Before I finish the bit about sailing around for 4 days on a feluca, I just want to say that its finally reached that temperature that makes daily life uncomfortable. We all knew it was coming, I looked it up as soon as I got the job and shuddered to think that I'd be working in the desert, where there is a 0% chance of precipitation and the temperature rarely dips below 100. Today it was around 110 I think. I wouldn't know. I didn't make it past 11am, before I had to go home. I made the mistake of taking a shower last night and then sleeping with wet hair in the AC. We've started sleeping in the guest room because the AC in the bedroom doesn't work. We pushed the two twin beds together and I wear earplugs to block out the noise of children, weddings, cars, and dogs from the street.
It feels kind of like the way it did when I first moved to NYC and I was living in Astoria, broke, in debt, and without an air conditioner. I had to take a shower 3 times a day just to function in that apartment. Thankfully we have air conditioners here, but its funny, if you just stop to turn it off for a moment, you instantly feel hot again.
And so I have gradually become that person that enters the room looking pissed off, looks pissed of or miserable all the while everyone is eating and chatting, and I usually leave looking the same way, unless conversation is capable of lifting me out of this dumpy condition I find myself in. People say each time "are you feeling any better?" to which I reply something along the lines of "I feel hot" because that is all I can think of.
I hate myself like this obviously. It will be interesting to see if I make it to July. It's true, I've never felt to persistently unwell, heavy-limbed and dead-headed in my life. If I do make it to July, it would be a miracle of sorts. I feel bad for the people who have to be in my company like this. At least they know what I was like before it got hot.
We have no water tank at our flat, like we had at ARCE so water bottles must be toted to the flat every couple days. This is wasteful unfortunately and tedious, since we have to drink about 6 liters at work just to stay hydrated. Soon we will have to start getting up earlier to arrive at site by 6.40 or so that we can leave earlier. The sun is already making it impossible to stay until 2pm. Even with a fan blowing on you, the air is warm, and you have the uneasy sensation that you are a cookie baking in an oven. I bring lemons to site everyday because they truly are a life-saver when your electrolytes are gone and you swear you can't drink any more water. Emergen-C will save my life several times over over the next 2 1/2 months. I will ask my friends to bring some back.
Several ARCE employees are leaving this week for 2 weeks in America and I am a little jealous. A break from the heat would do me well and of course some much needed time with family and friends. Chicago House, the other large conglomerate of archeologists and artists have packed up and shipped out, leaving a dozen ARCE employees to waddle around in the heat of the temple uneasily. It would be much more civilized of course, if we could pack up and leave come May, but that's not how things run around here. At least I will have some good stories to tell for when I'm old and gray and my grandkids complain. "You think this is hot? Have I ever told you about the time I worked in Egypt and my face melted off my skull??" and so on. Wait for it.
