Back from Egypt - or into the real world...
Egypt has been a fairy tale this time. With a few beasts lurking along the way, of which the flight home has been the worst, but still, a fairy tale.
I have not expected to speak ancinet Egyptian with anyone - but found out this was the best known common language our inspector and I shared... So there I was, chatting in ancient Egyptian in a 2500 years old tomb. I know how Daniel Jackson felt at Abydos :o))
I have not expected to be handed over the most promising material from the whole excavation. I was. I have not expected to spend the seven hours a day we spend in the field actually working - it happens so seldom. Yet, I finished the last inscription twenty minutes before the end of my last working day.
Getting up before six each day was bit tough for me, but as I was looking forward for each day’s new finds and surprises, I actually sometimes even enjoyed the early mornings. And after work, no one wanted to sleep because first we discussed what each of us had (and so far, things look VERY good), and then it was out into the streets for sheesha, and a little gift shopping. I’m not that much of a friend of bargaining, but there was always about three of us, so it was fine.
And the next two years, I’m signed up for the same kind of work with the same group of people, yay :o) I hope to get three weeks instead of two next time, because this time, it was sometimes just too stressful knowing how little time I’ve got.
Having spent two weeks in a country that prefers fat and sugar over anything and having eaten more white bread than in a year, I was a little anxious before weighing myself after arrival, but I only gained a kilo, which I think I’ll exercise off quite easily. It seems my body is happy as it is (which is about 5 kilos too much for ME to be happy with it, but then, these 5 kilos would cost me so much of energy and enjoyment that at the moment, I just don’t care. And, having spent the two weeks with two very, very skinny women, and noticing the problems they have with their back because of not having enough muscles to hold them upright, I’m willing to be feeling fat sometimes, but being healthy.
I have not expected to speak ancinet Egyptian with anyone - but found out this was the best known common language our inspector and I shared... So there I was, chatting in ancient Egyptian in a 2500 years old tomb. I know how Daniel Jackson felt at Abydos :o))
I have not expected to be handed over the most promising material from the whole excavation. I was. I have not expected to spend the seven hours a day we spend in the field actually working - it happens so seldom. Yet, I finished the last inscription twenty minutes before the end of my last working day.
Getting up before six each day was bit tough for me, but as I was looking forward for each day’s new finds and surprises, I actually sometimes even enjoyed the early mornings. And after work, no one wanted to sleep because first we discussed what each of us had (and so far, things look VERY good), and then it was out into the streets for sheesha, and a little gift shopping. I’m not that much of a friend of bargaining, but there was always about three of us, so it was fine.
And the next two years, I’m signed up for the same kind of work with the same group of people, yay :o) I hope to get three weeks instead of two next time, because this time, it was sometimes just too stressful knowing how little time I’ve got.
Having spent two weeks in a country that prefers fat and sugar over anything and having eaten more white bread than in a year, I was a little anxious before weighing myself after arrival, but I only gained a kilo, which I think I’ll exercise off quite easily. It seems my body is happy as it is (which is about 5 kilos too much for ME to be happy with it, but then, these 5 kilos would cost me so much of energy and enjoyment that at the moment, I just don’t care. And, having spent the two weeks with two very, very skinny women, and noticing the problems they have with their back because of not having enough muscles to hold them upright, I’m willing to be feeling fat sometimes, but being healthy.