I have arrived (kind of)

Well, I’m sitting in the Cairo airport, waiting for our flight to Luxor. So far, it’s been a fairly uneventful trip. We had a pretty crappy trans-Atlantic plane, with only the big overhead screens instead of ones on our seats. But that's ok, I did some crossword puzzles and the food wasn't bad. Lindsey hurt her ankle this morning, so we were able to by-pass all of the lines and board first, no questions asked. Also, the Germans are amazing at planing and de-planing and we were able to load the entire 400-person plane in 15 mins. Lindsey and I were lucky enough to get all 3 seats in our row, so we were able to toss a bunch of our stuff in the middle seat.

We got into Frankfurt where we had a 2 hour layover and get this- they have bikes to get from place to place! It was so cool. Lindsey grabbed a picture of it, so I'll try to get it from her to show you. Also, I stole a roll of toilet paper from the Frankfurt bathroom since you have to tip for toilet paper in Egypt.

The flight to Cairo was much better- we had screens in our seats, so I watched a few movies. The food wasn't as good and the seats were a little more cramped (just Lindsey and I in a row again, but it only had the 2 seats), but I did get to see pyramids out the window on the way in, so that was fun!

We thankfully got through visas and customs and everything just fine into Cairo where we met Nadine and Greg (heads of the excavation and she's my adviser) almost right away. We then got some Burger King. Yep, my first meal in Egypt was Burger King.

There's also something I need to admit. Occasionally, I envy my brother. I know Mom, you're shocked.  Now is one of those times. Scott can sleep anywhere, in any position, with just about anything going on around him. I, on the other hand, have trouble sleeping in my own bed most of the time, let alone a plane. So Dan and I went to bed late after watching a movie, I then got up at 9:10ish... and I've been up ever since. Currently it's 10:30am THE NEXT DAY in Chicago and I have yet to sleep. I'm actually doing ok- even Nadine said I looked really good. At least we'll have a really nice hotel room tonight in Luxor. Needless to say, if this post is rather long and rambling and not very witty, well, sorry.

We leave for the site super early in the morning tomorrow (Tuesday for me). The only hitch with our permits (we were some of the only ones to get full excavation permits) is that Lindsey, Susan and I aren't listed on the security forms, so that could be fun to sort out. We did get special badges that will get us into any site for free, so if Susan, Lindsey and I can't get in right away, we'll just go sight-seeing :)

Alright, I'm logging off. I'll try to get internet at some point. We've switched houses in Edfu (away from the Coptic section that seems to be having issues), so internet is still a little up-in-the-air. I'll get back to you when I can.

Leaving on a (German) Jet Plane

If I've done this right, this will post while I'm in the air, headed for Egypt via Frankfort. In case you want to stalk my flight, here's the info:

Lufthansa 431, Chicago-Frankfurt, leave 15:40, arrive 6:50 (midnight central time)
Lufthansa 582, Frankfurt-Cairo, leave 10:05, arrive 14:05
MS 367, Cairo to Luxor, leave at 19:15, arrive 20:25

For those of you that can't do the time change math in your head, that's about 21.5 travel hours (not counting the 2-3 hrs early I'll be getting to the Chicago airport). It's going to be a loooong day. We're then getting up bright and early on Tuesday to head over to Edfu and start excavating!

PS. Please feel free to leave me comments on my blog posts! Just make sure you tell me who you are :)

Success!!

Well, it's about 2 weeks later than we'd hoped, but we officially have permits to dig in Edfu and I have flights booked for this Sunday! I'm super excited and can't wait to get going.

I probably won't be able to post anything again until we get settled in Edfu, which should be Tuesday night. If I get internet before then, I will happily detail my travels for you, but don't count on it.

For those of you worried about my safety: most of the protests and demonstrations and whatnot are happening in Cairo. The most I will see of Cairo is from the airport windows, since we'll fly into Cairo and then almost directly down to the Luxor/Edfu area. Same thing on the way back. Yes, I know that other parts of the country aren't stable either, but we have 10 VERY loyal workmen who will apparently do pretty much anything to protect us. Elections in the Edfu area aren't planned until December 20-something, and we'll be back in Chicago on December 10, so no worries there, either.

I can't wait to tell you all about my travels!

Silly kitten. You are not excavation clothes!

I added a countdown over on the right side. It is counting down until I'm back in Chicago.

The Wait Continues

The head of the Egyptian antiquities council decided to resign literally hours before the meeting to decide whether or not we will permits. We're hoping that a new head will be in place sometime next week, who will then approve our permits ASAP. But at the moment, we're in a holding pattern. We won't leave on Oct. 1st as planned, but it's possible we could just get word and go at any time.

Even though I just took my big grad school exams, I still need 1 more "quality grade" (basically, I need to not take a class as Pass/Fail). It can be in anything- I've already done all of the actual requirements, I just have to take 9 classes post-MA and I've only done 8. Digging was supposed to count. So for now, my adviser is going to give me a reading list and assign some papers so that I can leave immediately if needed, but also still get my credit if for some reason we can't go. It's no ideal- I was looking forward to never doing non-dissertation work again. But alas. Gotta do what I gotta do.

I'll give more updates as we know.

Ready, Set, DRAW!

I wish this was a post saying that we finally have our permits and I've purchased plane tickets. It's not. Instead, I found a really neat little article on how to draw pottery! It's pretty much exactly how we do it, except all the photos show this guy in a nice room with a beautiful large desk and fun wall maps. Our set-up looks a little more like this:

Photo stolen from Natasha Ayers, who graces this photo. Hope she doesn't mind!

Oh dear- my back hurts already

Abbreviations and a History Lesson

As I was writing that last post, I realized I should probably give you a quick breakdown of my abbreviations. I love you all dearly, but not enough to spell out Second Intermediate Period every time. So here's a breakdown of periods (all dates approximate):

OK= Old Kingdom (27th-22nd cent BC)- my favorite and when the pyramids were built
FIP= First Intermediate Period (22nd-21st cent BC)- no unified country, ruled by smaller governors
MK= Middle Kingdom (21st-17th cent BC)- period of unification and prosperity
SIP= Second Intermediate Period (17th-16th cent BC)- period of rule by some Asiatics called the Hyksos
NK= New Kingdom (16th-11th cent BC)- it's got your Ramses (all 11 of them) and your Hatshepsut

I'll try to explain my other abbreviations (if I have any) as I go, but for now, this should help. Please ask me in the comments if I ever say anything that has you confused :)

Assignments and Permits

Molasses. Turtles. Snails. Dial-up internet. The SAC (the Egyptian department in charge of excavations). All of these things are synonyms for one thing: slow. We still do not have our permits for Egypt, which means we can't book plane tickets. Sure, you and I know that the longer we wait, the higher airfare gets, but does the Egyptian gov't care? Not so much.

So we wait. I want to add a countdown clock over on the right of time until I leave, but I have no leave date. So that waits, too. Dear Patience, won't you be my neighbor?

In other news, Greg (married to my advisor Nadine, he's sort of co-owner of this site) sent out the tentative plan for who is doing what when. I thought I'd be drawing Second Intermediate Period (SIP) pottery for 9 weeks. But I'm not! I'll be mostly working on SIP pottery, but after the first 3 weeks, I also get to dig! Hello shovel, this is Patience, care to make this a trio?

For those of you curious folk who have been keeping up with the Tel Edfu excavations (and really, who hasn't been?), we'll be working on 3, count 'em THREE areas this season (along with drawing pottery and cataloging small finds). We'll be finishing up the Middle Kingdom columned hall and silo area that had Nadine all aflutter on the Tel Edfu excavation page in previous seasons. There's also a First Intermediate Period (FIP- comes between the Old and Middle Kingdoms) enclosure wall that they want to clean. And finally, they want to start excavating the (super massive) Old Kingdom layers! I'm thrilled because I love me some Old Kingdom.

But wait! If you keep reading now, I'll double your order and throw in this free Old Kingdom pyramid cleaning! There's a small pyramid at South Edfu that Greg will be heading up at the end of the season. I won't be doing much (if anything) on that, but I might get to go see it. Did I mention I love the Old Kingdom?