Hello from Athens

As I type, Kathleen, Sophia and Edwin are all asleep and I am enjoying the Sofitel's free wireless; I never knew how much I missed the internet until it was shut off.

Brandon is at the Cairo airport, shuttling a mix of private American citizens and Embassy personnel onto various flights to various points throughout Europe.  We're in Athens, some went to Istanbul, some went to Bahrain, and perhaps some other places.  The rumor was that twelve planes were chartered to shuttle people out.  We were number four and arrived in Athens at 9:00 pm.  We got to our hotel at midnight.

We were all very much surprised about the evacuation, as evident by my post about the situation a few days ago, nobody thought that things would downgrade so quickly.  I wanted to stay very much, but we had some friends in the branch whose advice I trust very much strongly advise us to go, so we went.  I hoped until the very last minute that it would be called off and we could stay, but now we're here and there's no returning for thirty days.  Sometimes I catch myself thinking that perhaps it will all clear up and we can stay... but of course we're already gone.

I have a more detailed account for later, but right now I'm going to get some sleep, as it's already two in the morning.  We'll be in Athens until Wednesday, as there were no good flights until then and I'd rather spend an extra day in a hotel than ten hours in Frankfurt.

I'm strongly tempted to splurge on a babysitter and a massage after carrying fifty pounds of Edwin and backpack for most of the day today.  After all, what better use for the envelope of cash I was handed on my way out?