Amanda Slobe had already decided. Despite all the friends who tried to change her mind, she was going back to Egypt this weekend, regardless of whether President Hosni Mubarak stayed in office or stepped down.
That said, she is relieved to be returning amid a national celebration over Mubarak's resignation.
"Definitely, I'm feeling a lot better," said Slobe, 24, of Victory, in Cayuga County. "Hopefully, things will keep going up from here."
Slobe is a graduate student at theAmerican University in Cairo. Her apartment overlooks Tahrir Square, the epicenter of demonstrations that are sending populist shock waves through the Middle East. In a big way, Mubarak's departure provides Slobe with an intimate look at the core of her studies: Her focus is human rights law and refugee displacement.
"I was expecting something like this, but I thought it would come closer to the (September) elections," Slobe said. "There had been some smaller protests while I was there last summer, groups of 10 or 15 people who would gather and then the government would come in and surround them and cut them off."
Her parents, Jim and Ginny Slobe, say their reaction is what you'd expect.
"We're apprehensive and nervous, but we're very proud of her, too," said Jim Slobe. "She's made a lot of friends over there, and she's got a good heart."
His daughter's interest in the Middle East was triggered while attending the State University College at Geneseo. She had always been drawn to studying human rights, and she was equally curious about whether she could master Arabic. When she stopped by the office that handles study abroad, a pamphlet showing the pyramids was enough to cause her to make a decision on the spot.
She spent a semester in Cairo while enrolled at Geneseo State, and then returned to Egypt for her graduate work.
Her duties involve teaching English to Sudanese and Iraqi refugees. They've provided her with a sense of the intense hunger for freedom that we often take for granted, Slobe said. Her Arabic keeps growing stronger, and she listened as many of her Egyptian friends — some of whom had occasionally "been arrested for no reason" — expressed simmering resentment at the excesses and violence of the Mubarak regime.
Even so, she did not expect that unrest to become the center of world attention this month, during the weeks she was home for a semester break.
"Obviously, when I get there, I'm going to take safety precautions," said Slobe, who flies out Sunday.
She has been in contact with her roommates, and she expects they will leave the square for an apartment in a quieter part of the city.
The Egyptian army is in charge, and Slobe can only hope military leaders stay true to their word, and that she gets a first-hand look at a blossoming democracy.
Whatever comes, she wants to be there as a witness.
"This is what I'm studying," Slobe said.