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!