Day 78

Sunday, April 6th

Today is Laurel's Birthday. Hooray for turning the best age ever!!!

The large protest as suspected did not materialize. The large amounts of police never allowed for a group to congregate in Midan Tahrir. Apparently people were supposed to meet elsewhere and then all these different groups were supposed to join up at Midan. This never happened, because I guess the people got too scared by all the police. I did notice several differences walking around downtown though. First of all, there was a massive dust storm. Although unrelated, this produced a brown haze that covered the city and made everything difficult to see and kind of erie. It would have been perfect for a protest if it had actually happened. However, since it didn't, it just reminded me of how dirty this city is. The second thing, was that downtown was quieter then normal, especially around school. Granted I am not normally down then on Sunday, but there were very few cars and very few students as most classes were canceled or kids decided to stay home. Third, the US Embassy was a fortress. They had the block around it blocked off with traffic barricades and cars. There was no way to walk by the security this time. I almost wanted to try it, just because i was carrying my passport. You know, because I didn't know if I would have to make a break for the embassy.

In other news, I go to the boxing championships tomorrow in Mansura, so I won't have any posts until I get back. This should be a crazy trip and I have no idea what to expect. I guess that's the best kind of adventure.