Cyprus is just like home. Except you are surrounded by the Mediterranean, there’s no chick-fil-a, and everybody here speaks Greek.
Questions from my mom’s class:
SAM ask-- How many kings lived in the Valley of the Kings?
answer: so there’s this deal (or at least how I understand it):
Kings and rich people decided they wanted to be buried in cool places.
The chronology goes kinda like this: mastaba tombs, then step pyramids (djoser), then bent pyramids, then red pyramids, then the Great Pyramid and others at GIZA, then came the valley of the kings.
The pyramid development happened like this -- kings were like “HEY! I want a bigger better place than the last king - BUILD IT!” so pyramids got nicer and bigger each time.
Then during the pyramid time, kings noticed they were getting looted....everything was stolen little by little. So they were like “HEY! Let’s hide me in the mountains instead of a pyramid!” and so pyramids were uncool and people began to be buried in the Valley of the Kings -- 62 tombs were there [they think.. can’t ever really tell] and 21 of those were royalty – cause anyone w/ enough dough could have a tomb in the valley.
FYI -- king tut is not a big deal as a king. Not at all. He doesn’t really matter. Ramesses II is the most notable ruler buried in the Valley of the Kings. King tut is just the only tomb they found intact with no looting. So that makes him important cause they now have a li’l understanding of what was buried in the tombs. And if there was that much gold in his tomb [he was a nobody who was died unexpectedly, meaning his tomb/riches weren’t even ready for burial when he died] there must have been crazy amounts of cool things and gold in the other big tombs.
SAM asks – What do you eat?
In Egypt we were kinda busy trying to not get sick – we didn’t try too many foreign foods. Though I didn’t get sick, almost everyone else did. We like to call it FRAGILITY FACTOR. A cool something new: Khirkade juice made from the hibiscus flower. Looked kinda like red cool-aid but tasted like nothing you have ever had before.*
In attempt for “safe” food, we ate one meal at a place called Roy’s Country Kitchen, located in our five-star hotel. Here they required workers to wear plaid button-ups and overalls as uniform and played only Johnny Cash music. [I sang a li’l ring of fire here and there.] It was memorable.
Cypriot (pronounced SIP-REE-OUGHT) food has been excellent. Like, you don’t even know. We have eaten at many small town café sorta places. In Larnaca, we ate souvlaki, which is a semi-circle pita sandwich filling with roasted meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, etc., which has been argued as the 8th Wonder of the World. There are strange sauces to go on the souvlaki, one which is a sesame seed sauce called tahini (it goes in hummus too), and another is a cucumber and yogurt sauce called tzatziki. Those livin’ on the edge add hot pickled peppers and celery.
The cheeses here are divine. For breakfast, we usually take advantage of the opportunity to make a tomatoes and helloumi sandwich, on toasted bread. It’s either souvlaki or helloumi pitas for every meal, who am I kiddin?
The coffee here is very strong. You get a nice little 3-ounce cup, saucer, and a large glass of water. Not really thinking, I had my first cup of coffee when we were in Cyprus before going to Egypt. After a few sips, I reached complete grind. Lots of grind. Bitter grinds. Settled at the bottom. Not knowing any better, I decided to chug all the grinds at the bottom. All of them. I immediately regretted my decision. It was AWFUL. Then they told me that you don’t drink that part. And that’s why they give you water. Ever since then, this story comes up quite often. Almost every time we have coffee. “HEY ANNA MARIE! ‘MEMBER THAT TIME YOU DRANK ALL THE COFFEE GRINDS! HAHA!” They call it stupid. I call it HARDCORE.
SARAH asks -- Did you see through the windows in the pyramids?
There are actually no windows in the pyramids. Only stone…. On all sides. No windows at all.
SARAH asks-- Is it true girls could not be actors thousands of years ago?
Yes, this is true. Women really couldn’t do diddlysquat back then. No rights, really. Men played the role of women in the plays of classical theatre.
SAM asks --Did you go inside the pyramid? What did it look like? How many pyramids did you see? What were the carvings like?
Yep, I went inside the pyramids. Well, only one was open. And empty -- cause everything has either been stolen or put in museums. But we walked in and it was like this really long tunnel that was probably 4 feet wide/tall, that finally ended in a chamber room. And had little oxygen. And was empty. But at least I went inside. Here are some really bad pictures I found online. I can’t find any good ones, and photographs are not allowed. http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/egypt/photos/luxor/westbank/vk/ramesses3-01.html ; http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2002/egypt/tomb_vr_1.shtm
The Valley of the Kings, on the other hand, had amazing hieroglyphics and paintings on all the walls.*
I would like to take a moment to fill you in on how ghetto the Egyptian Museum was in Cairo. Egypt was dirty overall. And they know Americans don’t understand Arabic, so it is easy for them to make us pay for things like bathrooms, even in big places like the Egyptian Museum. Examples of how ghetto this place was include: to lock up the cases with really famous sculptures and artifacts, they used wire twists where a lock would go. Sometimes rusty little padlock. I was looking into some of King Tut’s Tomb stuff, and there was packaging tape all over the top of one of the funerary boxes. They also used classy handwritten slips of paper to signal which pieces were “on leave”, though many of the pieces in this museum didn’t even have identification. It was weird.
*A MUST-GOOGLE
Monday, January 29, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
a ditty
A ditty I made up with the aid of friends:
To the tune of “in the jungle”
Me: [making background a capella tune] canopic jars canopic jars. canopic jars canopic jars….
Katie: in the desert, the mighty desert, anubis sleeps tonight. in the desert, the mighty desert, anubis sleeps tonight.
Unison: ramesseeeeeeeeees -he is number two. Ramesseeeeeeeeees -he is number two.
Da dum dum dum
Katie: [making background a capella tune] the breakfast bar. the break fast bar…
Me: while in Egypt, in cairo Egypt, we saw the pyramids. while in Egypt, in cairo Egypt, we saw the pyramids.
Unison: sayeeeeeeeeeeed* makes pretty jewelry. sayeeeeeeeeeeed makes pretty jewelry.
Da dum dum dum.
Baksheesh.**
*Sayed = our tour guide, who makes jewelry
**Baksheesh = Egyptian word for tips
current travel plans:
1/26 – 2/2 traveling throughout Cyprus
2/2 – Fly to Heraklion, Crete, Greece
2/7 – overnight ferry to Athens, Greece
To the tune of “in the jungle”
Me: [making background a capella tune] canopic jars canopic jars. canopic jars canopic jars….
Katie: in the desert, the mighty desert, anubis sleeps tonight. in the desert, the mighty desert, anubis sleeps tonight.
Unison: ramesseeeeeeeeees -he is number two. Ramesseeeeeeeeees -he is number two.
Da dum dum dum
Katie: [making background a capella tune] the breakfast bar. the break fast bar…
Me: while in Egypt, in cairo Egypt, we saw the pyramids. while in Egypt, in cairo Egypt, we saw the pyramids.
Unison: sayeeeeeeeeeeed* makes pretty jewelry. sayeeeeeeeeeeed makes pretty jewelry.
Da dum dum dum.
Baksheesh.**
*Sayed = our tour guide, who makes jewelry
**Baksheesh = Egyptian word for tips
current travel plans:
1/26 – 2/2 traveling throughout Cyprus
2/2 – Fly to Heraklion, Crete, Greece
2/7 – overnight ferry to Athens, Greece
Monday, January 22, 2007
WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN
Things accomplished thus far on the classics trip:
1. saw royal shakespeare company show
RSC may be having its residency at Davidson right now, but we saw them in London – “Antony and Cleopatra” starring Patrick Stewart… you probably either remember him from star trek or his acting repertoire, including those sweet john barton workshop movies we watched in my acting Shakespeare class last semester. Pretty fitting before our travels to Egypt.
2. bought a rosetta stone backpack
Katie Eastland and I bought matching rosetta stone backpacks that are absolutely swell. I plan on wearing them EVERYWHERE. Nuff said.
4. British Museum
the Elgin marbles* from the Parthenon! Wooooooo!
[more grandiose explanation to come when we visit the Parthenon]
3. made / continue to make constant references to mcguyver
for quite some time, I thought this was a code name for anyone who called toumazou’s cell. Turns out – mcguyver is toumazou’s friend who is mentioned constantly and helps work out things for our group while in cyprus. Examples of references to mcguyver include every time toumazou’s celly rings, he dances around and say “it’s mcguyver! It’s mcguyver!” also, toumazou brought in a box and said, “LOOK! Presents from mcguyver for our trip to eygpt! He brought us adaptors and diarrhea medicine!”
4. ate fish and chips
self-explanatory.
5. building up the first encounter of uncle phillip
This was the first conversation he came up in:
Catherine knepp is @ toumazou’s for the group dinner.
Toumazou brings out a jar of olives and says, “try some!”
She does and says, “these are delicious!”
He replies, “Guess who picked them!”
Catherine answers, “you?”
Toumazou corrects her, “No. Uncle Phillip!”
Turns out uncle Phillip is toumazou’s 94 year old uncle. He is 3rd oldest in his village. He often climbs trees and picks olives. Another story includes toumazou rapidly driving a car down the road, and uncle phillip passed him on his bicycle. That’s all I know about him, but that’s plenty.
6. bonded with a middle-aged Cypriot woman during flight to Cyprus. I asked questions and she told me facts about her family, job, and country. Facts learned include: Cyprus population = 730,000; capital = Nicosia; produce = oranges, olives, other vegetables; 3rd largest island in the Mediterranean; daughter goes to college in London and had her quarterly exams last week
7. met Syrian diplomat
after the day in larnaca, cyprus seeing st. lazarus’s tomb, the choirokoita neolithic village, and the ruin of the ancient city amathus, we ran into a Syrian diplomat at Hala Sultan Tekke (the temple for Unn Haram) in Cyprus. he asked to take a photograph with us, then proceeded to invite us to his country… including a free lunch in the deal.
8. saw the valley of the kings*
like I used to see in my 3rd grade ‘weekly reader’, only REAL. We went into three of the tombs – which was sweeeet. You entered in the little hole in the mountain, and after some stairs up n’ down, you reached the all kinds of chambers that were sculpted / painted - imagine: art and hieroglyphics from 3,500 years ago w/ some still in color. LOOOOVED it!
9. Memorial temple to queen hatshepsut*
HUGE! In many momuments women were dressed in male kingly costume, which included a “false beard”
10. mo’ Egypt
Egypt is just what you’d expect, only bigger -- Sand, dust, camels, arabic, men in turbans, ruins on the side of the road, etc are the usue. karnak and luxor temples were amazing.*
*google ‘em! google’em! [optional… but just do it.]
fun facts for 3rd graders about Egypt (… and Caitlyn Culbertson)
• “good morning” in Arabic is pronounced: “SABA HELL HEAR”
• “LA” means “no”
• Driving down the road you can see sugar cane, banana trees, lemon trees, lime trees, etc, etc
• Houses built mainly of mudbrick. Why? Cause they absorb heat in the summer
• The nile is the longest river in the world. Followed by the amazon, then the Mississippi
• 212 towns in Egypt (45% of peeps live in towns)
• 7,400 villages in Egypt (55% of peeps live in villages)
• 73,000,000 = pop of Egypt
• 17,000,000 = pop of Cairo
• there was a shepherd followed by his sheep crossing the road
• two different cultures of Egypt: city culture and country culture
• city culture = pretty modern, like in the US
• country culture = more traditional, ex. = in villages, men wear dresses and turbans
• land is either blue (water), green (land), or brown (desert). 95% of Egypt is brown
• never rains in the south
• education = subsidized by the government
• 6 yrs in elementary school (required)
• 3 yrs intermediate school (optional)
• 3 yrs secondary school (optional)
• university is free
• start school at age 6
• both public and private schools with mostly same differences as in US
• national dress = gallabaya (prob not spelling this correctly)
• most popular color = black
• married women are recognized by wearing black clothing
• single women are recognized by their colorful garmets
• Differences in west and east bank of the Nile:
• East = temples (sunrise)
• West = tombs (sunset)
• Egypt = developing country (can’t drink their water)
1. saw royal shakespeare company show
RSC may be having its residency at Davidson right now, but we saw them in London – “Antony and Cleopatra” starring Patrick Stewart… you probably either remember him from star trek or his acting repertoire, including those sweet john barton workshop movies we watched in my acting Shakespeare class last semester. Pretty fitting before our travels to Egypt.
2. bought a rosetta stone backpack
Katie Eastland and I bought matching rosetta stone backpacks that are absolutely swell. I plan on wearing them EVERYWHERE. Nuff said.
4. British Museum
the Elgin marbles* from the Parthenon! Wooooooo!
[more grandiose explanation to come when we visit the Parthenon]
3. made / continue to make constant references to mcguyver
for quite some time, I thought this was a code name for anyone who called toumazou’s cell. Turns out – mcguyver is toumazou’s friend who is mentioned constantly and helps work out things for our group while in cyprus. Examples of references to mcguyver include every time toumazou’s celly rings, he dances around and say “it’s mcguyver! It’s mcguyver!” also, toumazou brought in a box and said, “LOOK! Presents from mcguyver for our trip to eygpt! He brought us adaptors and diarrhea medicine!”
4. ate fish and chips
self-explanatory.
5. building up the first encounter of uncle phillip
This was the first conversation he came up in:
Catherine knepp is @ toumazou’s for the group dinner.
Toumazou brings out a jar of olives and says, “try some!”
She does and says, “these are delicious!”
He replies, “Guess who picked them!”
Catherine answers, “you?”
Toumazou corrects her, “No. Uncle Phillip!”
Turns out uncle Phillip is toumazou’s 94 year old uncle. He is 3rd oldest in his village. He often climbs trees and picks olives. Another story includes toumazou rapidly driving a car down the road, and uncle phillip passed him on his bicycle. That’s all I know about him, but that’s plenty.
6. bonded with a middle-aged Cypriot woman during flight to Cyprus. I asked questions and she told me facts about her family, job, and country. Facts learned include: Cyprus population = 730,000; capital = Nicosia; produce = oranges, olives, other vegetables; 3rd largest island in the Mediterranean; daughter goes to college in London and had her quarterly exams last week
7. met Syrian diplomat
after the day in larnaca, cyprus seeing st. lazarus’s tomb, the choirokoita neolithic village, and the ruin of the ancient city amathus, we ran into a Syrian diplomat at Hala Sultan Tekke (the temple for Unn Haram) in Cyprus. he asked to take a photograph with us, then proceeded to invite us to his country… including a free lunch in the deal.
8. saw the valley of the kings*
like I used to see in my 3rd grade ‘weekly reader’, only REAL. We went into three of the tombs – which was sweeeet. You entered in the little hole in the mountain, and after some stairs up n’ down, you reached the all kinds of chambers that were sculpted / painted - imagine: art and hieroglyphics from 3,500 years ago w/ some still in color. LOOOOVED it!
9. Memorial temple to queen hatshepsut*
HUGE! In many momuments women were dressed in male kingly costume, which included a “false beard”
10. mo’ Egypt
Egypt is just what you’d expect, only bigger -- Sand, dust, camels, arabic, men in turbans, ruins on the side of the road, etc are the usue. karnak and luxor temples were amazing.*
*google ‘em! google’em! [optional… but just do it.]
fun facts for 3rd graders about Egypt (… and Caitlyn Culbertson)
• “good morning” in Arabic is pronounced: “SABA HELL HEAR”
• “LA” means “no”
• Driving down the road you can see sugar cane, banana trees, lemon trees, lime trees, etc, etc
• Houses built mainly of mudbrick. Why? Cause they absorb heat in the summer
• The nile is the longest river in the world. Followed by the amazon, then the Mississippi
• 212 towns in Egypt (45% of peeps live in towns)
• 7,400 villages in Egypt (55% of peeps live in villages)
• 73,000,000 = pop of Egypt
• 17,000,000 = pop of Cairo
• there was a shepherd followed by his sheep crossing the road
• two different cultures of Egypt: city culture and country culture
• city culture = pretty modern, like in the US
• country culture = more traditional, ex. = in villages, men wear dresses and turbans
• land is either blue (water), green (land), or brown (desert). 95% of Egypt is brown
• never rains in the south
• education = subsidized by the government
• 6 yrs in elementary school (required)
• 3 yrs intermediate school (optional)
• 3 yrs secondary school (optional)
• university is free
• start school at age 6
• both public and private schools with mostly same differences as in US
• national dress = gallabaya (prob not spelling this correctly)
• most popular color = black
• married women are recognized by wearing black clothing
• single women are recognized by their colorful garmets
• Differences in west and east bank of the Nile:
• East = temples (sunrise)
• West = tombs (sunset)
• Egypt = developing country (can’t drink their water)
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
LONDOOOOOON
we made it to london!
[that was for you, mom.]
jetlaggin'.
went to the national gallery in london. saw some monet and other sweet-famous paintings.
i could only think of jack handy:
"when this girl at the museum asked me who i liked better, monet or manet, i said, 'i like mayonnaise.' she just stared at me, so i said it again, louder. then she left. i guess she went to try to find some mayonnaise for me."
W 1/17 London: British Museum
Th 1/18 Fly to Larnaca, Cyprus
F 1/19 Fly to Cairo-Luxor, Egypt
Sat 1/20 East Bank: Karnak & Luxor Temples
Su 1/21 West Bank: Valley of Kings, Hatshepsut Tem. Fly to Cairo
M 1/22 Giza: Pyramids & Sphinx
Tu 1/23 Drive to Alexandria Museum, Library, Pompey’s Pillar
W 1/24 Roman Odeion Drive to Cairo
Th 1/25 Sakhara: Zoser’s Complex & Pyramid; Memphis
[that was for you, mom.]
jetlaggin'.
went to the national gallery in london. saw some monet and other sweet-famous paintings.
i could only think of jack handy:
"when this girl at the museum asked me who i liked better, monet or manet, i said, 'i like mayonnaise.' she just stared at me, so i said it again, louder. then she left. i guess she went to try to find some mayonnaise for me."
W 1/17 London: British Museum
Th 1/18 Fly to Larnaca, Cyprus
F 1/19 Fly to Cairo-Luxor, Egypt
Sat 1/20 East Bank: Karnak & Luxor Temples
Su 1/21 West Bank: Valley of Kings, Hatshepsut Tem. Fly to Cairo
M 1/22 Giza: Pyramids & Sphinx
Tu 1/23 Drive to Alexandria Museum, Library, Pompey’s Pillar
W 1/24 Roman Odeion Drive to Cairo
Th 1/25 Sakhara: Zoser’s Complex & Pyramid; Memphis
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
carmen sandiego
Ok. So my mom came up with this idea that while I am abroad, she is going to make a bulletin board for her 3rd grade class called ‘where in the world is anna marie?’
at the start of her explanation, I was kinda sketched out. Way too much focus on me. But then, when I thought of how incredibly funny the plan was – she wants to have a full-length picture of me looking all full-out touristy with my backpack so that the class can move ‘anna marie’ around this ginormous map of the world while talking ‘bout the country, landforms, lang, etc. – I told her that I was in… on one condition: she must play the song 'where in the world is carmen sandiego?' everyday. Rockapella style.
So today I went to meet the class. When they came back from PE, and I was sitting in the room, they all just starred with their jaws dropped. And then I was like ‘hey! I’m anna marie!’ You could tell they were oddly overwhelmed to see me in person, which is always hilarious since my mom has one of those projectors, and every time she pulls down the screen it shows her computer background [a picture of my sister and I] that literally makes our heads larger than life upon projection. [the 1st visit I had after she got the projector screen resulted in kids pointing and yelling ‘LOOK! IT’S THE GIRL FROM THE SCREEN!!’ It’s a hoot.]
After a period of stares, I broke the silence with a ‘tell me your names,’ all chipper-like. My mom always names people in her class, and I wanted to be able to finally put names with faces. One kid mumbles in surprise: “OUR FULL NAME?!” and then it began: Every student recited his or her entire biological name, as if i needed that much info, while nervously tapping his or her foot on the ground as though I were a live monster. Jackson Steven Smith. Sarah Glynn Sadler. John Houston Reed, the 3rd. We had a snack of s’mores and hot chocolate. I became a legend. And then I hit the road.
at the start of her explanation, I was kinda sketched out. Way too much focus on me. But then, when I thought of how incredibly funny the plan was – she wants to have a full-length picture of me looking all full-out touristy with my backpack so that the class can move ‘anna marie’ around this ginormous map of the world while talking ‘bout the country, landforms, lang, etc. – I told her that I was in… on one condition: she must play the song 'where in the world is carmen sandiego?' everyday. Rockapella style.
So today I went to meet the class. When they came back from PE, and I was sitting in the room, they all just starred with their jaws dropped. And then I was like ‘hey! I’m anna marie!’ You could tell they were oddly overwhelmed to see me in person, which is always hilarious since my mom has one of those projectors, and every time she pulls down the screen it shows her computer background [a picture of my sister and I] that literally makes our heads larger than life upon projection. [the 1st visit I had after she got the projector screen resulted in kids pointing and yelling ‘LOOK! IT’S THE GIRL FROM THE SCREEN!!’ It’s a hoot.]
After a period of stares, I broke the silence with a ‘tell me your names,’ all chipper-like. My mom always names people in her class, and I wanted to be able to finally put names with faces. One kid mumbles in surprise: “OUR FULL NAME?!” and then it began: Every student recited his or her entire biological name, as if i needed that much info, while nervously tapping his or her foot on the ground as though I were a live monster. Jackson Steven Smith. Sarah Glynn Sadler. John Houston Reed, the 3rd. We had a snack of s’mores and hot chocolate. I became a legend. And then I hit the road.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
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