Part-time Ghost

Went shopping for Christmas presents today and still haven't found enough. Not to mention I haven't shipped any of the ones that needs to be mailed internationally. I am the worst at Christmas shopping, especially since I managed to talk myself into buying one for myself before finishing anyone else's (and paid by using PayPal for the first time. Praying to whatever god willing to listen that I'll actually get what I ordered and didn't just throw money into the deep end of the internet).

Following up last week's post on queer stuff in ancient Egypt, here's a fun thing I found in a book just a couple of days before I wrote that post! I was thumbing through a book on ancient Egyptian magic that was dropped from the course lit list after I'd already bought it when I stumbled upon a reference to this spell made in passing. Frustrated with this lack of information, I decided to look up the book used as source in the university library.

Thus I now present: a lesbian love spell from Graeco-Roman Egypt, third century BC.

( Read more... )

For once I was actually up to a bunch of stuff last week, which is why it's strange that I actually have nothing to write here. The uni flea market went... okay, I guess; didn't get rid of nearly as many books as I would've liked, but did earn 30 bucks. Hardly a waste of time.

In this year's edition of "is it a cold or is it hayfever?" I've been kept awake until 4 AM/alternately woken up at least three times per night because I can't breathe through my nose. Did manage to drag myself to our last seminar (and conveniently missed the bit where I was supposed to hold a presentation I hadn't prepared, cough), which was held at the Mediterranean Museum.

Unlike last time we were there, where we got a pretty basic guided tour, this time we talked more about the layout of the actual museum, the preservation of the objects and the relationship between the public and the exhibitions (as opposed to us academics, who get our fingers on everything and prioritised differently :P).

( Thoughts about mummies )

After the tour we got to try a more hands-on approach as a conclusion to this course, which means I have literally got my (gloved) hands on more than 2000 years old pottery. The ten-year-old in my squeed like the girl I was (and, let's be honest, still am). Almost made me seriously reconsider my decision to go into religious studies rather than archaeology. :'3

So now I've got my last exam coming up next week, and after that... well, who knows. It's summer break, or something that constitutes as one, after all. Hopefully I'll get around to writing.

I should also really brush up on my Latin. And Ancient Greek. And, uh, should try to learn French, or perhaps German. And why did I drop Russian now again? Decisions, decisions. Maybe I should make a poll for y'all to decide. :P