nervous, anxious, excited, apprehensive . . . I can’t think of the right words to describe how I feel about going to Egypt for spring break. We leave in about 24 hours, my camera is charging, I’m mostly packed and all that’s left is for the kids to finish their last day of school and we’ll be off.

I’ve been calling our trip Egypt 2012: The No Regrets Tour. The idea is that this is our chance to go back and do the things we missed the first time around because our time there was suddenly cut short. For example, I am finally going to go to the Egyptian museum to see the mummies (last time I stayed home with a sick Camille, figuring I’d have tons of other opportunities to visit the museum). We’re also planning to take a train to the port city of Alexandria for a few days to see a different side of Egypt. When we first arrive we’ll be crashing with friends in the neighborhood where we used to live and visiting some familiar favorite places. All great things to look forward to.

However, the closer we get to leaving, the less I feel like I need to have a “last hurrah” in Cairo. I’ve become quite content in my clean, beautiful Muscat and no longer miss the crazy and chaotic pace of life in the city. I see two options for this trip — I love it and regret having to leave Egypt all over again. Boo hoo, woe is me, etc, etc. Or we arrive and I suddenly see Cairo through the eyes of someone who has lived in a beautiful and clean Middle Eastern country for the past year and I instantly hate it and want to go home to Oman. Neither of those sound like very fun options for a vacation, do they?

It doesn’t help that I keep getting email alerts from the American Embassy whenever protests are going on in the city. I keep forwarding them to Josh in case he feels like they are important enough to consider changing our plans. He doesn’t. (And truthfully, neither do I.)

So we’re off on another adventure — hopefully one that features lots of great stories, good food, and no emergency evacuations. Stay tuned . . .