter to the sites, UCLA, also seeing if we could get my room changed so that I could have a better view)…his response was, “You don’t meet people everyday that are this passionate about this kind of work.” I hope I never take for granted what it means to love what you get to do.
To top things off, I came back to my room and this is what the housekeeping women had done:
The past two days I have been not letting them clean my room because I’ve been sleeping when they came by…finally today I let them have at it, and they made me a swan out of my blanket haha and a flower out of my towel, leaving other flowers on my bed.
Tomorrow is Tuesday! I am going to wake up bright an early and go visit Luxor Temple. Afterwards, I will make my way down to Karnak. Wednesday or Thursday, I will return to the West Bank and see more things that I was unable to see (Deir el Bahri, Queen Hatepshuts Mortuary Temple, Tombs of the Nobles etc). Then Friday I head back to Giza! I am so excited to begin excavating. It is a really weird thing…I love archaeology, I love my work, I love my research, but at the same time…all throughout I have had this HUGE piece of it missing…that being I was completely unaware and unfamiliar with the methods and techniques that give rise to archaeology in the first place…mapping, surveying, digging, flotation, identifying features and I’m sure those are only the token words that I know right now…the adventure’s only beginning…these shoes are still too clean for this nomad’s liking.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sunday Night 2/24/08
Today was rough to say the least. I was pretty set on waking up early, catching breakfast, and heading over to Luxor Temple. Richard says that Luxor Temple is best seen in the morning as the sun comes over it. I spent last night reading my guide book and was ready to spend the day getting lost in the art and architecture of Egyptian History. However when I woke up this morning I felt absolutely awful. I was naseous and weak, every limb felt heavy. As miserable as I was, I was convinced that getting some food in my stomach would help, so I went downstairs to grab breakfast. My hands were shaking as I tried to spread jam on my bread. I took little bites of anything I thought would make me feel better. I was upset to waste food, but I just had to go back to my room and lay down. I downed a bottle of water and laid in my bed surrounded by 3 others simply so I could cool off. Sickness, of which I wont detail, ensued, and I spent the rest of the day in bed, waking up on the hour to head back to the bathroom and be more unhappy. Finally at around 2:30 I felt a lot better and took a bath. I have felt fine since…I don’t know if it was dehydration, exhaustion, or mild food poisoning…either way it seems to have passed and I am happy about that. We’ll see how dinner goes tonight though. Last night Richard and I ate at this restaurant called Oasis. I had a sandwhich with grilled egglplant and green pepper. Tonight, Richard, Mary Ann, a friend of Mary Ann’s and I are going to eat at an Italian restaurant. My antiquities pass still isn’t in and I am in the process of getting more money changed over to Egyptian pounds so that I can do more site seeing on my own. However, tomorrow I am going to go to the West Bank Necropolis with one of the Egyptian Team Members, so I am stoked about that. The West Bank is home of the Valley of the Kings, tombs for the New Kingdom Pharaohs, as well as Deir el Bahri which has Queen Hatepshets phenomenal mortuary temple. I will take plenty of pictures.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
After some technical difficulties....
Sorry for the delay in postings. The internet in Luxor is not very good and doesn't work in my room at all. Right now I am sitting in the hallway of my hotel on the opposite end of the building from where I am staying. I have been writing regularly though so, soon enough you all will get a recap on how the past few days of traveling hiatus have been. Obviously I managed to get myself from Detroit to Luxor, with only a few major bumps in the...road? sky? frogger like sidewalk? I did have quite the nightmare when at Cairo Airport waiting for my next flight out to Luxor (the man who met me there escorted me to the wrong terminal and then I was basically trapped since if I decided to leave the area I was, the security said they would not let me back into the airport). I have basically spent the last 2 days sleeping. Last year, since I overnighted in Zurich, the travel did not take as much out of me and I was ready to work once I got into Cairo...this time, days went by before sleeping through a night was an option. To say that I have been exhausted is the understatement of the century.
Friday Morning: 2/22/08
I am writing this initial entry from the Cairo Airport. My flight got in at 2:15 a.m. from Amsterdam, however, my flight to Luxor is not until 7:00 a.m. I had originally booked the 7 a.m. flight just incase my flight out of Amsterdam was delayed…it seemed the perfect option to avoid running around like a crazy woman in a foreign country looking for my next terminal. So here I am at 3:00 a.m. the only person in the entire terminal with the exception of some security guards who cannot speak any english, except to tell me I have pretty eyes. When I try asking questions they smile and shake their heads, but go on and on about my eyes…it is oh so helpful. At least they are friendly. They all seemed to find it HILARIOUS that I am here so early. But before I talk more about my adventures so far alone in Cairo, let’s backtrack a few days (man is my perception of time completely warped as of right now).
I left Detroit a little after 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night. The flight was wonderful…I was so exhausted that I didn’t even stay awake long enough for take off. As the plane ascended into a night adorned with a lunar eclipse, I lay asleep. I slept for most of the flight surprisingly which made it seem quick. I would wake up here and there and talk to the woman next to me. She was a physician. Upon finding this out I immediately thought about how pleased my aunts would be knowing that I was just about as safe as I could be for that flight. The woman was originally from India, though now she lives in Memphis. She was flying to India to visit her mother whom is currently ill and in the hospital. Naturally, we talked about how I will be flying out there come september as well. The most entertaining anecdote from my exchanges with her happened when the dinner cart came:
Flight Attendant: “Vegeteable Curry or Chicken” (repeats to each passenger)
Physician (to me): “But what is the curry?”
Me (utterly perplexed): “I’m sorry what?”
Physician: “He keeps saying curry, but what is it?”
Me: “…oh… the vegetarian entrée?”
Physician: “Yeah..I hear the vegetarian option, and the Chicken…but what is the curry?”
Me: “Curry…it is a spice….”
Physician: “OHHH the vegetable curry is one option…I thought there were three…Vegetable, Curry, or Chicken..but didn’t know what was supposed to be curry.”
Me: “Oh thank God…I don’t mean to be presumptuous or naïve, but I was pretty dumbfounded because I thought you were asking me what curry was…”
Physician (errupts in laughter): “Oh yes it would definitely be backwards if I was the one asking you what curry was.”
It may not seem as funny in blog format…but the idea of an Indian Woman, who was raised in India, has all of her family living in India, was asking me what curry was…it had me and her laughing pretty hard to say the least.
Like I said I slept throughout most of the flight. Last year I was completely dependent updon watching movies back to back to kill the time…this year I only watched one, Michael Clayton, and it was a very fragmented viewing since I kept falling asleep and rewinding.
So after sleeping some more I finally arrived in Amsterdam where I was met by Frank, the boyfriend of one Mary Casey, whom I met on New Years. Frank was dead set on giving me the Sparknotes cultural experience of the Dutch beginning with breakfast. After a train ride- which I sneakily boarded without a ticket and didn’t get caught- some amtraking and some walking, we stopped at a market near his apartment to pick up some dutch breakfast essentials. We then went back to his apartment and made the food. We had fruit salad (raspberries, bananas, and oranges), juice, coffee…pretty standard. But then we also had this little mini toastish/biscuity things with jam. But that by no means compared to the next two items. Apparently the Dutch really enjoy putting chocolate sprinkles on bread…they butter the bread, add the sprinkles and enjoy….and it isn’t just a matter of being crafty with sprinkles and bread, the sprinkles are actually advertised for the sole purpose of putting them on your bread in the morning
…it was pretty sweet for breakfast I thought, but it was actually kind of an interesting texture- the soft bread and the sprinkles…I don’t like butter though so I had an interesting time trying to eat and not make a mess as all of the sprinkles fell off. After that we had these other popular breakfast treats. It is two small waffle cracker/cookies with a sugary, syrup/caramel in the center. You put them in them in the microwave. They were REALLY sweet but pretty good.
After breakfast, Frank let me take a shower in what has to be the world’s smallest bathroom….I barely had enough room to get clothes back on after I was done, however, beggars can’t be choosers and I was damn glad to have a shower. We then left so that I could see some of the fun things Amsterdam has to offer (I’ll spare any build up, no I did not go into any of the “café’s” I kept this a pretty PG visit. We did visit the Anne Frank House though. We were able to walk through it and everything, walking behind the bookcase that hid the only entrance way into the area that house Anne Frank and her Family. After that we walked through some of the really expensive shopping areas of Amsterdam. I took some pictures because I really enjoyed the archtecture.
What isn’t to love about a quaint and cozy downtown with that classical/gothic character to it…inviting and welcoming…but low and behold don’t get all warm and fuzzy yet…lurking in the center of Amsterdam is none other than Death Itself…Double Death to be exact. I didn’t really figure it out, but for whatever reason, two individuals dressed as the grim reaper were collecting donations or something…what a pitch, “Donate to this cancer fundraiser so that we don’t have to go collect the dead children…” I don’t know if that was what was really going on.
I also took a picture of this man and his music box. The cane makes me think he’s blind, but my cynicism (read: intelligence) makes me think he’s not actually.
After some of my picture taking in the downtown area, Frank and I went to the Van Goh Museum, which was totally kickass even if I was verging on incoherence from jet lag. It was decided that afterwards, I could probably use nap. So nap I did, for 3 hours. When I woke up, Frank and his roommate had made dinner, a spinach pasta. When dinner was done, it was time to return to the airport and prepare for my flight into Cairo, of course not without having one more cup of European coffee.
Again, the flight was pretty speedy and easy. I slept a lot again, this time watching Atonement. I arrived to a much calmer Cairo compared to last year (which makes sense since I was getting in at 2:15 in the morning). As soon as I walked in from the shuttle bus, I saw a man holding a big sign for me. He told me exactly how to do everything, how to get my visa, where to get my luggage etc. It was kind of hard for me to understand his English, but when I told him how excited I was to be here he replied, “You have no idea what an honor it is to hear you say that.” All did not follow smoothly however. While I was most pleased with the fact that he got me through customs VERY quickly and painlessly, he was also supposed to walk me directly to the terminal for my next flight to Luxor…well he certainly walked me somewhere…and after standing in a long line for the security check in, I was told that I was at the wrong terminal, and that I had to go next door. So I did…and when I tried asking if I was in the right place, this is when I was told “No English- but those eyes, Beautiful!” So I show the guys my itenerary to see if they have any idea what’s going on (I’ve learned that most Egyptians really have no idea what is ever going on). Again they shake their heads, apologize, but then say I have pretty eyes. Finally I find someone with infromation and he basically starts freaking out, shouting in arabic about the fact that I’m so early (I’m sorry?) They agree to let me come in anyway, but tell me that I am not allowed to leave once I come in…seemed simple enough because I assumed this terminal would be connected to the rest of the airpoty (it isn’t). So here I am, in cairo airport, FREEZING. It’s only 40 degrees outside right now and whereever I am, there are open doors (despite the fact that I’m forbidden from walking out of them). I am sitting at a café…but I can’t tell if it’s open or not…a nice hot coffee would definitely be ideal right now….but I don’t know…I get the feeling if I try to ask for coffee or if the stand is open (there is a guy sitting there, but there are no lights on) there is just going to be some language barrier that will frustrate me futher. Ugh only, 4:15, still 3 hours until my flight!
Friday Night 2/22/08
Well…eventually I wound up in the right place at the right time in Cairo in order to board my flight to Luxor…I was getting pretty nervous for a bit there. I think I held it together quite well seeing as though at that point I had not had a night’s sleep in a bed since Monday evening, I was alone in a foreign country, at the wrong airport terminal, surrounded by people who did not know any English. I figured things out eventally…Check In for Egyptair was a nightmare. I was fairly certain my luggage was not going to make it to luxor. I stood in this line preparing to check my suitcase. In theory it should have been a a quick line to stand in…but sure enough for every ONE person that was in front of me, moments later, their family of 15 would come and meet them in line (hence cut in front of me) with each individual having their own bags to check…I was getting frustrated until I reminded my self that with all of these people I was just going to be waiting around somewhere until 7 anyways…doesn’t really matter if I was waiting in the luggage check in line for a long time. I got through that chaos and by 8 am I was in Luxor. I was met by Richard, and he brought me back to our hotel where I checked in. Luckily, Richard had things he had to do all day and I just got to do whatever I wanted. Now, as I said…I’m getting into luxor 8 am Friday my time, which is about 1 am Friday in Detroit and this all considering the fact that the last time I slept through the night was on Monday (and even then I’m pretty sure I only slept for around 4 hours since I know I got up that day to drive my aunt to work and use her car to run errands). So we might as well say that the last time I slept beyond a nap frame of time was Sunday Night. But I had slept a lot on my various flights and even took a 3 hour nap at Frank’s in Amsterdam, so while I was definitely tired when I got into my hotel room, I thought I would sleep for 2, maybe 3 hours tops. Richard said lunch was at noon and there was a reception party everyone was going to at 5:00. I start to get ready for my sleep…I go to pee and then when I flush…the flusher gets stuck and as a result, just never stops flushing….beautiful. I am exhausted, verging on incoherent and now I am living with the forever running toilet. Obviously this would not do, so I had to have my room changed. No problem I get settled in room 2 and I fall asleep at 9:00. I don’t bother to set my alarm because I am certain I wont sleep more than a few hours since it is the middle of the day….foolish me, I fell asleep at 9:00 only to wake up to my phone ringing at 4:00. It was Richard calling to let me know that we were meeting for the reception at 6:00 instead of 5:00. I could not believe I had slept all day. At that point I got up to take a shower. Now, for whatever reason there is no shower curtain, but at this point I just don’t care…fine, the bathroom can fucking flood for all I care…I go to start my shower and of course something breaks and the showerhead wont turn on…I’m not about to stop everything I’m doing just to change rooms again, or ask for help from the staff and be nodded and smiled at, so I just take a bath- probably the more relaxing way to go anyways. I took my shower, I got ready, met the crew at 6:15 and then we went to this rooftop party downtown.
I mingled and got to know everyone else currently working in Luxor. At around 10, I walked home with two other girls, came home and fell asleep until 3:00 am.
And that brings us to today/tonight
So i woke up at 3:00 a.m. fell back asleep by 6:00 a.m and then woke up at 1:30 p.m. At this point I decided to get up and shower. Unlike last time, a timid girl likely to opt for hanging out in my room until people from the project were back, I decided that I was not just going to sit in my room waiting around. I decided to walk around the city a bit. Luxor is a wee bit calmer than Cairo, obviously its not nearly as densly populated, but it is pretty similar...everyone asking you to shop in their bazaar or get in their taxi, or carriage...everyone asking you to give them money more or less. After walking around I ran into mary ann, recall that I worked with her last year, she is the ethnobotanist. She was taking some students to the office to look at some charred plant remains under a microscope. I tagged along and afterwards found Richard in the hotel lobby. We agreed to meet up in a little bit and he took me around Luxor, showing me where Luxor temple, the winter palace, and karnak temple were. He bought me an excellent guide book on luxor for me to use. I am waiting on my antiquities pass (the neatness that allows me to get into every site for free) before I explore the monuments around here. I will take plenty of pictures and provide ample explanations for those interested. Hopefully Monday, I can go off to Luxor temple on my own, as well to karnak temple (about a 2 mile walk) and then on Tuesday or Wednesday, Richard will go with me to the West bank and to see the Valley of the Kings and der el Bahri. If i get bored enough tomorrow, i will take pictures of my hotel room and talk about that for a bit so that you can get the full experience of my stay. I'm only here until Friday evening and then I head back to Giza. I thought I started working that following Saturday, but I will actually have Saturday off and will begin work on Sunday March 1st.
There...plenty of reading material for you all. Ma salama!
Friday Morning: 2/22/08
I am writing this initial entry from the Cairo Airport. My flight got in at 2:15 a.m. from Amsterdam, however, my flight to Luxor is not until 7:00 a.m. I had originally booked the 7 a.m. flight just incase my flight out of Amsterdam was delayed…it seemed the perfect option to avoid running around like a crazy woman in a foreign country looking for my next terminal. So here I am at 3:00 a.m. the only person in the entire terminal with the exception of some security guards who cannot speak any english, except to tell me I have pretty eyes. When I try asking questions they smile and shake their heads, but go on and on about my eyes…it is oh so helpful. At least they are friendly. They all seemed to find it HILARIOUS that I am here so early. But before I talk more about my adventures so far alone in Cairo, let’s backtrack a few days (man is my perception of time completely warped as of right now).
I left Detroit a little after 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night. The flight was wonderful…I was so exhausted that I didn’t even stay awake long enough for take off. As the plane ascended into a night adorned with a lunar eclipse, I lay asleep. I slept for most of the flight surprisingly which made it seem quick. I would wake up here and there and talk to the woman next to me. She was a physician. Upon finding this out I immediately thought about how pleased my aunts would be knowing that I was just about as safe as I could be for that flight. The woman was originally from India, though now she lives in Memphis. She was flying to India to visit her mother whom is currently ill and in the hospital. Naturally, we talked about how I will be flying out there come september as well. The most entertaining anecdote from my exchanges with her happened when the dinner cart came:
Flight Attendant: “Vegeteable Curry or Chicken” (repeats to each passenger)
Physician (to me): “But what is the curry?”
Me (utterly perplexed): “I’m sorry what?”
Physician: “He keeps saying curry, but what is it?”
Me: “…oh… the vegetarian entrée?”
Physician: “Yeah..I hear the vegetarian option, and the Chicken…but what is the curry?”
Me: “Curry…it is a spice….”
Physician: “OHHH the vegetable curry is one option…I thought there were three…Vegetable, Curry, or Chicken..but didn’t know what was supposed to be curry.”
Me: “Oh thank God…I don’t mean to be presumptuous or naïve, but I was pretty dumbfounded because I thought you were asking me what curry was…”
Physician (errupts in laughter): “Oh yes it would definitely be backwards if I was the one asking you what curry was.”
It may not seem as funny in blog format…but the idea of an Indian Woman, who was raised in India, has all of her family living in India, was asking me what curry was…it had me and her laughing pretty hard to say the least.
Like I said I slept throughout most of the flight. Last year I was completely dependent updon watching movies back to back to kill the time…this year I only watched one, Michael Clayton, and it was a very fragmented viewing since I kept falling asleep and rewinding.
So after sleeping some more I finally arrived in Amsterdam where I was met by Frank, the boyfriend of one Mary Casey, whom I met on New Years. Frank was dead set on giving me the Sparknotes cultural experience of the Dutch beginning with breakfast. After a train ride- which I sneakily boarded without a ticket and didn’t get caught- some amtraking and some walking, we stopped at a market near his apartment to pick up some dutch breakfast essentials. We then went back to his apartment and made the food. We had fruit salad (raspberries, bananas, and oranges), juice, coffee…pretty standard. But then we also had this little mini toastish/biscuity things with jam. But that by no means compared to the next two items. Apparently the Dutch really enjoy putting chocolate sprinkles on bread…they butter the bread, add the sprinkles and enjoy….and it isn’t just a matter of being crafty with sprinkles and bread, the sprinkles are actually advertised for the sole purpose of putting them on your bread in the morning
…it was pretty sweet for breakfast I thought, but it was actually kind of an interesting texture- the soft bread and the sprinkles…I don’t like butter though so I had an interesting time trying to eat and not make a mess as all of the sprinkles fell off. After that we had these other popular breakfast treats. It is two small waffle cracker/cookies with a sugary, syrup/caramel in the center. You put them in them in the microwave. They were REALLY sweet but pretty good.
After breakfast, Frank let me take a shower in what has to be the world’s smallest bathroom….I barely had enough room to get clothes back on after I was done, however, beggars can’t be choosers and I was damn glad to have a shower. We then left so that I could see some of the fun things Amsterdam has to offer (I’ll spare any build up, no I did not go into any of the “café’s” I kept this a pretty PG visit. We did visit the Anne Frank House though. We were able to walk through it and everything, walking behind the bookcase that hid the only entrance way into the area that house Anne Frank and her Family. After that we walked through some of the really expensive shopping areas of Amsterdam. I took some pictures because I really enjoyed the archtecture.
What isn’t to love about a quaint and cozy downtown with that classical/gothic character to it…inviting and welcoming…but low and behold don’t get all warm and fuzzy yet…lurking in the center of Amsterdam is none other than Death Itself…Double Death to be exact. I didn’t really figure it out, but for whatever reason, two individuals dressed as the grim reaper were collecting donations or something…what a pitch, “Donate to this cancer fundraiser so that we don’t have to go collect the dead children…” I don’t know if that was what was really going on.
I also took a picture of this man and his music box. The cane makes me think he’s blind, but my cynicism (read: intelligence) makes me think he’s not actually.
After some of my picture taking in the downtown area, Frank and I went to the Van Goh Museum, which was totally kickass even if I was verging on incoherence from jet lag. It was decided that afterwards, I could probably use nap. So nap I did, for 3 hours. When I woke up, Frank and his roommate had made dinner, a spinach pasta. When dinner was done, it was time to return to the airport and prepare for my flight into Cairo, of course not without having one more cup of European coffee.
Again, the flight was pretty speedy and easy. I slept a lot again, this time watching Atonement. I arrived to a much calmer Cairo compared to last year (which makes sense since I was getting in at 2:15 in the morning). As soon as I walked in from the shuttle bus, I saw a man holding a big sign for me. He told me exactly how to do everything, how to get my visa, where to get my luggage etc. It was kind of hard for me to understand his English, but when I told him how excited I was to be here he replied, “You have no idea what an honor it is to hear you say that.” All did not follow smoothly however. While I was most pleased with the fact that he got me through customs VERY quickly and painlessly, he was also supposed to walk me directly to the terminal for my next flight to Luxor…well he certainly walked me somewhere…and after standing in a long line for the security check in, I was told that I was at the wrong terminal, and that I had to go next door. So I did…and when I tried asking if I was in the right place, this is when I was told “No English- but those eyes, Beautiful!” So I show the guys my itenerary to see if they have any idea what’s going on (I’ve learned that most Egyptians really have no idea what is ever going on). Again they shake their heads, apologize, but then say I have pretty eyes. Finally I find someone with infromation and he basically starts freaking out, shouting in arabic about the fact that I’m so early (I’m sorry?) They agree to let me come in anyway, but tell me that I am not allowed to leave once I come in…seemed simple enough because I assumed this terminal would be connected to the rest of the airpoty (it isn’t). So here I am, in cairo airport, FREEZING. It’s only 40 degrees outside right now and whereever I am, there are open doors (despite the fact that I’m forbidden from walking out of them). I am sitting at a café…but I can’t tell if it’s open or not…a nice hot coffee would definitely be ideal right now….but I don’t know…I get the feeling if I try to ask for coffee or if the stand is open (there is a guy sitting there, but there are no lights on) there is just going to be some language barrier that will frustrate me futher. Ugh only, 4:15, still 3 hours until my flight!
Friday Night 2/22/08
Well…eventually I wound up in the right place at the right time in Cairo in order to board my flight to Luxor…I was getting pretty nervous for a bit there. I think I held it together quite well seeing as though at that point I had not had a night’s sleep in a bed since Monday evening, I was alone in a foreign country, at the wrong airport terminal, surrounded by people who did not know any English. I figured things out eventally…Check In for Egyptair was a nightmare. I was fairly certain my luggage was not going to make it to luxor. I stood in this line preparing to check my suitcase. In theory it should have been a a quick line to stand in…but sure enough for every ONE person that was in front of me, moments later, their family of 15 would come and meet them in line (hence cut in front of me) with each individual having their own bags to check…I was getting frustrated until I reminded my self that with all of these people I was just going to be waiting around somewhere until 7 anyways…doesn’t really matter if I was waiting in the luggage check in line for a long time. I got through that chaos and by 8 am I was in Luxor. I was met by Richard, and he brought me back to our hotel where I checked in. Luckily, Richard had things he had to do all day and I just got to do whatever I wanted. Now, as I said…I’m getting into luxor 8 am Friday my time, which is about 1 am Friday in Detroit and this all considering the fact that the last time I slept through the night was on Monday (and even then I’m pretty sure I only slept for around 4 hours since I know I got up that day to drive my aunt to work and use her car to run errands). So we might as well say that the last time I slept beyond a nap frame of time was Sunday Night. But I had slept a lot on my various flights and even took a 3 hour nap at Frank’s in Amsterdam, so while I was definitely tired when I got into my hotel room, I thought I would sleep for 2, maybe 3 hours tops. Richard said lunch was at noon and there was a reception party everyone was going to at 5:00. I start to get ready for my sleep…I go to pee and then when I flush…the flusher gets stuck and as a result, just never stops flushing….beautiful. I am exhausted, verging on incoherent and now I am living with the forever running toilet. Obviously this would not do, so I had to have my room changed. No problem I get settled in room 2 and I fall asleep at 9:00. I don’t bother to set my alarm because I am certain I wont sleep more than a few hours since it is the middle of the day….foolish me, I fell asleep at 9:00 only to wake up to my phone ringing at 4:00. It was Richard calling to let me know that we were meeting for the reception at 6:00 instead of 5:00. I could not believe I had slept all day. At that point I got up to take a shower. Now, for whatever reason there is no shower curtain, but at this point I just don’t care…fine, the bathroom can fucking flood for all I care…I go to start my shower and of course something breaks and the showerhead wont turn on…I’m not about to stop everything I’m doing just to change rooms again, or ask for help from the staff and be nodded and smiled at, so I just take a bath- probably the more relaxing way to go anyways. I took my shower, I got ready, met the crew at 6:15 and then we went to this rooftop party downtown.
I mingled and got to know everyone else currently working in Luxor. At around 10, I walked home with two other girls, came home and fell asleep until 3:00 am.
And that brings us to today/tonight
So i woke up at 3:00 a.m. fell back asleep by 6:00 a.m and then woke up at 1:30 p.m. At this point I decided to get up and shower. Unlike last time, a timid girl likely to opt for hanging out in my room until people from the project were back, I decided that I was not just going to sit in my room waiting around. I decided to walk around the city a bit. Luxor is a wee bit calmer than Cairo, obviously its not nearly as densly populated, but it is pretty similar...everyone asking you to shop in their bazaar or get in their taxi, or carriage...everyone asking you to give them money more or less. After walking around I ran into mary ann, recall that I worked with her last year, she is the ethnobotanist. She was taking some students to the office to look at some charred plant remains under a microscope. I tagged along and afterwards found Richard in the hotel lobby. We agreed to meet up in a little bit and he took me around Luxor, showing me where Luxor temple, the winter palace, and karnak temple were. He bought me an excellent guide book on luxor for me to use. I am waiting on my antiquities pass (the neatness that allows me to get into every site for free) before I explore the monuments around here. I will take plenty of pictures and provide ample explanations for those interested. Hopefully Monday, I can go off to Luxor temple on my own, as well to karnak temple (about a 2 mile walk) and then on Tuesday or Wednesday, Richard will go with me to the West bank and to see the Valley of the Kings and der el Bahri. If i get bored enough tomorrow, i will take pictures of my hotel room and talk about that for a bit so that you can get the full experience of my stay. I'm only here until Friday evening and then I head back to Giza. I thought I started working that following Saturday, but I will actually have Saturday off and will begin work on Sunday March 1st.
There...plenty of reading material for you all. Ma salama!
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