U.S. College Students Return from Egypt

Feb. 4, 2011— -- Jordan Bellquist had just finished studying with a couple of friends in a small Egyptian cafe when an Egyptian man approached them, speaking to them in English.

"Take care of yourselves tonight. Something like a revolution is coming," he said.

Bellquist, a senior at the University of Texas in Austin, was one of 57 students studying abroad at the University of Alexandria as part of her school's Arabic Flagship Program, a language-intensive immersion program for students studying Arabic language and culture.

The next day, she watched as the country erupted. Protesters poured onto the streets denouncing President Hosni Mubarak.

That was one week ago. At the time, she was living with an Egyptian woman who didn't allow her to leave the house at any point during that day.

"Not only my university, but the head of my scholarship, and American Councils all tried to contact us immediately through e-mail," Bellquist said. At that time, however, Internet and cell phone services had already been shut down across Egypt.

"The only means of communication were through landline phones," Bellquist said.

The American Councils for International Education, a nonprofit that administers several study abroad programs, managed to reach Bellquist because she was living with a woman who had strong ties to the program.

"They wanted to make sure everyone was staying inside and accounted for," Bellquist said.

Once they established contact with all of the students, they moved them to one central location.

"I was under the impression we were going to stay with our resident coordinator a night or two and then be allowed to return to our host families," Bellquist said.

It was not until Saturday night that she realized the severity of the situation.

"All the men stood out below us with clubs, knives, swords … whatever weapons they had in order to protect the street and families," Bellquist said.

Bellquist received a call from American Councils that night, telling her that all of the American students would be evacuated. Even so, she didn't want to go. Bellquist didn't want to receive updates about Egypt from the American media, she wanted to witness it firsthand.

"Our evacuation was arranged for the first available flight the following Monday morning," Bellquist said. "I was shocked by the decision at first and didn't want to leave."

But whether students wanted to leave or not, universities across the United States began arranging to fly their students out of Egypt.