Ancient Squiggles

Back on this side of the pond, and this side of the keyboard! I was nervous to come back to Holland. I've spent some pretty radically horrible days and nights in this place. But as it turns out the Amy who left back in October is not the same Amy who showed up in January. And I swear this isn't the same place. I am finally getting to where I can easily see the awesomeness of this place! I win! I win!

Though it helps immensely, I'm sure, that I wintered in Egypt, and won't have to winter in Holland EVER AGAIN MWAHAHAHAHA! (Inshallah!)

So, here I am, and here Holland is. The week since I've been back has been interesting, weather-wise, from the tradtional rainy-dreary-yuck, to snow, to SUN. I'd say the sun has shone for the majority of the time I've been back (and that it hasn't been night), and that alone has raised my spirits higher. Add to that the fact that I am now certain that I rock the Egyptological world, or at least have the ability to translate ancient texts constantly, and I'm feeling pretty good about being back.

There's also a Starbucks in the train station now, and while I'm typically sort of blasé at best about the Bucks, I am thrilled. Mostly because I miss American style coffee shop (read: cafés) immensely. The hustle, the noise, the hanging out all day. Dutch cafés don't really have any of that. They have coffee, and people sit in little clumps with their friends, and drink their coffee, chat until the coffee's gone, and then leave. There's no hanging out with a computer or a book for hours. No $.50 refills either. Sigh.

So, the coming semester promises to be once again filled with entirely too much work. The master only requires that I take one course: Demotic. I learned in the first course that Demotic script is derived from Hieratic script and is grammatically between Late Egyptian and Coptic. The professor, a very scholarly American, said something like "Well, since you've all had Late Egyptian and Hieratic, Demotic won't be entirely impossible." Point of fact: I have had neither Late Egyptian nor Hieratic. Problem. And as you can see from this lovely picture, Demotic is mostly scribbles.

So I decided to take Late Egyptian and Hieratic in addition to Demotic. Give myself a chance to possibly understand. Besides, Late Egyptian and Hieratic are sorta important for an Egyptologist, and I would feel a bit left out if I didn't grasp the basics at least.

Add to these two languages (New Egyptian and Demotic) and two scripts (Hieratic and Demotic) a 60 page, single spaced masters thesis, and I really don't know that it matters whether the sun shines or doesn't.... But I'm feeling good about it all. :-)

(The picture below is Hieratic. Which is also mostly scribbles, but which is more like hieroglyphs than Demotic, and thus MUCH more legible.)