Jordan

Oh wow. I can't even begin to explain the awesomeness of this weekend.

First of all, I got a beautiful hotel room for $20 CAD a night. I managed to grab one of the only single rooms with *gasps* a continuous hot shower! No more army showers (water on, water off, shampoo in, rinse, water off, conditioner in, rinse, water off .... all in 3 mins) for a whole weekend! And as if that wasn't enough to make my whole hotel stay worth every penny.....

We all got into Petra for free! Usually $40 CAD per day, but waived as we were registered with the Jordanian antiquities office and considered as "doing a service to the antiquity of Jordan." Ah yes, that's us... superstars in the Jordanian antiquity circle. I'll bet you're all jealous...

The photos from Petra are definately the best photos of my trip so far, I think.... We started in the Siq, then to the Treasury and the Monastary and the look outs. I dont want to say anything else because I just can not bring myself to ruin the photos before I actually post them or show people. The Monastary was a 45 minute climb up the side of a mountain on 2000 year old steps that were created by the Nabatean people...

You really must go see pictures at http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/
since I can't get my camera working on these darn computers in Jordan.....

Next was the High Place of Sacrifice which was a steep hour climb up 1256 steps on sketchy, demented stairs. The climb was so worth it despite a decent sun burn and nothing short of a heart attack affecting the three of us who climbed. The minute we reached the top, an ancient ceremonial altar was visible (which we laid in of course for oh so good photos... which was placed splat in the centre of the highest mountain in the area with a backdrop of rolling mountains and steep deadly valleys.

Of course the scenery was amazing and the incredible stonework, astounding.... but it was really the Jordanian people that made our day. We ended up (my friend Casey and I) having tea three times with different bedouin women throughout Petra who would simply not have no for an answer... and good thing, they were HILARIOUS. In broken English and Arabic, our conversations were enough to crack up even the tourists standing nearby who of course were pretending not to listen.

And when we finally climbed the 898 winding, ridiculous 2 foot high and 4 foot long steps to the Monastary we rested in a Bedouin tent and were surrounded by Bedouin music and a meal of "we still don't know what".... although it was the best food I've had in Jordan yet!

Oh, and of course with my broken Arabic I charmed some Bedouin men into giving me a free camel ride... and after joking around with them for far too long Casey, Cara and I were taken on a crazy, free camel and donkey ride with some hilarious Bedouin dudes.

Oh and then a camel bit me...... But it was more of a surprise then anything else to see a camel coming straight for my arm. Surprisingly it didn't hurt at all... It was merely like a clamp with no teeth... ewwww... and I don't even want to talk about the slimy white and nasty yellow gunk which was left behind on the entire sleeve of my shirt. Puke.

Of course, after arriving in Petra at 6:30am and ascending and descending over 4000 treacherous steps and walking over 8 kms over the course of 12 hours, we were ready to leave at 6:30 pm...

So I came back to the hotel with some others and went for a swim in the POOL and am now ready to CRASH

Mucho love,
Krysten

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

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