It seems like everybody, whether living in China or not, has covered the earthquake in detail, and I don't want to be repetitive. I'm sad for all the families who lost their only child, or the one person who lived while every family member they knew died from the 7.9 magnitude earthquake, or the strong aftershocks, which are still going on. I have no idea what it is like.
Things have mostly returned to normal here, as far as everyday life goes... people went back to work, For a few days after the quake, conversations started by asking where the other person was during the fact, teachers left the doors open during class, and red donation boxes were set up for people to contribute money to help the rescue efforts. Rumors spread about bad aftershocks with an epicenter closer to here, and people who were still afraid to return to their tall apartment slept outside at local parks or in friends' homes who lived on a lower floor than them for several days.
Today a 3 day mourning period began for the victims, and at 2:28 p.m, exactly one week after the earthquake, sirens sounded and horns honked for 3 minutes during a time of remembrance. I tried to go to one Chinese website today and got this message:
There seemed to be a crack underneath the surface here before, but during the earthquake, I heard a crack and looked over to see this surfacing and spreading.
This is a building across the courtyard from mine...there are 4 just like it in this complex, just to give you a picture of where I was.Update 5/20: Last night at 11:30 I received a call from a friend whose friend wanted to be sure and tell me that there was supposedly going to be an another quake with the epicenter really close to here. I assumed it was nothing, like most of the other rumors, and went to bed as normal. Apparently, though, people took to the streets, slept outside again, and moved their cars from underground parking lots into the streets. I woke up this morning, after experiencing nothing. So although life on the outside is going on as usual, rumors are still going around like crazy, and fear of another quake has not left people's minds.
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