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.
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