Monday was another library day with the Belgians. Brenda got a "little package" (as Ilona called it) which turned out to be a rather large package filled with candy, some sort of SUPER sweet mush, and a lovely picture of Zahi Hawass. She also got a pencil and her friend instructed her to throw it down a shaft at the next site we visit. Brenda has so far lost a pen at approximately 4 sites. One fell down a, oh, 11-storey deep shaft at Saqqara. Adding to the history of the site. :-P
So we all worked hard on our articles and snoeped-out on Brenda's candy. Then I followed the Belgians home, and watched Big Bang Theory with Brenda. Got home to find a note on the door that read "We are very sorry for entry the children. Thanks." Apparently, Kaz and Sandra found a similar sign in a restaurant and were so impressed by its Zen nature that they felt they should put it on our door. :-D
Yesterday was stressful, and exhausting, and also a lot of fun. We went to a "workshop" at Cairo University. The day included: a tour of the Cairo University Egyptian and Islamic collections. This was quite a great honor because the collections are rarely shown to visitors. Much of the material there has not yet been published, so no pictures. But it was a nice collection. Which you will never see, ha! :-P Then a very nice lecture by Ilona (Creation and Development of Writing, whoo) and then a short talk by Dr. Tarek Tawfik, our guide and Egyptology professor at Cairo U, about a proposal to turn the site of Maadi into an archaeology park. Maadi is a hugely important site for the prehistorians (pots, pots, pots) and also a very swank neighborhood. The ancient site is being crowded out, and he wants to save it.
Then a (much awaited) lunch break, which was rather impressive. They took us to a nice board room with big beautiful Egyptian flags, and a long wooden tables with green table clothes. Beautiful. I felt more like a visiting ambassador. :-) Lunch was pizza and falafel, but it was certainly the best falafel I have ever eaten. And we got to mingle with some Egyptian students, which was very nice.
After lunch, we got down to our real business. The "workshop" was really more of a conference of sorts. There were 8 Egyptian students and 8 of us, and we all had articles to read. 8 articles, so one Egyptian student, and one of us had the same article. Then each Egyptian - Dutch/Belgian team presented the article and started a discussion. It was simultaneously mind numbing and engaging. It was all pre or early Dynastic, so a bit before my understanding. Which means sometimes I wanted to just fall asleep, and mostly I just learned a lot.
During (the equally long awaited) tea time (we were an hour behind schedule at this point, even though we started 30 min early...) we were offered a dozen different kinds of cookies. I picked up a few, and started chatting to one of the Egyptian students, Ahmed, ("You're from America? But you have Egyptian features!") Soon, another Egyptian students, Khaled, said to me "Wait, you have so much room on your plate! You need one of these, and one of these goes here, and here..." and he started piling my tea saucer up with cookies. I protested, perhaps a bit weakly at first, but I decided to draw the line when he tried to float a cookie on top of my tea! :-D
Then back to the conference. I was the second to last to present (the Penultimate Presenter, if you will) and I had a great time. My partner, another Ahmed, was also well prepared, and though his English was a bit difficult to understand, I think we did a rather good job. :-) Then, finally, it was time to go back to Zamalek for a little pizza and chatting. With the Belgians.
Oh, and to find out if Koos was alive. His plane was supposed to arrive at 5:30 am, so I assumed he'd arrive at my apartment at 7:30. Which was perfect, since that's when we all get up and get ready for the day. But, by 6pm (PM, people, PM) I still hadn't heard a word from him. I'd sms-ed him, from everyone's phone, and I'd called him, again, from everyone's phone, and NOTHING. Of course, I mostly assumed that his phone wasn't working and that he was probably asleep, but there's always that little niggle of "what if he's been kidnapped by Ottoman slavers?" As it turned out, his phone wasn't working and he was asleep. He tried everything to contact me too, because he was getting worried since I told him the conference would be over by 5pm and wasn't back by 7pm. Ah, the joys of modern technology. :-)
So, I punched Koos in the stomach, and Kaz and I dragged him to Picasso for a pizza and a chance to meet the Belgians. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment