As a last message on my blog, I’ll give some very sentimental thanks to everybody. I’m sorry for those who don’t like sentimental stuff, but hey, sentimental is my middle name.
I would like to thank the following people :
The Dutch :
- Amy : Where to begin? Thank you for being such a wonderful and crazy friend, and for having listened to me when I needed it. Keep on twirking, I’ll really miss ya, shorty!
- Cathelijne : Thank you for being what I call “the mother of the group”, for always being there when we needed tissues, paperclips, a flashlight, ducktape or a supportive shoulder. Elvis Is!
- Kaz : Thank you for all the funny moments we had together (if you ever fail in egyptology, which I’m sure you won’t, you should become a stand-up comedian), for trying to learn to speak in my dialect, and for sharing my obsession with bubble plastic. Jatkaffe!
- Kenny : Thank you for putting some life in the group, and by jumping and climbing all the monuments, making us feel as if we were in one great Indiana Jones movie. And for making Ilona squeek. Keep up the German imitations!
- Sandra : Thank you for your down to earth comments, which I really needed sometimes. And for your patience with all those silly twentiers. Houston, we have a plummer!
- Steffie : Thank you for being a co-founder of the Toilet Club, and for always entertaining us with your hilarious sarcastic comments, at times we least expected them. I’ll try to watch some horror movies!
The Belgians :
- Ilona : Thank you for being such a great teacher and for giving me my motivation back. The Cairosemester couldn’t have had a better leader.
- Quentin : Dear Quentin, where to begin? I could write a book filled with thanks for you. I’ll just stick to the most important one : thank you for killing all the cockroaches! Yippiekayee, motherfucker!
The South-African :
- Koos : Thank you for introducing me into the wonderful world of geocaching, and for having taught me how to say “Helaas Pindakaas” in Suid-Afrikaans. And for making me realise that not ALL mathematicians are geeks. Ongelukkig grondboontjieboter!
The blogreaders :
- Friends : Thank you for reading my blog, posting comments and having travelled with me in your thoughts. Special thanks to Eva and Isabelle, for sending cards and packages, and for simply being there!
- Family : Thank you, Evi, Bianca, Bomma and Bompa for reading my blog and having sticked with me until the end. I’ve really missed you.
- Guillaume : Thank you, for supporting me, talking to me, coming to visit me and just being there in times when I needed it. I love you.
- Mama en papa : Thank you so much for the moral and financial support, for allowing me to study this crazy subject and for showing so much interest in what I’m doing.
And finally :
Thank you, Cairo, for welcoming me, for giving me some very wonderful and very aweful experiences at the same time. You really are one of a kind. Allahu Akhbar.
Thank you, Ancient Egyptians, for all the beautiful things you left behind for posterity. Even though a lot of people don’t know anything about you, know that there is a small group of crazy Dutch and Belgian people who have seen your monuments, and who were very touched by it.
So I say goodbye to Cairo, and to my blog. Thank you, internet, it made things so much easier.
vrijdag 25 december 2009
woensdag 23 december 2009
Goodbye
Since my last blog message I`ve been working on my paper all the time, and I finished it just in time today =) But the past nights have been a lot of fun as well. Monday night we all went to Aftereight again to dance, and I met with Yves, Cathelijne`s boyfriend, and Sophie, a friend of Steffie. We had a rel nice time, we saw the band Wust el Balad play again. Yesterday evening was our goodbye dinner. We ate at l`Aubergine, a nice restaurant. I had prepared little cards for everyone with thanks written on them, and I achieved my aim : I made Cathelijne and Steffie cry! Moehaha... Oh well, when afterwards they wrote some things back to me, I cried as well... And then when the inevitable goodbye came (with Kenny, Cathelijne and Steffie), we nearly all cried (not the boys of course :p)! Then this afternoon we were invited to a gardenparty by a friend from Ilona who works at the consulate of Belgium in Cairo. All the arabists from Leuven, Gent and Leiden were there as well. It was nice meeting some of them. I was there with Amy, Kaz, Sandra and Quentin. We had nice food and drinks. Now I`m sitting in Amy`s appartment typing this message, we all talk about different things, and no one wants to think about the eventual goodbye, which will probably arrive in an hour (I still have to pack). Booohooo This is not my last blog message, once I`m home I`ll write the very last message, to conclude this wonderful trip I had in the city of mosques, taxis, galabeyas and streetcats...
zaterdag 19 december 2009
Paper pains
Blaah! The fun is really over. This paper I'm writing is taking so much time, and I find it hard to write it in so little time, since I'm used to have like weeks and weeks to write a 10-page paper, but now I have to do it in a couple of days. Ah well, It'll probably work out fine. As usual (and that sounds arrogant, I'm sorry!).
The moments I'm not writing, I'm usually filling up with Amy, watching the series True Blood. It's an amazing series about vampires! I know, not my favourite creatures, but True Blood is just amazingly funny and horrible at the same time. I'm addicted. Check it out on Wikipedia.
Yesterday afternoon I've been with Amy and Quentin to the museum, because on Monday we have to give a little presentation about our paper subject, next to the objects in the Museum (mine are right at the entrance : little ivory human and animal figurines from Early-Dynastic period, so cute!). I was looking at my figurines and drawing them, when suddenly 2 French tourists came to see what I was doing. Since I was taking notes in English, they must have thought I couldn't understand French, because they said (in French of course) : "Ah, these figurines are clearly made of wood! And painted over with white paint! There's no doubt about that, very interesting!" Now, I don't mind people making mistakes (I make them all the time, and it is understandable they thought the figurines were made of wood, they had cracks), but I couldn't stand their arrogant way of saying how "clear" it was, "no doubt". Even we, students in egyptology and not tourists, don't even do that, if we haven't seen the objects before and are not sure. So I couldn't retain myself. I said, in my best French : "Excuse me, they are not made of wood, but of ivory. That's why they are in a special exhibition.". They looked at me and thanked me, and then went off.
Call me cruel or a tourist teaser, but I was stressed out by my paper :p! I promise I'll never do it again.
The moments I'm not writing, I'm usually filling up with Amy, watching the series True Blood. It's an amazing series about vampires! I know, not my favourite creatures, but True Blood is just amazingly funny and horrible at the same time. I'm addicted. Check it out on Wikipedia.
Yesterday afternoon I've been with Amy and Quentin to the museum, because on Monday we have to give a little presentation about our paper subject, next to the objects in the Museum (mine are right at the entrance : little ivory human and animal figurines from Early-Dynastic period, so cute!). I was looking at my figurines and drawing them, when suddenly 2 French tourists came to see what I was doing. Since I was taking notes in English, they must have thought I couldn't understand French, because they said (in French of course) : "Ah, these figurines are clearly made of wood! And painted over with white paint! There's no doubt about that, very interesting!" Now, I don't mind people making mistakes (I make them all the time, and it is understandable they thought the figurines were made of wood, they had cracks), but I couldn't stand their arrogant way of saying how "clear" it was, "no doubt". Even we, students in egyptology and not tourists, don't even do that, if we haven't seen the objects before and are not sure. So I couldn't retain myself. I said, in my best French : "Excuse me, they are not made of wood, but of ivory. That's why they are in a special exhibition.". They looked at me and thanked me, and then went off.
Call me cruel or a tourist teaser, but I was stressed out by my paper :p! I promise I'll never do it again.
woensdag 16 december 2009
Aftereight and Kashkoul murders
Monday night we all went to a club in Cairo, called Aftereight. Ilona had invited us there to have a dancing night (I know, our teacher took us dancing, hehe). It was a very relaxing evening (which we needed after all the working stress). First we saw a band playing life, called Wust el-Balad. Their music was a mixture of Arab and Latin music, with Jazz influences. It was one of the best life performances I've seen in my life. I'll go to Diwan tomorrow to try to find their CD. Then we danced the night away on some Arab pop music, which was so funny to do. Especially because we white people were nearly the only people in the club dancing! Apparently Egyptians come to a dancing club to talk, not to dance.
Then I slept at Amy's place, because it was too late for me to go home by myself (Quentin left before me).
The next days I spent working on my kashkoul, together with Amy and Quentin, while watching an episode of Xena, the Warrior Princess every now and then. Amy nearly got killed by her kashkoul, she hated it so much.
Right now I'm sitting in the library with Amy, Quentin and Kenny. I've just finished my kashkoul (ILHAMDULILLAH), so I can finally really start writing for my paper (which I have to finish by the end of this week, so it'll be a paper marathon, bouhou :'(
Until I've got something interesting to say!
Then I slept at Amy's place, because it was too late for me to go home by myself (Quentin left before me).
The next days I spent working on my kashkoul, together with Amy and Quentin, while watching an episode of Xena, the Warrior Princess every now and then. Amy nearly got killed by her kashkoul, she hated it so much.
Right now I'm sitting in the library with Amy, Quentin and Kenny. I've just finished my kashkoul (ILHAMDULILLAH), so I can finally really start writing for my paper (which I have to finish by the end of this week, so it'll be a paper marathon, bouhou :'(
Until I've got something interesting to say!
maandag 14 december 2009
Shocked
Oh dear. I've been working in the library all day with Amy, Quentin, Cathelijne and Steffie. Suddenly Ilona came in and told us some sad news. Kent Weeks (which is a well known Egyptologist, I've already read some articles by him), lives with his wife on a boat in the Nile. A couple of days ago, they had a party, and his wife bumped her head and fell off the boat. That night she was found by the Egyptian police, drowned in the Nile.
It was such terrible news. We've never seen Kent Weeks, but we were all very shocked and sad about it.
I just felt like sharing this with you. I wish Kent Weeks all the strength in the world and our condoleances.
It was such terrible news. We've never seen Kent Weeks, but we were all very shocked and sad about it.
I just felt like sharing this with you. I wish Kent Weeks all the strength in the world and our condoleances.
zondag 13 december 2009
Middle-Egypt trip : Appendix
The Journey of the Quotes
During our Middle-Egypt trip, various funny things have been said by people of my group. I’ve decided to write them down here. I realise that they will be ripped out of their context, but that’s the thing about quotes, they get even funnier out of their context!
- Ilona’s boyfriend Jeff had an amazing assigment for us inside a tomb at Meir : find a depiction of a man jerking off a bull (excuse my rudeness, it’s all Jeff’s fault). On which Kaz responded : “A live bull or a dead one?”
- “This tomb is quirky, but not like Sandra Bullock” (Amy)
- “What’s your name, scumbag?” (Kenny, to a child)
- “Crapuul !!!” (Cathelijne, to some very annoying children)
- Ilona : “Now if you see these blind harpers over there...”
Cathelijne : “They are NOT blind !!”
- “Where are the Middle Kingdom coffins? I need to burn them. I’m cold.” (Kaz)
- “Dear Akhenaton, not tonight, I have a headache. Nefertiti.” (Sandra)
- Amy gave us an assigment at her presentation, saying this : “So think about it, and then tell me. Or don’t tell me, and just think. Oh hell, be intellectual!”
- “The people in this country just get uglier every year” (Kenny)
- “I find it very interesting there’s a feather in the mudbrick.” (Kaz)
- “Mounkin excavate?” (Kaz) (Mounkin is the Arabic word for Is it possible to...)
- "Do the Baqet!" (Me and Amy, referring to an Egyptian dance we reconstructed in Baqet's tomb)
The next quotes will be in Dutch. Sorry for the people who don’t speak Dutch (yet, right Guillaume? :p), but it’s just not funny anymore if I translate it into English.
- Cathelijne : “Sla die ezel toch niet zo, sukkel!”
Kaz : “Het moet anders.”
- Ik : “Wat zouden Cathelijne en Kaz nu aan het doen zijn?”
Steffie : “Die liggen vast ergens te batsen in de struiken.”
During our Middle-Egypt trip, various funny things have been said by people of my group. I’ve decided to write them down here. I realise that they will be ripped out of their context, but that’s the thing about quotes, they get even funnier out of their context!
- Ilona’s boyfriend Jeff had an amazing assigment for us inside a tomb at Meir : find a depiction of a man jerking off a bull (excuse my rudeness, it’s all Jeff’s fault). On which Kaz responded : “A live bull or a dead one?”
- “This tomb is quirky, but not like Sandra Bullock” (Amy)
- “What’s your name, scumbag?” (Kenny, to a child)
- “Crapuul !!!” (Cathelijne, to some very annoying children)
- Ilona : “Now if you see these blind harpers over there...”
Cathelijne : “They are NOT blind !!”
- “Where are the Middle Kingdom coffins? I need to burn them. I’m cold.” (Kaz)
- “Dear Akhenaton, not tonight, I have a headache. Nefertiti.” (Sandra)
- Amy gave us an assigment at her presentation, saying this : “So think about it, and then tell me. Or don’t tell me, and just think. Oh hell, be intellectual!”
- “The people in this country just get uglier every year” (Kenny)
- “I find it very interesting there’s a feather in the mudbrick.” (Kaz)
- “Mounkin excavate?” (Kaz) (Mounkin is the Arabic word for Is it possible to...)
- "Do the Baqet!" (Me and Amy, referring to an Egyptian dance we reconstructed in Baqet's tomb)
The next quotes will be in Dutch. Sorry for the people who don’t speak Dutch (yet, right Guillaume? :p), but it’s just not funny anymore if I translate it into English.
- Cathelijne : “Sla die ezel toch niet zo, sukkel!”
Kaz : “Het moet anders.”
- Ik : “Wat zouden Cathelijne en Kaz nu aan het doen zijn?”
Steffie : “Die liggen vast ergens te batsen in de struiken.”
Middle-Egypt trip : Part 3
9/12 : Hermopolis and Tuna el-Gebel
We went to Hermopolis in the morning. It had some scattered remains of temples, gates, houses of different periods, but mostly Graeco-Roman all over the place. Ilona gave us a cool assignment : find the remains, describe what they look like and date them! In pairs. Amy and I went off, accompanied by a policeman (you can’t shake them off in Middle-Egypt). He was extremely nice to Amy, helping her across the stingy bushes, and completely ignored me, leaving me to get stung by the bushes! Amy and I did the assignment pretty good : we dated everything correctly, were nearly always right about what the structures were for and could read quite some hieroglyphs! It gave us a self-esteem boost.
Then we visited Tuna el-Gebel. Ilona first showed us around the famous animal galleries. It was quite spooky : underground corridors and rooms, stacked with pottery, animal remains and mummified baboons. Then Steffie gave her presentation : the tomb of Petosiris. Boy, I’ve never seen anything like it. The walls of this tomb were full of reliefs, I didn’t know where to look first. Petosiris probably lived at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period. His tomb has very Greek and even Persian influences. It was overwhelming, ugly and extremely beautiful at the same time.
At night Amy twirked for me and Kaz, and Kaz was impressed (which, if you know the guy, is impressive on its own! He’s never impressed!) I watched a Reese Witherspoon movie with Amy, called Just like heaven, and off to bed.
10/12 : Beni Hassan and Antinoopolis
After a weird dream about Alan Rickman showing me the way to the entrance of the London airport (guess it must be my fear of flying again, since within 2 weeks I’ll be on my plane home), we went to Beni Hassan. The tombs there were fantastic. They had wonderful wrestling scenes, offering scenes, feast scenes,... The colours were well preserved. I’m totally into the Middle Kingdom right now (although the Old Kingdom still has my slight preference).
Then we went to Antinoopolis, the city founded by Roman emperor Hadrian, after his loverboy Antinous drowned in the Nile. Elizabeth showed us around, because it has a lot of Coptic vandalism... sorry, Late Antique reuse. The site consisted of mounds filled with pottery sherds, everywhere you looked! We stepped on pottery sherds all the time! We found some real nice specimens.
To end the day we visited the remains of a Ramesside temple at Antinoopolis, which was beautiful. The sun was just going down, so I have some great pictures with the light just right. We decided to divide ourselves into groups according to our interests : Kenny, Cathelijne and Steffie the New Kingdom, me the Old and Middle Kingdom, Amy and Kaz every period, Ilona Early- Dynastic Period and Elizabeth Coptic trash. When Quentin was left over (he didn’t know which side to pick), he turned around to Elizabeth, saying : “I love the Late Antique Period. By the way, remember me if I ever apply for a job in the British Museum”. The hypocrite :p !
At night everyone went shopping, except for Kaz and me, because we were too tired. We spent the evening watching television (Zahi Hawas was talking in arabic about Obama!). When I was in the bathroom, the phone in my hotelroom rang, Kaz picked up and started laughing so much. Apparently someone asked : “Is this Ilona room?” 10 minutes later we knew what was going on : a guy stood at Ilona’s door with beer. Naughty Ilona!
When the rest returned from shopping, Quentin came in wearing a galabeya! With his beard, he looked like a real muslim!
11/12 : El-Hiba
On our last day we visited El-Hiba, where Sandra gave her presentation. It had remains from the Third Intermediate Period, like an enclosure wall with hieroglyphs stamped on them. I found a block bearing one of those stamps, and was very pleased with myself, that finally on the last day of our journey I actually found something. At Hiba the wind was so strong, Amy and Kaz had to hold me back from flying away off the rocks.
Then we went back to Cairo by bus, which took us several hours. We had one toilet stop, and all the girls spread into the mountains, it was a funny sight.
Back on 26th July street, we had some hard time saying goodbye to eachother. From now on the actual Cairo semester is done. We will spend the last 12 days working on our papers and kashkouls. The excursions, the fun, the visits and classes are over, which made us rather sad. When Kaz said “This is the end”, he nearly made Cathelijne cry.
Amy and I especially had such a hard time letting go of our Middle-Egypt trip (we slept every single night in the same hotel room), that I decided to come and sleep in her appartment. We talked until midnight.
Right now it’s Saturday evening (12/12), I’m sitting in Amy’s appartment typing my blog, she is working on her kashkoul, and the Jumping Sjeikh Choir (which is literally what it says : a choir of jumping sjeikhs) is on the television. I feel so grateful to have had this wonderful Middle-Egypt trip, and to have had all the previous trips in general (to the Delta, Alexandria and the Fayum). Now I need to gather my courage for the last week, to write my paper and finish my kashkoul. And then the eventual goodbye to everybody. But let’s not think of that yet.
Allahu Akhbar.
We went to Hermopolis in the morning. It had some scattered remains of temples, gates, houses of different periods, but mostly Graeco-Roman all over the place. Ilona gave us a cool assignment : find the remains, describe what they look like and date them! In pairs. Amy and I went off, accompanied by a policeman (you can’t shake them off in Middle-Egypt). He was extremely nice to Amy, helping her across the stingy bushes, and completely ignored me, leaving me to get stung by the bushes! Amy and I did the assignment pretty good : we dated everything correctly, were nearly always right about what the structures were for and could read quite some hieroglyphs! It gave us a self-esteem boost.
Then we visited Tuna el-Gebel. Ilona first showed us around the famous animal galleries. It was quite spooky : underground corridors and rooms, stacked with pottery, animal remains and mummified baboons. Then Steffie gave her presentation : the tomb of Petosiris. Boy, I’ve never seen anything like it. The walls of this tomb were full of reliefs, I didn’t know where to look first. Petosiris probably lived at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period. His tomb has very Greek and even Persian influences. It was overwhelming, ugly and extremely beautiful at the same time.
At night Amy twirked for me and Kaz, and Kaz was impressed (which, if you know the guy, is impressive on its own! He’s never impressed!) I watched a Reese Witherspoon movie with Amy, called Just like heaven, and off to bed.
10/12 : Beni Hassan and Antinoopolis
After a weird dream about Alan Rickman showing me the way to the entrance of the London airport (guess it must be my fear of flying again, since within 2 weeks I’ll be on my plane home), we went to Beni Hassan. The tombs there were fantastic. They had wonderful wrestling scenes, offering scenes, feast scenes,... The colours were well preserved. I’m totally into the Middle Kingdom right now (although the Old Kingdom still has my slight preference).
Then we went to Antinoopolis, the city founded by Roman emperor Hadrian, after his loverboy Antinous drowned in the Nile. Elizabeth showed us around, because it has a lot of Coptic vandalism... sorry, Late Antique reuse. The site consisted of mounds filled with pottery sherds, everywhere you looked! We stepped on pottery sherds all the time! We found some real nice specimens.
To end the day we visited the remains of a Ramesside temple at Antinoopolis, which was beautiful. The sun was just going down, so I have some great pictures with the light just right. We decided to divide ourselves into groups according to our interests : Kenny, Cathelijne and Steffie the New Kingdom, me the Old and Middle Kingdom, Amy and Kaz every period, Ilona Early- Dynastic Period and Elizabeth Coptic trash. When Quentin was left over (he didn’t know which side to pick), he turned around to Elizabeth, saying : “I love the Late Antique Period. By the way, remember me if I ever apply for a job in the British Museum”. The hypocrite :p !
At night everyone went shopping, except for Kaz and me, because we were too tired. We spent the evening watching television (Zahi Hawas was talking in arabic about Obama!). When I was in the bathroom, the phone in my hotelroom rang, Kaz picked up and started laughing so much. Apparently someone asked : “Is this Ilona room?” 10 minutes later we knew what was going on : a guy stood at Ilona’s door with beer. Naughty Ilona!
When the rest returned from shopping, Quentin came in wearing a galabeya! With his beard, he looked like a real muslim!
11/12 : El-Hiba
On our last day we visited El-Hiba, where Sandra gave her presentation. It had remains from the Third Intermediate Period, like an enclosure wall with hieroglyphs stamped on them. I found a block bearing one of those stamps, and was very pleased with myself, that finally on the last day of our journey I actually found something. At Hiba the wind was so strong, Amy and Kaz had to hold me back from flying away off the rocks.
Then we went back to Cairo by bus, which took us several hours. We had one toilet stop, and all the girls spread into the mountains, it was a funny sight.
Back on 26th July street, we had some hard time saying goodbye to eachother. From now on the actual Cairo semester is done. We will spend the last 12 days working on our papers and kashkouls. The excursions, the fun, the visits and classes are over, which made us rather sad. When Kaz said “This is the end”, he nearly made Cathelijne cry.
Amy and I especially had such a hard time letting go of our Middle-Egypt trip (we slept every single night in the same hotel room), that I decided to come and sleep in her appartment. We talked until midnight.
Right now it’s Saturday evening (12/12), I’m sitting in Amy’s appartment typing my blog, she is working on her kashkoul, and the Jumping Sjeikh Choir (which is literally what it says : a choir of jumping sjeikhs) is on the television. I feel so grateful to have had this wonderful Middle-Egypt trip, and to have had all the previous trips in general (to the Delta, Alexandria and the Fayum). Now I need to gather my courage for the last week, to write my paper and finish my kashkoul. And then the eventual goodbye to everybody. But let’s not think of that yet.
Allahu Akhbar.
Middle-Egypt trip : Part 2
7/12 : Asyut and Deir Rifa
I dreamed that Quentin was running away from an angry emoe, hehe.
Quentin and I were excited for this day, because we went to visit Asyut! We’ve already heard so much about the necropolis of Asyut during our classes in Leuven, because our professor Harco Willems is kind of specialised in First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom tombs. And Asyut didn’t disappoint us. The tombs of Ity-ibi, Djehutynakht and Djefaihapy were huge! One tomb was bigger than the 3 appartments of us students combined! They had some nice blue and red hieroglyphs, and depiction of soldiers (has to do with the turmoil of the First Intermediate Period).
Then we went to Deir Rifa, where Quentin gave his presentation. He told us about some more huge Middle Kingdom tombs, that had remains of paint and reliefs in them. He gave his presentation very well, and I’m proud of my Belgian collegue!
Then back to the hotel to eat and chill out at Sandra’s, Kaz’s and Quentin’s room with Amy, where we spent the evening singing Abba songs (we = Kaz and I, the rest just had to put up with it).
8/12 : Amarna
Today only one site on the program : Amarna, or Achetaton. Cathelijne is extremely interested in the Amarna period, so the moment the bus stopped at Amarna, she jumped out of the bus, shouting : “Come on, people, let’s go!”. We first took a picture of Quentin hitting Kenny in the famous pharao’s smiting pose one can see so often on temple walls.
Cathelijne gave her presentation about the private tombs at Amarna, and especially the tomb of Meryra, one of the officials who had been closest to king Akhenaton. She did it with so much enthousiasm, it was a pleasure to hear her talk. The tomb of Meryra was rather amazing. It had a really strange depiction of the sun : the sundisk with below it coloured rings. She told us about a theory that those rings represent a rare meteorological phenomenon, something with ice crystals. But the hell, we’re egyptologists, not meteorologists.
Then Kaz gave his presentation : the royal tomb of Akhenaton. We actually got inside the tomb of the heretic king! And it was a nice tomb : it resembled the well-known tombs in the Valley of the Kings, with a long underground corridor. We heard an interesting theory about Akhenaton’s daughter Meketaten having died in childbirth. I mention this because the following night, Amy dreamed that she was playing tennis with Meketaten.... in hell!
Talking about crazy Amy, she was next to give her presentation, on the boundary stelae by Akhenaton. The stela turned out to be a 7m high stone cut in the rocks. Despite Amy saying that her presentation was going to be confusing, it was a clear and interesting presentation.
For desert we took a walk around the premises of the ancient Amarna city. We saw the remains of the Great Aton temple, the North palace and the House of Life, where the famous clay Amarna tablets were found (Kaz found a new tablet, saying : “Dear Akhenaton, do you have any thins? Love, Mesopotamia”).
We went back to our hotel in El-Minya (still sharing a room with Amy). I spent the evening watching movies with my homies, and Amy talking about twirking (an American style of dancing, much like bootyshaking).
I dreamed that Quentin was running away from an angry emoe, hehe.
Quentin and I were excited for this day, because we went to visit Asyut! We’ve already heard so much about the necropolis of Asyut during our classes in Leuven, because our professor Harco Willems is kind of specialised in First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom tombs. And Asyut didn’t disappoint us. The tombs of Ity-ibi, Djehutynakht and Djefaihapy were huge! One tomb was bigger than the 3 appartments of us students combined! They had some nice blue and red hieroglyphs, and depiction of soldiers (has to do with the turmoil of the First Intermediate Period).
Then we went to Deir Rifa, where Quentin gave his presentation. He told us about some more huge Middle Kingdom tombs, that had remains of paint and reliefs in them. He gave his presentation very well, and I’m proud of my Belgian collegue!
Then back to the hotel to eat and chill out at Sandra’s, Kaz’s and Quentin’s room with Amy, where we spent the evening singing Abba songs (we = Kaz and I, the rest just had to put up with it).
8/12 : Amarna
Today only one site on the program : Amarna, or Achetaton. Cathelijne is extremely interested in the Amarna period, so the moment the bus stopped at Amarna, she jumped out of the bus, shouting : “Come on, people, let’s go!”. We first took a picture of Quentin hitting Kenny in the famous pharao’s smiting pose one can see so often on temple walls.
Cathelijne gave her presentation about the private tombs at Amarna, and especially the tomb of Meryra, one of the officials who had been closest to king Akhenaton. She did it with so much enthousiasm, it was a pleasure to hear her talk. The tomb of Meryra was rather amazing. It had a really strange depiction of the sun : the sundisk with below it coloured rings. She told us about a theory that those rings represent a rare meteorological phenomenon, something with ice crystals. But the hell, we’re egyptologists, not meteorologists.
Then Kaz gave his presentation : the royal tomb of Akhenaton. We actually got inside the tomb of the heretic king! And it was a nice tomb : it resembled the well-known tombs in the Valley of the Kings, with a long underground corridor. We heard an interesting theory about Akhenaton’s daughter Meketaten having died in childbirth. I mention this because the following night, Amy dreamed that she was playing tennis with Meketaten.... in hell!
Talking about crazy Amy, she was next to give her presentation, on the boundary stelae by Akhenaton. The stela turned out to be a 7m high stone cut in the rocks. Despite Amy saying that her presentation was going to be confusing, it was a clear and interesting presentation.
For desert we took a walk around the premises of the ancient Amarna city. We saw the remains of the Great Aton temple, the North palace and the House of Life, where the famous clay Amarna tablets were found (Kaz found a new tablet, saying : “Dear Akhenaton, do you have any thins? Love, Mesopotamia”).
We went back to our hotel in El-Minya (still sharing a room with Amy). I spent the evening watching movies with my homies, and Amy talking about twirking (an American style of dancing, much like bootyshaking).
Middle-Egypt trip : Part 1
5/12 : Beni Suef and Akoris
We left early on our Middle-Egypt trip, all excited to see the much promising sites. Ilona had brought a friend with her, Elizabeth, who is specialised in Coptic vandalism (to which she refers lovingly as Late Antique reuse) and works at the British Museum. Our first stop was at the Beni Suef museum. It had some nice pieces, like sarcophagi, tomb models and Coptic stuff. The director showed us some drawings of little children, who often come here with their teacher to learn about their cultural heritage. That surprised me a lot, since so far every Egyptian I’ve met who pretends to know something about his own country, goes like : “Ramses, Nefrtit, pyrmids!”.
Then off to Tihna el-Gebel, aka Akoris, where Kenny gave his presentation. It was such a cool site! It contained a rock-cut temple from the reign of Ramses II, and the rock was shaped like a lion! Hakuna Matata! Isabel, I have a message for you : I dropped the My Little Pony pencil in a shaft inside this very cool temple, and I made a film of it. I’ll show it to you once I get back.
At night we stayed in the Akhnaton hotel in El-Minya. I shared a room with Amy. We had dinner in Seven-Eleven, a restaurant with sweet decoration, but terribly slow serving and rather bad food, in my opinion. Elizabeth and Ilona ordered Fajita, which was just steaming hot, the smoke rose from it.
6/12 : Meir and Quseir el-Amarna
Zie ginds komt de stoomboot uit Spanje weer aan... That’s how we started the day, singing the famous Sinterklaas song in the bus. The Dutch people introduced me into the wonderful world of Pepernoten. Delicious!
First we went to the necropolis of Meir. We visited the excavations of Dr. Kanawati, who showed us the beautifully decorated Old Kingdom (jeej) tomb of Pepyanch. It contained wonderful coloured scenes of animals and offering bearers. We all climbed into shafts and burial chambers, very heroically. Then we took a look at the Middle Kingdom tombs, and I had to revise my whole theory about Old Kingdom is good, the rest is modern trash, because these tombs were AMAZING! Definitely one of the best things I’ve seen in Egypt so far. They contained beautiful paintings and reliefs of daily life : old people, African people, procreating animals, turtles and other wildlife, plants,... I became so enthousiastic about it that I just wanted to stay in these tombs forever.
Next we stopped at Quseir el-Amarna, to see some more Old and Middle Kingdom tombs, but they were less impressive. We got confused about the family history of the tomb owners; we mixed all the names up.
Then we got to the Akhnaton hotel in... Asyut. (With the ancient city of Amarna nearby, EVERYTHING is called Akhnaton in Middle-Egypt, so it seems) Asyut was described in my guide book as “Palermo on the Nile”, and “harbour to maffia and islam extremists”. We couldn’t move a foot without being escorted by policemen. Sandra and I wanted to get some water at a shop which was 5 metres from our hotel, across the street, and a police guy came to protect us! Quite handy, ‘cause he helped me carry my water =)
We left early on our Middle-Egypt trip, all excited to see the much promising sites. Ilona had brought a friend with her, Elizabeth, who is specialised in Coptic vandalism (to which she refers lovingly as Late Antique reuse) and works at the British Museum. Our first stop was at the Beni Suef museum. It had some nice pieces, like sarcophagi, tomb models and Coptic stuff. The director showed us some drawings of little children, who often come here with their teacher to learn about their cultural heritage. That surprised me a lot, since so far every Egyptian I’ve met who pretends to know something about his own country, goes like : “Ramses, Nefrtit, pyrmids!”.
Then off to Tihna el-Gebel, aka Akoris, where Kenny gave his presentation. It was such a cool site! It contained a rock-cut temple from the reign of Ramses II, and the rock was shaped like a lion! Hakuna Matata! Isabel, I have a message for you : I dropped the My Little Pony pencil in a shaft inside this very cool temple, and I made a film of it. I’ll show it to you once I get back.
At night we stayed in the Akhnaton hotel in El-Minya. I shared a room with Amy. We had dinner in Seven-Eleven, a restaurant with sweet decoration, but terribly slow serving and rather bad food, in my opinion. Elizabeth and Ilona ordered Fajita, which was just steaming hot, the smoke rose from it.
6/12 : Meir and Quseir el-Amarna
Zie ginds komt de stoomboot uit Spanje weer aan... That’s how we started the day, singing the famous Sinterklaas song in the bus. The Dutch people introduced me into the wonderful world of Pepernoten. Delicious!
First we went to the necropolis of Meir. We visited the excavations of Dr. Kanawati, who showed us the beautifully decorated Old Kingdom (jeej) tomb of Pepyanch. It contained wonderful coloured scenes of animals and offering bearers. We all climbed into shafts and burial chambers, very heroically. Then we took a look at the Middle Kingdom tombs, and I had to revise my whole theory about Old Kingdom is good, the rest is modern trash, because these tombs were AMAZING! Definitely one of the best things I’ve seen in Egypt so far. They contained beautiful paintings and reliefs of daily life : old people, African people, procreating animals, turtles and other wildlife, plants,... I became so enthousiastic about it that I just wanted to stay in these tombs forever.
Next we stopped at Quseir el-Amarna, to see some more Old and Middle Kingdom tombs, but they were less impressive. We got confused about the family history of the tomb owners; we mixed all the names up.
Then we got to the Akhnaton hotel in... Asyut. (With the ancient city of Amarna nearby, EVERYTHING is called Akhnaton in Middle-Egypt, so it seems) Asyut was described in my guide book as “Palermo on the Nile”, and “harbour to maffia and islam extremists”. We couldn’t move a foot without being escorted by policemen. Sandra and I wanted to get some water at a shop which was 5 metres from our hotel, across the street, and a police guy came to protect us! Quite handy, ‘cause he helped me carry my water =)
zaterdag 12 december 2009
Alive and kicking
Hi!
I've returned yesterday from my Middle-Egypt trip, and it was AWESOME !!! I haven't had time yet to write about it, so now I'm just sending you a message that I'm still alive and well, that my motivation has returned, that I'm really sad that the last trip is over and that I've got sooo much to say, that it'll probably take a couple of blog messages to describe it all.
So, watch my blog tomorrow, it should pop up during the morning.
Byebye
I've returned yesterday from my Middle-Egypt trip, and it was AWESOME !!! I haven't had time yet to write about it, so now I'm just sending you a message that I'm still alive and well, that my motivation has returned, that I'm really sad that the last trip is over and that I've got sooo much to say, that it'll probably take a couple of blog messages to describe it all.
So, watch my blog tomorrow, it should pop up during the morning.
Byebye
vrijdag 4 december 2009
2/12 to 4/12 : Work, work, work
The past 3 days I've done nothing really noteworthy. On Wednesday there was a workshop about seals at the NVIC. I've been to 4 lectures, and they were all boring. Oops, sorry Ilona if you should ever read this, but seals are just not my cup of tea!
For the rest of the days I've spent my time working on my kashkoul and my paper about Ivory Deposits. Nothing special. I've lost my motivation a bit. Not my motivation for the Cairosemester, because I still think it's great and I enjoy everything I learn, but my motivation to continue living in Cairo for 3 weeks. The people, the noise, the dirt in the streets, the difficulties with crossing the roads and nearly getting hit by cars, the hypocrisy of some Egyptians,impolite and dangerous taxi drivers,... It's making me just so tired. Luckily we will go on a one week excursion to Middle-Egypt tomorrow, far away from busy Cairo!
For the rest of the days I've spent my time working on my kashkoul and my paper about Ivory Deposits. Nothing special. I've lost my motivation a bit. Not my motivation for the Cairosemester, because I still think it's great and I enjoy everything I learn, but my motivation to continue living in Cairo for 3 weeks. The people, the noise, the dirt in the streets, the difficulties with crossing the roads and nearly getting hit by cars, the hypocrisy of some Egyptians,impolite and dangerous taxi drivers,... It's making me just so tired. Luckily we will go on a one week excursion to Middle-Egypt tomorrow, far away from busy Cairo!
donderdag 3 december 2009
26/11 to 1/12 : Guillaume in Egypt, Part 2
Sunday Guillaume and I spent the day again with Amy and Koos. Koos, who is very much into geocaching, just like Amy, knew that there were 4 geocaches hidden in the Wadi Degla protectorate. The what?, you will think. Don’t worry, we never heard of it either, and neither had our taxi driver. After a lot of searching and thanks to Koos’ GPS, we arrived at a beautiful piece of nature just outside Maadi. It was a protected mountain dessert area. The hills and plains, rocks and lizzards, brown bushes and silent wind made us all quiet. There was not a sound (at least, until suddenly Egyptian young people decided to have a barbecue in Wadi Degla and pumped up their music). Enthousiasticly I went on my first real geocaching adventure, and hopefully not the last, because Guillaume and I loved it so much, we’re going to buy a GPS!
We had to climb on very steep rocks, shuffle down again, look under every rock and behind every bush to find the geocaches, and it was sooooo much fun. It felt like, I’m sorry that I make the same comparison over and over again, Indiana Jones! Or a treasure hunter. The second cache we found was brilliant : a small old looking treasure box, filled with a pen, a miniature Santa Claus, key chains, etc. I put a Spiderman pen in it, to contribute. The third cache was really funny : Koos and Amy went up on a very steep rock, nearly falling down, and looked everywhere. Guillaume and I stayed down to rest a bit. It turned out the cache was hidden a metre away from where Gui and I were sitting, hehe.
Amy and I made a major egyptological discovery : the pyramid of Jatkaffe! We saw a pyramid shaped rock at Wadi Degla, and joked it was Jatkaffe’s pyramid. But it fitted completely, because at the bottom there were mudbrick structures (his pyramid temple), a royal sceptre, and a bit further away other smaller mudbrick structures (the worker’s village)! We decided we should call Zahi Hawas and Discovery Channel!
We enjoyed the view a lot, but most of all the silence. Just like in Abu Mina a few weeks ago, I felt my ears and my head resting a bit. I could calm down from the past weeks, filled with egyptological emotions, Cairo noise, work stress and illness.
In the evening I went eating in Pottery Café with Guillaume, Amy, Koos, Quentin and Sandra. Guillaume, Koos and I shared a shisha with apple tobacco. I had never tried it before, neither had Guillaume, and we thought, well, you only live once! I liked it a lot. The apple flavour wasn’t really my favourite, but it was just a lot of fun inhaling the smoke, and then blowing it out in the most stupid ways, like through your nose, in circles, in each other’s face... Yes, Guillaume and I can get a bit childish sometimes!
Monday was our last day together! And I had to spend the morning working on my museum assignments, which had to be handed in that day. Luckily it only took the morning. In the afternoon Guillaume and I could have some time together. We just stayed at the appartment and enjoyed eachother’s company. In the late afternoon we went to Diwan, a very good bookshop near my appartment, and I bought some fabulous books about Women in Egypt, the Hyksos Period and Sports and Games in Egypt. Then we went to see Kaz and Sandra at their apparment, so Guillaume could say goodbye to them (he had already said goodbye to the others at NVIC, when I was working there during the morning).
We took a meal in Pottery Café again, and we had a lot of fun. We decided to smoke a shisha again, because it was Guillaume’s last night, and well, you only live once! So he took a coconut flavoured shisha, and I took a mint flavoured shisha, and we made stupid videos about it.
Then by surprise we were joined by Sandra and Kaz, who wanted to eat as well. And Guillaume took another shisha with Kaz, cherry flavoured. That boy is getting addicted! I’ve smelled enough shishas for the next 10 years!
Tuesday was a sad day, because Guillaume left again, early in the morning. I dropped him of by taxi (this time at the right airport), and we said our goodbyes . After my return at home, I slept until noon. Then I spent the day cleaning, washing my clothes, working, doing the dishes, etc... A lot of things to occupy my mind, because I felt so sad Gui had left again. These past few days were like a dream, where I could share my passion for Egypt with Guillaume.
In an hour there is a lecture at DAIK, but I’m too tired and sad to go there. I’ll just stay on my couch, looking at the pictures, and trying to find courage for the remaining 3 weeks in Cairo, before I see Guillaume again. Ah, the pangs of love!
We had to climb on very steep rocks, shuffle down again, look under every rock and behind every bush to find the geocaches, and it was sooooo much fun. It felt like, I’m sorry that I make the same comparison over and over again, Indiana Jones! Or a treasure hunter. The second cache we found was brilliant : a small old looking treasure box, filled with a pen, a miniature Santa Claus, key chains, etc. I put a Spiderman pen in it, to contribute. The third cache was really funny : Koos and Amy went up on a very steep rock, nearly falling down, and looked everywhere. Guillaume and I stayed down to rest a bit. It turned out the cache was hidden a metre away from where Gui and I were sitting, hehe.
Amy and I made a major egyptological discovery : the pyramid of Jatkaffe! We saw a pyramid shaped rock at Wadi Degla, and joked it was Jatkaffe’s pyramid. But it fitted completely, because at the bottom there were mudbrick structures (his pyramid temple), a royal sceptre, and a bit further away other smaller mudbrick structures (the worker’s village)! We decided we should call Zahi Hawas and Discovery Channel!
We enjoyed the view a lot, but most of all the silence. Just like in Abu Mina a few weeks ago, I felt my ears and my head resting a bit. I could calm down from the past weeks, filled with egyptological emotions, Cairo noise, work stress and illness.
In the evening I went eating in Pottery Café with Guillaume, Amy, Koos, Quentin and Sandra. Guillaume, Koos and I shared a shisha with apple tobacco. I had never tried it before, neither had Guillaume, and we thought, well, you only live once! I liked it a lot. The apple flavour wasn’t really my favourite, but it was just a lot of fun inhaling the smoke, and then blowing it out in the most stupid ways, like through your nose, in circles, in each other’s face... Yes, Guillaume and I can get a bit childish sometimes!
Monday was our last day together! And I had to spend the morning working on my museum assignments, which had to be handed in that day. Luckily it only took the morning. In the afternoon Guillaume and I could have some time together. We just stayed at the appartment and enjoyed eachother’s company. In the late afternoon we went to Diwan, a very good bookshop near my appartment, and I bought some fabulous books about Women in Egypt, the Hyksos Period and Sports and Games in Egypt. Then we went to see Kaz and Sandra at their apparment, so Guillaume could say goodbye to them (he had already said goodbye to the others at NVIC, when I was working there during the morning).
We took a meal in Pottery Café again, and we had a lot of fun. We decided to smoke a shisha again, because it was Guillaume’s last night, and well, you only live once! So he took a coconut flavoured shisha, and I took a mint flavoured shisha, and we made stupid videos about it.
Then by surprise we were joined by Sandra and Kaz, who wanted to eat as well. And Guillaume took another shisha with Kaz, cherry flavoured. That boy is getting addicted! I’ve smelled enough shishas for the next 10 years!
Tuesday was a sad day, because Guillaume left again, early in the morning. I dropped him of by taxi (this time at the right airport), and we said our goodbyes . After my return at home, I slept until noon. Then I spent the day cleaning, washing my clothes, working, doing the dishes, etc... A lot of things to occupy my mind, because I felt so sad Gui had left again. These past few days were like a dream, where I could share my passion for Egypt with Guillaume.
In an hour there is a lecture at DAIK, but I’m too tired and sad to go there. I’ll just stay on my couch, looking at the pictures, and trying to find courage for the remaining 3 weeks in Cairo, before I see Guillaume again. Ah, the pangs of love!
26/11 to 1/12 : Guillaume in Egypt, Part 1
Hiya!
Past Thursday Guillaume came to visit me in Cairo. His plane arrived at 20:50 PM. I went to pick him up by taxi, together with Kaz,because his parents arrived with exactly the same plane (talking about coincidence). We had a problem though : apparently there are 2 airports in Cairo, an old one and a new one. Kaz and I didn't know. The taxi driver dropped us off at the old one, when it turned out Guillaume and Kaz's parents were at the new one, which is about 5 minutes by car. Luckily Kaz's parents had a minivan at their disposal as a hotel service, so they came to pick me up with it to drive me to the new airport. Finally I could be reunited with my love (nearly 2 hours later than planned!).
Friday was our first real day together in Cairo. I had to work with Quentin in the Cairo museum on our epigraphic assigment, but Guillaume came along with us, and I gave him a tour around the museum (very biased, because I spent much more attention to the Old Kingdom than any other period). Most of the day I spent working, and Guillaume wasn't feeling very well, because he had probably already eaten something wrong. Se he rested a lot to recover a bit. In the evening we planned to go to Amy's appartment. Everybody was invited to her superb... Thanksgiving party! Unfortunately Guillaume felt ill, so he couldn't join us. But I went anyway, hehe. Sandra had made an Egyptian style menu, here it is :
Thinsgiving menyu
(We are very sorry for entry the children. Thanks)
Quentin's spacy chicken with werid stuff
Koos' Suid Afrikaanse Bobotie
Amy's Nashed potatoes "Russian style"
Bébé Beau-nez's Southern style tea
Steffie's mascarpone pie without mascarpone
Exploding glasses
It was delicious!!! I ate so much that my tummy hurted for the rest of the evening. Bobotie is a wonderful South-African dish, which contains minced beef, eggs, milk and spices. Sounds weird but tastes incredibly good! We spent the rest of the evening waving at Amy's dad on skype, showing some Youtube videos and talking. Too bad Guillaume and Kaz weren't there (Kaz went out to eat with his parents).
Saturday we decided to go with Amy and Koos to the pyramids of Giza. It was nice to see them again. The weather was perfect : not too hot, a nice cool breeze, beautiful clouds. The salesmen hassled us, children shouted 'What's your name?', Guillaume and Koos took pictures with big cameras, Amy and I translated hieroglyphs... Is there any better way to spend your morning? The sphinx stayed calm and immobile with all those people running and shouting at his feet, and I felt great to share this with my boyfriend and those 2 crazy new friends.
Then Amy and Koos went on to Dahshour, but Guillaume and I went home, and I slept the afternoon away! I was so extremely tired of everything I've done the past month. I felt as if I hadn't slept for ages. We ate at home with Quentin and went to bed early.
Past Thursday Guillaume came to visit me in Cairo. His plane arrived at 20:50 PM. I went to pick him up by taxi, together with Kaz,because his parents arrived with exactly the same plane (talking about coincidence). We had a problem though : apparently there are 2 airports in Cairo, an old one and a new one. Kaz and I didn't know. The taxi driver dropped us off at the old one, when it turned out Guillaume and Kaz's parents were at the new one, which is about 5 minutes by car. Luckily Kaz's parents had a minivan at their disposal as a hotel service, so they came to pick me up with it to drive me to the new airport. Finally I could be reunited with my love (nearly 2 hours later than planned!).
Friday was our first real day together in Cairo. I had to work with Quentin in the Cairo museum on our epigraphic assigment, but Guillaume came along with us, and I gave him a tour around the museum (very biased, because I spent much more attention to the Old Kingdom than any other period). Most of the day I spent working, and Guillaume wasn't feeling very well, because he had probably already eaten something wrong. Se he rested a lot to recover a bit. In the evening we planned to go to Amy's appartment. Everybody was invited to her superb... Thanksgiving party! Unfortunately Guillaume felt ill, so he couldn't join us. But I went anyway, hehe. Sandra had made an Egyptian style menu, here it is :
Thinsgiving menyu
(We are very sorry for entry the children. Thanks)
Quentin's spacy chicken with werid stuff
Koos' Suid Afrikaanse Bobotie
Amy's Nashed potatoes "Russian style"
Bébé Beau-nez's Southern style tea
Steffie's mascarpone pie without mascarpone
Exploding glasses
It was delicious!!! I ate so much that my tummy hurted for the rest of the evening. Bobotie is a wonderful South-African dish, which contains minced beef, eggs, milk and spices. Sounds weird but tastes incredibly good! We spent the rest of the evening waving at Amy's dad on skype, showing some Youtube videos and talking. Too bad Guillaume and Kaz weren't there (Kaz went out to eat with his parents).
Saturday we decided to go with Amy and Koos to the pyramids of Giza. It was nice to see them again. The weather was perfect : not too hot, a nice cool breeze, beautiful clouds. The salesmen hassled us, children shouted 'What's your name?', Guillaume and Koos took pictures with big cameras, Amy and I translated hieroglyphs... Is there any better way to spend your morning? The sphinx stayed calm and immobile with all those people running and shouting at his feet, and I felt great to share this with my boyfriend and those 2 crazy new friends.
Then Amy and Koos went on to Dahshour, but Guillaume and I went home, and I slept the afternoon away! I was so extremely tired of everything I've done the past month. I felt as if I hadn't slept for ages. We ate at home with Quentin and went to bed early.
donderdag 26 november 2009
23 to 26/11 : illness and paradise
Good meurning!
The Fayum trip was awesome and terrible at the same time. I'll give a day to day account :
23/11 I woke up, very excited and happy to go to the Fayum. I went to the bathroom, and I fell ill again. Not as hard as a couple of weeks ago, but still... I decided I wouldn't be bullied around by these stupid bacteria, so I took a whole bunch of immodium and motilium, and off we went on adventure !
The bus had to stop twice for me... Haven't got any pleasant memories about the first 2 hours in the bus.
Then we arrived in Deir el-Naqlun. I felt nauseous. Kaz stepped out of the bus and dissapeared into the toilets. Then, Mr "I never get ill in Egypt" Muijlwijk came out again, and fainted. We both felt terrible, and we decided to stay and rest in the bus, while the others visited the hermitages in the Naqlun-mountains. Then we went to Hawara, and the bus had to stop twice for Kaz.
In Hawara we both got out to see the pyramid of Amenemhat III, the necropolis around it. But then Kaz was very ill again, so he went back to the bus. I stayed, but I didn't make it to the famous Labyrinth, because i felt like fainting. I didn't miss much though, the famous Labyrinth was just a pile of stones.
We stayed in a hotel at Medinet el-Fayum. I felt a bit better when we arrived there, so I went with the others to a pharmacy for Kaz, to get him the same medicines I had used a couple of weeks ago. I also brought him some rice to eat, and Flopsy (a blue little bunny my friend Isabelle sent me in her fun packet).
The I went to bed at 8:30 pm, and slept until 7:30 the next morning!
24/11 I felt a bit better, but still weak, for having eaten so little. Kaz felt better as well, but very drowsy because of the antibiotics (which you can get here in any pharmacy without prescription). We went by bus to Narmouthis. On our way we had an adventure : the bus was driving between 2 canals on a small patch of land. I was sitting on the right side, and when i looked down, I saw that the bus was driving only 2 cm from the side of the road! For 5 agonizing minutes I feared for my life. Then I realised to see the humour in it, so I put on some adventurous music (Pirates of the Carribean) and tried to relax. Kaz slept through it all.
Narmouthis was a great place. The Greek city was extremely well preserved, with a temple, dromos, houses, Roman villa, etc. My Graeco-Roman heart was pounding heavily. I rested a bit and went back to the bus a bit earlier than the rest, because my presentation was coming closer and I still felt weak and trembling. Then we went the same dangerous way back, and Mohamed, the driver, was under the impression that he could drive faster now, since we didn't have any accident before. Ilona squeeked a lot. Then we arrived at Dionysias, the town where I had to give a presentation. It was a bit dissapointing. I had expected that the Roman fort, bathhouse and houses were still intact, but there were just piles of unrecognisable stones. The temple was pretty cool, though. Completely intact, with a lot of tiny rooms and windy stairs, and a beautiful relief of Sobek and a Ptolemaic king. My presentation went well, I think. I wasn't nervous, and I didn't faint, which was quite incredible!
Then we drove to Tunis, a small pottery village, and we spent the rest of the evening in Paradise! We stayed in some huts, made of wood and reed and mud, and the surroundings were very idyllic! The Fayum is such a green place. We talked all evening, hitting each other every now and then to kill the million mosquitoes that tried to sting us. I learned a great new dutch word : potloodventer (salesman of pencils). It doesn't really mean a man selling pencils, but it means an exhibitionist. I was a bit confused, because I didn't know the word and I thought that Kenny was telling a story about a pencil salesman near the woods!
25/11 : I felt completely cured the next morning, despite my lack of sleep, because of the local minaret at 5 o'clock yelling Allahu Akhbar for half an hour!
We left early to go to Karanis. Everyone was tired of the trip, so Karanis was a bit too much. It was mostly a talk about prehistoric pottery, which frankly doesn't interest me that much, and a tour around the Graeco-Roman remains. I like the Romans and the Greeks, but 3 days in a row was a bit too much. We are egyptologists after all, and we were craving for some pharaonic remains. On top of that, Amy felt weak and Kenny nearly fainted! Even Kenny, whom I always thought was the toughest of us all! We were all just very tired and warm I think.
Then we went back to Cairo, and I spent the evening with Quentin, Amy and Koos, watching the Pixar film Up and the film Small Soldiers, while eating chocolate ice cream and Rotato chips.
Today I'm just in the library working and typing, and I'm really nervous, because Guillaume is coming this evening with Egypt Air, and I can't wait to see him!
The Fayum trip was awesome and terrible at the same time. I'll give a day to day account :
23/11 I woke up, very excited and happy to go to the Fayum. I went to the bathroom, and I fell ill again. Not as hard as a couple of weeks ago, but still... I decided I wouldn't be bullied around by these stupid bacteria, so I took a whole bunch of immodium and motilium, and off we went on adventure !
The bus had to stop twice for me... Haven't got any pleasant memories about the first 2 hours in the bus.
Then we arrived in Deir el-Naqlun. I felt nauseous. Kaz stepped out of the bus and dissapeared into the toilets. Then, Mr "I never get ill in Egypt" Muijlwijk came out again, and fainted. We both felt terrible, and we decided to stay and rest in the bus, while the others visited the hermitages in the Naqlun-mountains. Then we went to Hawara, and the bus had to stop twice for Kaz.
In Hawara we both got out to see the pyramid of Amenemhat III, the necropolis around it. But then Kaz was very ill again, so he went back to the bus. I stayed, but I didn't make it to the famous Labyrinth, because i felt like fainting. I didn't miss much though, the famous Labyrinth was just a pile of stones.
We stayed in a hotel at Medinet el-Fayum. I felt a bit better when we arrived there, so I went with the others to a pharmacy for Kaz, to get him the same medicines I had used a couple of weeks ago. I also brought him some rice to eat, and Flopsy (a blue little bunny my friend Isabelle sent me in her fun packet).
The I went to bed at 8:30 pm, and slept until 7:30 the next morning!
24/11 I felt a bit better, but still weak, for having eaten so little. Kaz felt better as well, but very drowsy because of the antibiotics (which you can get here in any pharmacy without prescription). We went by bus to Narmouthis. On our way we had an adventure : the bus was driving between 2 canals on a small patch of land. I was sitting on the right side, and when i looked down, I saw that the bus was driving only 2 cm from the side of the road! For 5 agonizing minutes I feared for my life. Then I realised to see the humour in it, so I put on some adventurous music (Pirates of the Carribean) and tried to relax. Kaz slept through it all.
Narmouthis was a great place. The Greek city was extremely well preserved, with a temple, dromos, houses, Roman villa, etc. My Graeco-Roman heart was pounding heavily. I rested a bit and went back to the bus a bit earlier than the rest, because my presentation was coming closer and I still felt weak and trembling. Then we went the same dangerous way back, and Mohamed, the driver, was under the impression that he could drive faster now, since we didn't have any accident before. Ilona squeeked a lot. Then we arrived at Dionysias, the town where I had to give a presentation. It was a bit dissapointing. I had expected that the Roman fort, bathhouse and houses were still intact, but there were just piles of unrecognisable stones. The temple was pretty cool, though. Completely intact, with a lot of tiny rooms and windy stairs, and a beautiful relief of Sobek and a Ptolemaic king. My presentation went well, I think. I wasn't nervous, and I didn't faint, which was quite incredible!
Then we drove to Tunis, a small pottery village, and we spent the rest of the evening in Paradise! We stayed in some huts, made of wood and reed and mud, and the surroundings were very idyllic! The Fayum is such a green place. We talked all evening, hitting each other every now and then to kill the million mosquitoes that tried to sting us. I learned a great new dutch word : potloodventer (salesman of pencils). It doesn't really mean a man selling pencils, but it means an exhibitionist. I was a bit confused, because I didn't know the word and I thought that Kenny was telling a story about a pencil salesman near the woods!
25/11 : I felt completely cured the next morning, despite my lack of sleep, because of the local minaret at 5 o'clock yelling Allahu Akhbar for half an hour!
We left early to go to Karanis. Everyone was tired of the trip, so Karanis was a bit too much. It was mostly a talk about prehistoric pottery, which frankly doesn't interest me that much, and a tour around the Graeco-Roman remains. I like the Romans and the Greeks, but 3 days in a row was a bit too much. We are egyptologists after all, and we were craving for some pharaonic remains. On top of that, Amy felt weak and Kenny nearly fainted! Even Kenny, whom I always thought was the toughest of us all! We were all just very tired and warm I think.
Then we went back to Cairo, and I spent the evening with Quentin, Amy and Koos, watching the Pixar film Up and the film Small Soldiers, while eating chocolate ice cream and Rotato chips.
Today I'm just in the library working and typing, and I'm really nervous, because Guillaume is coming this evening with Egypt Air, and I can't wait to see him!
zondag 22 november 2009
19 to 21/11 : Hooligans, Santa Claus and Coptic Cairo
On 19/11 I woke up at noon, went to the Alphamarket with Quentin and had breakfast at 13h30. Then to the NVIC, to have a lecture from Ilona about Archaeology in the Sudan, and to watch a BBC documentary on the Black Pharaohs. It was interesting to learn a bit more about ancient Nubia and its inhabitants. We ate very quickly at Beano’s, and then another lecture from Kento Zenihiro about funerary cones, and how we can use them to reconstruct the social hierarchy in the New Kingdom. He was very sweet, because after the lecture, he offered us a copy of his thesis on the subject. We gave it to Ilona, so that she can use it in the Institute.
Then we went to the Belgian night in La Bodega, a bar 2 minutes from my appartment, sponsored by the Belgian Embassy in Cairo. There were mostly Wallonians there. I talked all evening with Ilona, Quentin and Kaz on various subjects, and we met with a friend of Ilona, an Egyptian lady married to a Belgian man from Hasselt!
When we came out of the bar to go back home, there was a lot of turmoil in the streets : all the roads were blocked with tooting cars, screaming people and men all running towards the same direction : the west of Zamalek. It was a bit scary to see them run and shout like that. We asked an Egyptian what was going on, and he explained that there were fights at the Algerian Embassy, because of the aggressive football match from yesterday. I don’t really get it, because the Algerians won! So why would they make a fuss? The last thing I wanted was to get stuck in the middle of a hooligan fight in Cairo, so Quentin and I walked quickly home, where I tried to get some sleep, despite the incredible noise coming from the streets all night.
20/11 : More chaos in the streets today. The roads on Zamalek were all entirely blocked, and apparently there were riots at the Algerian Embassy all day. Luckily I didn’t need to get far away, so I didn’t notice a lot.
In the morning I went to work in NVIC, and I met some students from Leuven, doing their Cairosemester in Arab studies. We exchanged phone numbers. Then Amy, Quentin, Sandra, Kaz and I went to the Christmass bazaar in my street. Almost right in front of our appartment there is the All Saint’s Cathedral, where the Christian community of Zamalek gathers. They had a Christmass bazaar for charity. There were some nice kitschy things for sale, and also scarfs and bags with strange combinations, like Santa Claus feeding a camel. We talked briefly with Mike, the priest. He’s British, but he ended up being a priest in Cairo and doing charity at the cathedral. He was such a nice man. He said to me : “Ah, Belgian? Congratulations for Van Rompuy!” He also invited us for the Bible study on Sunday, but I don’t think I’ll go there :p
Then we went back to my appartment and Koos came as well, and we talked a bit, and Kaz and I popped bubble plastic, and then everyone went home, Quentin and I cooked and ate, and I worked on my kashkoul and watched Blackadder all evening.
21/11 : We visited Helwan this morning. There is a necropolis from pre- and early dynastic period. Two women, Christiana and Jane, gave us a tour around their excavations. We got to touch some ancient pottery, and we came to the conclusion that women are much more suited to work with pottery than men, because they have better eyes.
Then we went to visit the Coptic museum, which had some beautiful art and scary portraits of people with large eyes. Then Ilona went home again, and we, the students, visited some shops and the Coptic area of Cairo. It had small streets, very windy, and a beautiful but scary Christian cemetery, packed with angel statues smiling down upon us. It was a vampire-like place, and if it would have been night, I would have freaked out.
Then we took the metro back to Zamalek (the metro in Cairo is, surprisingly, very clean!), and we ate in McDonalds (I know, like real tourists).
Then I went to Amy’s appartment to chat with everybody. Quentin went home and I stayed to watch some television. Because it was already late and the streets were still in a bit of a riot because of the football hooligans, I stayed at their appartment. I watched television with Kaz until we just nearly fell asleep. The poor guy had to sleep on the couch, so that I could use his bed. Moehaha.
Now I’m one day further, and this morning, guess what I did? Yes, I watched some more television with Kaz. I’m starting to get addicted to the Arab soaps, because one of them has got really funny English subtitles! Some quotes from a Romantic conversation between a sjeikh and a woman :
S : I’ve written a poem for you! (Reads the poem)... You gave me a complete mutton barbecue!
W : I feel like in a family environment.
Now,... I don’t know whether the English subtitles of this conversation were all wrong, or whether the Egyptians have a very VERY strange way of being romantic.
Tomorrow I’ll go on a 3-day excursion to the Fayum oasis, where I have to give a presentation in the site Dionysias, so today I’ve finished my presentation in the library. I’ll write again once I’m back!
Then we went to the Belgian night in La Bodega, a bar 2 minutes from my appartment, sponsored by the Belgian Embassy in Cairo. There were mostly Wallonians there. I talked all evening with Ilona, Quentin and Kaz on various subjects, and we met with a friend of Ilona, an Egyptian lady married to a Belgian man from Hasselt!
When we came out of the bar to go back home, there was a lot of turmoil in the streets : all the roads were blocked with tooting cars, screaming people and men all running towards the same direction : the west of Zamalek. It was a bit scary to see them run and shout like that. We asked an Egyptian what was going on, and he explained that there were fights at the Algerian Embassy, because of the aggressive football match from yesterday. I don’t really get it, because the Algerians won! So why would they make a fuss? The last thing I wanted was to get stuck in the middle of a hooligan fight in Cairo, so Quentin and I walked quickly home, where I tried to get some sleep, despite the incredible noise coming from the streets all night.
20/11 : More chaos in the streets today. The roads on Zamalek were all entirely blocked, and apparently there were riots at the Algerian Embassy all day. Luckily I didn’t need to get far away, so I didn’t notice a lot.
In the morning I went to work in NVIC, and I met some students from Leuven, doing their Cairosemester in Arab studies. We exchanged phone numbers. Then Amy, Quentin, Sandra, Kaz and I went to the Christmass bazaar in my street. Almost right in front of our appartment there is the All Saint’s Cathedral, where the Christian community of Zamalek gathers. They had a Christmass bazaar for charity. There were some nice kitschy things for sale, and also scarfs and bags with strange combinations, like Santa Claus feeding a camel. We talked briefly with Mike, the priest. He’s British, but he ended up being a priest in Cairo and doing charity at the cathedral. He was such a nice man. He said to me : “Ah, Belgian? Congratulations for Van Rompuy!” He also invited us for the Bible study on Sunday, but I don’t think I’ll go there :p
Then we went back to my appartment and Koos came as well, and we talked a bit, and Kaz and I popped bubble plastic, and then everyone went home, Quentin and I cooked and ate, and I worked on my kashkoul and watched Blackadder all evening.
21/11 : We visited Helwan this morning. There is a necropolis from pre- and early dynastic period. Two women, Christiana and Jane, gave us a tour around their excavations. We got to touch some ancient pottery, and we came to the conclusion that women are much more suited to work with pottery than men, because they have better eyes.
Then we went to visit the Coptic museum, which had some beautiful art and scary portraits of people with large eyes. Then Ilona went home again, and we, the students, visited some shops and the Coptic area of Cairo. It had small streets, very windy, and a beautiful but scary Christian cemetery, packed with angel statues smiling down upon us. It was a vampire-like place, and if it would have been night, I would have freaked out.
Then we took the metro back to Zamalek (the metro in Cairo is, surprisingly, very clean!), and we ate in McDonalds (I know, like real tourists).
Then I went to Amy’s appartment to chat with everybody. Quentin went home and I stayed to watch some television. Because it was already late and the streets were still in a bit of a riot because of the football hooligans, I stayed at their appartment. I watched television with Kaz until we just nearly fell asleep. The poor guy had to sleep on the couch, so that I could use his bed. Moehaha.
Now I’m one day further, and this morning, guess what I did? Yes, I watched some more television with Kaz. I’m starting to get addicted to the Arab soaps, because one of them has got really funny English subtitles! Some quotes from a Romantic conversation between a sjeikh and a woman :
S : I’ve written a poem for you! (Reads the poem)... You gave me a complete mutton barbecue!
W : I feel like in a family environment.
Now,... I don’t know whether the English subtitles of this conversation were all wrong, or whether the Egyptians have a very VERY strange way of being romantic.
Tomorrow I’ll go on a 3-day excursion to the Fayum oasis, where I have to give a presentation in the site Dionysias, so today I’ve finished my presentation in the library. I’ll write again once I’m back!
16 to 18/11 : Candy, Fame and Red Tape
16/11 was a study day. In the morning I went to the NVIC with my laptop, I talked to Guillaume, wrote on my blog and worked on my museum assignment. After eating pancakes at Beano’s, I started reading an article for tomorrow, when we have a workshop on Early Egypt at Cairo University. My article was clear and interesting (about royal mastabas from the 1st Dynasty in Saqqara, by Stan Hendrickx), but Amy’s (who sat in the same room) was sheer disaster. She had some real difficulties with the blurry contents.
I had received a package by my philosophical friend Isabelle (thank you, Isa!), containing, amongst many other hilarious things, a bag of candy! To motivate ourselves reading our articles, Quentin, Amy and I rewarded ourselves with a bit of candy every time we read a certain amount of pages.
In the evening we ate and watched the Big Bang theory, and I felt a bit nauseous because of all the candy.
On 17/11 we had a workshop on Early Egypt at Cairo University. We were welcomed by Dr. Tarek Tawfik, who teaches there. In Egypt egyptology is a very popular study, Dr. Tawfik said he teaches about 1500 students a year! Most of them end up as an inspector at sites or working for the SCA.
Then we took a look at their small museum collection (which had a lot of English mistakes again, and even an amulet of Sarapis being shown uside down!). All the time a photographer was flashing our eyes blind. 8 students from Cairo University joined us, and several group pictures were taken. Then we walked to an aula for 2 lectures from Ilona and Dr. Tawfik, and on our way the students outside looked at us with awe : foreigners on their campus! Lectures done, door opened again : HUNDREDS of students were gathered in front of the door! Tawfik cried to make way for us, so they formed some sort of honorary lawn. When we walked through, all eyes were on us, and they were fighting each other to have a better look. I felt famous. After lunch and a nice chat with some of the 8 Egyptian students (Ahmed and Ghaida were very sweet), we had discussions about some very egyptological things, that wouldn’t interest you readers.
On 18/11 Quentin, Steffie, Cathelijne, Kenny and I had to go through some red tape : renew our visas. We went to the Mugamma (Department for visas & residence etc) at Midan Tahrir. There’s only one word to describe what was going on in this building : CHAOS ! People were fighting to get in front of a guichet, then downstairs, then another guichet, down again, back to guichet number 1,... It all felt like in the movie of Astérix et les 12 travaux. Finally we had everything we needed, the woman took our form and passports and said : ‘Come back in 2 hours’. I thought : ‘I’ll never see my passport again’.
To kill the time, Cathelijne, Steffie and I went to the Egyptian museum, where each of us watched our favourite period (Old Kingdom for me, of course). Once more I felt famous. A group of school girls ran to us, wanting to take pictures. I think I posed with at least 5 completely unknown Arab girls. They also asked our e-mail adress, although I fail to see how they will contact us, because they barely spoke English. One girl asked whether Steffie and I were twins, because apparently we look so much alike! Steffie is a head shorter than me, has red hair and bright blue eyes.
Back at Mugamma, we fought our way to guichet 38, and our passports were ready. Renewed not for one month, as I asked, but for 5 months! Oh well, it only cost me 11 pounds (about 1,20 euros).
Then at our appartment Sanaa Khalil came and we paid the rent for the 2nd month. I worked the entire afternoon on my kashkoul. In the evening I went for the first time to Steffie, Cathelijne and Kenny’s appartment to watch TV. Everyone was there (except for Quentin), including Amy’s boyfriend Koos, who arrived on Tuesday morning. Koos is South-African, and his name’s pronounced Kwez (or something). He talks this really funny South-African Dutch. We can understand each other, but only if we speak slowly, so mostly we just talk English.
We watched a very aggressive football match (Egypt-Algeria rematch) : 9 yellow cards and 3 really hurt players taken off the field. Then a boring golf movie with Kevin Costner and a part of the Stepford Wives, all with Arab subtitles (luckily they don’t dub here).
Then Amy and Koos walked me home, bless their hearts!
I had received a package by my philosophical friend Isabelle (thank you, Isa!), containing, amongst many other hilarious things, a bag of candy! To motivate ourselves reading our articles, Quentin, Amy and I rewarded ourselves with a bit of candy every time we read a certain amount of pages.
In the evening we ate and watched the Big Bang theory, and I felt a bit nauseous because of all the candy.
On 17/11 we had a workshop on Early Egypt at Cairo University. We were welcomed by Dr. Tarek Tawfik, who teaches there. In Egypt egyptology is a very popular study, Dr. Tawfik said he teaches about 1500 students a year! Most of them end up as an inspector at sites or working for the SCA.
Then we took a look at their small museum collection (which had a lot of English mistakes again, and even an amulet of Sarapis being shown uside down!). All the time a photographer was flashing our eyes blind. 8 students from Cairo University joined us, and several group pictures were taken. Then we walked to an aula for 2 lectures from Ilona and Dr. Tawfik, and on our way the students outside looked at us with awe : foreigners on their campus! Lectures done, door opened again : HUNDREDS of students were gathered in front of the door! Tawfik cried to make way for us, so they formed some sort of honorary lawn. When we walked through, all eyes were on us, and they were fighting each other to have a better look. I felt famous. After lunch and a nice chat with some of the 8 Egyptian students (Ahmed and Ghaida were very sweet), we had discussions about some very egyptological things, that wouldn’t interest you readers.
On 18/11 Quentin, Steffie, Cathelijne, Kenny and I had to go through some red tape : renew our visas. We went to the Mugamma (Department for visas & residence etc) at Midan Tahrir. There’s only one word to describe what was going on in this building : CHAOS ! People were fighting to get in front of a guichet, then downstairs, then another guichet, down again, back to guichet number 1,... It all felt like in the movie of Astérix et les 12 travaux. Finally we had everything we needed, the woman took our form and passports and said : ‘Come back in 2 hours’. I thought : ‘I’ll never see my passport again’.
To kill the time, Cathelijne, Steffie and I went to the Egyptian museum, where each of us watched our favourite period (Old Kingdom for me, of course). Once more I felt famous. A group of school girls ran to us, wanting to take pictures. I think I posed with at least 5 completely unknown Arab girls. They also asked our e-mail adress, although I fail to see how they will contact us, because they barely spoke English. One girl asked whether Steffie and I were twins, because apparently we look so much alike! Steffie is a head shorter than me, has red hair and bright blue eyes.
Back at Mugamma, we fought our way to guichet 38, and our passports were ready. Renewed not for one month, as I asked, but for 5 months! Oh well, it only cost me 11 pounds (about 1,20 euros).
Then at our appartment Sanaa Khalil came and we paid the rent for the 2nd month. I worked the entire afternoon on my kashkoul. In the evening I went for the first time to Steffie, Cathelijne and Kenny’s appartment to watch TV. Everyone was there (except for Quentin), including Amy’s boyfriend Koos, who arrived on Tuesday morning. Koos is South-African, and his name’s pronounced Kwez (or something). He talks this really funny South-African Dutch. We can understand each other, but only if we speak slowly, so mostly we just talk English.
We watched a very aggressive football match (Egypt-Algeria rematch) : 9 yellow cards and 3 really hurt players taken off the field. Then a boring golf movie with Kevin Costner and a part of the Stepford Wives, all with Arab subtitles (luckily they don’t dub here).
Then Amy and Koos walked me home, bless their hearts!
maandag 16 november 2009
15/11 and 16/11 : Olé olé olé olééé
Masr! Masr! Masr! This was the cry in the streets ALL NIGHT LONG after the Egyptians won from Algeria with 2-0. Actually it was quite a boring game, but the outburst of the Egyptians in bar Picasso was just hilarious! I made a film of it. The men were crying! It was nice to notice that, instead of cursing when something went wrong, they clapped their hands. How polite!
Yesterday we went to Abusir. We got a tour by a Czech egyptologist, whom all the girls were listening to with much attention, because he was just a very beautiful man. We visited the piramids of Niuserre, Neferirkare and the tomb of Ptahshepses. Extremely beautiful, but hey, what can I say... I have a crush on the Old Kingdom tombs! My collegues all climbed a pyramid, and Sandra and I stood downstairs to take pictures of them waving very happily! I meditated a bit in the sand. There was a lot of wind that day, and it felt great to sit still in the sound of the wind, and imagine an ancient civilization on those grounds. I guess I get a bit new age-y when I'm near piramids.
Then we visted Memphis, but there isn't a lot left of it, except for some huge statues of Ramses II, an alabaster sphinx, a sarcophagus and some stones. Still it was interesting. We got a nice idea of how big the city must have been. We visited the remains of the palace of Apries, and I very elegantly fell on my buttocks when trying to descend a steep hill.
Back home I talked to Guillaume, and I met up with the Dutch people (without Quentin) in Pottery's café, then had a takeway pizza and went to Kaz's appartment to eat it. I spent the rest of the night with Sandra, Amy and Kaz, zapping on their TV, dubbing Arabic soaps (who has a lot of camera zoomings, it made us nauseous), and watching a depressive Korean short story (spoken Korean, subtitled Arabic, and still we understood more or less what was going on... we rock!).
Yesterday we went to Abusir. We got a tour by a Czech egyptologist, whom all the girls were listening to with much attention, because he was just a very beautiful man. We visited the piramids of Niuserre, Neferirkare and the tomb of Ptahshepses. Extremely beautiful, but hey, what can I say... I have a crush on the Old Kingdom tombs! My collegues all climbed a pyramid, and Sandra and I stood downstairs to take pictures of them waving very happily! I meditated a bit in the sand. There was a lot of wind that day, and it felt great to sit still in the sound of the wind, and imagine an ancient civilization on those grounds. I guess I get a bit new age-y when I'm near piramids.
Then we visted Memphis, but there isn't a lot left of it, except for some huge statues of Ramses II, an alabaster sphinx, a sarcophagus and some stones. Still it was interesting. We got a nice idea of how big the city must have been. We visited the remains of the palace of Apries, and I very elegantly fell on my buttocks when trying to descend a steep hill.
Back home I talked to Guillaume, and I met up with the Dutch people (without Quentin) in Pottery's café, then had a takeway pizza and went to Kaz's appartment to eat it. I spent the rest of the night with Sandra, Amy and Kaz, zapping on their TV, dubbing Arabic soaps (who has a lot of camera zoomings, it made us nauseous), and watching a depressive Korean short story (spoken Korean, subtitled Arabic, and still we understood more or less what was going on... we rock!).
13/11 to 14/11 : Lazy days
I finally had a real weekend! Friday I wanted to work on my presentation in the library, but I ended up talking with Guillaume on msn and writing on my blog almost the entire morning. In the afternoon I went shopping with Amy. We past by amazing little shops, where we bought some souvenirs and gifts for our families. The shops had a lot of tiny things that were funny and never too kitschy. I had a really good time with Amy, we get alon very well. She's such a funny, open-hearted and witty American girl. I think that the word 'yippie' describes her best (I don't know why, it's just a sound that suits her).
In the evening she ate at my appartment (as a well trained fiancé, Quentin cooked for us, extremely good!). Then we talked the evening away with Amy, Sandra and Kaz, about many things, like Pokemon, whether Hatsjepsut was a good ruler or not (the girls said yes, the boys no), and horror movies. All this over a glass of wine. We tend to get very silly when we talk.
Saturday I woke up at noon. Hmmm lazy day. I first talked a lot to Guillaume on th phone. It feels so good every time to hear his voice. The distance is hard, even though we are a bit used to it. I'll be so happy when he comes (on the 26th of november, I'm counting the days!).
Then I started working on my presentation, but I was tired and my head was full of everything I've seen the past month, that I have some difficulties to concentrate on my work. Luckily next week will be a bit less busy than the past weeks, so I'll be able to breathe and start working on my paper and presentation.
Yesterday Quentin and I met Sanaa Khalil on the ground floor of our appartment block. Remember her? The woman who helped us find an appartment. She stood there waving with an Egyptian flag, because tonight (14/11) there is a very important football game : Egypt - Algeria. The outcome will sort of decide whether Egypt will be qualified for the World Cup. When Amy and I did some shopping yesterday, we saw many people already tooting in their cars with flags. The Egyptiands love football. I once got inside a taxi with some Dutch people and this is how the conversation went :
Driver : "Welcome to Egypt! Where are you from?"
Kaz : "We're from Holland, and she's from Belgium."
Driver : "Aah, Holland : Ajax! Belgium : Anderlecht!"
It is very funny to see the people here getting all excited about it. Normally I don't like all the football craziness in Belgium, but here I can understand it. Most Egyptians are way too poor to spend a night (or day) out, like theatre, concert, go dancing, even go and see the piramids. It is too expensive. Watching football wth your friends on TV in a bar is free, so I can understand very well that for them it is a great occasion to go out and have fun. We decided to go and watch the game tonight in a local bar. Get some couleur locale, as they say!
Well, so far for my lazy weekend. Tomorrow we're going on an excursion again, and I'm sure I will have a lot to say again once I'm back!
In the evening she ate at my appartment (as a well trained fiancé, Quentin cooked for us, extremely good!). Then we talked the evening away with Amy, Sandra and Kaz, about many things, like Pokemon, whether Hatsjepsut was a good ruler or not (the girls said yes, the boys no), and horror movies. All this over a glass of wine. We tend to get very silly when we talk.
Saturday I woke up at noon. Hmmm lazy day. I first talked a lot to Guillaume on th phone. It feels so good every time to hear his voice. The distance is hard, even though we are a bit used to it. I'll be so happy when he comes (on the 26th of november, I'm counting the days!).
Then I started working on my presentation, but I was tired and my head was full of everything I've seen the past month, that I have some difficulties to concentrate on my work. Luckily next week will be a bit less busy than the past weeks, so I'll be able to breathe and start working on my paper and presentation.
Yesterday Quentin and I met Sanaa Khalil on the ground floor of our appartment block. Remember her? The woman who helped us find an appartment. She stood there waving with an Egyptian flag, because tonight (14/11) there is a very important football game : Egypt - Algeria. The outcome will sort of decide whether Egypt will be qualified for the World Cup. When Amy and I did some shopping yesterday, we saw many people already tooting in their cars with flags. The Egyptiands love football. I once got inside a taxi with some Dutch people and this is how the conversation went :
Driver : "Welcome to Egypt! Where are you from?"
Kaz : "We're from Holland, and she's from Belgium."
Driver : "Aah, Holland : Ajax! Belgium : Anderlecht!"
It is very funny to see the people here getting all excited about it. Normally I don't like all the football craziness in Belgium, but here I can understand it. Most Egyptians are way too poor to spend a night (or day) out, like theatre, concert, go dancing, even go and see the piramids. It is too expensive. Watching football wth your friends on TV in a bar is free, so I can understand very well that for them it is a great occasion to go out and have fun. We decided to go and watch the game tonight in a local bar. Get some couleur locale, as they say!
Well, so far for my lazy weekend. Tomorrow we're going on an excursion again, and I'm sure I will have a lot to say again once I'm back!
vrijdag 13 november 2009
9/11 to 12/11 : Alexandrie, Alexandra
I've been on a 3-day trip to Alexandria the past few days. Well, we slept in a hotel in Alexandria, but we actually visited places not far from the great city.
Monday we first visited Cultnat, which is a documentation department for the cultural and natural heritage of Egypt, sponsored by the ministery. They have an amazing website, where you can see some very old pictures of the monuments. We also saw an exhibition about ancient islamic astronomy (waterclocks, celestial globes, sundials,...). After Cultnat we visited Abu Mina, where there are the remains of an egyptian church, with baths and residences around it. There wasn't a single sound in Abu Mina, and I enjoyed the silence so much. It almost made me religious (If I would have stayed there any longer, I would have returned a baptised Copt)! The Cairene noise and hustle often gets me on my nerves. I never seem to have any silence in Cairo, no matter where I am. Anyway, so far for my spiritual moment :p What was really cool in Abu Mina, was what Amy did : she found in the ground an entirely intact graeco-roman bottle! What an archaeological find!!! I was so jealous! We all photografied her with it, and then she put it back where she found it (as good egyptologist we wouldn't dream of removing it from it's spot without a decent excavation going on...)
Tuesday we went to Taposiris Magna. We saw the remains of the temple of Isis, and the necropolis behind it. Everyone, except for me and Sandra, climbed on top of the pylon of the temple, woth a lot of 'eeeks' and 'hihihiiiis'. It was funny to see them wave from above. I can't stop comparing our journey in Egypt to a weird Indiana Jones movie. We even climbed into a shaft to see 2 mummies lying 10cm from us! It was amazing to see them. In the wall there was also a baby skeleton, so sad!
In the afternoon we were free in Alexandria to do what we liked. I had to choose between so many things, because I ony had time to do one thing : the catacombs, the museum, the roman theatre, the villa of the birds,... We all chose to go to the catacombs, because they are very unique. And my travel guide said they combined spookiness and kitsch... Perfect for us!
The catacombs were less big than I imagined, but it was amazing anyhow. All those tombs next to each other... It was as if walking in a different world. There was absolutely no sound, except for the lights zooming a bit. My travel guide was right : spooky and kitsch! The catacombs date from the 2nd century AD, and the greeks and romans buried in here, tried to make a combination of Roman and Egyptian art style : hilarious! Anubis in Roman armour, Isis with Greek garments, an Egyptian statue with Roman head,... Hehe, i love the Romans. The air inside the catacombs was very thin, after a while I started to breath heavily. Ilona came a bit later than us to the catacombs, and Kenny made her scream, by sneaking up on her from behind, haha! Ilona is so cute when she shrieks.
In the evening I went with Amy, Sandra and Kaz to the famous library of Alexandria. We didn't go inside, but it was impressive to see the enormous (and ugly) building. Amy was very excited, because her GPS told her a geocache was around somewhere. Let me first explain quickly the wonderful game of geocaching : people from all over the world hide little treasures (like coins or little magnets) on places close to famous monuments (like the Eiffeltower, the pyramids, etc). They then locate the treasures on a GPS system, so other people can try to find them, take them, and hide them somewhere else, for other people to find. But there is a rule : when you take the geocache, you have to make sure that nobody sees you take it. Amy is very fond of this world wide game. So at the library, her GPS said a geocache was hidden somewhere under a red box hanging above some stairs. She wanted to check it out, but a man was sitting on the stairs. So we made up a plan : I would start crying, so that Amy could pretend to take me down the stairs to have a private conversation. So we did it! The man must have thought we were crazy, especially when Amy started putting on her flashlight while comforting me with words like 'he's not worth it, men are pigs!' xD
After dinner we went shopping. I made a friend in the public toilets : a little girl started to talk to me in arabic. I didn't understand a word, until she asked : 'esmek eh?'. I remembered it meant : what's your name? I said : Brenda, wi esmek eh? She said : Hakuuuuurrr, or something like that. We then spent the next 2 minutes trying to pronounce each others names, while all the women in the waiting queue were laughing about it!
Back on the street a man yelled at me : "Welcome to Egypt! Welcome to my heart!" What a pickup line!
Then Amy, Kaz, Sandra and I went to a bar to have a pepsi, and I tried to make my Dutch friends speak the dialect of Antwerp. Kaz trying to say 'een jat kaffe' (a cup of coffee in dialect) was just hilarious. It made my belly hurt with laughter. When Amy said she thought that 'jat kaffe' sounded like a pharaoh's name, we couldn't stop anymore!
Wednesday we visited Wadi Natrun, a place full of Coptic monasteries. A monk gave us a tour round the Syrian monastery, but his english was so bad, that I only understood the words 'paradise' and 'swastika'. Then a Polish restaurator of the medieval paintings in the church gave us a tour, and then we had another tour by Karel Innemee, a dutch egyptologist specialised in the Wadi Natrun monasteries. He was very passionate about it, and it was a delight to hear him talk. Then back to Cairo to eat and sleep, because it was the Alexandria trip was pretty exhausting!
Thursday morning I worked a bit in the library, and then we had a session with Ilona. She divided the paper subjects. My subject is : Ivory deposits from the early dynastic period. I'm very happy with it!
When I went back to my appartment to depose my laptop (I was going to have a walk around Zamalek with Kaz and Sandra), I had a nasty experience with a Egyptian man on the staircase of the common hall. I don't really want to give every detail, but it had scared the hell out of me, and I went to drink something with Kaz and Sandra to calm my nerves. (Don't worry, nothing bad happened, it was just a scary experience.)
After our walk, we went to a lecture about warfare in the 18th Dynasty by Garry Shaw. It was, again, extremely interesting. At the reception a very funny man came to us. He was an egyptologist I think, because he does lectures as well, but his humour was just sooo stupid! He thought he was the funniest man on earth and looked so pleased with himself, whereas he wasn't funny at all. Cathelijne and I had to go out to burst out laughing.
Then we went to eat pizza and to talk in Amy's, Kaz's and Sandra's appartment, on their couch beneath a warm blanket that smelled like cucumbers, until we nearly fell asleep and it was time for Quentin and me to go home.
Monday we first visited Cultnat, which is a documentation department for the cultural and natural heritage of Egypt, sponsored by the ministery. They have an amazing website, where you can see some very old pictures of the monuments. We also saw an exhibition about ancient islamic astronomy (waterclocks, celestial globes, sundials,...). After Cultnat we visited Abu Mina, where there are the remains of an egyptian church, with baths and residences around it. There wasn't a single sound in Abu Mina, and I enjoyed the silence so much. It almost made me religious (If I would have stayed there any longer, I would have returned a baptised Copt)! The Cairene noise and hustle often gets me on my nerves. I never seem to have any silence in Cairo, no matter where I am. Anyway, so far for my spiritual moment :p What was really cool in Abu Mina, was what Amy did : she found in the ground an entirely intact graeco-roman bottle! What an archaeological find!!! I was so jealous! We all photografied her with it, and then she put it back where she found it (as good egyptologist we wouldn't dream of removing it from it's spot without a decent excavation going on...)
Tuesday we went to Taposiris Magna. We saw the remains of the temple of Isis, and the necropolis behind it. Everyone, except for me and Sandra, climbed on top of the pylon of the temple, woth a lot of 'eeeks' and 'hihihiiiis'. It was funny to see them wave from above. I can't stop comparing our journey in Egypt to a weird Indiana Jones movie. We even climbed into a shaft to see 2 mummies lying 10cm from us! It was amazing to see them. In the wall there was also a baby skeleton, so sad!
In the afternoon we were free in Alexandria to do what we liked. I had to choose between so many things, because I ony had time to do one thing : the catacombs, the museum, the roman theatre, the villa of the birds,... We all chose to go to the catacombs, because they are very unique. And my travel guide said they combined spookiness and kitsch... Perfect for us!
The catacombs were less big than I imagined, but it was amazing anyhow. All those tombs next to each other... It was as if walking in a different world. There was absolutely no sound, except for the lights zooming a bit. My travel guide was right : spooky and kitsch! The catacombs date from the 2nd century AD, and the greeks and romans buried in here, tried to make a combination of Roman and Egyptian art style : hilarious! Anubis in Roman armour, Isis with Greek garments, an Egyptian statue with Roman head,... Hehe, i love the Romans. The air inside the catacombs was very thin, after a while I started to breath heavily. Ilona came a bit later than us to the catacombs, and Kenny made her scream, by sneaking up on her from behind, haha! Ilona is so cute when she shrieks.
In the evening I went with Amy, Sandra and Kaz to the famous library of Alexandria. We didn't go inside, but it was impressive to see the enormous (and ugly) building. Amy was very excited, because her GPS told her a geocache was around somewhere. Let me first explain quickly the wonderful game of geocaching : people from all over the world hide little treasures (like coins or little magnets) on places close to famous monuments (like the Eiffeltower, the pyramids, etc). They then locate the treasures on a GPS system, so other people can try to find them, take them, and hide them somewhere else, for other people to find. But there is a rule : when you take the geocache, you have to make sure that nobody sees you take it. Amy is very fond of this world wide game. So at the library, her GPS said a geocache was hidden somewhere under a red box hanging above some stairs. She wanted to check it out, but a man was sitting on the stairs. So we made up a plan : I would start crying, so that Amy could pretend to take me down the stairs to have a private conversation. So we did it! The man must have thought we were crazy, especially when Amy started putting on her flashlight while comforting me with words like 'he's not worth it, men are pigs!' xD
After dinner we went shopping. I made a friend in the public toilets : a little girl started to talk to me in arabic. I didn't understand a word, until she asked : 'esmek eh?'. I remembered it meant : what's your name? I said : Brenda, wi esmek eh? She said : Hakuuuuurrr, or something like that. We then spent the next 2 minutes trying to pronounce each others names, while all the women in the waiting queue were laughing about it!
Back on the street a man yelled at me : "Welcome to Egypt! Welcome to my heart!" What a pickup line!
Then Amy, Kaz, Sandra and I went to a bar to have a pepsi, and I tried to make my Dutch friends speak the dialect of Antwerp. Kaz trying to say 'een jat kaffe' (a cup of coffee in dialect) was just hilarious. It made my belly hurt with laughter. When Amy said she thought that 'jat kaffe' sounded like a pharaoh's name, we couldn't stop anymore!
Wednesday we visited Wadi Natrun, a place full of Coptic monasteries. A monk gave us a tour round the Syrian monastery, but his english was so bad, that I only understood the words 'paradise' and 'swastika'. Then a Polish restaurator of the medieval paintings in the church gave us a tour, and then we had another tour by Karel Innemee, a dutch egyptologist specialised in the Wadi Natrun monasteries. He was very passionate about it, and it was a delight to hear him talk. Then back to Cairo to eat and sleep, because it was the Alexandria trip was pretty exhausting!
Thursday morning I worked a bit in the library, and then we had a session with Ilona. She divided the paper subjects. My subject is : Ivory deposits from the early dynastic period. I'm very happy with it!
When I went back to my appartment to depose my laptop (I was going to have a walk around Zamalek with Kaz and Sandra), I had a nasty experience with a Egyptian man on the staircase of the common hall. I don't really want to give every detail, but it had scared the hell out of me, and I went to drink something with Kaz and Sandra to calm my nerves. (Don't worry, nothing bad happened, it was just a scary experience.)
After our walk, we went to a lecture about warfare in the 18th Dynasty by Garry Shaw. It was, again, extremely interesting. At the reception a very funny man came to us. He was an egyptologist I think, because he does lectures as well, but his humour was just sooo stupid! He thought he was the funniest man on earth and looked so pleased with himself, whereas he wasn't funny at all. Cathelijne and I had to go out to burst out laughing.
Then we went to eat pizza and to talk in Amy's, Kaz's and Sandra's appartment, on their couch beneath a warm blanket that smelled like cucumbers, until we nearly fell asleep and it was time for Quentin and me to go home.
zondag 8 november 2009
Pinda, can I use your flash light?
Wow, I’ve seen some amazing things these past 3 days ! On Thursday I attended a part of a colloquium about Theban archaeology at the Supreme Council of Antiquities. In the morning Quentin, Kenny, Cathelijne and I were there, just to see one man, who was giving the introduction. Yes, dear Isabelle (we sort of have an inside joke together), it was... Zahi Hawass! The famous egyptologist, who often features in National Geographic documentaries. The moment he got up to start to speak, Cathelijne, Kenny and I discretely took our cameras and photografied him. It was nice to see and hear him speak for real. In the evening we went again to the colloquium to see 3 egyptologists talk : Salima Ikram again, on animal mummies, Kochelmann on the cult of the crocodile god Sobek, and Daniel Polz, whom we all were impatient to see. Unfortunately Polz was ill, so he couldn’t come. So we (= me, Sandra, Amy, Kaz and Quentin) ate our misery away in a nice restaurant, Pottery café, where they strangely enough had one of the tastiest pizzas I’ve ever had (who’ld have thought that I would come across it in Cairo?). After that I visited the appartment of Kaz, Amy and Sandra, and I’m so jealous, because they have a splendid view on the Nile!! Of course, they have to put up with the noise coming from the party boats
.
On Friday I didn’t do anything really, except from working on my assignments and doing the laundry and being a bit on the internet at the institute. It felt good to have a little day off, because the program is quite intensive and fatiguing. In the evening there was the official opening of an exhibition at the Cairo Museum about Hungarian excavations (again with Zahi Hawass), but I didn’t go there, because I was too tired. I just crashed down on the sofa with some Blackadder and Monty Python. Quentin and Kaz did go, and they said it was a nice exhibition.
Saturday we went on an excursion to Saqqara. Mouchir the driver immediately put on a CD in his minibus with very corny Dutch music (Boudewijn de Groot, Marco Borsato,...) The poor man probably thought that would please us a lot, but it just annoyed us during our trip. Bless him for trying to be nice.
In Saqqara we first met with Vasil Dobrev, an egyptologist working at the French Institute in Cairo, who’s digging in Saqqara. I was very excited to meet him, because last year, for my Bachelor thesis, I based part of my thesis on one of his articles about a 6th Dynasty Annal Stone. He turned out to be a very enthousiastic man, with a lot to say. He showed us his excavation and restoration work of an Old Kingdom necropolis. Inside the tombs it was so hot, that Amy fainted. It was extremely hot the entire day, by the way. I felt thirsty all the time, and in the evening I had migraine. Anyway, after hearing about Dobrev’s theories of the piramid of Userkare being hidden somewhere in the sand and he being determined to find it, we quickly ate in the bus, and then went to see some New Kingdom tombs. We saw the tombs of Maya, Horemheb, Tia and Meryneith. The last one isn’t actually open to the public, but it’s an excavation of the University of Leiden, so the Dutch people thought they had the right to see it, and so did Ilona. She just ignored the guard yelling ‘Stop’ at her, and went straight into the tomb. Apparently it wasn’t that forbidden, because they let us have a look anyway. We past also next to an enormous shaft, one of the biggest existing, which is metres and metres deep! I added a bit to the history of the shaft, by dropping my pen in it. Just for the record : I’ve lost a pen in Tell Maskhuta, another pen in Tell ed-Daba, and now one in Saqqara as well. I’m a hopeless case. For the rest of the day we often made jokes about me dropping other stuff into shafts, like my torch light, my scarf, myself... Then we went to the tomb of Mereruka, where Ilona gave us a quick assignment to do. The tomb was marvellous : beautiful reliefs of Egypt’s wildlife (frogs, otters, crocodiles). Then we went inside the piramid of Teti, who has wonderful Piramid Texts inscribed on the walls. I got a bit claustrophobic in the end (I don’t like small spaces, especially not when I know that there are tons of massive stone blocks above my head... But again : everything for egyptology). To finish we had a quick look in the Imhotep museum, where an egyptian military guard from around my age was trying to hit on me by asking if I wanted to have any souvenirs from him. I should have said : Yes, your kalashnikov will be fine!
Back in the bus then (with again Marco Borsato), and then back to Pottery café, where the waiters are starting to know us. Then buy some water (I never seem to have enough water), and up to bed. Well, after daydreaming a bit more about ancient tombs from the Old Kingdom. I just loooooooooooooove the Old Kingdom !!!
PS : I have a nice nickname, which especially Kaz says a lot : Pinda. For three reasons :
Kenny was talking about peanuts (pinda in dutch) and I always thought he said my name
It sounds like my name
I’m more fond of peanut butter than the dutch people are, I can’t stop eating it since I’ve arrived
Phrases like : “Pinda, can I use your flash light?” aren’t uncommon.
vrijdag 6 november 2009
Some other pictures
Here are some other pictures :
picture 1 : The Dutch girls (Sandra, Cathelijne, Steffie and Amy)
picture 2 : Me being silly with a piece of pottery
picture 3 : Kaz being silly
Some pictures : part 2
Hi! As you can see, I've put some pictures on my blog. I haven't figured out yet how to write a text under them, so I'll tell you whose on them in this message :
-picture 1 : From left to right :
in the back : Kaz, Steffie, me, Ilona
in the front : Sandra, Quentin, Amy, Cathelijne and Kenny
-picture 2 : Sandra in the bus
- picture 3 : Kenny looking like a terrorist
- picture 4 : Cathelijne inside a mosque
- picture 5 : Amy extremely happy! (and Peter, out tour guide through Fatimid Cairo)
-picture 1 : From left to right :
in the back : Kaz, Steffie, me, Ilona
in the front : Sandra, Quentin, Amy, Cathelijne and Kenny
-picture 2 : Sandra in the bus
- picture 3 : Kenny looking like a terrorist
- picture 4 : Cathelijne inside a mosque
- picture 5 : Amy extremely happy! (and Peter, out tour guide through Fatimid Cairo)
donderdag 5 november 2009
1/11 to 4/11 : Anecdotes
Hi! In the past four days I have done and seen so much, it would take too much time and blogspace to write everything down. So I've decided to keep the information within well defined boundaries. Since most of you have nothing to do with ancient Egypt, it would be boring or maybe even incomprehensible for you if I told you everything I've learned. Therefore I'm only going to give a quick overview of the things I've visited, and then I'm just going to put down some anecdotes.
On Sunday I had another arabic course and in the afternoon we had a wonderful tour around Fatimid Cairo by Peter, and arabist from Gent working in the NVIC. He showed us most of the amazing medieval islamic buildings and mosques. Monday I had the last course of arabic (I'm supposed to be able to conversate woth an egyptian now), and after that we visited the Library of the American University in Cairo, where we saw the first edition of the Déscription de l'Egypte! Tuesday and Wednesday we had a 2-day excursion to the Delta. We visited Tell el-Maskhuta, Ismailya (where we slept overnight), Tell ed-Daba and Tanis. Amazing! I even shaked hands with Manfred Bietak, a famous egyptologist working in Tell ed-Daba.
So now for the anecdotes :
1. During our tour in Fatimid Cairo, we went past a narrow street where some children were playing the tambourine and singing. We stopped to watch them. After a while they noticed us, started laughing and running towards us. It loohed like a stampede, so we ran away! They started dancing and singing, and they urged Quentin to dance as well. What a funny sight!
2. During that same tour a small cat kept following us everywhere. Everybody has got pictures of everybody petting the cat. And I forgot to bring a scarf for my head, so while everybody went into the mosque, I had to wait outside :( Luckily Peter gave me a private tour around the mosque once I could borrow Cathelijne's scarf.
3. One evening I went eating in a restaurant with Quentin, Amy, Kaz and Sandra. We had some good fun, especially when Amy (who is originally American) told us that when she was born, her parents couldn't come up with a name for her. She was only one day left from being released from hospital without a name, and therefore being called Babygirl Butner for the rest of her life (custom in America). So now we call her Bébé Butner (Butner spoken like 'bouquet' in stead of Bucket).
4. The morning of our departure to the Delta, a plummer came in emergency to repair something that hung just outside our bathroom window. He put a rope around a tube and climbed down. It was a life threatening situation for that man : tied up only by one little string on a worn pipeline, 5 stories high! I was really afraid he would fall down, but he seemed to think it the most normal situation in the world.
5. We went to a museum in Ismailya, which was hilarious! The objects displayed there had information cards, but the English was so badly spelled, that we often had le fou rire. Things like :
- Bust of the god Serapis with live loucks from the Geek Period (GEEK period?!)
- wodden box from the Old Kingdome
- stone lambs from pottery (lambs in stead of lamps)
We couldn't stop laughing. The guards looked at us very dubiously. In the evening we also were very fond of the Egyptian-English spelling of the word croissant in a "pastary" shop : kerwason.
6. When we came back from the Delta, we had to be in the bus for a long time. After 2 hours I saw a sign : Cairo, 48 km. I thought : nice, only half an hour left. THREE hours later we were still in the enormous traffic jam entering Cairo!
7. Speaking of cars and busses : Ilona has an american friend who accompanied us on our trip : Jeff. Our bus often drove on bumpy and narrow roads, and our driver nearly crushed someone hopping off another bus. And then Jeff, who has a peculiar sense of humour, says : "You guys might not want to know this, but Egypt has the highest rate of fatalities per driven kilometre". Thanks, Jeff!
Well, untill a week or so for more anecdotes about life in Cairo! Those of you interested in the egyptological part of my journey : I keep a scientific diary, so when I come back, you're welcome to read it :D !
Masaah il gier!
On Sunday I had another arabic course and in the afternoon we had a wonderful tour around Fatimid Cairo by Peter, and arabist from Gent working in the NVIC. He showed us most of the amazing medieval islamic buildings and mosques. Monday I had the last course of arabic (I'm supposed to be able to conversate woth an egyptian now), and after that we visited the Library of the American University in Cairo, where we saw the first edition of the Déscription de l'Egypte! Tuesday and Wednesday we had a 2-day excursion to the Delta. We visited Tell el-Maskhuta, Ismailya (where we slept overnight), Tell ed-Daba and Tanis. Amazing! I even shaked hands with Manfred Bietak, a famous egyptologist working in Tell ed-Daba.
So now for the anecdotes :
1. During our tour in Fatimid Cairo, we went past a narrow street where some children were playing the tambourine and singing. We stopped to watch them. After a while they noticed us, started laughing and running towards us. It loohed like a stampede, so we ran away! They started dancing and singing, and they urged Quentin to dance as well. What a funny sight!
2. During that same tour a small cat kept following us everywhere. Everybody has got pictures of everybody petting the cat. And I forgot to bring a scarf for my head, so while everybody went into the mosque, I had to wait outside :( Luckily Peter gave me a private tour around the mosque once I could borrow Cathelijne's scarf.
3. One evening I went eating in a restaurant with Quentin, Amy, Kaz and Sandra. We had some good fun, especially when Amy (who is originally American) told us that when she was born, her parents couldn't come up with a name for her. She was only one day left from being released from hospital without a name, and therefore being called Babygirl Butner for the rest of her life (custom in America). So now we call her Bébé Butner (Butner spoken like 'bouquet' in stead of Bucket).
4. The morning of our departure to the Delta, a plummer came in emergency to repair something that hung just outside our bathroom window. He put a rope around a tube and climbed down. It was a life threatening situation for that man : tied up only by one little string on a worn pipeline, 5 stories high! I was really afraid he would fall down, but he seemed to think it the most normal situation in the world.
5. We went to a museum in Ismailya, which was hilarious! The objects displayed there had information cards, but the English was so badly spelled, that we often had le fou rire. Things like :
- Bust of the god Serapis with live loucks from the Geek Period (GEEK period?!)
- wodden box from the Old Kingdome
- stone lambs from pottery (lambs in stead of lamps)
We couldn't stop laughing. The guards looked at us very dubiously. In the evening we also were very fond of the Egyptian-English spelling of the word croissant in a "pastary" shop : kerwason.
6. When we came back from the Delta, we had to be in the bus for a long time. After 2 hours I saw a sign : Cairo, 48 km. I thought : nice, only half an hour left. THREE hours later we were still in the enormous traffic jam entering Cairo!
7. Speaking of cars and busses : Ilona has an american friend who accompanied us on our trip : Jeff. Our bus often drove on bumpy and narrow roads, and our driver nearly crushed someone hopping off another bus. And then Jeff, who has a peculiar sense of humour, says : "You guys might not want to know this, but Egypt has the highest rate of fatalities per driven kilometre". Thanks, Jeff!
Well, untill a week or so for more anecdotes about life in Cairo! Those of you interested in the egyptological part of my journey : I keep a scientific diary, so when I come back, you're welcome to read it :D !
Masaah il gier!
28/10 to 31/10 : Flopsy, Mopsy and Peter
Hello again! First of all : yes, I'm still alive. I have been ill, but the antibiotics worked really fast, so I'm better now. I know now that I had a virus, since Steffie and Sandre have fallen ill as well from the same virus.
I have visited the American Research Centre on Thursday. Unfortunately we only got information about the library and nothing about the instistute itself. When we sat in the library to work a bit, one of the researchers put on some Christmass music in his bureau. It was difficult to retain myself from bursting out in laughter! I'm dreaming of a white Christmass... In Egypt?!
I missed the lecture by Seidlmayer, a very good egyptologist, because the antibiotics made me too tired. I have been able to go to another lecture on Friday, by one of my personal (professional) heroes : Salima Ikram. She's just an amazing egyptologist in my opinion. She lectured us on experimental archaeology. She and her students team at the American University in Cairo had done a wonderful experiment : they had mummified animals to see what is was really like to do it! They mummified successfully three rabbits (Flopsy, Mopsy and Peter), and, a bit less succesful, a sheep called Brownie. They found out that to mummify you need muscle power, a good stomach and a lot of natron to keep the bugs and flies away (about 250 kilo's of natron for 1 sheep!). The lecture was extremely interesting, but extremely disgusting as well. I had just eaten, and at the first image of the sheep's intestines being pulled out, I felt quite bad. Everybody did, you could hear some nervous sound sin the audience. Even Salime Ikram, who had done the experiment, had to drink a lot of water, I noticed! But everything for egyptology!
The same day of the lecture (29/10) it was Kaz' 21st birthday (only 3 days after mine). Alas alas, most of us were too tired or too ill to have a big birthday party. So Quentin and I invited Kaz to our appartment, wehere we talked and laughed a lot. We gave him 'original papyrus', purchased in the Alphamarket, and a chocolate bar which sais 'This is NOT for girls!'. I tried to find the 'This is NOT for boys' counter bar, but it didn't exist!
This weekend Quentin and I went to the Cairo museum to work on our museum assignment. We had to deal with some annoying taxi drivers. The first one tried to let us pay 10 pounds, whereas we know that the common price is around 5 pounds (especially for a 3 minute drive, which was our case). We had to get angry on him for insisting so much. We just gave him 5 pounds and then got out of the cab. The second one was a white taxi, and they always have metres, so we thought : nice, no discussion possible. Of course, you can guess... He did an enormous detour! Luckily Quentin knew the way, so he was able to argue with the driver to take the short cut, so the damage wasn't too bad : 8 pounds. But I'm sure that if Quentin hadn't noticed anything, he would have done a tour around Cairo to let us pay at least 15 pounds. After this I felt really bad. I was still nauseous, it was hot, the assignnment had taken all my energy, Guillaume was ill, the taxi drivers are stupid... I had a little crisis of homesickness!
But apart from that this first week was great. Despite the illness and the culture clash, I had a great time, with some very funny moments. The Dutch people are all very sweet and humourous. I hope every week will be like this one.
I have visited the American Research Centre on Thursday. Unfortunately we only got information about the library and nothing about the instistute itself. When we sat in the library to work a bit, one of the researchers put on some Christmass music in his bureau. It was difficult to retain myself from bursting out in laughter! I'm dreaming of a white Christmass... In Egypt?!
I missed the lecture by Seidlmayer, a very good egyptologist, because the antibiotics made me too tired. I have been able to go to another lecture on Friday, by one of my personal (professional) heroes : Salima Ikram. She's just an amazing egyptologist in my opinion. She lectured us on experimental archaeology. She and her students team at the American University in Cairo had done a wonderful experiment : they had mummified animals to see what is was really like to do it! They mummified successfully three rabbits (Flopsy, Mopsy and Peter), and, a bit less succesful, a sheep called Brownie. They found out that to mummify you need muscle power, a good stomach and a lot of natron to keep the bugs and flies away (about 250 kilo's of natron for 1 sheep!). The lecture was extremely interesting, but extremely disgusting as well. I had just eaten, and at the first image of the sheep's intestines being pulled out, I felt quite bad. Everybody did, you could hear some nervous sound sin the audience. Even Salime Ikram, who had done the experiment, had to drink a lot of water, I noticed! But everything for egyptology!
The same day of the lecture (29/10) it was Kaz' 21st birthday (only 3 days after mine). Alas alas, most of us were too tired or too ill to have a big birthday party. So Quentin and I invited Kaz to our appartment, wehere we talked and laughed a lot. We gave him 'original papyrus', purchased in the Alphamarket, and a chocolate bar which sais 'This is NOT for girls!'. I tried to find the 'This is NOT for boys' counter bar, but it didn't exist!
This weekend Quentin and I went to the Cairo museum to work on our museum assignment. We had to deal with some annoying taxi drivers. The first one tried to let us pay 10 pounds, whereas we know that the common price is around 5 pounds (especially for a 3 minute drive, which was our case). We had to get angry on him for insisting so much. We just gave him 5 pounds and then got out of the cab. The second one was a white taxi, and they always have metres, so we thought : nice, no discussion possible. Of course, you can guess... He did an enormous detour! Luckily Quentin knew the way, so he was able to argue with the driver to take the short cut, so the damage wasn't too bad : 8 pounds. But I'm sure that if Quentin hadn't noticed anything, he would have done a tour around Cairo to let us pay at least 15 pounds. After this I felt really bad. I was still nauseous, it was hot, the assignnment had taken all my energy, Guillaume was ill, the taxi drivers are stupid... I had a little crisis of homesickness!
But apart from that this first week was great. Despite the illness and the culture clash, I had a great time, with some very funny moments. The Dutch people are all very sweet and humourous. I hope every week will be like this one.
donderdag 29 oktober 2009
25/10 to 27/10 : Libraries and illness
Salaam alekum!
This Sunday the Cairo semester at the NVIC officially began. We met with the people from Leiden, who will be our companions for the next 2 months : Amy, Cathelijne, Sandra, Steffie, Kaz and Kenny. The first impression was a very good one. We had an introduction together by Ilona about the tasks (museum assignment and presentation subjects), and an introduction by Tilly and Anita, two women from the institute, about life in Cairo. They did it with a lot of humour and enthousiasm, and I immediately liked them. The dutch people are great as well. During our orientation tour through Cairo in the afternoon we got to know them a bit better. They are all very sweet and enthousiastic, and not at all loud or cheap (the clichés for dutch people, sorry guys!). We saw the Cairene opera house, a famous street called el-Ahram which used to be full of bars and prostitution, but not any more :p. We also saw a beautiful nilometer from the Middle Ages, but it gave us a good idea of what it looked like in Ancient times. The citadel was wonderful, we saw it when we passed by on the bus. The Mohamed Ali mosque is very impressive, the fortified walls intimidating. We took a break near the Moqatem hill, which used to be, and still is, a stone quarry. It is also famous for the zehellin, the Christian or Coptic people living at the foot of the hill, and who recycle all the garbage of the town. They live in very poor condition, literally on top of all the filth, and they use pigs to recycle the food waist. We were supposed to have a nice view on Cairo on top of a hill, but there was to much smog, so we only saw a yellowish cloud on the city. Apparently october and novembre are the worst months concerning air pollution, because the farmers burn their fields to make it arable again. We past the City of the Dead, a hughe graveyard with ancient and islamic tombs. Weird enough there are people living next to these tombs. The houses were often unfinished, because in Egypt you don’t have to pay taxes on an unfinished house (which is so funny, becauqe on the rooftops there were metal constructions sticking out everywhere). We stopped also at the Monument of the unknown Soldier, which contains the tomb of Sadat, one of egypt’s former presidents, who was shot inside the Cairo Stadion. The guards at Sadat’s tomb wore a very kitchy farao-outfit! We were taking pictures of them, the poor men. After the orientation tour we rested a bit, and in the evening we all went to have dinner in Café Riche, a famous restaurant where a lot of intellectuals used to come. It was very nice talking with the Dutch people about all sorts of things. We had some delicious egyptian food, all on the expenses of the institute! After that we went to the Stella bar, where they sell, yes, Stella beer! But it’s not belgian beer, it just has the same name.
On Monday i was very excited, because it was my 21st birthday! Quentin had bought me some pastries, and the dutch people all kissed me on the cheek. We visited in the morning the DAIK, the German institute in Cairo. They have a very beautiful and impressive egyptological library, where we can come to search for our assignments. After that we visited the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the basis of Zahi Hawass! He was unfortunatley abroad, but we met his personal assistant. And the Director of the Documentation Centre gave us a tour around his department. It was nice to see, but we were all surprised by the primitive way they documented the ancient monuments (untill 2004 they still used black and white pictures!). In the evening we went to an interesting but confusing lecture by Karol Mysliewyc, about a 6th Dynasty tomb he and his team had discovered at Saqqara. After a nice chat with a British woman who was married to an oil sheik (how cool is that?) and who was under the impression hat Kaz was Irish, the dutch people, Quentin and I went to my appartment to celebrate my birthday. We chatted a lot and we had a cheese cake. It was a very nice way to get to know them better. The darlings gave me Toffifee and a cake and a birthday card :D!
This morning, 27/10, I woke up very nauseous. Very soon I discovered there was something wrong. I had to go to the bathroom a lot. So I decided to stay at home to rest, while Quentin went to the first arabic course at NVIC. During his absence, I got up from my bed to get some water, and I fainted in the sofa. I told him this when he returned. When I wanted to eat for lunch, I started vomiting. So Quentin brought me by taxi to the Anglo-American hospital in Zamalek, where I was examined immediately by an egyptian doctor. I think he was a christian, because he had some pictures of Jesus and Mary on his desk =). He said I had gastro-enteritis, so i took the medication he prescribed. I slept the entire afternoon, without eating because i was nauseous, while Quentin went to visit the IFAO (Institut français d’archéologie orientale) with Ilona and the dutch people. In the evening he forced me to eat a bit (i called him daddy, because he was so strict :p). Around 8 pm i felt very hot and feverish, and it turned out i had 39°C fever! So i called the doctor from this morning again, and he told me to get to a pharmacy to get an injection and a suppository. The man in the pharmacy was at first very reluctant to give me the injection, because it had to be put in the buttocks, hehe. But eventually he did it. It hurt so much, and i was so weak, and it was hot, so i nearly fainted again in the pharmacy. Back at home i just rested, and now i’m writing this message to occupy my mind a bit. I’m already feeling less feverish. If tomorrow i still got high fever, i have to return to the doctor, but let’s hope not. What a lousy day this was!
This Sunday the Cairo semester at the NVIC officially began. We met with the people from Leiden, who will be our companions for the next 2 months : Amy, Cathelijne, Sandra, Steffie, Kaz and Kenny. The first impression was a very good one. We had an introduction together by Ilona about the tasks (museum assignment and presentation subjects), and an introduction by Tilly and Anita, two women from the institute, about life in Cairo. They did it with a lot of humour and enthousiasm, and I immediately liked them. The dutch people are great as well. During our orientation tour through Cairo in the afternoon we got to know them a bit better. They are all very sweet and enthousiastic, and not at all loud or cheap (the clichés for dutch people, sorry guys!). We saw the Cairene opera house, a famous street called el-Ahram which used to be full of bars and prostitution, but not any more :p. We also saw a beautiful nilometer from the Middle Ages, but it gave us a good idea of what it looked like in Ancient times. The citadel was wonderful, we saw it when we passed by on the bus. The Mohamed Ali mosque is very impressive, the fortified walls intimidating. We took a break near the Moqatem hill, which used to be, and still is, a stone quarry. It is also famous for the zehellin, the Christian or Coptic people living at the foot of the hill, and who recycle all the garbage of the town. They live in very poor condition, literally on top of all the filth, and they use pigs to recycle the food waist. We were supposed to have a nice view on Cairo on top of a hill, but there was to much smog, so we only saw a yellowish cloud on the city. Apparently october and novembre are the worst months concerning air pollution, because the farmers burn their fields to make it arable again. We past the City of the Dead, a hughe graveyard with ancient and islamic tombs. Weird enough there are people living next to these tombs. The houses were often unfinished, because in Egypt you don’t have to pay taxes on an unfinished house (which is so funny, becauqe on the rooftops there were metal constructions sticking out everywhere). We stopped also at the Monument of the unknown Soldier, which contains the tomb of Sadat, one of egypt’s former presidents, who was shot inside the Cairo Stadion. The guards at Sadat’s tomb wore a very kitchy farao-outfit! We were taking pictures of them, the poor men. After the orientation tour we rested a bit, and in the evening we all went to have dinner in Café Riche, a famous restaurant where a lot of intellectuals used to come. It was very nice talking with the Dutch people about all sorts of things. We had some delicious egyptian food, all on the expenses of the institute! After that we went to the Stella bar, where they sell, yes, Stella beer! But it’s not belgian beer, it just has the same name.
On Monday i was very excited, because it was my 21st birthday! Quentin had bought me some pastries, and the dutch people all kissed me on the cheek. We visited in the morning the DAIK, the German institute in Cairo. They have a very beautiful and impressive egyptological library, where we can come to search for our assignments. After that we visited the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the basis of Zahi Hawass! He was unfortunatley abroad, but we met his personal assistant. And the Director of the Documentation Centre gave us a tour around his department. It was nice to see, but we were all surprised by the primitive way they documented the ancient monuments (untill 2004 they still used black and white pictures!). In the evening we went to an interesting but confusing lecture by Karol Mysliewyc, about a 6th Dynasty tomb he and his team had discovered at Saqqara. After a nice chat with a British woman who was married to an oil sheik (how cool is that?) and who was under the impression hat Kaz was Irish, the dutch people, Quentin and I went to my appartment to celebrate my birthday. We chatted a lot and we had a cheese cake. It was a very nice way to get to know them better. The darlings gave me Toffifee and a cake and a birthday card :D!
This morning, 27/10, I woke up very nauseous. Very soon I discovered there was something wrong. I had to go to the bathroom a lot. So I decided to stay at home to rest, while Quentin went to the first arabic course at NVIC. During his absence, I got up from my bed to get some water, and I fainted in the sofa. I told him this when he returned. When I wanted to eat for lunch, I started vomiting. So Quentin brought me by taxi to the Anglo-American hospital in Zamalek, where I was examined immediately by an egyptian doctor. I think he was a christian, because he had some pictures of Jesus and Mary on his desk =). He said I had gastro-enteritis, so i took the medication he prescribed. I slept the entire afternoon, without eating because i was nauseous, while Quentin went to visit the IFAO (Institut français d’archéologie orientale) with Ilona and the dutch people. In the evening he forced me to eat a bit (i called him daddy, because he was so strict :p). Around 8 pm i felt very hot and feverish, and it turned out i had 39°C fever! So i called the doctor from this morning again, and he told me to get to a pharmacy to get an injection and a suppository. The man in the pharmacy was at first very reluctant to give me the injection, because it had to be put in the buttocks, hehe. But eventually he did it. It hurt so much, and i was so weak, and it was hot, so i nearly fainted again in the pharmacy. Back at home i just rested, and now i’m writing this message to occupy my mind a bit. I’m already feeling less feverish. If tomorrow i still got high fever, i have to return to the doctor, but let’s hope not. What a lousy day this was!
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