im sure just about all of you have heard about the big earthquake that hit china a couple days ago. fortunately, were as far north as you can get, so we didnt feel a thing. take a look. it hit sichuan province, the pinkish one in the middle near the capital chengdu. [link] were in heilongjiang, the yellow one in the northeast in the city harbin. its been a big subject for discussion in classes the past few days. everything ive seen put the quake at a magnitude 7.8. so far, the casualty count is at ~12,000 dead, ~25,000 injured and over 60,000 still missing. sadly, one of the buildings that went down as a primary school. with hundreds of kids inside. the quake was felt all the way to beijing and shanghai, as well as taiwan and pakistan. the waves stopped just before they reached us.

you wouldnt believe how many people have been flooding us with emails to see if we felt it. since some of those people are on dA, thanks for your concern. were really alright up here. naturally the whole country is stirred up. 'minds me rather of katrina back in the states. the army has gone in, and resources are being redirected. official word is that none of the olympic facilities were hit, but the torch relay is being put on hold for the moment. yes, i know thats of little importance next to the death-toll, but you wouldnt believe how seriously the whole country is taking the olympics. it seriously appears to be rivaling the cultural revolution as the biggest thing to hit china since the last dynasty.

ok, enough bad news. were holding together well here. we have 6 1/2 weeks of school left, counting exams. yeah, all our buddies back home are done or in exams now, and we've got a month and a half left. its been amazing how fast its gone though. the days drag, but the weeks are flying by, if that makes sense. id always held my birthday out as a big halfway marker, and now its a week gone. were more than halfway done. not that im wishing it away, by any means. there are times when i definately think im done and want to go home now. but then there are the times when im out traveling or killing time between classes and talking and laughing with a pack of koreans, a ukranian and a couple africans that id have never met otherwise. something really unifying about all of you being away from home and speaking a common foreign language. trying to speak, anyway.

ah well, there we are. im really looking forward to my parents coming in july.

{inu}

(edit: 4,000+ pageviews? when did that happen??)