Tom in Egypt // توم في مصر

Over a month has gone by since my last effort, I’ve travelled between three continents and I’m now back where I finally started. Writing has been tough, partly because of the travelling, partly because the last thing I wanted to do in Tucson was write, partly because since I finally got back I’ve been spending most of my free time in Alex on the beach. I know I’ve said this before, but once you get out of the habit it gets harder and harder to get back into writing.

What finally pushed me back to Tom In Egypt was the thought that two weeks from now I will be back in the UK, hopefully Kit will have picked me up from Heathrow and I’ll be enjoying some decent wine, and my time in Egypt will be over. But before my thoughts on my impending departure, I suppose I should whizz through the last month’s events in vaguely chronological order.... (NB. The bullet points are intended to hasten this, not to trivialise any of the below events).

• Left Lahore, spent another week in Karachi visiting BOS and eating lots of delicious meals. And drinking Baileys.

• Arrived back in Cairo, met up with friends for a fun night at the jazz club before sitting through a General Strike which was ultimately uneventful as everyone cleared off the streets to avoid a dust storm. April is well known for such dust storms, “khamiseen”, this was my first and last and it was really quite unpleasant. A bit like someone throwing sand in your eyes and mouth.
  

• Flew to Phoenix, which is really a very, very long way away. Sitting in JFK, New York after a fairly torrid trans-Atlantic twelve hour venture on EgyptAir, I thought I must be nearly there. Not so. Bizarrely Andrea lives as far away from New York as I do, perhaps even further. So another six hours later I was picked up in Phoenix by John and finally, finally got to see Andrea after some 26 hours of travelling. Ah.

• Spent two wonderful weeks in Tucson. It was amazing to see how much better Andrea was than when I left her at Borg el-Arab airport nearly 5 weeks before. Two weeks didn’t seem like nearly long enough. Activities included driving the biggest fastest car I’ve ever driven, on the wrong side of the road, without using a gearstick. Eating lots of Mexican food. Seeing all the places Andrea used to tell me about that for a long time I never thought I would get the chance to see. I started trying to find ways to go back to Tucson. (More on this later).

• Flew back to Cairo, arriving in 43 degree heat, and came straight up to Alex on the train. Lost about 3 days to the worst, the only, jetlag I have ever had. I think I did the worst thing by giving in to the irresistible urge of going to sleep after a 24 hour journey and subsequently ended up spending nights wide awake and sleeping through the days. After eventually getting over this I returned to TAFL for two days before we were granted a long weekend because of May Day.

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• Went to Siwa with some of the girls and a couple of Egyptian friends, had an excellent few days seeing old friends there and buying presents.

So here I am, two weeks of exams to go and then my time’s up. Last weekend in Siwa was really nice. I like things that go in cycles, there’s a kind of pleasing naturality to it, it’s like an inconclusive conclusion. In books, in music, in films, there’s something very appealing to me about cyclical stories. My final trip in Egypt took me back to my first trip in Egypt, to Siwa. I was in the same place, doing the same things, with some of the same people, thus giving a perfect opportunity to see how far I’ve come. It provided a satisfying full stop to this Egyptian adventure.

I’ve also finally got plans for my summer finalised, booked, and approved. It now appears reserving TomInSpain.com was somewhat premature. As some of you may be aware, my girlfriend Andrea lives in Tucson, Arizona. I will confess that 6 months ago I had never heard of Tucson (oddly pronounced Too-Saan), so for those of you who don’t know, Tucson is about 60 miles north of the Mexican border, in the Sonoran desert. It’s a city with a very beautiful backdrop of saguaro (the classic cactus with the big arms) covered mountains. It’s also bloody hot. Crucially, there is a huge Mexican population and cultural influence. With much help from Andrea and her family I have managed to find several volunteering opportunities working with Central American asylum seekers and with the Hispanic community in Tucson, and after receiving university approval, have booked to spend the summer in the States. Tom In Spain will have to be changed to a more alliteratively satisfying Tom In Tucson. The work looks really interesting, I think there will be loads of opportunities to speak Spanish, and, of course, I get to spend the summer with Andrea. On the flip side I’m going to miss the European Championship and will have to spend the summer being ridiculed for my nation’s no doubt pathetic effort in Beijing. I probably won’t even get to watch the rowing or the cycling.

For now, I have to prepare for two weeks of exams before my long-awaited return to the UK. Revision and packing... fun, fun, fun. I’m going to make an exerted effort to write again before I leave, feelings and what I’m going to miss and all that. Can’t wait to see you all soon.

Txx