5.12

All around campus are signs commemorating the Sichuan earthquake.

It's a far away place from here (about as far as Maine is from Texas), but the effects of it are still felt. I got to talk to some my students about it when they came into the office today. They told me about how they were in school at the time, studying for the college entrance exam, and didn't know it had happened or how serious it was until they got home that evening. When they did finally see the TV reports they said they couldn't stop crying.

A few weeks ago someone forwarded me this slideshow:
NPR Coverage of the Sichuan Earthquake
I'd encourage you to watch it, but you may need some tissues. The poem "Elegy" by He Xiaozhu at the end of it made me cry.

NPR has also done a series about one year after the quake. And so has China Daily. If you have time, they're both worth perusing.

SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

Recently, Erika, Lindsay, Becky and I realized that we've been living
in the new apartments for more than 2 months now, but we haven't had
much of a chance to get to know our neighbors. We decided it'd be a
good idea to try to have a pot-luck picnic with our neighbors now
that the weather is warm. We put together little invitations and
tried to personally invite all the foreign students and their
families who live in our building. There's about 15 apartments total.
We had to explain what a pot-luck was, but I think they got the idea.

So, for dinner this evening we had a few meat, rice, and vegetable
dishes cooked Sudan-style (they said it wasn't exactly Sudanese food
since they couldn't get all the same vegetables here in China),
Sudanese bread, authentic Vietnamese fried spring rolls (they called
them something else, but that's the best way to describe them),
Vietnamese candy, American potato salad, pasta salad, fruit salad,
cookies, and Italian herb bread. We all introduced ourselves in
Chinese and English or in which ever language we could speak, and
then introduced our dishes.
I'm probably spelling these names wrong, but I'll give it a try.
From the left: Afra and her baby, Hannai, M..(something), Mohammed and his
son (all from Sudan), Huang and I forgot his name (from Vietnam), me
(from USA), Tong Yiyuan (from Japan), forgot his name too (from
Veitnam), Moatsim (from Sudan), Deng (from Vietnam who lives across
the hall from me. His wife and child were here earlier this year but
went back home for a visit), and Erika (from USA). Most of the men
are engineering Ph.D. or Masters students. The women from Sudan are
here with their husbands. We also have Korean neighbors, but none of
them came.

We ate and we talked (in Chinese, English, Arabic, and Vietnamese)
for a good two hours, until it got dark. All and all, a lot of fun!
Now I know my neighbors a lot better and you do too! I look forward
to learning their names better (its hard for me to remember names I've never heard before) and of course, getting to know them
better.

Also, Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers!

SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

You know it's spring when you see ...

Can you tell that I'm really excited that it's finally spring?

INCONVENIENCE & ADVENTURE - photo

Here we are waiting in the train station. Most of us still look happy.

小朋友！Little friends!