September 12 - China: Huangshan

To our friends in NY - please send us emails and let us know you're OK.

This is horrific.  I couldn't sleep last night and woke up at 5:00 with a severe longing to hear my Dad's voice.  My eyes are swollen from crying all night.  We are craving news in English, but all we can get is one channel of Chinese news which shows all the terrible film footage.  I keep thinking of all my friends from school who would have just started work last week.

At 7:00, I went downstairs to find out how to call the US.  I didn't call last night because we could hear the English TV anchors begging people to stop tying up the phone lines.  But now it's 12 hours later and I hoped I could get through.  No luck - all the lines were busy.  I don't have the phone numbers of relatives outside the DC area to call and to ask if they've spoken to my father.  The internet connection here in the hotel is useless.

The group met at 8:30 to go into town for breakfast and to go on a morning outing to various local sights.  Jon and I caught a ride into town and went straight to the Internet cafe where we stayed for 4 hours.  

Thankfully, my family is all OK.  I read a message from my brother right away and started crying from relief.  And we continuously received "I'm OK" emails from friends in New York in addition to "I've spoken to the following people" updates from other friends.  My friend Ellen in LA sent me numerous emails each time she heard from someone we both know.  So far, all the news is good.  

We can access some news websites, and the Chinese guys in the cafe kept calling us to their computers to show us various photos of the carnage they found on Chinese news sites.  So we feel informed, albeit useless.  I really miss home today.

I have nothing else to write.  We did nothing cultural today and I have nothing to say except that I'm praying for everyone.