Back in Luxor

I got the internet for a second, so I just wanted to let all of you know that we arrived safely in Luxor about an hour ago. We then wolfed down some McDonald's (oh blessed cheeseburger that isn't made of water buffalo meat) and now we're showering (with showers that have LOTS of hot water and a real shower head)!!

I have to say, I'm quite sore from hauling all of those boxes yesterday, but the fact that when I put my pants on this morning (which fit when I came to Egypt) and there was almost 3 inches of space, I'm okay with the pain. :)

For sure won't have internet tomorrow, but we'll just be doing some shopping and thumb-twittling waiting for our 10pm flight anyway, so I wouldn't have much to say. Flight plans are something like:
9:55pm 12/9- Luxor to Cairo
3:00am 12/10- Cairo to Frankfurt
10:30am 12/10- Frankfurt to America (land around 1pm Central Time)- so a looong day

- No Longer Inhabitant of Edfu

And We're Done

Well, today was our last day on site. We packed up the last of the pottery and shoved all 90 new boxes into the pylon. It actually went really quickly: Nadine and 2 of the guys raced each other for who could load the wheelbarrows faster; then they brought them to me at the base of the pylon, where I lined them up for Ahmed (who constantly commented on how strong I was and would run down the bat-poo-covered steps to take the boxes from me); then they went into the pylon where Lindsey and 2 more guys fought the bats to put all the boxes in numerical order for next season. A few trips to our storehouse to pack up the tables, chairs, and sunshades and we were finished! This is looking down on all the boxes that we packed today:

I’ve been wanting this next picture for a while. This is what 90 guys can do in 4 weeks. My head was where the ground-level was when we arrived, and I’m standing on the new “floor”. The whole area is probably half a football field or so. Impressive.

Finally, here’s the site that greeted me this morning: my last dawn at the temple. It’s kind of sad knowing we’re leaving, but you have no idea how much I want to see my husband and a giant pizza. 

Now we’re packing up the house and getting things ready for leaving tomorrow. Tonight we’ll have a huge party with our remaining workmen and the inspectors. It should be a lot of fun and chef is making way too much meat, but we’re all tired and hoping it will be a fast party.

Since we’ll be going to Luxor tomorrow, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to blog Thursday and Friday, but I have a special post for Saturday. So the next time some of you hear from me, it will probably be in person! I’ve got to say, though, knowing how cold it is here at 60 degrees, I’m not looking forward to the 15 degrees and 5 inches of snow that apparently awaits me in Minnesota...

- Pylon Packer

PS. If all goes according to plan, next year's season could be really interesting for me. Stay tuned! I might have some completely different things to talk about next year :) Insha'allah!

Camel Ride

Ever wonder how camels get around when they aren't frolicking in the fields (ok, camels don't really frolic, but whatever)? Like this:

The driver thought that a van full of foreign girls taking pictures of his truck was really amusing.

Lots and lots of packing up happened today, with a little drawing thrown in at the end. It was a short day since it's Thursday, which was welcome after spending several hours in the sun packing up pottery.

- Camel Catcher

Back In Edfu :(

We're back in Edfu after a wonderful stay in Luxor for Thanksgiving. Somehow, the hotel got our reservation wrong and gave us a suite: Nile view, sitting room, king-sized bed, and jacuzzi tub. Originally it would have been $400/night, but we got it for $100 split between 3 people. Needless to say, we had a hard time coming back to Edfu.

Thursday night Thanksgiving at Chicago House was very nice and I am so happy they invited us. Dinner was good, though it was missing my favorite parts: my mom's potatoes and my mother-in-law's stuffing. Dan and I might have to have our own Thanksgiving-in-January so I can have them :)

It was back to work at 6am this morning, though Saturday is considered a holiday for the inspectors, so we couldn't stay late. Only 2 more weeks- eek!

- Luxor misser

PS. We got another member to the team, only I know this one! He was the teacher of almost all of my Egyptian language classes. He now works in Copenhagen, but has come to join us for 2 weeks to work on the Edfu pyramid with Greg. Welcome, Hratch!

Aswan Is So Nice

As you leave the Aswan district (where Edfu is) and enter the Luxor one, a cheery sign greets you:

As you come back to Aswan, you are welcomed.

They make me smile every time.

- Happy Traveler

PS. Hope all of you Black Friday shoppers got what you wanted and are safely back home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s Thanksgiving in America today, a day where we give thanks for what we have in life. So today, even though I'm in Luxor, Egypt, I wanted to share with you what I’m thankful for.

Let’s start with things I’m thankful I brought to Egypt:

* mattress pad (I think I’ve already discussed how this is saving my back)

* ipod (for the long trips to Luxor and when I’m alone drawing pottery)

* kindle (1000 books at my fingertips without having to pack 1000 books)

* long-sleeved shirts (remember the cold thing?)

* a super awesome work team (these people rock my socks and I’m glad I’m working with/for them)

Egypt isn’t all bad. How about things I’m thankful are here:

* the guys we brought from Luxor (they are a great group that would do anything for us)

* ketchup and soda with real sugar!

*Egyptian honey (oh dear, it’s amazing)

* crazy tourists (the number that walk around in completely ridiculous outfits is amazing)

* super awesome history

* balconies in every room (we don’t even have one in Chicago)

Now for things I’m thankful exist in abundance in the US:

* hot water with more pressure than a leaky faucet

* shower heads mounted to the wall

* 2-ply toilet paper

* cheeseburgers/ice cream/oreos/pizza/general American junk-food

* reliable internet (with no download/upload limits!)

* cable TV (seriously, how can I watch my daily quota of crappy TV here w/out cable?)

* veterinarians and people who actually take care of their animals

* common sense

And most importantly:

* a husband who is super awesome and lets me leave him for 2 months to dig in the dirt on the other side of the world

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Sorry that I can’t be near family this year, but I love you all and can’t wait to see you in a few weeks!

- Thankful American

PS. Yes, I realize that my list of things I’m glad America has are totally superficial and 1^st world. You try living with them for 25 years, only to have to stop them cold-turkey, and tell me you aren’t craving a real bath and ice cream after 2 months. Yes, I’m also thankful we have freedoms and a roof and no religious persecution, etc, etc, but right now I just want to be vain and be able to shave my armpits more often than once per week.

PPS. We'll be checking out of the hotel and driving back to Edfu tomorrow, but I still have something quick for you that should auto-post!

El-Kab Fun

While today wasn't very productive as a rasama, it was productive as a tourist! At the start of the day, we travelled to El Kab, a town about 40 minutes from Edfu where part of our team works since that's where our magazine is where we store all of the important finds. Near the magazine are a bunch of tombs from different periods. We saw the tombs of Pahery, Setau, Ahmose (son of Ibana, of Middle Egyptian class fame), and Reneni. The guards then let us climb around a little bit to see the outsides of some other tombs.

Me with Ahmose, son of Ibana. Disregard my 3 layers of clothing to keep warm.

We then headed to the "temple" of Amenhotep III. It's pretty much just a chapel now, but it was still pretty and no tourists ever go there, so the guards had a great time showing us everything. One even then took us to see all of the super awesome Old Kingdom graffiti on the nearby gebel. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I would love to know why they were there- the texts were really nicely done and clearly weren't made by Jo Egyptian.

Outside of the Amenhotep III chapel. I'll try to post more pictures of the inside post-trip.

It was really fun to see a ton of stuff that tourists never go to and to actually see a text in person that we read in class. We got back to site around 10:30, then put in our work until 4. Now we're going to pack up our stuff so that as soon as we're done on site tomorrow, we can rush to Luxor for Chicago House Thanksgiving! I won't have internet for the next few days, but never fear, oh readers! I have 2 posts headed your way. Hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

- Ahmose Lover

So Tired

I'm exhausted today after working for over 10 hours at this point (I'm currently scanning the drawings we did over the last 9.5 hrs). So today, you get reassurances that Edfu is calm with no Cairo-like rioting.

You may also have a picture of me from when we went to Karnak.

- Overworked

Back In Edfu

After our 3 mile hike on Saturday, we decided to take it a bit easy on Sunday by sleeping in (well, until 6:30, which is about the latest any of us could sleep). We then had leisurly shower, breakfast, and TV watching time (we watched both Déjà Vu and Birth since they were on the only English station, and an episode of Pokemon in German).

Once we were packed and checked out of the hotel, we had lunch, then Lindsey, Susan, and I headed to the Luxor Museum. The stuff there is GORGEOUS, and I got to see the mummy that might be Ramses II! After the museum we hit Snack Time again from some more cinnamon rolls and crappy Arab-pop music videos. I got a cinnamon rolls so that I could compare them to Toby’s in northern MN. It was a very tough call, but I’m going to say Toby’s were slightly better.

Then it was back to Edfu, where we had dinner, unpacked, and basically crashed. We were up again at 5am to start work once again. I’m back to being a rasama, which is fine by me. Getting dirty was fun, but I’m glad I only had to do it for a few days. One of our men did the rest of my section for me, and even though it was slightly larger, it still only took him a few hours to do, instead of the 3 days it took me. It’s probably best left to the experts.

Due to a slight miscommunication with our workers, work ended at noon today since it’s still the Eid holiday. But that still left me enough time to see some British tourists that had eaten breakfast by us at our hotel in Luxor (and who we’d seen at KV)! They were really excited to talk to Lindsey and me, since most tourists don’t get to. Now I might start digitizing my profile from the other day, or I might read all afternoon- it depends on whether or not my drawing gets scanned.

That’s all for today- sorry this one isn’t as exciting as my previous posts. How about a few more pictures from our hike?

The smiley face we found. The pyramid shape in the background is what the pharaohs used to mark the Valley of the Kings.

Oh tiny Bahri- I shall step on you!

- Rasama Once Again

I'm Lovin' It

I know this isn't about my current trip to Luxor, but since I'm still in Luxor, I think this post will count.

As I've mentioned before, we were all craving cheeseburgers, so when we went to Luxor that first weekend, we stopped to grab some. Did we go to a normal restaurant and order burgers? No, that’s not how we roll. We went to McDonald’s. I wouldn’t be writing this post if it were just a normal McDonald’s, though. Oh no, this one was special. Let’s take a look:

These were for sale and were huge. I was sooo tempted to get one (only $11),  but it's almost too big to get back.

I know you can't tell, but the food was gigantic. This was a normal-sized Big Mac, and the fries were what came with the meal, not super sized. Yeah. (Note that I only was allowed 2 bags of ketchup for all those fries- not enough).

The walls had murals on them. I wish I could have gotten the whole mural- all of the classic McDonald's characters were there.

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what's going on with Ronald and the sphinx there...

- Hamburgler

Hiking in Luxor

Guys, today was AWESOME! Susan, Lindsey and I got up really early and headed over to the West Bank again. We started at Medinet Habu, which was built by Ramses III to show his battle against the Sea Peoples (a group of nomads from somewhere up north- maybe Crete- who came down the Med. coast, ravaging anything the found). The place was almost completely deserted.

Me at the first pylon.

Trampling some Sea Peoples.

You can't see it very well, but the colors on the inner walls were breath-taking! And Ramses III really liked carving super deeply. If you blow up this picture, you should be able to see it. Amazing.

 After Habu, we moved over to Deir el-Medina, which was the village/tomb area of the workmen who built the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. You couldn't take pictures inside the tombs, but the 2 we went in were so pretty! Look up the tomb of Sennedjem (spellings may vary) on Google images to see how yellow everything is! After the tombs, we hiked up the gebel (mountainside) to get to Deir el-Bahri (Hatshepsut's mortuary temple).

View of Deir el-Medina from the gebel.

I'm queen of the gebel.

Looking down at Bahri (on left) and the destroyed temple of Montuhotep II (from the Middle Kingdom)

Stuart, I went way out on a ledge and almost fell off to get this one. I have a ton more from on top that I can give you once I get back to the US.

That's all for now, but there are a ton more photos to come once I get them from Susan's nice SLR camera (including one of us smiting each other at Medinet Habu and the smiley face we found while hiking). Now it's time to lay by the pool and relax before the Luxor Museum tonight!

- Hiker

Vacation Time!

Ok so I have no idea why this didn't post yesterday like I told it to! So sorry!! Guess you'll just have another day of double posts!

We're headed to Luxor this afternoon for Eid (well, since I'm posting this Friday, we actually left yesterday). Since I don't have much time to tell you what I did today, let’s talk a little about what Eid actually is. Eid is the end of Ramandan, the Muslim holiday month when the prophet Muhammad visited heaven. Apparently, this is when the revelations of God were given to man through the prophet Muhammad. They ‘celebrate’ the holiday month by fasting from sunrise to sunset and by being overly generous to the poor. It is technically forbidden to fast on the day of Eid, so there’s a big feast day (which day it falls on is determined by the lunar cycle, so Ramandan varies in length, and the actual feast day is only decided at the last minute).

In Egypt, the Eid is celebrated with an official three-day holiday, where schools, the government, and many businesses are closed. If you really, really wanted to find something comparable in Christianity, I guess I would say it’s like Lent, where you try to be on your best behavior during the fasting period, then be joyful and forgiving and happy on Easter (just don’t try to overlay any of the religious significance). The Eid feast day is treated like Easter, in that it is usually celebrated with families and everyone is dressed in their finest. There’s even a special Eid prayer service, and for the Sunnah Muslims, it is expected that wealthier families pay the Sadaqat-ul-fitr, a charity tax of sorts, to the needy before attending the service. The other 2 holiday days are used as holidays- to be spent as one pleases.

The worst part of Eid (well, to the Western sensibilities) is the slaughter of the goats. Really early in the morning on the feast day, just after the first call to prayer (which is at about 4:30 or so- I hear it every morning), families will slaughter a goat or cow if they can afford it to eat at the feast meal. In the provinces, this means a whole lot of scared, crying animals and a whole lot of blood running in the streets. People dip their hands in the blood and put bloody handprints all over the town for good luck. CSI: Egypt would have a tough time during Eid. Needless to say, none of us really wanted to be around in Edfu when this was going on, hence why we escaped. While they’ll do the slaughtering in Luxor as well, it’s usually separated from the tourist areas.

Eid Mubarak (“blessed Eid”), everyone!

- Muslim Theologian (or at least I play one on the internet)

Greetings from Luxor!

Hello from Luxor everyone! We got in last night and are staying at the super swanky Sonesta St. George (we got a really great price- $100/person for 3 nights at a 5-star hotel!). After we got in, we crashed for a bit to take showers in glorious bathrooms. Then we went to dinner at an Italian place, since we were all craving spaghetti with real tomato sauce. Then we called it an early night.

This morning we got up early and headed to the West Bank via ferry (it was only $.15 to cross- much cheaper than a taxi). We have special passes that get us into all of the tombs that are open at the Valley of the Kings, instead of just the 3 tombs you're allowed if you actually buy a ticket to the valley. Unfortunately, only the Ramesside tombs were open, so we got done really early and didn't get to see the ones we really wanted. :( Maybe next time. I'd love to show you pictures, but cameras aren't allowed.

Since KV was super fast, we came back to the East Bank for lunch, then decided that we had plenty of time for Karnak Temple. Cameras are allowed there, see:

Me and the White Chapel. It's in a side open-air museum that Dan and I didn't go to last year. The guard saw we had fancy passes, so he let us actually go inside. It was so pretty!!

Now we're hanging out in our room, taking a break and cooling off. It was very hot today and we're a little burnt out on sun and walking. Tonight we'll go out to dinner with Kat and Tasha (they took a pool day today since they've done the West Bank a million times), then go to the Luxor Museum, which is supposed to be super nice. Plans for tomorrow include: Medinet Habu, Dier el-Medina, a hike over the gebel to Dier el-Bahri, then probably back to the hotel for a dip in the pool.


- Tourist

PS. We have to pay for internet, and it's kind of expensive, so I'm thinking I won't post tomorrow or Sunday (I know, I know, I'm sorry!). I'll have lots to tell you about our hike tomorrow and our trip to our reis' house on Sunday, which I'll tell you all about on Monday. Maybe I'll try to have something automatically post tomorrow.

PPS. Susan took a lot of photos of me at the temple since she has the nice SLR camera. At some point (and it may have to be after I get back when my internet is a lot faster), I'll post a huge dump of photos for you. But for now, the text will have to suffice.

Weekend Wonders

Ok, so today I got dirty again excavating my area (I found some stuff that was interesting to me, but it was just pottery, so that’s not interesting for you- but maybe I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, since I just read the comments that some of you are interested). So I’ll tell you about last weekend.

After site on Saturday, we rushed back to the house to eat lunch and take showers with the minimal water we had and the hour before our car came. Then we hopped in the car and cruised on to Luxor. We were all fairly hungry once we got there, and aside from Tasha (who is kind of a vegan), everyone wanted nothing more than a nice, juicy cheeseburger. Where else can you get one but McDonald’s? Yes, we went to McDonald’s in Luxor as our first non-Edfu meal. And it was glorious. There will be another post all about the awesomeness of the Luxor McDonald’s (there’s more than just a good burger).

After the glorious cheeseburger, we split up and Nadine and Greg went to Chicago House while the rest of us went to our hotel, The Nefertiti. It wasn’t much to look at, but it had decent beds, AC, and a shower where the head was mounted to a wall, so we were all pretty happy. Once we were all clean, we piled into a cab and drove out to Chicago House for their Halloween party.

I wish that it hadn’t been so dark by the time we got there, because calling it a house is something of a misnomer. This thing is a freaking complex. Seriously, google image search it- it’s crazy, with tennis courts and a place for old cars. But the party was fun and we looked really cute. I’m not allowed to put up a photo of our costumes under pain of death by my colleagues, but I wore a cute little cape and bat ears that had been my cousin’s about 20 years ago. For those of you that remember your Arabic lesson, I was a “wat-wat”. We were super tired since we’d woken at 5am and had already had a full day of excavation, so when the party wrapped at 10, we were pooped.

We were allowed to take Sunday off since we needed to get our visas upgraded (I am now considered a resident until January 16, 2012). Greg and Nadine needed to rub shoulders at Chicago House, so us ladies did a little shopping! We hit several fair trade centers for Christmas presents, an import store for chocolate, a restaurant run by a Brit-ex-pat for lunch, and a pharmacy for those of us that were running out of essentials. We also hit Luxor temple (we have these fun little things that get us into all temples and sites for free since we are fancy dancy archaeologists) and since no one was around, we had a photo shoot:

At the end of the day, while killing time before our car came, we went to Snack Time. They have the most amazing desserts. Look, aren’t they yummy-looking?

 

Our ride back to Edfu was interesting, since our driver was a nut-job. I wish I could say that wasn’t typical for Egypt drivers, but they are basically all nut-jobs. At least this car had seat-belts. Then it was dinner and bed and up for work at 5am, where I had my second day of excavation, which you heard about yesterday. See? Told you I’d fill you in on all the details.

- Luxor Explorer

PS. Wades: I didn’t try the cinnamon roll, I’ll get it next time. I’ll let you know how they compare to... Stanley’s? Stuckey’s? Whatever that place is on the way up north.

PPS. We’re headed back to Luxor this weekend because there’s a huge holiday (Eid- I’ll explain later) this weekend. I’m hoping they’ll have some internet so I can post daily, but I might have to figure something out. Lindsey, Susan, and I are planning to do the tourist thing hard-core (I’m talking hiking the gebel behind Deir el-Bahri all morning [Yes, I’m already planning on taking a 1.5 liter bottle of water with me. Dan taught me well.]). Woot!