"Good Morning Egypt"

Megan is worried that Wade has developed an unhealthy obsession with the Egyptian Revolution. On Thursday night, Wade and Megan were pumping away at the gym when news broke that Mubarak was going to step down any minute. Wade wanted to be close to the TV for the moment that it actually happened. That meant staying on the stairmaster for as long as possible. About an hour and a half later, Wade was still working away at the stairmaster, still glued to English Al Jazeera, but Mubarak had still refused to step down. Needless to say, Wade was sore, emotionally and physically, the next morning.

Unfortunately, based on what we've seen, most Lebanese don't share Wade's enthusiasm for the history-making events in Egypt. At the gym, the 20-something woman on the stairmaster next to Wade was watching MTV's "Pimp My Ride" (or maybe it was "Cribs") instead of Al Jazeera's 24-hour coverage of Tahir Square.

Any minute now...

When the Mubarak regime finally collapsed on Friday night, we didn't hear car horns honking nor did we see fireworks exploding. That is all in spite of what CNN and BBC reported. The international news showed footage of young Lebanese shooting their guns off in celebratory fire. We didn't see that either -- besides we like to stay away from potential bullets falling randomly from the sky.

On Saturday morning, the day after Mubarak's resignation, Wade woke up early to get a few copies of The Daily Star, the leading English-speaking newspaper here in Lebanon. Wade tried to strike up a conversation with the newspaper seller on the corner, asking if he was going to have extra business today. Wade's newspaper guy just stared blankly. "Why would I sell extra papers?" he replied.

Then, at the local coffee shop, Wade asked the two college kids working behind the counter about their thoughts. Surely, Wade hoped, these young, well-educated Arabs will feel passionate about a revolution that toppled an autocracy in the world's largest Arab country just the night before. But again, Wade received blank stares. "I don't really care about politics," one answered. The other said, "Yeah, I'm just studying business."

The headline from The Daily Star the day after Mubarak stepped down.

The one group that has seemed excited and engaged are Wade's young Lebanese students, even the ones that don't necessarily like studying. For the past two weeks, Wade's history classes begin each day with an "Egypt Update" with each student reporting on the news the night before. Students started to bet on the over-under for when Mubarak would leave. The date that one class set was Friday, February 11 at midnight. They're as good at predicting the future as any analysts you'll see on cable news.