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!
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)
