Tom in Egypt // توم في مصر

Well hello everyone. I know there may be some slight confusion amongst the less bright of you, as Tom is in fact not In Egypt, but In Manchester, however I thought I would take this opportunity (T-Minus 69 days) to:

1) Say "hello" (done)
2) Explain what's going on here (see below)

Firstly, can I safely assume we all know what a "Blog" is? See Wikipedia if you're in any doubt. This is my first blog, and I'm writing to keep family, friends, acquaintances, teachers and any one who may be generally interested, updated on what I'm doing in Egypt. As anyone who knows me can testify, I am officially Useless @ Keeping In Touch (UKIT), but whilst I'm away I will be making a concerted effort (don't look so surprised) and hopefully the blog will help. This site looks very clever and if I can get my head around it I should be able to upload pictures and maybe even videos so that those of you who can't come and visit (all, well most, are welcome :) can see what's going on.

If you don't already know about this whole Egypt trip and my mum hasn't told you, I am currently studying Middle Eastern and Modern European Languages at the University of Manchester, specialising in Arabic and Spanish. As part of my course next year (2007-2008) I will be living and studying in Alexandria, Egypt, and at some point after that I will spend a somewhat shorter time in Spain (maybe I should get my act together and reserve TomInSpain.com now!)

This will be all for now, it's going to be a busy 69 days but please check back in a couple of months or so when hopefully I will be able to offer something a little more exciting. Also please use the Comment feature to say "hi" or "bye" or "what a load of rubbish" or whatever, I'll try and get an email address up somewhere for those with longer communiques (that's not a euphemism) but please be patient when awaiting a reply, UKIT is something I struggle with on a day to day basis.

Goodbye and مع السلامة

Tom

P.S. For those wondering what any Arabic says, it's usually a translation of whatever is next to it i.e. توم في المصر = Tom fi al-Masr = Tom in Egypt