The 21-year-old student thought his stay in Egypt would be fun, educational and memorable. Well two out of three aren't bad. Fun it was not.
Trapped in Cairo at the end of January with scores of other students who expected to begin a six-month study abroad program, Richard Rinaldi faced a harrowing journey where information was scare, curfews kept students confined to dorms and at one point even the internet was shut down.
Rinaldi, whose family lives in Shamong, arrived with other Georgetown University students in Cairo on Jan. 19 before the massive protests began. He is a junior in the business school majoring in operation management. Among other courses, he planned to take Arabic.
For two weeks, he had a study abroad adventure, just not the one he expected.
The students lived in a dorm about 15 minutes from Tahir Square where hundreds of thousands of Egyptians gathered to demand the resignation of longtime president Hosni Mubarak. Described as a clear "people's revolution," the demonstrations were peaceful except the day those described as "thugs" invaded the square to chase and injure the protestors. That action angered President Barack Obama as well as many other heads of state and increased the call for Mubarak's resignation.
Rinaldi watched the unfolding events from the rooftop of his dorm. The students were close enough they could smell the tear gas. They saw massive numbers of people in the square, heard sirens and witnessed violent clashes
"We couldn't go anywhere. We could see the pyramids from a distance but the curfews made it impossible to be out," he said. The curfews kept getting earlier and earlier from the initial 4 p.m. So students tried to be out earlier and earlier to at least see some of what was going on.
Before Rinaldi and others arrived in Egypt, they were aware of uprisings in other Arab countries like Tunisia but everyone they spoke to said that kind of unrest would never spill over to such a stable country like Egypt. Wrong. It did.
Rinaldi said he felt safe most of the time but what was scary was the uncertainty. With the internet down and cell phones cut off, information was scarce and rumors were flying. People, he said, were overreacting and "just plain scared."
Given the uncertainty and the confinement, Rinaldi said it was amazing how people worked together, helping each other not only with information but with schedules and happenings.
When cell phone service was restored, he managed to reach his mother in Shamong. She called the state department and got information on the evacuation flights. Richard left half his baggage at American University, knowing that he did not want the luggage to impede his ability to get around. He hopes he'll get his luggage back.
The airport was, for Richard, a much scarier place than the dorm. He spent two hours there trying to get through check-points and trying to find the plane Georgetown students would take.
"It was really the worst two hours of my life."
People were screaming, pushing and demanding. "Everyone wanted to get out because nobody knew what would happen."
Some of the students elected to travel to Morocco or Turkey but Rinaldi decided to make it back home and then back to school in Washington.
Will he ever go to Egypt again? Absolutely, he says.
"We were a witness to history and it was amazing."