As a freshman at the American University in Cairo, 18-year-old Richard Gima of Lanai is finding college life in the Middle East more of an adventure than he anticipated, but he is relishing the experience.

"I knew that it would be a risk, but I never expected the Egyptians to revolt," he said via instant chat with the Star-Advertiser on Wednesday, after evacuating from Cairo with other Americans as protesters thronged the capital. "Tunisia definitely influenced everything."

He added, "I feel like I picked the perfect time to be in the Middle East, not only with the situation in Cairo, but with everything that’s going on in Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon and Tunisia. It is great preparation for my future career."

Gima, a 2010 Lanai High School graduate, is majoring in Middle East studies and hopes to join the U.S. foreign service. On Monday he took the advice of the U.S. State Department and flew from Cairo to Istanbul, Turkey, but he looks forward to returning to Egypt soon.

While many of his fellow students continued on home to their own college campuses in the United States, Gima is staying in the Middle East because the American University in Cairo is his home campus.

From Istanbul he flew to Muscat, Oman, where he is staying with an Omani family who hosted him for a semester while he was a high school student, on his first trip to the Mideast. Gima won a U.S. government YES Abroad scholarship, which sends high school students to predominantly Muslim countries in hopes of promoting intercultural understanding. He liked it so much that he decided to focus his studies on the Middle East.

Gima left Hawaii on Jan. 19 and landed in Cairo at 1 a.m. on the 21st. The first week was a whirlwind of orientation, getting to know his neighborhood and visiting the pyramids. What came next was a surprise, to him and the rest of the world.

"My adviser was mentioning the planned protests to us, but she didn’t think it would actually happen, so I didn’t really take the threat of the protests seriously," Gima said. "Once the protests started, I didn’t think it would escalate to what it is now."

His dormitory is in Zamalek, on an island in the Nile in Cairo, two to three miles from the central square that has been the focus of protests calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down after nearly 30 years in power.

"I could see smoke from Tahrir Square while looking out from the roof terrace of the dorms," Gima said. "I could see smoke in all directions, both actual fire smoke and tear gas. The gunfire I could hear was fairly close to the dorms. It sounded like machine guns, with constant firing.

"At some points, especially with military personnel with huge guns being in my neighborhood, that was a little scary. But I was able to witness history, which was the most exciting aspect of this."

Back home in Hawaii, Gima’s family followed the news and was happy to catch a glimpse of him in the background of a TV report, waiting with other students to board a bus to the airport.

"I was very impressed with the way the American University in Cairo handled it," said his father, Butch Gima. "Their New York office was sending out e-mail blasts to all the parents and students. We were constantly made aware of what was happening. That was really helpful.

"All the time that I was talking with him, I was trying to monitor his mood. He seemed pretty calm. He wasn’t freaking out," Gima said. "They had the curfew, so they were holed up in the room. The college would bring over food and refreshments for them."

His family also managed to connect with Richard via a land-line telephone, although the Egyptian government shut down the Internet in hopes of putting a brake on protesters who were communicating via Facebook and Twitter.

"It definitely would not have happened without Facebook and Twitter," Richard Gima said. "The movement gained most of its supporters through Facebook."

He added, "They say there will be elections. I hope that the people are able to choose who they want, or it would really defeat the purpose of the protests. Whoever does take over will change the political landscape of the Middle East."

Classes at the university were supposed to start Jan. 30, but the civil unrest nixed that. The university hopes to resume classes Feb. 13. That timetable could change as the situation in Cairo descended into violence Wednesday, with pro-government forces attacking the protesters.

"It’s just utter chaos there," Gima said. "I’m glad that I was able to get out when I did, and I am really looking forward to returning once the situation has calmed down."