Walk like an Egyptian

After arriving home from Amsterdam last night and spending today in the office, tomorrow morning I need to be on a train to the airport at 6:00am to leave for a meeting in Cairo. I have really mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I never in my life thought I would get to go to Egypt. I won't have a lot of free time, but hope to at least see the Pyramids, the souks, the mosques, the old Islamic and Coptic districts, etc. What an amazing opportunity! And maybe I should be concerned, but I'm really not all that worried about safety (I'll probably stay clear of the Danish embassy, though)--I lived in LA through the riots and the 1994 earthquake, and lived in DC on 9/11, so I figure bad stuff can happen anywhere.

As always, my biggest concern (other than just being, as Gretchen accurately put it, "fried" from recent travel and long days) is health. It seems like everyone I know who has been to Egypt got violently ill at some point, and it's always nice to read something like this in one of the guidebooks: "Anyone who visits Egypt should expect to spend a certain amount of time in the bathroom, since catching diarrhea through food or water is almost inevitable." WOOHOO! I really hate that I worry about stuff like that, but I guess that's just the way I'm wired. So I'm just hoping for smooth travels, calm nerves, and an iron stomach so I can enjoy what I imagine is a fascinating city...