Packing List!

Pretty much exactly 2 months I leave for China--I leave the first week of January. People are right, the closer and closer something gets, the quicker the time goes. Its 2 months away and I STILL have to get my visa and buy my plane tickets. Today I should be getting the tickets, today or tomorrow. Hoping for Korean Air or JAL. I know Korean Air is nice, but have never flown JAL, tho I believe I've heard good stuff about it. Also, my information for me to get my visa with is on the way, so I'll be going up to Chicago to get that at the end of November or beginning of December. Not looking forward to that drive....6 hours, 8 hours? Eitherway, its awful.

Last night I started putting together a packing list for China--I may not be going with the Peace Corps, but I used their packing list to get a decent idea of what I'll need. Most of it I had on my list, but some of it was "oh yeah!"

Quick--Top 3

If you could choose 3 Peace Corps countries to be placed into, where?

Sara answered in .5 seconds: 

• Romania
• Moldova
• Ukraine
  

I think I would choose: 

• Armenia
• Romania
• Mongolia *tough decision b/w Cameroon & Mongolia*

(I'd also really like Jordan, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Philippines, Samoa, Benin, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Macedonia, Albania, Peru)

China Earthquake

I woke up and the first thing I saw, before I was even out of bed, was the 7.8 earthquake in China, just north of Chengdu. It breaks my heart and terrifies me. I have been to China twice, and I absolutely love China more than anything.  We recently were in a 5.4 quake and it was terrifying, so I can't imagine how terrifying at 7.8 one would be. And a lot of the buildings aren't built to stand earthquakes, they are old and not build with the best materials.  I saw video of hundreds of students running out of a school building/dorm....and you could see the walls of the buildings not just shaking, but wobbling in and out....like if you shake a saw--in and out in and out. It scared me so bad because it was the exact type of building I lived in in China, nearly identical.

I saw the pictures of people searching for people, running into the streets, injured, crying, cranes searching through debris. All I want is to be there helping these people. China has a huge spot in my heart and it is tearing me up knowing I can't help and can't be there to help.  I'm going to search through some websites to see if I can't find anything about donations or even sending volunteers......I just can't sit and do nothing for my China. :(

If anyone hears of anything like that, leave a comment, please!

Massive 7.8 China Quake, MSNBC