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.
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