Djed

Jan 28th

The ride to the airport was fine and we didn’t see any riots or anything. The airport was crowded, but things moved along with considerable ease. Michael and I said goodbye to Marina and headed to our gate where we had 10 minutes to watch part of Horton Hears A Who before we boarded ourselves. Even though it was only 5 hours long, I had quite the plane ride : a snorlax and crying baby behind me, a smelly, old German couple beside me who threw my bag of peanuts at me when I was sleeping and woke me up, a kid in front of me who got a bloody nose, andddd a cranky old German man who started a fight with Michael and the guy sitting next to Michael for putting their seats back. The entire plane woke up and was staring at the guy who was screaming German curses and pushing people. Eventful flight, but I’d take that kind of eventful over the riots that were breaking out in Cairo simultaneously.

Just as we left, Egypt’s phones and internet were cut off and people started to crowd the streets.  I sat in Munich's airport staring at the TV screen with my jaw to the floor. I really left at the most opportune time possible. To safely witness such an epic revolution unfold is something I will never forget. Had this taken place at any point in the weeks prior, my trip to Egypt would have been royally screwed. Someone must have really been looking out for me up there to let me fully experience Egypt and witness history in the making. I had more than one flight attendant and passenger tell me how lucky I was that day.

 As soon as I got to Italy I hopped right onto the computer to tell my parents I was ok.  I was too exhausted to go out and eat, and I’ve been living in a country where being by yourself especially at night isn’t really the best idea, so I just talked to my parents and Andrew and went to bed.

The Djed Pillar

During my flight to Rome I had time to think and process everything:

Food:

Comments: delightfully surprised. I’m not usually a fan of spices, but there are some really amazing Egyptian dishes. Unfortunately I thought we ate way more Western food than expected and would have liked to try more Egyptian food.

Favorites: lentil soup with lemon and croutons; Nile View’s chicken shawarma; The Roof’s kofta Lebanese style; koshary; shish tawook; Pizza Roma- the only decent non Egyptian food we had.

People:

Comments:  Egyptians: I met far fewer Egyptians than I thought. Those that I got to know like the quftis, the inspector and workers were extremely nice. Sayeed was always making a joke, but still knew the differences in dirt between brick and earth. He taught me lots of archaeological terms in arabic and had a baller moustache. Zahara was extremely sweet and helped me translate to the workers on my Sekhmet Project. She gave me the proper Egyptian goodbye which is 4 kisses alternating between each cheek. The Egyptians in the Souk and on the streets, while sometimes hilarious, were the most frustrating. I can't even begin to understand their plight for money, but it made living there for so long extremely difficult  and unenjoyable at points.

Non-Egyptians: Like I said before, I was extremely lucky to be on a team with such amazing, intelligent people. Whether American, Spanish, Swissky, or Dutch, everyone came to the table with something different and interesting to share. I've gotten to know a few of them quite well and hopefully they think of me as highly as I do them. Thank you to Dr. Bryan and team for an unbelievable time in Egypt. Hopefully I will see you all again soon.

Sites:

Comments: Ancient Egypt must have been the coolest place ever. Like I've said before, half of the buildings we visited would have never been seen by commoners like myself, so I'm lucky to have seen them.

Favorites: (not in order) It's not fair to pick since they were all amazing, but these are def some of my favs. Karnak and Luxor Temple (since we basically lived here), Dendera, Valley of the Kings, Abydos, Deir el-Bahari, the pyramids from that middle distance, and Gebel Silsila.

And I can't forget the silence and simplicity of middle of the desert. I could really have sat there for hours and stared into nothingness. In fact if I ever go back to Egypt, I would really like to do that for a while.

Dolce far Niente Progress:

Comments: I wouldn't say fail, but I wouldn't say success either. I felt really bipolar on this trip. The nights in Luxor really got to me. We were non-stop for a month, which I'm usually all for, but we had literally no down time and no days off. We worked 6 days a week and our day off was usually busier than work days. From before dawn until bedtime whether eating, working, site seeing, shopping, or  just checking your e-mail, we were constantly surrounded by people. Walking down the street pretty much went as follows from the moment you walk out of the door:  "honk honk" tax tax (for taxi) kalesh kalesh (for horse carriage ride) "honk honk" no charge for looking (when you pass a store) "honk honk" australian? buy some of my rubbish! you know how much? 5LE (it didn't matter what it was they always said 5 LE to get you to look) "honk honk" ohh beautiful smile! someone purposely standing right in front of where you're walking with an unfolded scarf,  a truck rolling backwards with nobody in it and smashing another car, a crane almost hitting you when you walk by, felluca felluca (for a boat ride) kids tugging your clothes for food and not leaving you alone, and kalesh drivers whipping the underfed horses (you can see all of their ribs and some of them have bloody knees). The list goes on, and that probably made no sense to any of you, but that's literally what it was like. Add that to a cloud of cigarette smoke, dust, a bronchial infection, missing my family, friends and Andrew, and waking up at 5:30 a.m. to the mosques (which are beauitful but still loud noises early in the morning). It's hard to relax in a place like that.

However!

Experiencing the sites made me feel like I had my muchness back. I regained the passion, motivation and energy I had been missing from the confinement I've come to know as Hopkins. I felt the sun on my face, the breeze through my hair, the sand through my fingers and honestly enjoyed the precious moments I had in Egypt. Everything I have worked so hard for was materializing before my eyes and I felt like I could make the leap forward into adulthood while retaining my inner child, which will hopefully always keep me grounded and passionate. And these feelings trumped the negatives a large percentage of the time, but not all. But hey, I'm not perfect and I still have a lot of work to do.

What I've learned:

Besides the crazy amount of academic knowledge I've gained and practiced I've also learned a lot of other things.

About my future: Egyptology by itself may not be my calling. I don't want people to get confused: I still am in love with ancient Egypt. However, I feel like I need to be more hands on in the archaeological process. Overseeing a trench is indeed a lot of work, but doing my own digging at this point in my life is more attractive to me. I don't like yelling at other people to do my work or getting upset when they do it wrong. This is still possible in Egypt! If I don't find a site that allows me to do so, then perhaps I could specialize in something like Roxy has and dig up bones anywhere I want! There is still a lot to think about here, but I have a little bit of time left to ask around and feel things out.

About myself: Alone time is necessary. After living alone last semester, I thought being surrounded by constant people would be a nice change. Instead I went from one extreme to the other. I was also separated from Andrew and my family once again, which at times made me lonely despite the presence of others. I've really fallen in love with the glyph dd (pronounced djed). Apparently the symbol depicts the backbone of Osiris, but it stands for strength, stability and balance. I've come to think dd is one of the most important keys to a successful life. It's learning to balance academics and fun, craziness and serenity,  time between friends, family and a significant other, or complacency and new experiences, as well as finding the endurance and strength to fight on. Instead of wishing people happiness I think I'll wish people djed. Happiness is taken advantage of without reminder of its compliment, but balance understands the importance of both. Sorry for the ramble, but it really got me thinking.

Overall, an adventure of a lifetime. While I hope the rest of the team is finding safety amongst the riots, I'm off on a new adventure. Forza Roma.

Giza before Pisa

Jan 27th

Protests against Mubarak have been just beginning. Luckily Giza is far enough away from downtown that we haven’t seen any problems. However, our plans to visit the Cairo Museum and our trip to Saqqara have been completely squashed since the museum is right next to the protests and Saqqara closes too early and is too far to really get to explore. When I come back to Egypt, the Djoser's Step Pyramid is high on my list of things to see as is Amarna, Abu Simbel, and Sharm el-Sheikh among many others.  However, with the pyramids in sight, I can't wait to see them up close.

The Great Pyramid from our hotel. no big deal. 

A few semesters of my job at Hopkins have gone to two things: multiple expensive train tickets to see Andrew who I’m more than ready to see in Rome =) and this trip to Egypt. I spent more on my one night in the Mena House Oberoi hotel in Cairo than I did for the entire month at the Emilio, but it really was an amazing hotel. The décor is lavish and my room had the biggest bed I’ve ever seen with the softest sheets ever! It honestly felt like Disneyland because I could see the pyramids from outside (the hotel is the closest thing to the Pyramids) and it felt like some weird, fake backdrop.

At last. (I chose the nerdy one to put up out of my 10 poses)

After quickly letting my parents know I was safe in Cairo, we headed off to the pyramids. As we drove closer and closer I was a blubbering buffoon. It was so unreal I couldn’t handle it. We first took pictures from the lookout where all 3 are visible at the same time and then went down into Menkaure’s pyramid (the smallest of the 3). The shaft was extremely small and I hit my head a few times which really hurt considering it’s stone. The pyramids are undecorated inside which is a huge change from the innumerable amazing images I’ve seen over the past month. It was only really interesting once you reminded yourself that you were standing inside the middle of a freaking PYRAMID.

Climbing up the Great Pyramid

We then bought tickets for the great pyramid (the only thing thus far we had to buy tickets for) and headed on inside. As some of the first people to get inside we got to climb the shaft and see the king’s chamber with few people inside. The room was dark, the walls were black and there was only one empty sarcophagus. It was beautiful in its simplicity.

yeah, the thing is enormous!

A few Egyptian girls were sitting on the freaking sarcophagus so I stared them down until they got off.  The Egyptians are also obsessed with foreigners. They legitimately pet your hair and touch you like you're some kind of interesting creature. I watched them do that to Marina because she was in front of me but I put up my hands before the girls could do it to me. They giggled like it was some kind of joke. You’re in the heart of a famous burial place. Seriously, have some respect. It killed the whole vibe of the pyramids. The Egyptians treat this place like a playground. They run on top of the Queens pyramids, graffiti the walls, throw their garbage everywhere, pick up ancient stones and throw them at each other, and the camels and horses crap everywhere. It’s a zoo, not the majestic site I had imagined and it really took away from the whole experience. We then had to wait until 100 people all tried to squeeze up the shaft and into the room.

The Egyptian playground. I couldn't believe it.

Note to the people of the world: don’t wear high heels when you’re climbing a pyramid and if you need a cane to walk you probably shouldn’t be climbing a pyramid at all. Also note to Egyptians running the site: just because 150 people have tickets to get into the pyramid doesn’t mean you should let them all in at the same time. They all can’t fit in a room the size of a small classroom. I don't know, just an idea. 

The boat in the museum. Look at the people on the left for scale.

Instead we walked around the mastabas and went into the boat museum to see the wooden boats that were buried next to the pyramids. One is HUGE and reminded me of the giant whale in the Museum of Natural History because all you can do is stare at it and say how big it is.

   

Looks like Cusco!

We quickly saw the Sphinx because the crowds are ridiculous and went back to the hotel for a nice long shower.  The pyramids for me were best at a close enough distance that they didn't seem fake, but far enough  away that you couldn't  be disurbed by how people treat them.

We ate dinner at the Indian restaurant at the hotel which was exceptionally delicious. At dinner we discussed the riots happening all over Cairo and though I hate to talk about politics, it’s interesting to be in the country and city during the beginnings of a revolution. I hoped to God we would be okay to fly out in the morning, because things can really get scary pretty quickly over here. Things aren't supposed to get crazy until after the noon prayer, so I should be halfway to Munich by then, Insh'Allah. I was too tired for words and went straight to bed since I had to wake up early yet again.

Me and Sphinxy!

Shukran, Luxor; it's been fun.

Jan 26^th

Me and Zahara, the inspector of the site

Our last day on site was hectic. There were lots of amazing last minute finds, my special project to finish, and pictures to be taken. I can't believe we've been here for a month already. I'm really going to miss this place, the site mostly.  Waking up to the mosques, watching the sunrise through palm trees, and overlooking the temple while sorting through beautiful, ancient pottery is something I'll miss every day. I've been so lucky to have an adventure that so few people get to experience, Alhamdulillah. Hopefully I will return again soon, Insh'allah.

Me, my favorite qufti Sayeed, and Grad student Katie on the last day

My last Sekhmet pose of the trip

After saying good bye to all the workers, I headed back to Karnak to finish the rest of the temple. The place really is amazing. For our last night we dressed up and went to a fancy hotel on the West Bank called Al Mudira. We played dominoes and chess while we waited for dinner. The food was amazing and I was really happy to finally get a delicious salad. When we got back to the Emilio I said goodbye to everyone who was staying in Luxor to help Dr. Bryan finish up. Everyone has been so good to me and I can't thank them enough for making the trip as amazing as it has been; the grad students for taking me under their wing, returning to sites, and constantly sharing their knowledge with me, and of course Dr. Bryan for allowing me to come, paying for far more than she even needed to, and for the passes that gave us unlimited access to the most amazing places on earth. Without them, this trip would have been incredibly different and perhaps less meaningful.

At the entrance of Karnak Temple. We worked here (where I'm pointing)!

I then headed off on my most dreaded shopping trip of all time in the souk. The souk is a hilarious place for people not buying things.  For those who are, it’s pure hell (especially for someone like me and my shopping anxiety). I hate shopping in the U.S. so having people throwing things in your face to buy them, charging you 300LE for something that is worth 5LE, having to argue about absolutely everything and still ending up overpaying, and finding absolutely NOTHING for boys’ presents is the most horrid thing I could ever imagine. I refuse to buy shirts with incorrect hieroglyphs or shitty statues that are either so ugly or so poorly made (though they’ll tell you it’s real granite or stone) I would be embarrassed to give them to someone I love. It’s degrading and I understand most people who buy them are stupid and really can’t tell the difference, but I’m not stupid and I do know the difference. A month of this REALLY drove me insane and I have never been SO upset and SO happy to leave at the same time. I can’t believe how fast and how slow this month has gone by. Packing and waking up early will give me less than 3 hours to sleep… again! Hooray!

Karnak's sacred lake. I'm really going to miss this place.

Wonderful things

January 25^th

I started a special project for Dr. Bryan today that included moving the good pieces of the Sekhmet statues that were found in the temple to the magazine and burying the bad ones. I supervised a handful of workers telling them whether the granite was to be buried or shelved. I’ll admit I felt pretty special supervising something on my own, but I love being part of the excavation and I missed that.

The extent of the pictures we could take at the Valley of the Queens

With only two days left I still had a few important things left to see. Tuesday we were supposed to go for donkey rides through the desert, but a lot of the grad students weren’t up to sightseeing with us (for most of the trip surprisingly)! Instead Michael, Marina and I went to meet King Tut and see the Valley of the Queens.

Me and Marina in the Valley of the Queens

Pretty flowers in the desert

It didn’t hit me until I left his tomb what exactly I had just seen. When Howard Carter was asked what he saw when he looked into Tut’s tomb he replied by saying, “wonderful things”, and this, this is what I saw. The tomb contained only one sarcophagus, his body, and a fantastically decorated wall, which to most is pretty lame. But apparently I’m not most people. I saw the room with its chariots, statues and furniture and I got to see him! I had just been inside the tomb that had given me such huge inspiration to become an Egyptologist and met King Tut face to face. I didn’t know what to say to him. Looking back, it must have looked like a scene straight out of the Goonies when Sean Astin meets One-eyed Willie. I introduced myself and said thank you. It’s not like he did anything different than the other kings of Egypt. In fact, he probably did way less, but his existence and discovery inspired the future of my own life, and for that he deserves at least a thank you.  For as lame as it is to admit, my eyes welled up.  All the pages of the books I’ve read are coming to life and it’s so hard to comprehend that after decades of dreaming about these experiences, I’m now living them. It doesn’t feel real.

In front of the Colossi

The Valley of the Queens was cool, especially seeing the skeleton of a fetus they found in the tomb. We even stopped for a picture with the Colossi of Memnon, but I still couldn’t get over meeting Tut. I don’t think I’ll ever get over that nor do I want to. For dinner we went back to our favorite restaurant on the West Bank to eat duck and shawarma. They had a live band playing and some little boys danced while we ate our second to last meal together in Luxor.

Duck! Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra

I wish this pictures wasn't so blurry

Kharga Oasis

 Jan 23^rd

Work today was extremely exciting for me because one of the grad students, Chris, let me dig for a few minutes in a pot that he found. I’m not sure I can disclose exactly what was in there, but there were lots of goodies some of which I got to find!! Definitely one of the highlights of the whole experience.

The middle of the desert

After work on Sunday we took a shower and hopped in a van for a 3½ hour ride to Kharga. On the way, we stopped next to a sign that said we were in Baghdad and Paris (obviously not the real one) to take pictures. We also saw real mirages once we were pretty far out. I always thought they were exaggerations or something caused by dehydration’s effects on the brain, but we were hydrated and in air conditioning and still saw them. It scary how much it actually looks like there are lakes in the middle of the desert when there obviously aren’t any. I can’t imagine being stuck out there. There’s literally NOTHING as far as the eye can see. We stopped in the absolute middle of the desert for lunch. We ate tomatoes like apples, some falafel and Egyptian bread which were all delicious. Since I take at least one jumping picture on every trip, I started a series of jumping pictures in the middle of the desert. Jay, the photographer has all of these pictures and I can’t wait to see them. We also took a Beatles Abbey Road photo.

In the temple we climbed at Dush

We rode the rest of the way and stopped at a temple called Dush (pronounced douche). After exploring by ourselves, the Egyptians showed us a horned viper they had caught with a stick and placed in a clear jar. Horned vipers, the letter f in middle Egyptian, don’t have an antidote so if you are lucky enough to be bitten by one, you die. It was very strange to be staring one in the face with a piece of glass separating us. I also got to see a scorpion for the first time! They had also caught this and put it in a jar for us to see.

Horned Viper

Scorpion

That night Dr. Bryan paid for us to spend a night in a really nice hotel. We all tried to watch Asterix and Cleopatra together, but we all started falling asleep a few minutes into it. That’s what happens when you wake up before 6 every day and when your days off are busier than your work days. The desert is much colder at night, so I woke up a lot during the night but at least it wasn’t because of Luxor’s noise polluting my sleep.

Supposedly the oldest complete books in the world

In the morning we got to sleep in until 8… well we left at 8 but that’s still an extra hour of sleep. After a crappy breakfast at the nice hotel, we visited the museum of Alwady Algadid which holds some amazing jewelry, the earliest complete books ever discovered, and lots of famous ostraca. We then visited approximately 4 temples on the way home one of which was the Hibis Temple. It had some of the coolest iconography I’ve ever seen. My favorite is the double hawk headed crocodile with wings. I had definitely never seen that before. We sat in the back of a pickup truck to see where Yale is working at another temple and also stopped at a pottery factory and got to see every part of the process.

Double headed hawk/croc thing at the Hibis Temple

Mmmm. Shrimp flavored chipsies! They were actually really good.

Old school pottery factory

Abydos and Dendera

Jan 21st

The kings list

Our third and final Friday off, Dr. Bryan took us to Abydos and Dendera. Abydos, done by Seti I and Ramesses II has amazing chapels filled with raised and sunken reliefs some of which are still in color. It has a huge kings list which has all the cartouches of Egypt’s kings except for Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tut and Ay (there might be one more, I can’t remember). It’s extremely entertaining to listen to what ridiculous things the tour guides say to their tours. One set of hieroglyphs by the ceiling is supposed to represent a military tank, helicopter and a few more things. Uh...Really, people, really?!?

All the ceilings have tiny openings for light

Outside of the temple is the Osirium which represents the tomb of the god Osiris. It would have been completely underwater, but only a little bit of water remains (if you can even call it that). The algae in the stagnant cesspool make it a murky emerald green. It looks like a pool of Kryptonite and I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

At the Osirium

Look at that primordial soup!

We then walked over to a temple nearby which had a large stela and a few shallow, open, stone sarcophagi. I got into one of them and fit perfectly, but shh, don’t tell anyone =)

Camel in the desert! Finally.

shh!

Dendera is the Egypt of my dreams. Though later in time, (Ptolemaic- the time of Cleopatra and Alexander the Great) the temple is downright incredible. The hieroglyphs look different than I’ve ever seen and are exquisite. I got to see a Nilometer which measures the water of the Nile, and go to the bottom of the empty sacred lake. On the inside, only half of the temple has been conserved. The temple is split straight down the middle: one half is completely black and the other has stunning color.

Me and Bes. What a chubster.

The ceiling half conserved

My absolute favorite parts of the temple are the crypt, the loft and the roof. This temple was basically an Egyptian playground of places to crawl down, climb up and explore, all of which I also got to do. To enter the crypt, we had to climb down a staircase, crawl through a tiny Alice in Wonderland sized doorway and climb down another staircase. The room farthest to the left is claimed to have "light bulb" shaped images which show how the ancient Egyptians had electricity. People come down here to touch them and be filled with energy and life. I don't get how people actually believe that junk. It's absurd.  They looked more like big eggplants to me anyway. As Marina and I were leaving the roof and climbing down the staircase to leave the temple, the power went out. We got to see what the Egyptian would have seen (but they would have had a torch or something!). The slits of light perfectly showed the reliefs the way they were meant to be seen. By the light of flash pictures, we safely exited the temple. The ride home was hilarious because we were all hyper, especially Gaultier, and blamed it on the magical light bulbs.

 

In Dendera's sacred lake



In the crypt!

We worked Saturday and the morning of Sunday, before we left on our overnight trip to Kharga Oasis. We had a choice between a trip to Abu Simbel and Kharga Oasis, but since most of the grad students had already been to Abu Simbel numerous times, the vote was overwhelmingly for Kharga. Even though I’m not usually a fan of the later stuff and I’ve never heard of anything at Kharga Oasis, Gebel Silsila surprised me so I figured it was worthy enough of a trip. I also figured it would be much easier to return to Egypt and plan a trip to Abu Simbel myself than to try to go to Kharga.

3ht

Jan 20th

Deir el Bahari

Thursday was really a crazy day. We thought Dr. Zahi would be at the opening of the bookstore Aboudi so after work we rushed over there to meet him. Unfortunately he was in Portugal so I was a little upset, but we did get free delicious snacks and fruit drinks even though we were dressed in our dusty dig gear and not dresses and suits like everyone else.

This snakes up the railing to the topmost tier

What better way to make up for a disappointment like that then going to see one of the sites I’ve been waiting to see  since I was little. Deir el Bahari is Hatshepsut’s temple which neatly protrudes from the side of the mountain. Hatshepsut’s reign really is quite interesting considering that she is one of the female rulers of Egypt.  She goes back and forth between masculine and feminine images and pronouns in her art, but this building and its three tiers has interested me as much as the pyramids have. I felt like I was 10 again and the excitement running through my veins was electrifying. I’m pretty sure Michael has a picture of me spinning in circles of happiness in front of the temple like a little girl.

On the first tier

Who knows if this is real, but it's an interesting idea

Marina taught me about cryptography today, my favorite image of which is Amun. Amun, which means the hidden one, can be written its proper phonetic way, but also this way. It’s quite interesting how clever the Egyptians were and how well their ideas connected together. It’s also daunting to think how much there still is to learn considering I can barely read Middle Egyptian as it is. Just as interesting to see pretty much at any tourist site but specifically here was the clothing people decide to wear. Booty shorts, bathing suit tops and see-through shirts really aren’t appropriate anywhere, never mind in a temple, and never mind in a country that leaves only the eyes to be seen. As we waited for our taxi to pick us up, the sun set in the mountains perfectly creating the hieroglyphic symbol for the word 3ht (pronounced akhet), meaning horizon. I really like seeing the inspiration for the hieroglyphs I’ve been studying since freshman year.

The djed pillar with arms holds the crypotgraphic symbol for Amun

The hieroglyph 3ht meaning horizon

 

Pretty cool, huh?

Adventure is out there!

Jan 17-19

For lunch on the 17^th we went to the roof, where I’ve discovered the best Lebanese Kofta there is! In Egypt, anyway. This is basically a pizza of Egyptian meatballs inside flat bread and covered in spices. That’s a horrible description, but if you ever go to Luxor, you should try it! One of Egypt’s specialties is pigeon, so we also ordered one. Note: pigeon has absolutely no meat. It’s basically rice stuffed into the frame of the bird. All you can really eat is the rice and the skin but the thought of eating a bird that eats garbage and horse crap all day is really not appetizing. I’d go for the cuy over that any day.

Stuffed pigeon

Tuesday after work we went to the Ramesseum. Once again there was absolutely nobody there so we got to climb the pylon! The statue here is apparently bigger than the Colossi of Memnon which is quite a feat. Most interestingly is the fallen statue of Ramesses II. According to some sources, this is the statue which inspired Percy B. Shelley's poem Ozymandias though others think it's one in the British museum. I'd like to think it's the one i saw, so I got to meet him up close and personal. =)

Yay for climbing pylons!

Adventure is out there- the phrase of the trip

Sitting on the pylon with the temple in the background

Me and Ozy

Apparently very excited about these columns

Wednesday, bone specialist Roxy came to the site. As she dug away, I was immediately drawn to her job. As I picked her brain, I found out that she gets to dig up bones in both Peru and Egypt. Ok… now how frickin cool is that. That’s basically the coolest job I’ve ever heard of and considering those are the two places I love most it makes me feel like there are opportunities out there that will allow me, should I want it enough and work hard enough for it, to have the best of whatever worlds I want. The only problem is figuring out how to get there.

Sunset over the West Bank