Egypt Study Abroad Student Discusses Being Stranded During Protests: Exclusive Interview With Cornell's Carolyn Witte

"All of the Egyptians thought this was just some protest and nothing really big was going to happen," Carolyn Witte told The Huffington Post in her twelfth hour stranded at the closed airport in Alexandria, Egypt.

Three weeks into a Middlebury College Intensive Arabic study abroad program, the Cornell student was having a hard time leaving the country in the middle of the most significant political Egyptian uprising in the last thirty years.

Her travelers insurance company had "abandoned" her student group, she said.

She was "without food, water, or any sort of security."

And she was still searching for a flight out.

Hear more about what she has to say about her situation in Egypt by listening to the clips from our Skype interview with her late Sunday evening.

[Click here for a complete primer on the conflict within Egypt, and click here for the latest from our Egypt liveblog.]

Current situation

I've been asked to leave the airport because there's no security we're a liability to the airport, which is officially closed.

What's next?

We're really in a sort of aimless state, unsure of what's next for us.

Egyptian expectations before the protests on Friday

The craziest part about being here is how fast everything changed.

When you signed up for this study abroad program, did you have any idea this could happen?

The craziest part about being here is how fast everything changed.
Mubarak's been in power for thirty years and no thought something like this could ever happen.

The full interview is split into two parts. There was a disconnect midway through the interview.

Part 1

Part 2

Comments

[Konrad Klean]

12:13 AM on 02/02/2011

For what it counts, this will be the most educational experience of her young life. While I hesitate to make such statements hastily, I wish I could be there myself. It isn't very often that we get an opportunity to see the population of a country reach into the cache of its national conscience and push for the ousting of a regressive regime.

While similar events have transpired recently, Egypt is thus far the largest and the most controversial. I would almost compare the situation transpiring on its soil to the early days of the French Revolution. Which begs a question in of itself; will Mumbarak be foolish enough to try and escape dressed up as a commoner much like Louis did?

In the meantime my sympathies are with Miss Witte. I hope she returns safely, and intellectually enriched for the experience.