Dan White has spent his last few days playing sports, reading in a garden and enjoying the warm Egyptian climate while protests against the government have escalated a short distance away.
"Right now I am having a drink with a British family on the terrace of my building," said White, 20, of Glen Rock, who is studying abroad with Johns Hopkins University.
But although he said the atmosphere at his dorm was subdued, he was well aware of what was unfolding on the other side of a bridge over the Nile River that separates him from downtown Cairo.
"We are really, really well protected," White said, when reached on his cellphone Monday. "Just beyond our little island of Zamalek the rest of Cairo, downtown, is going crazy. Alexandria is going crazy."
White is trapped between enjoying the life of a college student studying abroad — he spent 2 1/2 hours under the warm sun laying out and reading on campus — and the role of witness to a country in upheaval. He has reluctantly accepted the recommendation of Johns Hopkins University to return to Baltimore for the semester and is waiting for a flight back to the United States.
Four Rutgers University students were also evacuated from Cairo and arrived in Athens, Greece, on Monday and two Montclair State University students are waiting for a flight to a safe zone.
Although White is mesmerized by the country and anxious to return when the unrest settles, he acknowledges that circumstances are deteriorating. A nationwide curfew moves earlier every day and is set for 1 p.m. today in response to calls for a "march of a million people."
After curfew, students are confined to the dorm.
"It's pretty miserable, extremely frustrating, extremely boring," White said.
In the mornings, he has walked to the market and sees that food is running out, nothing is coming in and no one can get money out of the banks.
"It's spiraling downward and people realize that," White said. "They are doing the only thing they know how and that is fight back."
The unrest has made it hard to sleep at night. White said he has heard "bullets, tear gas, yelling and screaming." From the terrace at his dorm, White said, he "can see billows of smoke everywhere."
He woke up early one morning and wrote an op-ed about how he admires the people in Cairo, but hasn't been able to post it anywhere because the Internet has been down.
"The people are so passionate … and deservedly so," White said. "They have been oppressed for 30 years. The government here answers their calls for less oppression, more freedom, by taking away their basic human rights of communication."
White has mixed feelings about leaving. He has fallen in love with the country, the climate, its culture and people. He described the American University Campus in Cairo as "paradise," saying there are "fountains and palm trees everywhere."
But he has decided to take the advice of others and head back to the United States. Now it's a waiting game until he hears he has a flight.
"I had to swallow my pride and realize when it boils down to it, I am a naïve 20-year-old," White said. "I am just going to listen to what people tell me to do. Obviously, I don't like the answers ... but you don't play with fire."
White's parents, Don and Dolores, aren't thrilled about his desire to return to the region, but are anxious to have him back in the United States. Don White said his son sent a text message on Monday asking if he could finish the semester in Istanbul, instead of Baltimore.
"Dan, next stop is Baltimore," his father said. "Please let it go."
Don White confided that it's been difficult knowing his son is in a volatile area, although he's been told that Dan is safe.
"I am a mess," White said. "I want him in school down at Hopkins. ... I want him to finish the semester, hopefully get a good internship in the summer and go onto his senior year."