Protests and pressure continue

Protests are continuing to occur around the world for Philip's release; tonight in Cairo a protest against his unlawful detention and the holding of other activists took place in front of the Journalists' Syndicate downtown. Afterward, two of Philip's Middle East Studies colleagues and I heard from a journalist that more than two hundred people had shown up but still nothing on his whereabouts beyond unconfirmed suggestions that he's being held in Nasr City.
Upcoming protests are happening as follows:

Tomorrow in New York as mentioned in the previous entry;

Thursday, 12 February at 12 noon in San Francisco in front of the Egyptian consulate at

276 Mallorca Way in the Marina District;

Friday, 13 February at 12 noon in Washington, DC in front of the embassy (address and contact details in previous entry)

and at 2 PM in Ottawa, Canada in front of the embassy at 454 Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6R3

Additional information and links to petitions and instructions for letter writing campaigns are available to Facebook users here. I've contacted Rotarians from my host club in hopes they'll have ideas or contacts. Every little bit counts–please write, call, fax, or get involved in a protest!

Links:
Letter from president of Wheaton College
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information report
Sun Times coverage of the Chicago rally
New York Times story on abduction, protests
Guardian coverage

From New York with...Nervous Anticipation

I'm sitting in my father's apartment in Midtown Manhattan, going through a mental checklist of everything I need to remember for tomorrow when I hop on a Lufthansa flight from JFK headed for Frankfurt, Germany. From there, I'll be on my way to Cairo at last!
Though I still have not been assigned a host Rotary Club and have no Egyptian Rotary contacts, I was able to get in touch with another Rotary scholar (from Texas) also studying at AUC who had lined up an apartment and was in need of a roommate. The apartment, not far from AUC's Old Campus in downtown Cairo, seems to be conveniently located and, mostly importantly has the two fundamental elements of life: air conditioning and wireless internet.
Unable to make it up to the Egyptian consulate in Chicago for my visa, I went to the one here in New York to get that important aspect of my journey taken care of. Last time I visited Cairo, I simply gave them $15 at the airport in cash and was given a visa in return. I didn't want to chance it this time around though.
So, I have clothes, medicine, toiletries, snacks, two Qur'ans (one in French and Arabic and the other in English--it's interesting on which points the translations differ in tone and wording), a Lonely Planet guide to Egypt, my passport, some power adapters and a converter, a journal, my laptop, and a whole lot of butterflies in my stomach!
I will be landing in Cairo at 2:15 PM local time on Thursday the 21st (6:15 AM Peoria time) insha'Allah (which means God willing-quite a common phrase in Egypt and in the rest of the Muslim world.)