17 August, 2006

Sorry for the tardiness of my installment, Internet is hard to come by and a little expensive in the East.  Beyond that, however, the complaints are few and far between.  The end of the dig closed in faster than many people would have wished and we were off to Aqaba, on the Dead Sea.  It was hot and oppressive.  One afternoon we went out to Wadi Rum, the desert (with sculpted high rock hills and beautiful harsh scenery and warm sliding sunsets carpeted with soft hot sand) in which Lawrence of Arabia united the bedouin tribes to fight in some war.  It was Amazing and i loved it.  We stayed to watch the sun set and the stars come out before we returned to our bleak (by comparison) hotel.  The next day we went snorkeling in the infamous red sea and found out that they've lied to us!  the red sea is not RED!  it's blue... but a vivid pretty blue that makes up for no red.  sunscreen reapplicated several times throughout the day saved most but not all of us from splotchy purple painful sunburns.

Incidently there are several countries on the coast of the red sea and they are working to make the area a special zone in which vacationers can move freely between the countries while visiting.

Well, Aqaba eventually ended and we arrived back in Amman for a few days before two other students and I flew to Cairo, Egypt.  I took the time to try a traditional turkish bath house.  Now, while I was in Aqaba I didn't burn, but I felt I'd gotten a little bit of color to temper my winter whiteness. And after the dig one still almost doesn't feel clean, and a bath house sounded like just the thing!  The first step was a steam room, which was, well, steamy.  WIth the thickest hottest steam up higher, I  had to crouch to get in or be bowled over backwards.  It was really a wonderful experience.  Then I showered off and sat in a hottub, waiting for my turn at the scrub and massage.  The scrub was performed with a rough weave cloth by a big motherly arab woman, who had a firm hand.  When I say firm and motherly, I mean she exfoliated the top several layers of my skin, dirt, and tan in a way that only a mother could manage on a dirty child, then soaped me up and down.  so raw, but clean i stood in my swimsuit waiting for a massage table to open.  One did a few minutes later and I got to experience an hour of gentle massage and relaxation.  The woman doing my massage was clearly the masseuse in charge as she sternly told one of the apprentices not to add anything special to a massage if the customer had not asked for it from the management.  she then explained to me that it had to be the same for everyone.  And that some of the girls didnt' really need the work, but "work is work and it has to be done".  It was a profound insite and i spent much of my hour thinking about it.

Well, we flew to Cairo and I had a little bit of trouble at the airport.  It mostly consisted of forgetting to confirm my flight and forgetting that my trowel and two little knives were in my carryon suitcase.  Well, that solved I managed to get to Cairo and after changing my money checking into my hotel and rolling out of bed early in the morning, saw the pyramids of Giza!  They're huge!!  But actually smaller than I thought they'd be but HUGE!

We've visited several temples since and not a disapointment, they've all been absolutely beautiful.  My favorite though would have to be Karnak in Luxor. (Side note on Luxor, there is a temple there with only one obelisk where there used to be two, the second one is in Paris, it was a gift to Napolean.  I saw both in the course of my travels this summer!)  Karnak was added to by many pharoahs and kings throughout the history of Egypt and so is a sprawling mismatched maze of amazing things.  We had a lecture there and Dr. Bates mentioned a temple/shrine that he hadn't ever been able to get inside to see, it was always locked up.  So i decided to venture across the work yard full of fallen chunks that were being reassembled to see the temple.  I found it and started walking around the deserted forecourt taking pictures of the beautiful carved reliefs.  There was a worker who followed me, showing me things every so often.  eventually we came to the door.  I walked forward to try it, but he beat me there and just before i could sigh with disapointment he opened it and ushered me in, to my astonishment and delight.  inside were three rooms for the trinity of the shrine.  Father, Mother, and Son.  The statue in the middle room, the father, was a mess and the son's on the left is in the cairo museum the worker said, but then he showed me into the room on the right and it took my breath away.  The statue of the mother, either sekhmet or tefnu (i'm not sure which) was whole and perfect.  I stood in awe and took a picture staring in the mostly dark room.  the only illumination came from a small square in the ceiling directly above the statue.  she was beautiful.  i'm not sure how long i stood there, but eventually the worker tried to explain that the sun shone directly in the square on Dec something at what time of day? and looking at my watch i realized i was late for the tour bus!!  I thanked the man profusely in both arabic and money and ran all the way through and back to the bus.  The tour guide made me sing something for being late but i didn't care, it was worth it!

since then we have been cruising down the Nile and it's beautiful.  it looks like someone plopped a tropical island in the middle of the desert.  The tourist Venders are a nightmare, asking 4 times too much and flattering ceaselessly, but haggling can be taught!!  I hope, since i'm not very good at it.  Egypt is brilliant, hot but so much fun!

Masalaama!  

kassy

14 July 2006

Hello from Jordan and archeaological dig at Tall al-Umayri!

Most people in the world sleep at 4 in the morning but here we rise at 4 and make it out by bus to the dig site by 5:30 in the a.m.  we've eaten enough breakfast (and downed enough coffee) to hold us through three hours of work to second breakfast of falafel, shawerma, and the sacrificial watermelon at 9 am.  The break, full of laughter and light naps, carries us through to our stop time at 12:30.  Some of us are working at uncovering rooms and floors, others walls and pits full of ancient garbage that tells us about peoples daily lives hundreds of years ago in the fertil crecent.  Kind of like ancient detectives.  

So far some of our biggest finds have been a carnelian bee (along with a real bee hive which gave us a total of 48 nasty stings and a couple hospital visits, ouch! but an appropriate trophy) and three ptolemaic coins.  For my part i've moved alot of dirt, sang alot of songs, eaten alot of falafel, and finally found the wall i was supposed to find ten days ago!

After we return from the dig we shower (in cold short showers) to get off as much of the permanent layer of dirt we all share as we can and go up to lunch.  Then we have a blessed two hours of quiet time for naps and computer lab or reading or studying.  The naps happen to be the sweetest form of time use.

at 4 we rise again for pottery washing and reading, the pottery can tell us what time period we're currently digging through and reveal publishable shards.  Alot of beautiful broken bits.

dinner is at 6 and two nights a week are lecture nights: this week we learned to make lithics (stone tools) out of flint.  It can be dangerous!  IT takes a hammer stone and big chunk of flint and alot of patience.  We also learned how to spin and weave wool, another lot and lot of patience.

one night a week is movie night.  the first week we watched Indiana Jones (the archaeologist hero) and the Last Crusade in preperation for our outing to Petra the beautiful beautiful hidden city.

Petra was a two day event, we bussed out early Sabbath morning and spent the afternoon walking down the long, high cliffed seik to the treasury entrance (featured by indiana jones) and climbed high, against the rules, to acheive a photo from above.  We followed a couple bedouin boys around and they took us up to the high place where we could see 360 view of Petra and the surrounding mountains.  Violently beautiful.  We took some pictures while performing taichi and kung fu with the picturesque backdrop before nearly sacrificing a friend on the altar.  on the way down the boys found us some rusting bracelets, gifts for us, their new girlfriends.  I worked hard at bartering my four friends away to them for the most amount of camels i possbly could.  I think i came out well with over a hundred camels.

The site is actually really nice, it's been very cool the whole time we've been here since we're in the mountains and the arabic diggers are alot of fun.  They've given nicknames to alot of the dig staff.  Mine is Kumail and i'm yelled and waved too by several of the diggers.  They're all very helpful.  I've even been given a ride on one of their horses which was really fun, though i didn't want to go quite that fast!

The sun is bright and we rise early, take care!

kassy

20 June 2006

been up late and looking for internet with no time.  i hope your qall not to lonely without me ;p

London was wonderful, but paris i didnt like nearly as much.  the eiffel tower is realy high. and i only have 15 min on a jumbled french keyboard.  the food here though has definitely been better.  i wil try to send a seconde, email tonight with ,more details.

for now i am alive and having an exhausted blast!  bought a boho bag; finally!

more later

times up ;p they are kicking me out bye

kassy

....Bonjour!  i apologize for the time it has taken to get this second installment in.  i have had to relearn my keyboard skills as the french keyboard bears almost no resemblence to its american cousin.  paris turned out to be dispointing. now this could be because i was rushed through it, but it was big and a little entitled feeling.  The food however was absolutely fabulous!!!  yesterday afternoon we spent in the louvre, and aside from learning to pronounce louvre correctly i can now say that i have gazed upon the mona lisas face.... from behind several people and through a bullet proof pane of glass.  i was asked to s`il vous plait not touch the mosaics and put my shoes back on.  for lunch i bought a brie and tomato sandwich in baguete which was divine, and bought a rasberry tarte ( that was anything but tart) from the quote&quote best bakery in paris.  we ascended the eiffel tower last night and the lines were longer than long.  it took us two and a half hours to get up and back down (including running down from the second floor, some 500 meters or more, so we wouldnt miss the metro but we almost did anyway, since one of our number stopped to kiss a random girl at the top of the tower so he could kiss a girl on top of the eiffel tower:  we had to run run run to catch the last metro of the night).  today was my favorite yet, in chartres.  first of all i must tell you that the people in france who arent parisiens are so much nicer (the myth is true, when in france, try to speak french).  for second breakfast, since the first is so small!, i had quiche and an eclair fro, a small cafe in chartres. C'est manifique! of course the cathedral was beautiful as they all are.  then mary gamino and i wandered around and bought peaches from a little market.  the best best best peach i have ever had!!!  the rest of the day today was much worse though.  we had wake up call at 6:45 after getting in at 1:00 am then bused for an hour before waking for an hour in chartres.  Then bused for another hour of sleep ( not long enough!!) and woke to see chambord the biggest chateau, i believe, in france: then another hour bus ride to get to a little fairy tale chateau that one king had built for his mistress (dont worry, upon the kings death, the queen reposesed it), it reminds one of snow white. we are currently in a city in the south of france, whose name i dont know due to lack of sleep.  in the morning we are leaving again, of to a brandy brewery.

Bon soir!!

kassy

Righto mates! i'm writing to you from the east end of london town at it's still a little light outside at 9:41 pm. after a desperately long flight 'round the top of the globe from los angelos to london, i stepped out into the fresh air of mother england. so far the experiences have been nothing but wonderful (aside from being barely awake enough to think and move). we met up with ef tour guide gwen and took off from our hotel around 5 in the afternoon for fish and chips (a dinner more brittish than the brits) in downtown london. we took the little train, which by the way is literally right next to the hotel, down to the underground and sped on over to piccadilly square. Fish and Chips is basically fish slathered and fried in butter with a plate of potatoe chips, a little more like fries, but not as crispy. it's eaten, in brittain anyway, with malt vinegar and salt. actually fantastically delicious, i got vegetarian pasta but tried the fish because it's england. Actually very very tastey (the vinegar and salt on the chips incidentlly was particularly good) unfortunately i have to say that the bread pudding was a disapointment, though i really should have known. I'm not really a fan of soggy bread. We took a short (ish) walking tour through some of the more famous squares of london leicester for example (which is pronounced lester for you colonists) and we saw big ben and the gates to the avenue which leads to buckingham palace (where we will be heading tomorrow to see the changing of the guard) and walked down the Strand (German for beach) which is a street that used to be at the beach of the Thames river (pronounced Tames). the river has receeded a great deal. As a bit of trivia for you, the london bridge is actually a pretty boring little strip of bridge. \you're familiar with "london bridge is falling down" yes, well, *the* london bridge, not all that pretty. the tower bridge however is a two tower bridge and pretty. both the original london bridge and the tower bridge are now somewhere in america... having been bought by rich americans. [the bridge is actually spans across a section of Lake Havasu, in Arizona, USA.] Tomorrow we will be taking a bus tour of london after breakfast and then setting out on our own to explore the city. And in the evening a Jack the ripper tour! Don't worry, I'll be safe, cross my heart! happy Sabbath from across the world!

kassy