The field school’s wireless server at the hotel only reaches far enough to put my room just outside the bubble. So I park myself outside the room with the server (not convenient for Skype). The other night I noticed I wasn’t the only one in the hall.

All work and no play.

Field school students, Nagwan Elhadedi and Noha Bolbol, were sitting there for hours studying. As I walked by for the third time, I stopped to chat with them and took their picture.

This is their third field school. Nagwan said she’d been in the Basic FS, the Salvage Archaeological Field School that AERA and ARCE ran last year in Luxor, and now the Advanced FS.

When I got back to my room, I wondered why they were sitting uncomfortably in the hall instead of in their room. I went back to ask.

At first they mentioned the fact that male colleagues were studying with them earlier and they wouldn’t invite them into their room.

Finally, Nagwan revealed the most salient reason, “Because, if we see the bed, we sleep.” 

Already past 10:00 p.m., I left them to go see my bed.

Making do.

Brian Hunt