Tom in Egypt // توم في مصر

This update is being written from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport – an oddly designed bike wheel shaped place with a landing runway so far from the terminal I could swear we were in France – which, yet again, has no free WiFi access. Astonishing. The journey thus far has been pleasant enough and I had enjoyed a long morning with my family before I set off buying last minute essentials such as swimming shorts and Earl Grey and eating croissants. They (my family not the croissants) came in particularly handyy when I belatedly discovered that my baggage allowance was not the meagre 20 kilos I’d previously bemoaned, but rather a generous 2 piece deal each of which could weigh up to a hefty 23 kilos. At this point I hoisted my darling brother into the loft to dig out a hard case for a guitar which (Inshallah) will still be in one piece on arrival in Cairo and will not cut the solitary, unplayed figure I described in my previous missal.

Worryingly, all the news this morning on the Twitosphere was of a swine flu outbreak at the AUC which had led to the short term cancellation of all classes but I couldn’t get hold of Andrea to find out more details. After a difficult first few days back with lost luggage and an excruciatingly long flight I think pig flu might be one straw too many on the back of a proverbial camel. It seems the tactic of burying pigs alive in their thousands hasn’t paid off then. Who knew? Interestingly, the guy sat opposite me is wearing one of those ominous looking face masks that became “de mode” at the height of the outbreak. I say he’s wearing it, he’s posing in it – round his neck as an attention seeking salute to swine flu. I’m just guessing, but I don’t think they are particularly effective unless they actually cover your mouth and nose. Maybe he got his info from the same source as the Egyptian government.

More later from Cairo when I arrive and secure some internet, for now here’s what I’m listening to and here’s what I’m reading.

With just three days until I leave, the time has come for me to pack up my belongings and my memories from my student life here in Manchester. Trying to fit a life into 20kg of suitcase is outrageously tricky and there's something very surreal about sorting things in order of importance, usefulness and weight. As you pack you have to remain almost as an outsider looking in on your life, objective, ruthlessly discarding the important and irreplaceable for the practical. Would that I could take my guitar or my wall hanging or my books! Leaving my books saddens me immensely, it seems such a waste that they sit lonely in a box until my return - but the odd sense of possession I feel towards they doesn't allow me to give them away. I've read them all, and may never read some of them again, but there are too many memories and thoughts and ideas tied up in the pages, too personal. Into the box it is then...

Whilst the tragedy of the boxed books and a guitar unplayed marks a definite closing of a chapter, I'm so pleased that my next journey will be in Cairo. Seeing Andrea there on Skype, hearing the Egyptian accents and the Cairo traffic makes me jealous I'm not there already. A few days will fly by, and I'll be a part of the chaos again - I can't wait. Welcome back to Tom in Egypt - I hope you enjoy the adventure.

Here are sites and blogs I read regularly and would recommend to anyone, particularly those interested in Egypt or the Middle East.


Bikya Masr - breaking through the clutter of Egyptian news
SON OF A DUCK - an orientalist's observations in Egypt
The Arabist - a website on Arab politics and culture
Syria News Wire - fresh, independent news from the streets of Damascus and beyond
Informed Comment - thoughts on the Middle East, history and religion
Dormir Debout - thoughts of a student of old Iranian languages at SOAS
THE BOURSA EXCHANGE - a comment on daily life in downtown Cairo
Saudi Jeans - news, commentary, and personal views on political and social issues in Saudi Arabia
Abu Aardvark - comment on Middle Eastern affairs
At War (NYT) - notes from the front line (formerly Baghdad Bureau)

Tom Trewinnard is a graduate of the University of Manchester (Middle Eastern and Modern European Languages) currently living in Cairo, working as English Language Editor of the Arab-West Report, Meedan.net content producer, contributor to Bikya Masr, freelance copy editor, and English teacher.

"El Rumi" refers not to the poet but to the pepper, my stature apparently suffering by comparison to that of another Tom "El Tawil" (Tall Tom).

Tom is contactable via: tom.trewinnard@gmail.com

So, back to my question. To quote Evia: "Where do we go from here?" Writing on here, whilst not as frequent as I might have liked, is something I have hugely enjoyed and will provide a good personal set of memoirs. I feel loathe to give up this writing malarchy, so I would very much like to begin a new blog. With this post I hereby close Tom In Egypt and open Jumbled Notes, a non-destination or subject specific blog that I reserve the right to update with my usual erratic frequency. So, with one fell swoop I say goodbye to Tom In Egypt (for now at least, were I to return in the near future it would be folly to rule out a dramatic Take That-like return) and hello to Jumbled Notes.

Finally I would like to thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Reader for following what's been going on whilst I've been away, thank you for all the comments, emails and Facebook messages; they've meant a lot. I dearly hope to see you all again in the not too distant future.

Love, peace, hello and goodbye.
Tx

Sat in Grand Cafe, I’m watching the sun set over Bahari for the last time. My Egyptian adventure is finally coming to an end, this is the final Egyptian update of the blog. At the moment it’s hard to imagine that the year is already over, that I will be in London this time tomorrow, and that I don’t know when I will return here. It’s a question often asked amongst the students living here, do you love a city because it is special or beautiful or historic or because of her people, or do you love a city just because you’ve spent an important, wonderful, and formative year there? Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter, because I do love this city.

I hate to write this in list form, but I’m painfully conscious of my laptop battery draining and draining, so here are a few things I will miss:

The sea. As previously mentioned, I was brought up on the mean streets of Saddleworth surrounded by fields and sheep and more fields. The sea was somewhere I went for a holiday, where Will and Lucy and I went to bodyboard and swim and where mum sat wrapped in hats and scarves behind a multicoloured windshield. Living next to the Med here, I’ve all too often taken for granted the wonderful views as I leave the ghetto that is Omarat a-Zubat every morning to go to TAFL, the refreshing breeze on a hot day, and the excellent, excellent seafood. I’ll return to a quote from Michael that I first blogged after I’d just got back from Cairo: “Alex is Cairo by the sea”. The longer I’ve lived here, the more times I’ve come back here from Cairo, the more I’ve realised how important the sea is in that equation. Here the Mediterranean is a vast escape. It’s quite literally a breath of fresh air.

My friends. Clichéd I know, perhaps even soppy, but the main reason I’ve had the year I have is the people I’ve met or got to know here. Andrea, aha, Andrea. Tom has been the best housemate I could have wished for; a good friend through tough times, someone to teach and learn from, a constant, constant source of amusement. I could, and would, perhaps should, thank all of you on here, but you know who you are and you all know what I’m trying to say. Grazi, merci, thank you. شكرا

Arabic. I fall in and out of love with all the languages I’ve learned over the years, but I will miss the TAFL centre and the fusha, the taxi drivers and the arguments, the شتيمة and the banter with my Egyptian friends. Aha neek.

Time is of the essence. After two big nights, I’m looking to make it three-in-a-row before I leave Alex at 5 tomorrow morning to head to Cairo airport for a flight at 10.30. I’ll write a more exhaustive contemplation when I get back and when my laptop isn’t about to die, and when I can get a reliable internet connection. All I have to say for now is Farewell Alexandria. Farewell.

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