Idle Expectations

Somebody kick my ass into gear. I’ve been sitting here for three hours, and I haven’t found the heart to start doing even one single thing. :/

Question: do I have any right to complain about the following situation?

Because my professor had a mental breakdown, Old Egyptian classes were taken over by another prof. As it was halfway through the semester, it was difficult to find an empty spot in my roster, so Old Egyptian got moved to the same time as a minor subject of mine (note: Old Egyptian is a second year’s subject, and I’m a third years, hence the roster trouble). I made an agreement with my professor that I would attend classes every other week. So one week OEg, the other week minor, etc. 

The new prof changed the course somewhat, and told us that the midterm we had been given would not count for the final grade. Now, I was sick two weeks ago, so I missed my bi-weekly OEg class. Today, during class, I heard that we were going to get a midterm next week, because the system is such that a final grade needs to be a compound of a midterm and an endterm.

Apparently, this information had been known to the others (i.e. the second years with whom I’m following the course, so not actually my classmates) for at least one week - perhaps two, and maybe even three, since I hadn’t been present for three weeks. No one has told me, so now I have a very short time to prepare for the midterm. 

So my question is, could I have known that this would happen, having been told that the initial midterm would not count, but keeping in mind the university expecting a great amount of independency and responsibility? Do I have any just cause to complain?

I take back every bad thing I ever said about Harkhuf. I love you and your trips to Yam.

So my Old Egyptian exam was an excerpt from Harkhuf’s bio which I almost know by heart. So. Fucking. Lucky. My grammar has improved, too (or rather my ability to parse Classical Egyptian, while I can translate parsing is always a bit of a weak spot as I translate on instinct or something?). Pfew.

Suddenly feeling a lot more positive! Film & lit went well enough too. Bring it, second block of the semester. I can have you.

Hieratic Weekly Digest: Penises and Blackmail

If you remember my story from last week, where I explained how one of my professors went to Turin and straight up photocopied a papyrus because they were being anal over there, here’s the follow up, and more!

We told another professor the story, wanting to know if he’d heard about it. He said no, “but that’s great blackmail material, thanks”.

Then, during Hieratic with Ben, we had a discussion about the spelling of the word mtw.t, which is written with both the normal phallus and the phallus ‘with fluid issuing forth’, to use Gardiner’s flowery description. Rikst called it something like “that spritzing willy”, and after Ben spent a good minute laughing he referred to the hieroglyph exactly like that for the rest of the class. 

He also mentioned the bookroll determinative used in this particular writing, and after some back and forth giggling about the similarities between mtw.t, poison, and mt.t, semen, Ben said: “I think the bookroll was the scribe’s attempt at maintaining some decorum after all those penises.”

Just a regular day at the university…

So we got to read off the Papyrus Leiden I 349 recto; a collection of spells against scorpion bites. It’s kept between two sheets of glass, which makes it a bit of a nerve-wracking affair to pass it around. 

My professor pretended to drop it, complete with sound-effects. We all had a minor heart attack.

Then he told us about the time another professor at the university went to Turin to look at some papyri, but because it apparently is a great fuss to get your hands on anything at Turin, he just thought ‘screw this’ and straight up photo-copied the papyri he needed.

Afterward, we were discussing yet another professor, who’d neglected to mention whether or not class had been moved to a different time. The appropriate punishment came from Frans, our resident awesome pensioner: steal Indy’s whip from the Hollywood exhibition and chase him around the museum with it.

So, you know, normal stuff that happens when you study Egyptology!

Nemtynakht is such a rascal. How dare he steal poor Khun-Anup’s ass!

I started Hieratic again this semester. This is approximately how that goes after three years without practice:

Okay, so I guess that’s a snake, and this has to be an owl… So far, so g - wait. The fuck is this? And the fuck is that? Arghflpsh why couldn’t this hole have decided to hole the papyrus up somewhere else and not in the middle of this bloody cartouche! Someone get me my precious hieroglyphs T_T

Next semester is terrifying me. 

Not only do I have both Egyptian Archaeology and Egyptian Art History, both subjects that require LOTS of reading (I’m talking at least 800+ pages for each), but also Epigraphy (if I’m lucky and get to do the resit for Old Egyptian) and Hieratic - the former terrifying in its own right, because it’s essentially advanced Old Egyptian with some drawing thrown into the mix. And then there’s my elective, Theatre and Film. That includes an extra two hours in class in addition to the regular two two-hour classes for a filmscreening every week. 

Heavens above, someone teach me how to do without sleep!

Failed Old Egyptian again.

Okay, fuck.

So I spent most of my summer studying for my resits, right? Check this out:

- The notice stating the time and place of Old Egyptian has disappeared from Blackboard and my professor doesn’t respond to his mail.
- Five weeks ago, I turned in my paper for Coptic, and we still haven’t a grade back - because the prof hasn’t even fucking started on correcting them.
- There’s no clear notice to be found ANYWHERE when the year starts, JUST like last year, when I tried to go to class a week early. 

I am getting close to homicidal at this moment. Sure, we’re a small studies so they don’t adhere to the rules all too much (they’re pretty lenient about issueing extra resits for those who need it), but this is slowly getting ridiculous.

EDIT: Oh gee, now I get a smart ass email about how he can find the time and date on BlackBoard just fine. THANK YOU. THIS HELPS ME VERY MUCH.

Well, for better or for worse, tomorrow I’ll be rid of Old Egyptian (at least for a couple of weeks). I’m going to look through the texts one more time today, and then I’m going to spend the rest of my day writing and sewing, because fuck studying all through the summer.

Writing hieroglyphs all day, and now both my shoulder and my eyes hurt. Oh, Sethe. Why?

My resit for Old Egyptian is on the tenth of August. The tenth of August is NOT the ‘end of August’ (though I admit there is some sound rhyme in there), which was the phrase my professor used when the question of a date came up.

This is really very annoying, because I had a schedule for the end of August, so now I’m already behind and I only started yesterday.