This morning I woke up especially early so that I could sit and wait forever for all of this to upload...

okay that's a lie...I woke up and could not fall back asleep.

But here is the Luxor Temple Photo Album:






Since I started at Luxor Temple, and since I took less pictures there, I will begin writing about it first as well. In a way this follows the tradition of Ancient Egyptian festival processions, but not exactly. Festival celebrations like the annual autumn Opet Festival would begin at Karnak Temple. This festival in particular consisted of priests carrying in their shoulders, the statue of Amon, along a 2 km avenue framed by two rows of sphinxes. This avenue connected Karnak and Luxor Temple. The festival, which acted as a political tool symbolizing the divine birth of the King, as well as granting public access to the gods who normally resided in the temples where only preists could interact, make offerings, and provide daily ritual services such as cleaning in the sacred bath, would begin by land at Karnak Temple. The statue would be carried through Luxor Temple and would return by boat along the Nile back to Karnak. So, even though I’m beginning at Luxor, I’m ending at Karnak just the same. Anyway…I know what you’re thinking…picture time: Most info is either from memory of a class I took with Janet Richards, or from my guide book, of which I was completely lost in throughout my picture taking. It is Jill Kamil’s Guide to Luxor





Here are the rows of sphinxes I was just talking about. For some reason Kirk thought these pictures were really cool out of all of them.




The avenue is visible now only in fragments and does not proceed from Karnak to Luxor in the mordern day. However, as apart of a new tourist ploy, apparently they are going to remove all of the sphinxes, some of which are above ground and visible, others which are not, and create a huge tourist pathway. In fact, the excavation project the the crew is currently working on is salvage archaeology of the sphinxes.

Here is a view of Luxor Temple from the front, so this is the perspective the crowd and priests would have held as the statue or bark of Amon was carried toward Luxor. Of course the temple back then was much more elaborate in decoration and color, showcasing the immense wealth of the king and his dedication of such wealth to the eyes of the gods.







The massive stone walls you see are called pylons. Pylons became important temple components, with outter inscriptions usually consisting of military successes and the strength and power of the pharaoh over enemines. Smiting scenes were common. Specifically depicted in the front most Pylons at Luxor Temple are battle scenes under the reign of Ramses II against the Hittites. These scenes were important to communicating the King’s power over chaos.




Pylons are also large scale gateway constructions which resemble the heiroglyph for horizon, tying together the religious space to the sun and where it is born every day. The temple itself was oriented East to West symbolically linking everything to the activity of the sun.

That tall phallic structure to the left is called an obelisk, Its flat sides at the top, similar to the flat outter casing of pyramids, were stone imitations of sun rays. Though they look plain now, they would have been spectacularly decorated, cased in gold and made of exotic material like pink granite. There was one on the west side as well...but the French stole it! Well I don't know if they stole it...but they have it I think.




Both the Pylon and Obelisk is of Ramses II, a pharaoh whom I REGRETTFULLY do not know very much about even though his name is one of the most well known. The 2 seated and for 4 standing statues out front are also all of Ramses II.




Isn't he dreamy?







Here are additional reliefs on the exterior statues related to Ramses II.








Though Ramses did not begin the constructions at Luxor temple, he was known for being a magnificent builder and made some of the most significant alterations to the temple. His addition also included the large open court. The court added by Ramses II (19th Dynasty New Kingdom) is open with collumns surrounding it. Within the court are also various statues






Additions to temples from the previous architetural decisions by earlier reigning pharaohs, always went in front. Because the most sacred components of the temple, the shrines and sactuaries of the gods, were at the back, temples always extended forward when altered.



Below are more scenes from within, again most related to festival activity, offerings to the gods so that order on earth is maintained, divine birth and legtimization of the king etc.






This is me tucked into a shrine just on the other side of the first pylon. The original granite shrine was built by Hatepshut and restored by Ramses II. The shrines were dedicated to Amon, Khonsu and Mut.




I turned to my right and saw this on the ground. Its an omen.



Here are the shrines without me!







The following is actually a Mosque, the Mosque of Abu el Hagag, that was added right to the temple which, according to Kamil, was built because muslims believed that the tomb of a saint was here:






From the Court of Ramses the II come the Great Collonade, area with the two rows of collumns, and Hypostyle Hall which contains 32 collumns organized into four rows. The Great Collonade and Hypostyle hall were built by Amenhotep III. Movement into the temple increases in darkness as more and more Papyrus collumns fill the space evoking notions of a watery chaos that rose from the mound during creation (ehh I think it’s something like this). Everything about egyptian religious ideology seems to deal with opposition, particularly this notion of chaos versus order. As has been explained to me, temples are meant to be microcosms of the universe with the interior reflecting the means of maintaining order and the exterior, aspects of repelling chaos. The entire temple increases in darkness the further you go in, and also increases in elevation to represent the primordial mound of creation in Egyptian mythology.

Great Collonade:






From the Hypostyle Hall






Again, you can see the walls are decorated with a variety of reliefs, but also here, some of the reliefs were painted over and the area was converted into a Roman Shrine later.










Here are some additional images that I either am too lazy to look up information for, or I really didn’t have that much information about them, but I thought they looked cool.
















Like I said, I have a newfound inspiration to finally learn to read heiroglyphs despite the fact that I am hellbent on not getting overly invested in Egypt as my path of study. But how kickass would it be if I just knew what all of this meant off the top of my head? Haha sorry I’m not that impressive…yet!

Lots to write about...well kind of...I suppose there is a lot I could discuss though I'm not sure how interesting it all is.

I started working in the lab yesterday with the lithics specialist. She went over some basic typologies with me and showed me what kind of things to look for when recording and drawing stone tools. After that I would do Stage one of analysis, which is basically sorting the lithics by retrieval method, wet seive, dry, seive, or heavy fraction, then labeling, counting, and weighing them. It's a job that does not really require that you know anything but lithics, but it has me looking at material all day and any time I have questions I just pop over to Marina and ask. At one point I came across something really cool and brought it over to her. She asked me what I thought it was and I explained how I thought it was a butcher knife. She started to tell me that it was a regular knife and how to tell the difference between the two, only to interrupt her own thought and say that it was a butcher knife! So i was correct, and very excited. While I did stage one, Marina would do stage 2, which is entire database worth of fine details which you do need to be a little more experienced with lithics in order to complete. After an hour though she said that I was sorting through my material too fast and that she needed to give me something else to do. Naturally, it feels really good to complete my jobs at a pace that is above what is expected of me. This whole time I thought that Marina was doing this huge favor for me letting me sit in and learn under her (don't get me wrong, this is still very much the case). However as it turns out. the part of the job that I am doing saves her a lot of time and she told me that I'm the one doing her the favor and that my help is going to mean finishing everything this season. Again, that all feels really good. So what did Marina do to slow me down? She had me start drawing. Archaeological drawing is one of my favorite things to do. I don't consider myself particularly artistic, but everything is so standardized that the things I produce don't look like a mess! Marina told me that all of my drawings were really good, but occasionally I would get, "Kelly, what the hell is that." because I went into too much detail. With lithics it's very important to keep it simple and draw only the parts that can really give you information for how the tool was manufactured and used.

Despite having a successful day at the lab, for whatever reason by the time night came I was very tired, sensitive, irritable, and emotional. Certain aspects of my job and living arrangement have been really stressful, none of which is entirely appropriate to vent about on a public forum, but last night it all just really broke me down to the point where I was fighting back tears, walking away from people and saying that I just needed to leave for a while. I thought I had wound down by the time I returned home only to find that everytime I tried to talk it was the same tear choking voice from earlier. I wasn't even still upset, I just couldn't seem to talk about anything without feeling like I had to cry. My flatmate bought me these things called Happy Hippos that I have been really amused by but had yet to try.



They are hazelnut filled weirdness...but they made me feel tons better. We stayed up talking/ranting/complaining/laughing and finally went to bed.

Today I am going to Abu Sir, a site of 5th and 6th dynasty Sun temples. I can't remember if I went there last year. I believe I did, but it's worth seeing again I'm sure. Then I am going back to the lab in the afternoon. I will post pictures if I take any.Haha I realize that I say things like "oh and I was an emotional mess yesterday" as if its nothing and then change the subject...really I am fine and have no specific explanation for the water works. It's just the lifestyle + me already being a boo hoo sensitive sissy pants. It will be nice to come home and have some privacy again.

Here are some pictures other people have taken towards the end of the season.

This first one is taken at the villa right after lunch. Very often you would find Amelia, Kasia, and I sitting three dazed excavators in a row.



Here are pictures taken as we went through a final tour and discussion of our season at KKT. This involved everyone and was mainly for the people who work in the lab or back in the villa since they do not get to make it down to site very often. As a result you can see how bored some of us look listening to the same thing we have already been discussing day in and day out for the past 6 weeks. If you have problems spotting me, simply look for the girl that looks thugged out in a bandana.





This next photo is from the area of the valley temple where I got to work with Mike and Amelia. It was pretty amazing. This is where we spent a few days taking down a degraded mudbrick wall.



These are pictures of us sitting underneathe a table on site during second breakfast...as time went on more and more people came and we couldn't all fit in the tent so some of us starting sitting outside. You can't see me because I am actually laying down sleeping.





Thats it for today

I come home in less than 3 weeks! Count down 20 days. I tried thinking about what kind of food I am really craving or missing these days. For the most part I really just miss having a variety of fresh vegetables. The only fresh vegetable we are served here is cucumber. Everything else is boiled to death to kill anything that could make people sick. Things like lettuce are fertilized using human fecal matter…not sure how common this in other places and that no one really talks about it, but since it is known here, people seem to avoid eating it. Though not a vegetable, we are also served fresh tomatoes, which I don’t even like, but I eat only when I am out here…however the other night I stared in disgust at my plate and said, “I am so sick of freakin tomatoes.” It generated a good laugh around the dinner table as I continue to radiate my negative, I-hate-everything attitude…at least everyone seems to find it charming and not obnoxious. Standard response is, “Kelly doesn’t like it..what a surprise.” Yesterday I found myself really craving avocados but I don’t know how in season they will be upon my return to the states. Part of me misses real, good coffee as I have been only drinking instant nescafe the entire time here. However, I have been drinking so much nescafe that really coffee does not appeal to me any form. I’ll have to think about it all a little bit more as I am sure my Aunt Marcia will start asking me what kind of dinner I will want when coming home…or perhaps I am being presumptuous and she has no intentions on feeding me at all and instead wants to lock me away in a dungeon with nothing but more cucumbers, tomatoes, and nescafe.

One thing that I realized I do miss a lot right now is rain. I miss cool, breezy, rainy mornings. The big bubble drops that hit the rooftops and windows with a soothing rhythm. I miss the smell of soaked grass and damp tree bark, and making the choice to sit inside a watch movies all day with cat naps in between. I don’t miss the snow though…the snow can clear out and stay away for my arrival.

I have been working overtime to get through as much excavation paper and computer work as possible so that I can get right into the lab and begin work on lithics. One of the girls that is supposed to be sharing the work load with me, left for 4 days to go to the Red Sea. There really has been an issue with me baring a much larger workload than others, but I know that it doesn’t matter because I get to start doing new interesting things, and they will have to work well into May at the office. I, however, will be exempt from anymore office work once I finish the database, which hopefully wont take me longer than Saturday and Sunday. If it does, then I am going to just start doing data entry in the evenings and going to the lab during the day anyway. That’s what I’m willing to do in order to maximize the amount of time I can spend learning a new trade in this field.

Because of the work I have done and the networking I’ve been able to do I have some exciting prospects in terms of work for the next year as well. I am going to be given the contact information to work at a site called Catalhoyuk in Turkey. A lot of people working here work there every year and said that I should go and that they would recommend me. Catalhoyuk is a very very important archaeological site, the earliest known of the neolithic or stone age. It has a very large international team as well, I think as many as 100 working there at a time. I have worked on fauna from there before and the preservation is excellent. Superb preservation of artifacts is another thing the site is most well known for. It would be an amazing opportunity. In addition to that, Marina, the girl who will be teaching me lithics who also works at Catal, works on the lithics in Greece and I might ask her if she has contact information for there as well. This year Marina is finishing up at the end of May, then going to Greece until July, and then going to Turkey. If accepted I could potentially follow that same iternerary next year, probably even right along with her. Nothing is set yet though and there would be a lot of factors to consider. That much traveling might actually bring me to decide to postpone grad school for another year, or to at least defer any where I may get accepted to. I am most definitely eager to get back into school, but I also have no desire to commit to anything that will hold me back from seeing the world….being able to travel was a major reason as to why I chose this career in the first place…while academia and teaching are things I also want to pursue, I may not be able to travel nearly as much once I am locked down into a program with the constant pressure of having to finish my dissertation (not to mention all other exams and writing for grad school). To even admit that I would think about taking more time off is shock to myself…it’s as though I am standing beside myself listening to a stranger say it…not only am I listening to a stranger say it, but I am tilting my head at them with perpetual confusion, as though they are speaking another language entirely. ‘What do you mean? What is this another year off you speak of?’ It’s difficult to separate myself from this idea that there is this timeline to follow in pursuing a career, a product of the current educational system. I constantly have to remind myself that there is no rush, that there is no real finish line any more, that my course is not linear. This dialogue offers me both comfort and anxiety…comfort because I do have freedom and opportunities, endless ones….anxiety because it is a complete absense of the structure I have come to know and rely on for so long.



How appropriate…that break represents me getting up to boil water. Just as I completed a thought on how life does not need to follow one single linear path, that it is unpredictable, I walk into the other room and have a near death experience. We have a gas stove in the kitchen, one that I have used plenty of times to boil water for my tea and coffee. Today however, I went to use a different burner than the one I normally use. I turned on the gas, lit the match and all you hear is “BOOM.” Before my very eyes a ball of fire appears and catches my shirt. It went out quickly though leaving only a bad smell and burn marks and soot on my clothing. This may have permanently traumatized me from using gas stoves. I swear I am never going to make it out of this country alive…

I want to first take this time to congratulate my baby brother Kirkling who landed a summer internship working at a Royal Oak radio station. I am most excited for him. Additionally, here is a link to one of his stand up performances at an open mic night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsvo8oc0Xok

I haven't been able to watch it yet because the internet takes too long for it to load, but I've seen him live and I know he is great. I am very proud of him.

Speaking of internet, it only seems to work first thing in the morning so that is part of the reason I have been online less and posting less. Oh Egypt.

Not to mention I am just overloaded with work to do...it really is getting ridiculous and I should be refusing since it is not my responsibility if other people drop the ball on the work they have been assigned...but at the end of the day the work needs to get done...someone has to do it. Hopefully people will realize how much I already have to do and stop asking me to do more...but I doubt it.

It has been over 103 degrees for the past 4 days in a row

Gross :(

oh well half day today and pool day tomorrow

Richard told me last season that once bowel movements become the topic of conversation over breakfast, it’s time for the season to end and people to ship out….I have to disagree with this. I would have to say that once you find yourself reasoning homicide as a viable solution to your work frustrations, that is when it is time for the season to end and people to ship out.

My patience with this project and the lack of organization, not to mention lack of common sense from the administrative hierarchy, has diminished exponentially. Today I was seconds away from rescheduling my departure for the earliest flight possible. I have been more than humble for the excellent learning experience provided for me, but I draw the line at being taken advantage of...and that is exactly what has been happening. I will omit the details just because, it winds me up too much to think about it more than I already have…but today was probably the most stressful day I have had out here and 105 degrees didn’t make it any better.

Okay that is going to be the extent of my whining...I'm starting to realize why archaeologists are equated with alcoholics...just kidding i am coping in healthy ways...

Tease picture! To add some color I threw this snap shot from the west bank....of course I will still upload pictures from luxor...I swear. Actually within a few weeks i will be moving back into my old apartment since Farrah and her baby are heading back. Then I will have internet again and will spend too much time online and therefore will post all pictures you have been holding out for..I swear!

We are officially done on site...all areas that I showed you in the last photo are now under sand. We have begun the torturous and boring paperwork part of post excavation. My first responsibility was to go through all of the feature forms from our area an make sure they are complete and that none are missing...in doing so I was given a new nickname. Paperwork Nazi. I chase people down letting them know that they forgot their dimensions, or their photo numbers, or that they didn't include elevations or rough sketches on the back...and this isn't just for new people, this is for all the veterans too. I was working at a table with my area advisors and I told one, Mike, that he had forgotten to include surrounding features in his matrix. He asked me to read the description on the form so that I could refresh his memory on which feature I was referring to. I said, "this mudbrick collapse, having depth .02 meters is dadada." And before he could say anything I interjected with, ".02 meters? A value that low is supposed to be in millimeters yeah?" And he just looked up at me in both disbelief and fear....we all started laughing at how strict to the manual I had been correcting the forms. Both he and Amelia assured me it was a good thing it proved that I was paying attention and that it meant Mike wanted to make sure I worked in his area again next year. That definitely made me feel proud of the work I've put into this. I went through each form...i don't even want to know how many there were, a binder's worth..and put little post its on every one that was missing information. Very anal retentive indeed!

Amelia, my area advisor who is writing the Data Structure Report, leaves on Wednesday so we have to try and get as much possible by then, so I will probably be working some serious overtime. There are other people who are also just left to sort through areas by themselves so I might try and help them as much as possible too. But it shouldn't be too long before I'm back in the lab this season learning the exciting world of flint working and sourcing.

One final note for today is that I got a different cell phone which works with my American sim so my regular number works in case of emergencies if my family wants to call or text. It's expensive for me to use of course, but I'm sure it is at least comforting to know that I can be reached now.

Hope everyone had a good and safe weekend!

The archaeological community was introduced to non stop dancing Kelly last night. MY legs are acheyingly sore this morning. Owwww. Since it is the end of the excavation season we held a huge party at our apartment last night. It was really great to see everyone together in a more relaxed environment. Upon washing and letting my hair down, a colleague came up to me and said, “Oh my god you look so different…you look like a girl!” Ha, I was not quite sure how to respond to that. But it really just goes to show what happens when you turn up not wearing the same dirty clothes and with a clean face and sandless hair. At first the party was a little quite and everyone just harbored exhaustion behind their eyes…but all it took was the right music selection and everyone was pepped and laughter and good times were shared. And by right music selection, I mean ABBA. Of course my demands for some good eighties jams were well received too…however when I put on the Final Countdown the Swedes bowed their head in shame wondering why Americans only enjoy the worst music to come out of Sweden. We also listened to some Guns and Roses and when a group of people started singing a verse of Paradise City prematurely I shouted that they were all amateurs. The repsonse was, “When were you even born?” When I said 1985 there was a groan at both my baby status and my imappropriate affection for a musical decade I was barely apart of. Some people brought guests to the party who weren’t apart of the team, and I was quite flattered when introductions were going around. Jessica was explaining who everyone was and what their jobs were and she got to me and said, “This is Kelly, she keeps everyone happy.” Haha though I don’t know if that was because my performance as an excavator wasn’t worthy of being mentioned…nah I think it was just to change up descrription from “digger, digger, lab rat, digger, digger, lab rat.”

For the night I had managed to get my hands on a fifth of really really good scotish whiskey that will inevitably ruin my ability to drink other whiskey for the rest of my life…not because it made me sick or anything, but because it was so amazingly delicious I don’t know that I can go back to another brand of lesser quality. But I will also probably never be able to really afford nice whiskey either so I will nurse this stuff as though it is an immortal elixir.

Other silly aspects of the night included seeing how many different languages we could translate the word “Spider Pink”. If you are familiar with the Simpsons you would know what Spider Pink is. You need not go far to find at least 6 or 7 different ways to say it, Italian being the most complicated. I am really hoping that I can retain some of the British slang and common words. The change is just nice. I’ve stopped using the word friend and replaced it with mate, stopped using the word apartment and replaced it with flat, and of course have accepted great phrases like, “I can’t be bothered” and “That is rubbish.” I have also nearly eliminated the word “pants” and replaced it with trousers. To the Brits, pants means underwear…but not just any underwear…it more so means the biggest, grimmest set of granny panties you can imagine. So when I say pants this is immediately what they think of and nearly start laughing to tears. After having done a load of laundry and showing up on site, I was told what a difference it makes to put on some clean clothes. My response was, “Oh yeah this is the first time I’ve changed my pants in a week.” Working the other way, though I’m an American minority, the English call their erasers rubbers, so I find myself giggling at some of the phrases that spin from that especially since erasers are a very important thing to have on site. “Oh my rubber is gettng pretty dirty, does any one have a rubber I can borrow.” Things like this. The use and reuse and borrowing of dirty rubbers. The Brits also don’t quite understand “That’s what she said” humor, so I’ve managed to phase that out despite the fact that it was so ingrained into my speech from college guys. Though from time to time when someone does look at some of the architecture and says, “Oh my god look how massive that thing is,” I do wait for just a second, anticipating someone to chime in with a “that’s what she said,” however I restrain myself from actually saying it out loud.

Before the party yesterday, team Menkenre Vestibule spent the morning going over all plans and paper work trying to find the holes in our work that needed to be completed. With said holes, we also spent the morning frantically running about the site, tape measures and level meters in hand getting the final values needed. Before such scrambling for last minute information though, we had a lovely breakfast at the Mena House resort. An all you can eat buffet of the freshest fruit and most splendid array of breads and pastries. I wish there were no consequences to eating a gluttoness amount of pastries. But for an end of season reward for hard work, I will ignore the truth. Life’s short- shovel in the flakey sweetness.


Here are some photos of the squares that I spent this season working on. Here are my beautiful fieldstone walls, of which I had to measure all of the stones and plan the details of.







Here are pictures from the Valley Temple where I was able to excavate the in situ pottery (see the holes where said digging took place).





The hope is that we will finish up everything needed for the site by next Wednesday. After that I get to crawl in the dark dampness that is the on site lab, lose my tan and work on lithics for the remainder of my time here. And by learn lithics I also partially mean learning how to dance the way they do in Greece from Merina and Mary Ann, both seasoned veterans having worked in Cyprus. Merina is trying to get me on the permit for Catalhoyuk in Turkey for next summer….it’s only the largest and most well known neolithic site, no big deal (it would be an amazing deal…the projects budget is even larger than this one and they are total work Nazis…their lab is open 24 hours a day and every one just works works works, really sounds like my kind of place indeed!)

Okay that will conclude my updates for now…

Still not done on site

We will have to go back tomorrow, and they may let us finish up loose ends on Saturday.

My area crew even stayed over an hour later on site trying to get as much done as possible.

I am a tired girl.

But I will write more, and post more pictures soon I promise. I would have done it today but don't had the cable for my camera and I didn't go back home between the end of work and dinner because we got back so late.

That's my update for now. Sorry it cannot be more entertaining!

Sorry no posts.

Today is the last day on site and there is so so so much to do!

Oh and only a month until I'm back home!

As my alarm sounded at 5:15 this morning, I rolled over and in that moment really considered the strangeness of my lifestyle. I rolled out of bed after having gone to sleep at 9:00 p.m. the night before. I put on the same dirty work clothes that I've been sporting since Saturday and wrapped a bandana around the hair I haven't washed since Thursday night (and oddly enough it's the best my hair has looked in a good while). I gather my gear, and stroll to the Villa for breakfast at 6 am. I have breakfast with about 35 people, though i make sure to get there early so that I'm not waiting in line to boil my water for coffee. At 6:45 we have morning meeting and announcements and then everyone splits up and heads to their respective places of work, the site, the lab, or the office within the villa. For the site we cram more people than can safely fit inside, along with bags full of all the necessary equipment. We make the same 8 minute drive to the site that we make every morning...some mornings the crew is silent, other mornings we are opening windows for air as some of the boys crudely burp up the breakfast mystery meat...a stench which sometimes does make me vomit in my mouth a little. The van that takes us to site has some sort of musical wiring so that whenever the driver hits the breaks the car starts playing "It's a small world after all." And this isn't when he is at a full stop...it is whenever he touches the breaks. The music plays until his foot releases the brake. It is just about the most unnecessary thing I can possibly think of...actually I'm sure I could think of something more useless hypothetically speaking, but that this actually exists is perplexing.

Today it was really really hot outside, with zero breeze. Somehow though, this did not slow me down from being probably the most physically active that i have been on site. The high was about 100, however with only a few days left, the mudbrick wall within the Vestibule of Menkenre's Valley Temple had to come down. The wall was about 2 meters high. We only had to remove the bricks up to a marl plaster facing, so we were removing a portion of the wall that was probably about a meter thick. The condition of the mudbrick leaves it pretty clay-ey and damp. It's not like tearing down stone or anything but it's pretty challenging. And you can't just demolish the thing either, hacking away randomly. Everything in archaeology has to be done in sequence...you remove things in the reverse order in which they were built or created. So starting at the top of the wall you remove each course, or each layer or row/line of brick one by one. The brick specialist wanted some whole bricks to analyze so we also had to excavate a few of those. In the vestibule I work with Mike and Amelia. As we removed the courses looking for good complete bricks to take out, they would accidently chop too far and cut into the next course, meaning the bricks couldn't be used. They complimented me on having not done that on my side so that I had the good bricks to take out. Naturally I felt really good about the fact that I never over dug my courses and could provide some solid bricks for analysis, but really it was probably more of a result of me working a little slower than them and by the time they realized they busted through a course, i was already aware of it and could stop :) By the afternoon we reached the bottom course which was still a good half meter above the floor but by then we really could just hack away until we hit floor. So there I was, 100 degrees, uner the sun beating away at the wall with a hatchet. My hands are covered in blisters, my body was drenched in sweat, and my arms will probably ache with immeasurable pain tomorrow. But for whatever reason I was a complete destructive mode. I've taken down some other features before and gotten pretty bored and unmotivated within a few minutes...but I think it actually the heat and kind of this hard work, suffering mentality that just drove me to keep hammering at it. I just wanted to see that wall gone if it meant that I was going to be sweating my ass off in the desert heat.

Today I also had to do a little video for the project explaining the wall and its relationship to the other features within the vestibule. I thought that I was going to get really nervous and stumble over my explanation and sound really inarticulate, but it actually came out really well. I didn't stammer or stutter once. I think it was because I was wearing sunglasses...yes wearing sun glasses makes all the difference when you're nervous :) The only thing that was super lame about it was that the footage is also going to go for this U of M promotional commercial that they do. Since the University did provide me with a lot of funding for this trip and last year's, I'm pretty much obligated to do it...the deal is they advertise the types of research projects they sponsor for their students...as if they send students to work in Egypt all the time (they don't really). But either way, to really drive home the Michigan-ness, I had to wear the only Michigan apparel that I brought out here which is a long sleeve, navy blue shirt my Uncle Mike got me 2 years ago for Christmas....I tell you what, the last thing I wanted to wear on 100 degree day after I had already been working throughout the morning was that shirt. I put it on, filmed my stuffed, and then had to peel the long sleeve shirt off of my moist skin. My shirt underneath had stripes of liquid Kelly glow. I tell you what, I am one sexy woman.

I've started taking naps during second breakfast. I scarf down a big delicious best-tasting-orange-ever, a bottle of water, and then curl up in the fetal position on the sandy limestone hilltop, right outside of the tent. Mark walked by yesterday and took a picture of it. Archaeologists hard at work! It really makes it seem like we are slaves driven to exhaustion in the most terrible of working conditions. I just find it relaxing.

Tomorrow I plan on bringing my camera and taking pictures from site. In shallah.

Oh yeah, they have okra for dinner tonight. Aunt Marcia I have to agree with you...it is gross.

Here is a photo of where I spend nearly every Friday. It is a nice little vacation Oasis from the dirty. sandy, dusty, grimey dig life. There is a bar that you can swim right up to and even the pyramids rest nicely in the background. I was at the pool from 10:45 tp 4:00 yesterday. It was beautiful! The day spent at the pool means I'm almost done with my 4th book, Little Children. It has been a very entertaining read, and I'm really taking my time with the last 20 pages, because I am sad that it is almost done...but then i get to start a new one. I currently have my eye on a novel titled The Blessing Stone. If anyone has heard of it, let me know.

Thursday night was pretty adventurous. I had suggested a seafood dinner to boost omega 3s and brainpower for this last stretch of work this week. A group of us went and the calamari, per usual was superb! . Thursday night plans were also made for around 15-20 of us to go to the Cairo Jazz Bar. I mentioned this place as a possible desination for my birthday but we wound up going somewhere else. Point being, no one had gone to the Jazz Bar yet this season. However, most of the group were splitting up before hand and not everyone wanted to eat at Cristo’s so the plan was just, who ever wanted to go to the jazz bar, we had a reservation for 20 at 9:30. Of the people who went to Cristos, only me and Merina were interested in trecking out to the Jazz Bar. Merina is my old flat mate and the girl who is going to teach me the ropes when it comes to identifying lithics (stone tools). She is probably my favorite person here. We call each other Habibi, which is arabic for friend…but it is also kind of an inside joke. When we had gone out a few weeks ago, we were sharing a cab and all arabic/egyptian music consists of someone lamenting “Haaabbbiiiibiii” against the sitar. The late hour, the exhaustion, and possible the gin made us a little giggly, and much to our cultural insensitivity we would start cracking up any time “Habbbiibbiiii” came wining out of the radio…and that has been our nickname for one another ever since. Anyway, so my Habibi, Marina and I, wanted to go to the jazz bar but having never been there before we didn’t know how to get there. Mark got us a cab and told the driver where to take us. Thirty minutes later we get into town and beging our adventurous hunt for the Jazz Club. After round abouts a plenty we finally find it. At the door they ask if we have a reservation and we say yes, it is either under James or Dan- as we assumed it was either our mates James or Dan who made the reservation. There was no reservation made, but since it was just the two of us, they let us in anyway. We assumed at least some others would be inside but we were the only ones. After a bit, our friend Jason, the filmographer on site, showed up with two other of his friends whom I had never met before, but whom knew Marina from other field projects. No one else ever showed up to the jazz bar, so it was just us five. Contrary to its title, however, there was no live jazz music Thursday. Apparently Thursday was Rock and Roll night and they had a band that did shitty covers of the Doors. They did some other songs too though. I danced my heart out to Take on Me, but was thoroughly disgusted when the lead singer had to jump an octave down in order to hit the high note at the end. Totally not worth it. Unimpressed and perplexed as to where everyone else was, we decided to leave this overly priced and not nearly entertaining enough venue. Instead we went to a local Egyptian bar…and I don’t mean just some other drinking joint aimed to cater to tourists…this was filled entirely with Egyptian men…Merina and I were the only women there. Instead of peanuts or chips, they bring out a little dish with fava beans/chick peas. It was mildly strange, but they were salty enough that I guess it accomplished the same thing nuts and chips do when throwing back a beer. Merina, Jason, and their two friends Scott and Tas, and I stayed there for a while had a pretty good time. We left at around 1 am (I was dead tired to say the least). When I got home, my other flatmates came in shortly after me and explained that the reservation apparently got cancelled or didn’t go through because it was made online, and so the rest of the group was too large to get in since the club was full, so they went elsewhere. It was kind of disappointing because I was looking forward to getting to hang out with everyone since last weekend I was in bed, ill. Merina and I also didn’t have phones so no one could get a hold of us to let us know about the change in plans. I suggested for next week that we just have a party at one of the apartments…this way no one has to make the roundtrip cab ride into town and plans don’t go awry. We’ll see if that happens…if not I’m pretty sure that I will just stay in…it’s too much of a hassal going into town and I always find myself just counting down the minutes until someone else decides they’re just as sick of being out as I am. It’s not that I have a terrible time, I just don’t like having to go out so far away from home and not being able to just leave whenever I want to. Like I said, the cab ride is about a half hour.

Friday morning I slept in until about 8:30 and then got up and wrote my weekly report for the site. Then I spent the day at the pool and it was lovely of course.

Then it was back to work today. I finished the third excavation for what was either another pottery emplacement, or it could be just a very large posthole. It was pretty shallow so it didn’t take me very long but there is just so much work involved to excavate one feature. So for this particular feature in particular this is what I have to do”

-Go to feature log
-Sign out a feature number for the cut and the fill (basically the outline and what is inside)
-Take a picture before excavating which requires setting up the camera, a board with feature number, square/location number, date, my initials, brief description, and which direction im facing when I take the picture, I had to set a north pointing arrow in the picture as well as a stick for scale
-Excavate
-With the material excavated, I need to sign out bag numbers to put the deposit it, we don’t throw it away. I need at least one bag number for a flotation sample, then one for a wet seive sample, and then bag numbers for any other items within the fill such as charcoal, ceramics, exotic stone, or objects such as beads. For each bag I need to put in a label with all of the same info I wrote for the photo. I write it on the label and on the bag.
-After I excavate I take levels to see how high the feature is above sea level.
-I do a drawing of the feature
-I fill out a feature form for the both the cut and the fill
-Clean it up
-Take another photograph post excavation

Tedious Tedious Tedious, and I am probably still oversimplifying to an extent.

I also started tearing up a floor surface today from within the Menkenre Valley Temple. It was a good stress reliever.

Only 4 more days left on site! There’s so much to do! Guh.

And ew it’s going to be 91 tomorrow. The weather lately hasn’t been so bad, but a bit windy.

Okay that’s it for now. Have a happy weekend everyone. I think my plane home is in 33 days or something like that, so it’s fastly approaching!

Okay I really am being such a blog slacker…it’s easy for me to blame it on not having internet at my apartment…but it’s a little more than that. The only access I have to the internet is at the Villa and I’m only really at the Villa around meal times… it’s not really a big deal to hang out after dinner, chat online, catch up on email and write a blog…but truth me told, I’ve been so addicted to reading that I just find myself really antsy at a computer and without the attention span to write anything lengthy…at least not on a daily basis. But there are some things that I know I can share to readdress the question, why even keep a blog.

Well first there is work. Only one week left on site. As much as I have loved working on site, I’m definitely ready for things to wrap up. Time to switch gears. However, as a way to reward me for all of the massive amounts of recording I’ve done this season, my area advisor let me excavate probably the best feature on site! Today I spent the day working inside the temple of Menkenre and I actually got to excavate a more or less complete pottery vessel. Seriously. Sitting within the remnants of the hypostyle hall, the base of an alabaster collum near my feet…digging out a ceramic jar that would have been used in 2500 BC. It made my season. Of course I'm not allowed to take pictures of the stuff we are recording right now...but here is a picture that would have been similar to what i was dealing with:


Aside from work though, there is of course the fact that I am thrown into an international experience, of which there are many differences I find myself taking notice of. Every morning when I see my Polish roommate, she asks me, “Are you okay?” This throws me off guard every time without fail…I am used to people asking me if I am okay, or me asking other people if they are okay, when something actually seems not okay…when something seems wrong…Europeans ask it instead of asking how are you…sometimes they ask how are you, as well, but mostly I am asked if I am okay or if I am alright…or who knows maybe I just walk around looking like shit all the time and they really do need to ask if I am okay and there is no cultural difference whatsoever…this too could be a possibility.

Peanut Butter. Egyptians and the French do not understand peanut butter. They have it at the villa because so many people do make peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches, but Egyptians find it really funny and it doesn’t even really seem to have an Egyptian name. I tried asking for more when we had run out to the Egyptian house staff, and it was really…a maze of confusion, they had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. The kind of peanut butter you can get in Egypt is also strange because it has honey in it…maybe that isn’t so strange but I think it is. But let me tell you who does peanut butter right…the Polish. A few days ago a Polish brand of peanut butter wound up on the mantel…it is the most amazing peanut butter I have ever had in my life. Polish peanut butter and fig jam sandwhiches mmmmmm.

One of the girls who had already left to go back home received an easter package yesterday. Since she was already home she said we could have it. They had those cadburry chocolate eggs in them…not the ones with the cream and carmel in the center, but the little pastel color ones with the candy coating, kind of like big m&ms….i don’t remember liking those so much. If it’s possible for any one to still get their hands on those, I want those when I come home! God I’m high maitenance. This also introduces another item. Apparently we can get packages but they take forever to get here. And unfortunately, since I recently got sick and disappeared from the online world, I forgot to mention that I did get my very first package! A little taste of America collage, with some new music to listen to, a wonderful movie to watch. It was very sweet.

Let's see what else

The version of fruit loops they have here tastes like flowers. Lilacs to be exact. Don’t ask me why…it’s gross.

They have golden raisens here, which I have decided I prefer to the other kind of raisens. I pick them up at the local store around the corner from my apartment. I still like to go into the stores to practice my arabic. I grab various items and ask how to say them and then go through how to pronounce numbers and money. Even if I don’t want to buy anything, I stop into the store to say hi.

“Masa Ihkar Mr. Hassan! Inta Kwais? Just saying hello! Ashoofak bokarah in shallah. Masa lama!:

Good evening Mr. Hassan. Are you good? Just saying hello. I’ll see you tomorrow if God wills it. Bye!

They also have dried dates with almonds in the middle of them. They are quite a treat.

I also learned that hissing isn’t always a bad thing…or at least it’s not always meant as a harassing mechanism. Sometimes it’s just their way of getting your attention. I used to pass by this kiosk on my way to the meridien every day and I would get hissed at by the guy that worked there. Finaally I just went up to him and talked to him. Now, every time I go talk to him, he gives me free candy. Though, for all I know that could mean we are married or something. It’s not really fancy candy or anything, something similar to tootsie rolls. Now especially, I make it a point to say hello to every local I walk by.

Another reason I may have been getting hissed at was because I did not know that it was bad to go outside with wet hair. Apparently having wet hair is a sign that you just had sex. So I was sending quite the message around here every time I would go out with wet hair. Now I just cover my head when my hair is wet…which isn’t very often since I rarely wash it, but you get what I mean.

The other day we weren’t allowed to go into town because there was a protest over the riase in prices on subsidized bread. They were expecting really huge riots, but I didn’t actually hear of anything happening. No one ever goes to town during the week really anyway.

Tomorrow is a half day.

Hamdilelah. Priase be to god.

That’s another funny thing I suppose. To kind of assimilate into the language aspect of the culture you speak a lot about God, even though Egyptians know that you aren’t muslim when you speak to them. And in America I would never say, okay see you tomorrow if god wills it…probably would say, see you tomorrow hopefully.

Okay there’s a more suitable post…mumkin (maybe)…eitherway back to my reading!

Haha in my last entry I said, "I was considering coming home but.."

what i meant to say was I was considering coming home early

But like i said...staying until the 15th of may.

Still pretty far off but I'm sure I will be home before everyone knows it!

And yes Aunt Marcia..it is your prerogative to nag...and my prerogative to not call home when I am asked to because I don't want to hear said prerogative nagging :)

Nyquil= a much happier, healthier, less coughy (and with a good night's sleep less coffee too) Kelly.

Apparently there were photo documentation of this munchkin dance

These will probably haunt me for the rest of my academic career. curses!

Auntie M: The book I recommend is called The God of Small Things and I think you in particular will enjoy it. And my plane arrives in detroit May 15th. i was considering coming home but it turns out that once I'm finished with the season excavation work I get my choice in new learning pursuits! It looks like I will get to learn about stone tools!



Today wasn't too exciting. I kept myself pretty contained and spent most of the day hammering away at limestone debris.

That's it.

Time for dinner!

what


a


day


So what is the perfect way to counter a bad cold? Well...whatever it is...I did the exact OPPOSITE...and by that I mean I worked for 10 hours on a day of a sand storm. Don't ask me by what rational decision we weren't shut down....but we weren't. Instead I swallowed bucketloads of sand as the pyramids disappeared completely from view- now there's a wonder...not how the Great Pyramid was constructed...but how a day of haze and high winds can obscure it completely.

Despite the fact that I had to work through a sand storm, the day was pretty good. I got to do nothing but excavation. Proudly I approached my pottery/ash rich room fill deposit and proclaimed, "Let's Kadum this Bitch." Kadum is arabic for hatchet. And I tore away at it with my Kadum, pick axe, and trowel.

I worked hard and got filthy. Definitely the dirtiest I've ever been after digging away through the storm. My hair was completely beige by lunch.

Today though, i did tarnish my tough and cynical reputation. Now...to stray a bit from modesty...I know I have a certain pool of talents. But there is one talent in particular, that I keep as my hidden gem. I don't do it on command...only when the time is right. And it is a rarity. You may not even know despite the fact that you know me very well. But the truth of the matter is...I can do voices. Obnoxious "did that really just come out of your mouth" voices...alvin and the chipmunk paar voices. This is what we are talking about. In the middle of my dig I stood up and said something, to which my colleague Amanda said, "Oh shut your munkchin little face." And I shouted, "MUNCHKIN LITTLE FACE?" Then I froze, bent my knees, and proceeded to sing "We Represent the Lollipop Guild" in my best munchkin voice along with full scale munchkin dance moves taken straight from the Wizard of Oz. Egyptian and International Crew Abound erupted with laughter, particularly when we took notice to the tourists that had stopped at the fence and seen the entire thing....yes,,,I was the ambassador of professionalism, standing mid excavation singing and dancing like a Munchkin of Oz.

So I went from serious, workaholic cynic...to merry little singer and jigger on site.

I don't really know why...I really was not aware that I had everyone's attention, or that I would attract attention...but I was pretty slap happy since my cough woke me up at 4:30 am and I had been up ever since.

So now everyone knows my secret....I'm silly at heart.

Damn.

But I still Kadum'd the hell out of that bitch...

Oh 100% was spoken a bit prematurely….I’m sure as much to the dismay of my worried friends and family as my own. How I managed to contract a cold when all I’ve done is been quaratined to my bed is beyond me, though it could just be the subset of symtoms for whatever ailed me beginning last Wednesday…which at this point God only knows, probably just a culmination of many things. It really is not the type of job or place where 60 hour work weeks should be mandated. The ickiness that is me is nothing too serious these days though, standard cold symptoms; a cough, runny/stuffy nose, sore throat from the cough etc. The worst part though is that the cough doesn’t allow for a good night’s sleep. So in effect, I need extra sleep so my cold will go away, but my cold keeps me from getting the extra sleep I need. Oh a vicious cycle indeed.

I know the family wants me to call home and check in, but per Richard’s request, I had to let someone else temporarily use the phone Richard had lent to me while he was back in the states. It’s for John, he does the artifiact sealings and a lot of the server work. They are amidst ironing out some technical issues and Richard needed to be able to speak to John while he was here this week. So I can probably call at the end of the week if it’s really a big deal…but hearing my voice right now you would not be put at ease “hellllooo Kelly the frog here.” I sound pretty funny.

But it’s okay I can be spared the obvious points.

Take it easy
Drink plenty of fluids
Eat well
And Kelly I mean it don’t overdo it

Yes Yes Yes.

And no worries on medication if I need that. I have easier access to medicine here than I do in the states…just in terms of what is readily available. That is not to be confused with quality health care though.

Like I said, this isnt really so bad or so serious, I sound worse than I actually feel. I’m mainly just sleep deprived from the cough…and at least that keeps me drinking water throughout the night, since that is what I do each time I wake up.

Okay, that is your sadsickface update from me. Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend,

I officially finished my last square of the season! Yay!

Guess what I get to do until the site closes....

DIG DIG DIG

Excavattttteeeeee :)

Nothing but digging~! I'm so happy.


Despite such eagerness that I hold in regard to this, and the general excitement I do legitimately carry with my opportunities and experiences here...somehow I have been dubbed, "The Girl Who Hates Everything" by Mark Lehner. Of course this was a comment was made largely in jest and mostly in reference to how picky I am. We were all talking at second breakfast and this conversation ensued.

Me: "Richard even talks to his dog on the phone."
Amanda: "...i talk to my cat on the phone..."
Mark: "Kelly do you like animals?"
Me: "I don't like having to be responsible for them, but yes I like animals"
Mark: "Oh my gosh, Kelly actually likes something....what about people do you like people."
Me: "No."
Mark: "....I'm starting to appreciate this girl more and more every day."


I've also officially finished my third book here. And I highly recommend it. highly highly highly. It is so beautifully written. i cried my eyes out. It is about a family in India and a tragic sequence of events as seen through the eyes of a young twin brother and sister. It draws upon politics and social difference as well. here is a passage, that I think captures the style and some of the ways it just drags at your heart, but doesn't give too much away

Rahel froze. She was desperately sorry for what she had said. She didn’t know where those words had come from. She didn’t know she’d had them in her. But they were out now and wouldn’t go back in. They hung about that red staircase like clerks in a government office. Some stood, some sat and shivered their legs

“Rahel,” Ammu (her mother) said, do you realize what you have just done?”
Frightened eyes and a fountain looked back at Ammu.
“It’s alright, Don’t be scared. Just answer me. Do you?”
“What?” Rahel said in the smallest voice she had.
“Do you know what happens when you hurt people? When you hurt people they begin to love you a little less. That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”

A cold moth with unusuall dense dorsal tufts landed lightly on Rahel’s heart. Where its icy legs touched her, she got goosebumps. Six goosebumps on her careless heart.

The author, Arundhati Roy is a well known political activist and received the booker prize, a prestigious literary prize. It's also a really quick read. Took me all of about 2 days.

Now I'm flipping between starting either The Blessing Stone, or Little Children. it's Slim Pickins in the Villa Library.

Also...my apartment was fumeeddd for bed bugs :( But I didn't have bed bugs...or at least I haven't been bitten. ah well. Dinner is over, time to go shower and sleep. First day back at work and I am quite exhausted. The site is only open for 11 more days though! Eeek!

Just wanted everyone to know that I am back to feeling absolutely 100% again.

Marcia, your comments are initially sent to my email and then I have to approve them before they show up, so that is why you don't see them post right away.

And to answer your question about fever...I dont know what the fever was because I don't have a thermometer...I only know that my skin has never felt that hot before, and for hours after I had been inside.

I've never had a migrane before but I questioned whether or not I had one. When I mentioned this to my boss, along with my other symptoms that's when she said it sounded like I had sunstroke.


Either way, I did stay in bed for wednesday-friday, and as mentioned, am feeling 100% better now.

If I feel poorly today I will go home immediately, simple as that, so don't worry everyone. I will be ok!

So let’s recap my sleeping patterns since Wednesday, for those of you REALLY aiming to live vicariously through me.

Wednesday:
1:12 p.m: skipped lunch, walked to apartment, went straight to sleep
4:30 p.m: woke up to a lot of noise, took a bath to ease the discomfort of elevated body
temperature
5:00 p.m: fell back asleep
7:00 p.m: woke up…thought about walking to dinner, realized walking anywhere was not
an option. Drank juice, went back to sleep.
9:00 p.m.: woke up…contemplated whether or not life was worth living if the pain in my
head never stopped…that’s being over dramatic, but damn was I in pain.
9:15 p.m.: miserably fell back asleep, body hot and aching, head throbbing

Thursday:
5:30 am: woke up…talked to flatmates about whether or not I should go to work or stay
home….decided to stay home. Fell back asleep
11:00 am: was kicked out of my bed by the cleaning crew…typed yesterdays blog
12:00 p.m: laid back down, slept
1:00 p.m.: walked to the villa to try and eat lunch…got there and wanted nothing
2:00 p.m: came back to apartment and fell back asleep
7:00 p.m: went to villa to try this whole food thing again…I ate a sandwhich and an apple
8:00 p.m.: went to bed


Friday:
6:30: woke up and took a shower

so there…from 1:15 p.m Wednesday to 6:30 a.m. Friday, I have been awake for maybe 3 hours, and have been sleeping for something like 35 hours? And even now, I feel like I could go right back to sleep. It’s Friday so no one works today…usually on Friday’s I like to lay out by the pool but the idea of being in the sun makes me nauseous. That is not good considering my field of work. After talking over some of my symptoms with the director and others, some think I may have actually had sunstroke/heatstroke. I guess it’s possible but I don’t recall it being particularly hot on Wednesday, maybe 85 or something. All I know is that I’m still tired but I don’t feel a complete inability to function, so I guess that’s an improvement. Also my appetite is coming back. This morning I woke up and made eggs and had some fruit.

The rest of the day will be spent in bed reading. Wish on my behalf that I can go back to work tomorrow :(

Some of you may or may not have noticed that I have been a little MIA on my blog. Those that did would have also taken notice to the phantom blog entry that was posted.

There are a few reasons to account for my extended vacation from the blog. First like I said, I just moved into a new apartment which doesn’t have the internet so my access time has been reduced. Sure I can drag my laptop to the villa and post, but sometimes the days just fill up and I just don’t feel up to it. Remember that I work 60 hours a week ☹ Also, a lot of people have joined the crew, mainly those who were previously working in Luxor, so now the Villa is pretty jam packed full of people, and when you’re the one huddled in the corner working on your blog while everyone else is cheersing and laughing, it’s a good way to alienate yourself from a group dynamic that is already about as perplexing as it gets…at least to me.

And the last reason I have been MIA. I had noticed myself getting increasinly tired and just run down over the past week, with just some minor cold symptoms- sore throat, runny nose etc. Well finally yesterday sickness rocked me to the core and I couldn’t even make it through the work day. I was unsure I would even make the walk home from the Villa. I had the most violent headache I have ever had in my entire life. I don’t think I will ever understand how that much pain could have been concentrated in an area of the body without having received some serious physical force or impact.. I felt as though I headbutted a safe…like my skull was clamped and being stretched, and slowly cracking open. I had lost my appetite by the time we came back to the Villa for lunch. I went straight back to my apartment to try and sleep. I crashed immediately for about 2 hours. Then shit really hit the fan. My body was radiating heat, my head still throbbed, and all I wanted to do was sleep longer. But Egypt knows no such accomodations and the noise only intensified everything I was feeling…the horn honking, call to prayer, the construction, the dogs barking, someone pounding on the floor or wall right above me…any form of loud, bothersome, unbelieveably inconvenient noise and activity that could have been taking place, was…there might as well have been a fucking train in my room. But the pain I was in and with how lowsy I was feeling I still managed to keep falling asleep and waking up every couple of hours. I would get up only if I had to use the bathroom or grab more water because standing really did seem like something my body just couldn’t handle. At one point my nose started bleeding.

So yes, I slept from 1 in the afternoon straight until 5:30 the next morning. Stood up hoping hoping hoping I could go to work. You do not understand how much I do not want to be missing work. I have one more square to finish and then I get to start digging again…and I get to excavate some really neat things…staying home and missing out on all of this, is enough to make me want to cry. But that’s probably what drove me to feeling so awful yesterday….when I woke up yesterday I knew I wasn’t feeling well but I went to work anyway, and sure enough, after some hours in the field, under the sun and in the heat, I was done in probably much worse than I would have been had I just stayed inside. Though I was feeling better in the morning, I stayed in just in case. My head did not hurt nearly as much, I could still feel the remnants of where the pain was yesterday…almost like a thunderstorm in my head, lightning bringing out flashes of pain which just yesterday persisted for over 12 hours, and which felt like they were never going to fade. I slept in until 11, which is saying a lot since even on my days off I wake up naturally between 6 and 7. I probably would have even slept later, however Thursday is the cleaning day for the apartment (of course it would be…of course it would be the day that I just want to be entirely left alone). So I woke up to a knocking on my bedroom door and was told that they needed to change the sheets…Really? Not only are you about to be in here and make noise while I’m trying to sleep and restore my health, but you are actually going to make me get out of my bed? I would have argued more had I not known that I really needed my bedding changed…yesterday I had gotten into bed straight from work because that’s how sick I was and so there was sand especially down where my feet were. Also, there was blood on my pillow from my nose. I got up to hydrate while they changed my bedding….you would have thought that they would have done my bed first and let me get right back into it…but no they did mine last…I call it the efforts to make kelly have a mental breakdown logic. Perhaps Egypt really wants me out of here…Finallly I get back into bed, wanting to just fall back asleep despite the fact that I’ve pretty much been sleeping the past 23 hours…and they start vacuuming….okay..I understand, it’s your job to clean this place once a week…but really..fuck, it’s Egypt, can’t you just wait until next week to vaccum? if you skip it out of courtesy to the ill it’s not going to make a damn difference…. there is sand and dirt everywhere, please stop stop stop stop. Yeah this really did kind of push me over the edge and I threw a little baby fit and started crying. Just those, “COME ON” tears…those can’t I get a break tears….those white flag I surrender I want off the ride tears. Those, gee I feel really sorry for myself tears. They didn’t last long because I hate crying. God I hate crying. Yesterday when I went to tell my area superviser that I wasn’t going to back out because of how sick I felt, the tears just started welling up…it just makes me feel so ridiculous…but I couldn’t even talk about not being strong enough to finish my work day without it really affecting me emotionally…sure I was also upset because I did feel really sick, but I was even more upset that I had to admit how sick I was out loud, that I had to admit that I didn’t have the energy to finish something I wanted to finish so badly yesterday.

I went down to the villa for lunch...still had no appetite...still feel worse than I thought I was feeling when I decided to walk over. Everyone says I look like death. Time to go back to bed.