my final final

I emailed with my friend Melody today. She's from the Sichuan Province and was my closest friend when I lived in China. She currently is at Sichuan University in Chengdu. It was disheartening to hear from her and read in the newspaper about all the aftershocks still occuring in that area, and how people are worried about the stability of their buildings that many have taken to sleeping outside with mats or tents or in chairs. Traveling inbound and outbound is still really chaotic, which adds more reasons why we should avoid the area. :( I was really looking forward to returning to Chengdu but I think I'll have to postpone that part of the trip until another time.

If you're interested in donating to organizations to help China's earthquake efforts, please consider donating to the China Earthquake Aid at http://www.chinaearthquakeaid.org . It was just started last week by UW students currently studying abroad at Sichuan University. To read more about it, click here for the Seattle Times article about their efforts. I wish I could help more...

One more week until I'm in Hong Kong and I just finished writing my final final! Almost time to celebrate! =)

-b