Sarah and I all for having new experiences here in China; being in my first earthquake was not an experience either of us expected. 

The basic facts are that at about 2:30 this afternoon the school began to shake – not too violently, but enough to scare us.  The USGS registered the earthquake at a magnitude of 7.8; at school we felt the earthquake for some 4 minutes.  We don’t know whose fault it was.

Anyway, we are doing alright.  Our decreasing amount of stuff survived; we think had we not been in the process of moving, our belongings could very well have had more damage.

Here’s an interesting twist: an email showed up in my inbox tonight asking for a telephone interview.  So if you hear a familiar voice on the NBC nightly news talking about the earthquake in Chengdu, it could be me…

Please be thinking of those who did not fare nearly as well as we did.  The death toll, according to latest reports, could be in the thousands.  We’re going to be checking tomorrow to see if there’s any way to help.