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So the other day in the field we found a small round basin rock structure thinger and we called it the bathtub.... and then we created this story that a man with leprosy was cast out of the city and the area outside of the gate that we're excavating now is his house with his bathtub. Only one of several hundred ways you can keep entertained while moving ridiculous amounts of dirt! Hahaha... Archaeology is very cool though, I must admit.

Well, only 8 more days of digging and getting up at 4:30am! Yaaayy... although I will be a bit sad as Jordan has been awesome.. everything is too expensive here though... its all like the same prices as in Canada... blaaaahhh.. Egypt was dirt cheap.

Hah.... funny story...
So I have these bright red baggy flowy pants and I was wearing them the other day walking down the street. Weirdly I was getting about 10 x's more catcalls than is normal for 2pm and was frankly a bit creeped out when about 4 Jordanian teenage boys started following me and yelling out most likely creepy stuff in Arabic....... so I thought to myself, "this can't be just because of the red pants can it be?" and then I remembered that not once have I seen a red shirt or red pants in ANY of the stores here in Jordan! No red shirts at alllll..... The only thing I've seen that is red here in the store windows is not very respectable red lingerie....

.... so I think they thought I was, well...... a not very respectable lady in red....

The moral is: Just in case you ever doubted it, red pants are a bad idea. You might be mistaken as a lady of the..... ick.... night.

Hahaha

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

Hello everyone!

Yes, yes I know it's been awhile. I've just been having way too much fun!

This weekend we went to Amsterdam and Jolanda and I met up with Erin from Canada who's on co-op in Germany. We had tons of fun and stayed at Jolanda's uncle's place who is only 26 and well... gorgeous. Haha. E-ron and I:

So here we were in Amsterdam shopping in the markets and I see this stand specializing in tea... and I think to myself, ".I have a friend who likes tea!" So I go in there and I buy some loose tea mix and a metal tea thinger that you put the tea in and then ya put in the water. Following?

Everything is peachy until I see Jolanda and show her what I bought. She takes a double glance at the package and suddenly bursts into laughter, "You bought BATHSALTS" she manages to get out between gusts of laughter. So basically, I was going to poison my friend with bathsalts instead of tea, cool. We ended up going back to the shop where Jolanda explained to the shopkeeper that I didn't understand Dutch, watched the shopkeeper also stifle his laughter and then was able to switch the bathsalts with actual tea. Heh.

Later on that night we went to the red light district which was so surreal. Skinny little girls standing in windows the size of a door with a tiny narrow room behind them would wait for guys to come up to their window. When the curtain was shut it meant a guy was in there with them. Sex was everywhere... it was pretty crazy.

Amsterdam is jam packed with canals throughout the city, so every corner basically looks like the last with a canal thrown in just to confuse you a little bit more. It's VERY pretty though and VERY packed full of tourists and well... people.

Tall houses characterize Amsterdam and allow the city to just pack more and more people in on top of each other. The houses are so narrow that little hooks exist on the top of each roof so that you can attach a lever system to lift things to the higher Bringing a couch up those stairs would simply be impossible.

Bikes are EVERYWHERE and the older and more junky, the better. Granny bikes, they call them. Biking paths are everywhere and watch out, they have the right of way!

So I'm off to Egypt tomorrow with a 8 hour stop in the island paradise of MALTA! So hopefully I'll get out of the airport with just enough time to lie in the beautiful foreign sun! Heh.
Ah yes, and my hair is a completely different colour; getting used to it is proving to be quite difficult. I'm hoping I look a tiny bit more like an Egyptian with my hair dark, although I'm sure when I speak absolutely no Arabic they'll realize I'm just a silly North American...

See you all in Egypt!

Much love,
Krysten

Hello! It is sooo exciting here...

I arrived Wednesday morning to a pouring city and arrived frazzled and with frizzy hair to my hostel like 2 hours later. ANYONE that knows me knows that I am super stupid when it comes to directions and generally too proud to ask for directions. So I didn't. Until an hour later after walking many street multiple times. The streets here are CRAZY. They all change into different names along the same road like 5 times within 3 blocks......

I've only got 8 minutes left on this computer so I'm typing like mad.... ignore spelling mistakes or I shall probably put an irish curse on you. I'm kidding, I don't know any irish curses.....

I do know one cool story though....
I went to Dublin castle today and went on a guided tour with a girl and two guys I met from my hostel (americans! BLECK! haha). So anyway, we went on a guided tour (cheesy, I know) through the huge amazing castle and the tour guide pointed out this insane huge carved and decorated table that took this Irish prisoner 7 years to make. Supposedly prisoners sometimes would make gifts for the English queen and if she liked the gift she would keep it and grant the prisoners a royal pardon....

So he presented it and she didn't like it... In the 1800's Ireland was going through a spiritual exploration phase, hypnotism and etc.... The queen assumed that a spiral in the middle of the table was supposed to hypnotize her into freeing the prisoner so she refused the gift and granted the prisoner 4 more years in gaol...

Ick, eh?

Well my time is about to run out... More later today, or tomorrow!

PS: IRELAND IS AMAZING!

Pictures to come.....