This is a fascinating time to be living in Egypt. It's always been fascinating to live in Egypt, but it is currently even more so. I've been here since the mid 80's, having moved to Egypt from Toronto, Canada with my husband, son and daughter. When my husband died a few years ago, it never occurred to me to go back to Canada. Egypt had become my home and I can't imagine living anywhere else. This country isn't what foreigners think it is at all, and sometimes it isn't even what most Egyptians think it is. But it is alive, changing, and surviving, just as it has for so many thousands of years. Like everyone else, Egyptians and residents look at Egypt and question whether the changes taking place are for the good or evil, but I'm not sure that we can know yet how change will affect us. Looking around at circumstances and social behaviour I can see where we are with respect to where we have been, but where we will go is mostly guess work. Watching the war in Iraq change this region so quickly has heightened the sense of volatility of change.