Hello anyone and everyone. I feel like I should quickly offer up a few disclaimers. First, I don't shout 'yalla shababs!'* at my workmen, I'm generally very nice, although it would be such a fun thing to shout based on the way it rolls off your tongue. You should try it now. By the way, am I really stupid to not know we have a tongue bone? I was encouraged to not let people know I wasn't aware of this fact, apparently I'd lose 'cred' with the other members of my team. Who knows how many other ways I'm yet to lose the small amount of 'cred' I may be accumulating? I'll keep you posted.
My second disclaimer is that while I am archaeologising in Egypt, I'm not going to be writing specifically about the people I'm working with, nor give specific details on what's being found. The first one's for privacy and the second is because I don't own the rights to the information found on site. So I may have lured you all in with the promise of egyptological sweets and have now instead given you a kick in the pants. My apologies.
So I'm out of Cairo and am at the dig house at Amarna. Honestly, I was very relieved to leave the city on Saturday. I think I had a bad reaction to my typhoid/hep a vaccination I received the day before I left (moral of the story, don't leave these things until the last minute); I had high temperatures all week, swollen glands, and almost passed out a few times. This coincided with very hot weather and the festival of Eid, which meant drumming and air horns being sounded for over 24 hours outside my window. Normally an interesting cultural experience I'm sure, but to me it felt like hell. Possibly punishment for mashing Keith's vinegar egg in grade 2, who knows. But it was horrible and I cried a lot of frustrated sweaty tears and sent a lot of 'what the hell am I doing here?!' emails home.
Anyway, this isn't a whingy blog, suffice to say I was glad to shake the dust off my feet and leave Cairo behind. And then we were driving down the dirty street, past dusty apartment blocks and alley ways and broken buildings and oh yeah, there's the pyramids. And I got that excited squirmy feeling in my stomach and felt overwhelmed with how lucky I am. So the story has a happy ending!
Right now I'm sore and have sand in all sorts of inappropriate places, but I feel massively content. I've gotten soft thesising for so long! I can't even kneel on gravel for a few hours without wincing and shifting around like a damsel in distress. It feels really right that I'm here though, it feels so good to be digging and planning and recording and drawing, to be evaluating a site with my eyes, thinking of how to describe it and how it connects with everything else. I've also missed the camaraderie that comes with being a part of a team, from organising your site box in the morning, to sharing a meal together, discussing your trench, debating the next move, practicing Egyptian with the workmen, it feels really good. I drew my first skeleton yesterday, it was not that great but to be fair to myself, half of it had been pulled out of the trench and robbed and then shoved back in, so it did look pretty messy when we found it!
I got my visa extended in Minia for four months, so I won't be taken to some back room at the airport and be shouted at in Arabic and then never allowed to return. I also got a grope on the bum the same day, by some winking sleaze bag in the crowd, so I guess it was a 'you can stay in Egypt for longer but be prepared for what that may entail' kind of day.
That's about if for today I think. Except I was amused that the toilet paper here is called 'Romance'. I know whenever I think of the heady allure that comes with two people connecting in an intimate way, I also think of toilet paper. The two go hand in hand, obviously.
I'm going to attach some pictures, hopefully it won't use up all my Internet. Lots of love to everyone, I hope you are all enjoying the summer weather and getting some beach time and evening drinks in as much as possible.
My second disclaimer is that while I am archaeologising in Egypt, I'm not going to be writing specifically about the people I'm working with, nor give specific details on what's being found. The first one's for privacy and the second is because I don't own the rights to the information found on site. So I may have lured you all in with the promise of egyptological sweets and have now instead given you a kick in the pants. My apologies.
So I'm out of Cairo and am at the dig house at Amarna. Honestly, I was very relieved to leave the city on Saturday. I think I had a bad reaction to my typhoid/hep a vaccination I received the day before I left (moral of the story, don't leave these things until the last minute); I had high temperatures all week, swollen glands, and almost passed out a few times. This coincided with very hot weather and the festival of Eid, which meant drumming and air horns being sounded for over 24 hours outside my window. Normally an interesting cultural experience I'm sure, but to me it felt like hell. Possibly punishment for mashing Keith's vinegar egg in grade 2, who knows. But it was horrible and I cried a lot of frustrated sweaty tears and sent a lot of 'what the hell am I doing here?!' emails home.
Anyway, this isn't a whingy blog, suffice to say I was glad to shake the dust off my feet and leave Cairo behind. And then we were driving down the dirty street, past dusty apartment blocks and alley ways and broken buildings and oh yeah, there's the pyramids. And I got that excited squirmy feeling in my stomach and felt overwhelmed with how lucky I am. So the story has a happy ending!
Right now I'm sore and have sand in all sorts of inappropriate places, but I feel massively content. I've gotten soft thesising for so long! I can't even kneel on gravel for a few hours without wincing and shifting around like a damsel in distress. It feels really right that I'm here though, it feels so good to be digging and planning and recording and drawing, to be evaluating a site with my eyes, thinking of how to describe it and how it connects with everything else. I've also missed the camaraderie that comes with being a part of a team, from organising your site box in the morning, to sharing a meal together, discussing your trench, debating the next move, practicing Egyptian with the workmen, it feels really good. I drew my first skeleton yesterday, it was not that great but to be fair to myself, half of it had been pulled out of the trench and robbed and then shoved back in, so it did look pretty messy when we found it!
I got my visa extended in Minia for four months, so I won't be taken to some back room at the airport and be shouted at in Arabic and then never allowed to return. I also got a grope on the bum the same day, by some winking sleaze bag in the crowd, so I guess it was a 'you can stay in Egypt for longer but be prepared for what that may entail' kind of day.
That's about if for today I think. Except I was amused that the toilet paper here is called 'Romance'. I know whenever I think of the heady allure that comes with two people connecting in an intimate way, I also think of toilet paper. The two go hand in hand, obviously.
I'm going to attach some pictures, hopefully it won't use up all my Internet. Lots of love to everyone, I hope you are all enjoying the summer weather and getting some beach time and evening drinks in as much as possible.
There are no bones in your tongue. I just googled it to make sure, it was the third most common googled 'is there a bone in your...' question, number 1 being 'is there a bone in your butt?'. It's just muscle (your tongue that is, not your butt), one question answerer compared it to an octopus tentacle, which is kind of gross and now I'm a little freaked out. Yay for being part of a team and digging and drawing and also for not passing out! The site house looks kind of shonky, but I'm assuming it looks better on the inside? Looking forward to more vague updates about what's happening :)
ReplyDeleteThat's what I thought too! But is called the 'hyoid bone?' Or 'lingual bone' and its at the very base of your tongue! http://www.helium.com/items/1234126-what-is-the-tongue-bone I'm so glad to see that people google if your bum has a bone in it. I'll put up some images of inside the house, it's really lovely and all whitewashed walls with turquoise blue doors and windows. Thanks for commenting Louise, I wish you were here! You'd love it, I really think so xxx
DeleteWow! That shows how lazy my googling is! I think the answers I were reading were exasperated people explaining how there are no bones in the tongue itself. But now I know all about the hyoid bone, so thankyou!
DeleteI'm glad the dig house is lovely. We went to Emmeline's lecture last night and some past visitors to Amarna were bagging out the food quite badly, so I hope it's ok this year, tomato laden as it might be :)
I've just read your most recent post, but I'll comment here, your shark ponderings have poked the little bit of me that enjoyed thesis writing, so thankyou for that also! I imagine the thesis writing part of my brain as like the scene in Sunshine where Michelle Yeoh finds the tiny plant growing in the burnt out garden. It's still there, just a bit battered :)
And it is odd picking up and carrying around and stepping over pieces of skeleton, talking to them made it less weird for me, but maybe that's just me.
xxx