Jun 2006

Salaam!

I hope everyone is well and everything is nice and summery in Canada or wherever the heck you're from.

Just an update:

1. We've started digging our site. I am working on a part of the wall enclosure outside of the city. It's a comprehensive retaining system of specially placed rock intended to keep the city walls up and visitors out. We've also found HEAPS of pottery and animal bones that suggest the site was possibly used as a dumping ground at one point. After all, out of site out of mind, right? HAHAHA PUN INTENDED. I am so funny, eh? :s

2. I have NEVER been so FREAKIN dirty in my life. It is often VERY windy on the tell so sometimes digging can be a nightmare and sunglasses to keep the dust out of the eyes is the equivalent of a 11pm chocolate binge. I could just feel the desert sand literally blowing INTO my EARS the other day. SICK. Our favourite weapon at the end of the day on the bus ride home are baby wipes to take off the disgusting layer of sand and mud that layers the face like a pre-teen wearing too much foundation.

3. You won't see any photos from the tell until I get home. Legally we're bound to archaeological ethics that tell us that no organization besides the actual sponsored website or books of the excavation is allowed to publish any material about our finds, blah blah blah. Even online. Frankly, I understand. If every person that went on the dig published blogs about what they did that day and what they found there would be most likely many errors, like "I found an iron age pot!" when actually it was Nabatean or something and then they publish pictures on a webpage? It's just false information being published about an actual archaeological scholarly site.

4. I am sick of pita and hummus.

5. I am sick of eating chicken and rice on monday, rice and stewy weird stuff on tuesday and some other strange concoction on wednesday.... and then having the menu repeat itself.

6. The first thing I eat when I get home will be a big steak, steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes and fruitopia.

7. I have to go to the bathroom so bad that I don't know if I can finish writing this blog.

8. Farmer tans are the shiznak.

9. I have some awesome middle eastern souvenirs but I can't tell you what they are because *gasps* one of them might be for ... YOU!

I have to go to the bathroom.
Byeeeee

Much Love,
Krysten

I apologize for the horrible title, but really there is no other way to explain the last two days for you.

Since everyone arrived in Jordan, members of the team have been dropping like flies. By dropping like flies I mean worshipping the porcelain goddess, not dying. Don't worry too much.

So Tuesday was our first real day of digging. After a painful and borish day of mapping out the square, taking elevations, taking photos of everything and stringing the squares we finally got down to business.

Monday on the tell (a large mound in archaeology which is not a naturally formed hill, but rather dirt and grass covering an archaeology site) the weather was nice and a calm 36 degrees.

Tuesday was better and only 32 degrees which helped us ease into a long summer of excavation. Let me tell you, my arms and legs will be rocks by the time I get back to Canada. Just climbing the tell in the morning leaves every single person gasping for breath upon completing the steep climb.

Wednesday was a bit rough as the temperature climbed up to a scalding 42 degrees by the time we left the site at 11:45 am. I can't imagine not starting at 5am and being finished by 11:45am

The rest of the day is busy, busy as we only have a couple hours of free time in the afternoon and then it's off to pottery and object washing and then our specialization. Mine somehow being object photography, even though I suck at photography.

So anyway, I'll stop boring you with mundane details and get to the really gorish and juicy (no pun intended) details of my two sick days.

I woke up at 2am in the morning on Thursday morning and felt horrible. I got out of bed feeling like several Egyptian speeding trucks carrying loads of watermelons had hit me and the contents had been left bouncing behind in their watermelony goodness only to yes, hit me while I'm down.

I made it to the bathroom in time and spent probably 18 days puking (although realistically probably only about a half hour) and climbed back into bed.

The trucks only increased in size after that until they became trains and then large cruise ships, this time drowning me in the depths of the Nile.

I know I'm a drama queen.

At about 4 in the morning I fainted and did a pretty good job on my knee.

At 10 in the morning it took me 30 minutes to make it up a flight of stairs to get a bottle of water from the fridge. A quick 10 minute pass out on the kitchen floor and a 5 minute break after walking 10 steps in a dizzying orb of fluorescent light and all was well. Somehow I made it back to bed.

Apparently there's some Jordanian virus going around and has even the locals as close to the floor as humanly possible. I was relieved to hear it wasn't just our pitiful Canadian stomachs reacting to the food.

So about half of the 50 member team is sick as of now...
I'm pretty much fully recovered now and am told by Dr. Bernie that by tomorrow morning I will be peachy....

Great.

Much love,
Krysten

Alright...
So the computers in Jordan are crap and not Windows XP which means they won't recognize my camera when I plug it in or allow me to upload photos on to my site. This really sucks because my next entry was my second day in Egypt and GIZA

GIZA=PYRAMIDS

EYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

So basically you just get 1000 words in place of a picture, assuming that a picture is worth a thousand words.

My second day in Egypt was great, although a wee bit tainted by some ridiculous Amarikens. Stupid Americans. I met Blair (girl) and her boyfriend (the bf we'll call him... I forget his name) my first day and they were from Alaska. We decided to get a taxi together for the next day and go out to Giza to see the pyramids and to visit Saqqara and Memphis. It was cheaper to share a taxi between the three of us and it ended up being 7$ CAD each to hire the taxi for the day.

Once we got out to the vicinity of the pyramids which are actually only a couple km's from the immediate city of Cairo our taxi driver took us to a stable where you could rent horses and camels for the day to explore the area around the pyramids and the sphinx.

What you must understand is that when you're in Egypt and bartering you must never take anything seriously. Sometimes you'll get ripped off and sometimes you won't. The Americans simply did not realize this and absolutely sucked at bartering finally settling for 90 pounds egyptian for the camel ride and entrance to the pyramids (not INTO the pyramids). The bf was a huge joke and was getting very upset because apparently the Egyptian man was not up to par with "how the world does business." Dude, it's Egypt. Get a life. The Egyptian man jokingly told the bf that his hair was too long and he needed a haircut so I told the Egyptian man that he was going bald and he needed a hair transplant. The Egyptian man laughed and said "I love Canada more than I love my life." The bf got very angry and started insulting the way the Egyptian was running business. It was a horrible experience to sit there and watch someone so stupid blatently insult another man's culture when he did not even remotely understand it himself.

Finally the Americans left and I refused to pay that much, finally getting it down to 60 pounds Egyptian ($11 CAD) for a camel, entrance to the pyramids, entrance INTO one of the pyramids, a guide and entrance into the sphinx.

Later on, I met up with the Americans again and they pretty much hated me and vowed to get their money back for their tour. You don't get your money back in Egypt. It's like they thought they were in the States! ARGHHHH.

Anyway, enough about them for now.
The minute we (myself and the little 12 yr old guide sitting on the front of my camel) entered the grounds to the Pyramids it was like being transported back thousands of years. I definately expected the place to be brimming with tourists but surprisingly there were only about 50 or so within the entire pyramid complex covering a couple kilometres.

Three gigantic monuments stuck out of the desert surroundings like they had been placed there, preformed, by God himself. Once we were fairly close to the pyramids I had to get off and walk myself since the camels were not allowed to walk any further.

But of course, as predictably Egyptian, a man came up beside me with 2 horses and asked if I would like a ride up to the pyramids. Of course I said no way, I can walk. He was insistent and I was also insistent I would walk.... until he said it was free. I said "Enta Magnoun" (You're crazy) and made sure he would not make me pay through some trap and he led me to the pyramids. Though I didn't have to pay, I think I payed with brain cell erosion as the 10 minute horse walk to the pyramids was a conversation based solely on "No, I will not marry you" "Why not" "I'm married" "Are you happy?" "I have 8 husbands, of course I'm happy." "Want 9?" "No" "Come to my home in the desert and I will make you a very happy woman" "Um NO"

I got to the Pyramids which were *gasps* surprisingly not as large as I had expected them to be! I think all the hype made me think they'd be equivalent to mountains, silly me. Going inside the 2nd largest Pyramid was actually the coolest part and a very narrow and claustrophopic descent (1 metre by 1 1/2 metre) into the burial chamber and then a steep climb in the same tunnel on the way out.

Time is running out on here!
Much love!
Krysten

My last night in Egypt was excellent.
I know I'm skipping an entire week of Egypt, but those entries will follow this one. I just want to get everything down as I remember it and I've only got 20 minutes remaining.

The day began when I arrived back in Cairo yesterday after a 10 hour night train from Luxor. The train ride was pretty uneventful aside from sharing a cabin with a large Egyptian family who spoke little English and I, "Shwiyah" (little) Arabic. Of course upon finding out I was Canadian their Egyptian Hospitality came into play four-fold and I was offered any and all of their food. The pita and sketchy cheese looked unappetizing but of course refusing their offer of "Ekel" (food, eating, etc) would only ensure they shove it further towards me and eventually down my throat so I took it and ate it... and then took the juice they gave me, and then the cake, and then the crackers, and then the etc. etc. etc... you get it.

Travelling alone in Egypt as a woman is not difficult, just incredibly annoying since you will inevitably be stopped every 5 steps and heckled to buy things from shops, told you are "gemilla" (beautiful), be offered a variant amount of dowry from your hand in marriage, receive dirty looks, receive smiles and waves and of course the famous wink and nod which basically means... accompany me to my house for a bit of loving.

Travelling alone, I generally avoid most eye contact but smile briefly... it's easier this way. Then they know you're polite and respectful but you don't encourage them to approach you one-on-one even though they will.

Travelling with Josh and Eliza it was a lot easier to wave and be outgoing and smile as we had our "husband" Josh to protect us. Remember, we were his two wives after all. Hah.

I got to the Cairo train station and because the taxis were all attempting to charge a ridiculous price because I was a woman tourist on my own I said "fil mish mish" (in your dreams) and started walking with 45 pounds on my back and 15 pounds on each arm (silly, stubborn me) to my hostel about 2 km away.

I arrived sweaty and nasty and immediately had a shower and dropped on my bed in my beautiful air-conditioned room (YAAAAYYY). Keep in mind that at this point anything was beautiful.

Later on that night I went with 3 Egyptians I met to a traditional Egyptian dance put on for free by the ministry of culture. It's incredible. You sit there and watch men twirl around to Arabic music for 2 hours. It definately puts you in a trance. Awesome pictures to come. I have five minutes left so I leave you with a quick summary....

I stayed up all night with the 3 Egyptians wandering downtown Cairo and smoking Shishah in a cafe until a taxi picked me up at 5am for my 7:40 flight to Amman which I almost missed because they changed the gate before the flight and only announced the gate change in Arabic. Gahh...

Oh well. I arrived safely in Madaba with an excess of Egyptian souvenirs and gifts and am happy to finally be sedentary for a month and a half. The dig starts in a couple of days so I will do my best to continue updating and adding pictures...

Much love,
Krysten

I can't tell you enough how fun and amazing Egypt has been for me, so I'll start at the beginning...

I flew into Cairo Airport with a delicious view of the Nile and a very nice Egyptian man in the seat beside me who taught me my first words in Egyptian Arabic:

"Ha bi bi" - My darling
"Bousse" - Kiss
"Tanem" - Sleep

Little did I know that this flight was only an inkling of what was to come. From 100 - 1 000 000 000 camels, limitations are no holds bar when it comes to marrying a caucasian.

The airport was a nightmare due to a silly mistake on my part. I arrived at 3:25 am on the morning of June 1st. I booked my hostel for June 1st. Silly me! Since I booked my hostel for June 1st, they assumed I would be staying the NIGHT of June 1st and not the night of
May 31st. Get it? So here I was in a foreign Arabic country where as soon as you leave airport security there is a crowd of 500 Egyptians waiting for their family or foreigners they can hassle for a much over-priced taxi.

I looked around for awhile expecting to see my name raised above the crowd, but after an hour of taxi drivers following me around and asking to be my boyfriend even though I'm "married" and attempting to make Arabic payphones work and receiving only a busy signal I gave up and got a taxi to my hostel. This brief summary is only a fifth of the detail of the insanity that occured that night. I hardly want to relieve it in writing... So ask me about it when I get home.. haha

I met Josh and Eliza in Cairo my first day there; twins, travelling for 18 months from South America to the Middle East to Europe to Asia. Hilarious and very great people. I met them as they came into the hostel arguing with their taxi guide they had hired for the day to take them to Giza, Saqqara and Memphis ... apparently they decided they didn't want to go Saqqara and Memphis after Giza as they thought the guide had said "Sahara" and not "Saqqara" ... They were still going to pay the full amount, they just didn't want to see everything. In Egypt if you reject their history, you reject them. Josh and Eliza learned quickly how to be better tourists. Hahaha.

My first day in Cairo was spent at the Egyptian Museum where we saw some of the most incredible things I've ever laid my eyes on, besides Tommy (permission to puke at my lameness). An entire wing was reserved for 11 ancient mummies. Entirely preserved, the bodies laid intact in cases carefully monitoring the temperature and ensuring their hair, fingernails and other finer parts of the body would endure no further physical degradation. Seeing a 4000 year old woman lying with her eyes closed, arms extended and hair fully intact was an experience that I still can't put into words. It's just... so... cool.

Tutankhamun's tomb was definately a highlight of the Egyptian museum. Howard Carter discovered the tomb many, many years ago and died soon after it was uncovered. Many mysterious deaths followed thus suggesting the work itself, in uncovering an ancient tomb, was victim to ancient curse. Howard Carter's fellow excavator, a man who performed a purification ritual before entering the tomb was one of the few men who worked at the site to survive into old age.

Tutankamun's remains were incredible. Hundreds of golden, earrings, bracelets and necklaces adorned the mummy itself and were wrapped in bandages surrounding the mummy. A MUST SEE.

Crossing the road to the museum? Well.... an adventure. Basically roads here are busy highways or death traps as I like to call them that you simply run across when the traffic is well.... less thick (and by less thick I mean 300 cars passing you a millesecond instead of 325). Josh, Eliza and I simply stared at the traffic until we saw an Egyptian guy just running through it. So we did the same, pretty much screaming and laughing the whole way.

Khan-el-Khalili, probably the largest and most famous Bazaar in Egypt was another AWESOME experience. We showed up and were FAMISHED. Any restaurant was a good restaurant. Wading through the piles of carpets, sheesha pipes and crappy Egyptian souvenirs we came across Egypt's version of a mall's foodcourt. A bunch of restaurants cluttered together all vying for your appetite. The minute we came around the corner the shouting began.
"Here, Here! We Good Food! Here Menu! Eat! We Have Chicken, Falafel, Koshari! Good Price!"

The only tourists there, we just started laughing and the entire 500 or so Egyptians enjoying their dinners turn to look at what's causing the commotion. Finally we decided on a restaurant and found out there were not enough seats inside. According to the owners "No pob-lem, No pob-lem!" We stood there until we realized they were kicking people out of their restaurant in the middle of their meal so we could sit down. Egyptian hospitality at its finest! Of course we said NO way! Let these people eat! A table opened up in a couple minutes and we were finally able to eat.

The food was delicious, pita, meat, salad stuff etc... The hawkers were an experience. Everything known to man was being sold and little Egyptian boys, girls, women and men would approach every table in the market with odds and ends like Kleenexes, souviners, rugs, necklaces, bracelets, hennah and etc. We went wild with the hennah as it was only 5 Egyptian pounds, or rather $1 Canadian.

And THIS was created! Awesome, eh?

So we ate and continued on our merry way around the market taking about 12 steps an hour as we seemed to be barricaded by a ridiculous amount of people shouting "Welcome to Alaska" (Yes, Egyptians are crazy or "Magnoun" in Arabic), "Look at my shop, you know how much? 5 pound!" or "Two wives? Lucky man!"

The Egyptian people are the funniest and most welcoming people in the world. When we finally left the market Eliza and I had each purchased 1 item and Josh, nothing. Basically the entire time was spent joking around with the people in broken Arabic-English and turning down offers of marriage for Eliza and I by saying we were Josh's wives. In Islam, men may have up to four women... but the story goes "Four women equals four problems."

We went home very, very happy but tired and HUNGRY. We seem to always be either hungry or thirsty here! It seems less of a hassle sometimes to eat nothing then to have to barter for a cold bottle of water or a meal! Hahaha.... You wouldn't believe how cheap everything is though... it's awesome.

A 1.5 litre bottle of water? 1.5 pounds or $0.30 CDN
A meal? 2 CDN

And so I leave you with the memories of my first day in Cairo...

Next? My second day in Egypt. Hopefully soon to come.. haha

Much love,
Krysten