I am currently sitting in the Cairo Airport awaiting my flight home. It doesn’t leave till midnight and I’m here at the airport at least 6 hours early because I couldn’t think of anything else to do in Cairo. Well anything that wouldn’t cost me money and lots of hassle. But that’s ok because the airport has free wireless internet. Last night I stayed at the Mena Oberoi Palace Hotel. It was a 19th century hunting palace that has been converted into a hotel. It had a huge bed and a bath tub so it was like an early Christmas present [View Full Entry]

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Sorry all that I haven’t written practically all of November. I would give a ton of excuses but why dwell on my imperfections? Now I can’t even remember the last event I talked about, so I’ll just go over the last 3 weeks. On Friday the 6th a group of us went to Tanis. Tanis was an Ancient Egyptian capital during the 20th Dynasty. Several 21st and 22nd Dynasty pharaohs were buried here in shared tombs. We went into several of them and explored. For the most part Tanis is now in ruins and the excavators for the most part had [View Full Entry]

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This week I went to the town of el-Nazla, which is known for its handcrafted pottery. The Field School had a field trip there so Anne (our osteologist), Elaine (the terracotta specialist), Sonali, (the pottery specialist), and I all tagged along. As it turned out, one of the field school students, A.J., wore an R2D2 shirt. Anne wore her Boba Fett sweatshirt. So I was convinced to wear my Ewok shirt I received from Lucasfilm. We were clearly the coolest people there. The pottery village was really interesting because we were able to see all the different processes that went into [View Full Entry]

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So, I haven’t written in the past 2 weeks because it’s been way too busy since the field school arrived. There are 11 American students and 10 Egyptians from the Antiquities Authority. Some of the Americans are wonderful and are really enthused to work here. Some of them are lazy. And some are just plain crazy. One girl in particular is completely out of her mind and has snapped at several people including me. Needless to say (though I will anyways) that she has upset loads of people at camp. She even ostracized herself from all the Egyptians by accusing them [View Full Entry]

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This week we found out these 5 cat amulets found on site are fakes. One of the local villagers hired to do the heavy work on the excavation had been planting these tiny figurines of cats and one falcon at different areas. Certain excavations will pay workers a bonus if they find something. So, in a sad attempt for an impoverished man to make a few extra dollars he corrupted some of our academic data. I’m not sure which is worse really, that the man had to resort to such measures in order to make bit more money for his family, [View Full Entry]

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Sunday the rest of the group had to go to the Tourism Police in Fayum City so Karina, Dan, and I just loafed around the house for the majority of the day. When they were done with the police, the three of us plus Hans, Willeke’s husband, met up with the group at the site where we are excavating. It was mid-day so it was incredibly hot but I got to see the whole site, which is open to the public. Some man passed by myself and a few others and said, “Not much to see here!” That one comment just [View Full Entry]

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Ah...I didn't even have to arrive in the country before being reminded of how much these people hate me! While waiting for my flight to Cairo at the JFK airport, I got whistled at by an Egyptian man talking on his cell phone. Then this group of women (complete with head scarves) was shooting daggers out of their eyes at me. I felt so welcomed. It doesn't help that I am so painfully American and stick out like Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands. When I got to Egypt it was basically the airport times 100. Plus there was a myriad of [View Full Entry]

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