Well, I haven't posted in a while, primarily because there hasn't been much to post about and I've been busy with work and wondering what the hell was going on with my field work this fall. I think I've established the following: we leave 1 November and return 20 December - not a long season, unfortunately, and this also removes the possibility of traveling after the season as everyone wants to come back to the States to be with their families for the holidays. At least I don't have to pay for anything. I do have to make arrangements to vote early, but no big deal.
I have also been provided with a guide to colloquial Egyptian Arabic for archaeologists. I'd have preferred to have had all summer to have it lying around so I could pretend to be studying it and procrastinating about doing so - instead I only have about a month to pretend to study it and procrastinate doing so. Actually, as I work through it, I may post some of the more entertaining phrases. I've already found one in the "Dining Room Comments" section: the very first phrase in the section is "this is not clean" - this does not bode well. There are also phrases for "do you smoke?" but unfortunately not one for "can I bum a cigarette?" And while I will probably get relatively proficient in speaking while I'm in the field it will be the Upper Egyptian dialectic, which most people in Cairo consider to be the country-bumpkin dialect. At least I'll be consistent, y'all.
4 comments:
Ghandak sagayir? ("Do you have any cigarettes?") Or, if you would prefer something less potent than the domestic Egyptian stuff, Ghandak sagayir bitaghit barra? ("Do you have any foreign cigarettes?") If you like, I can send you my copy of Arabic in a Nutshell (colloquial Egyptian edition). You actually have a use for it, while I just have way too many bizarre books lying around that I may never need. ---Chip
Have a blast in Egypt and do be careful. I'm told that a great many archaeologists die of alcohol poisoning from sipping too many mint juleps under the parasol out there.
-Vincent
This might be important to you as well
-vincent
Chip - thanks for the offer. Is the book Cairo or Saidy dialect? Cairo is the likely bet, but I'm just curious.
Vincent - bite me. :) And if I meet any ichthyologists, I'm sure your list will be handy.
What I really need now is the phrase for "Holy shit, there's a damn carpet viper under my cot, somebody beat it to death with a stick!"
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