Life is an adventure

Those of you who follow international affairs are aware that Egypt continues to be an interesting place. Some of the political parties opposed to the military government are calling for a general strike on Saturday, which is the day that Tanner and I are supposed to fly in. The U.S. emabassy in Cairo expects the airport to be functioning normally, but they're advising Americans to stay out of downtown Cairo on Saturday. We didn't have anything planned for Saturday anyway, and our hotel isn't anywhere near downtown. It looks like there's a good ring road that can get us from the airport to our hotel on Saturday without going through the center of Cairo, which is good, because the traffic could get ugly if there's a strike.

We're not scheduled to go into Cairo until Monday. (Sunday is for pyramids, sphinxes, and camel rides.) Monday is the day we're supposed to see the museum and other things right there by Tahrir Square. I'm hoping that things will have calmed down by Monday. We won't do anything stupid, but I really want to see the museum and the square. We'll be keeping in touch with travel alerts from the embassy and the State Department.

I had a Mitt Romney moment yesterday, meaning that I managed to say exactly the wrong thing. I mentioned to Stace that maybe we should try to fit in a trip to South Africa while we're over here. She perceives South Africa as being dangerous, but I think it's okay as long as you're not in the wrong place. She asked me if I was trying to visit every dangerous place I could find. In an attempt to reassure her, I said, "Oh, I think that South Africa's actually a lot less dangerous than Egypt right now." As I heard myself say those words, I realized that I probably could have phrased that a bit better in trying to reassure her. Oh, well. It'll all be good.