Earthquake in Beijing

Yesterday, I was sitting in front of the computer when there was a jolt and everything started shaking pretty violently. I immediately thought it was an earthquake and from experience knew that it would eventually end. I sat frozen in my chair watching everything around me shake. It lasted a long long 7-8 seconds then everything became still again. I sent out some short messages from my phone to friends around the city and they felt it too. I later learned that an earthquake registering 5.1 on the Richter Scale stuck about 120 kilometers south of Beijing. One of the worst Earthquake disasters of all time was in 1976 when an Earthquake occured about 180 km north of Beijing and killed 250,000 people. I talked with the Chinese students who I teach to and they said Beijing sits in the middle of a tectonic plate, thus Earthquakes occur outside the city with some frequency but not in the city. I read on Yahoo! News that Geologists still really do not understand the geological situation in the Beijing area.

Last Sunday, my roommate and good friend Bengt returned to his hometown, Stockholm Sweden. It was clear for sometime that he had missed his friends and loved ones and was anxious to get back home. It was only exacerbated when the World Cup was going on and he had to stay up to the wee hours of the morning to watch the games, when normally he would be watching them during the day back home. He really gutted out the homesickness and studied hard throughout the year, making the most of the scholarship that gave him the opportunity to study here.

I was really sorry to see him go. He invited me to be his roommate when I was having so much trouble with my super-snoring roommate last semester. But more than that, he inspired me with his study effort, knowledge and interest in China, take-no-crap attitude, and total devotion to his girl who was waiting for him back in Sweden. Fortunately we shared a common taste in music and could occasionally raise the roof in our room listening to our favorite songs. As I said before, his enthusiasm for soccer, or football to him and everyone else in the world, rubbed off on me. Even though several times when I said "Hey, they scored a point", he had to correct me "No, it not a point, it’s a goal!", he happily shared his knowledge of the sport which really helped me become a fan.

The good thing is that I am sure we will stay in touch. I even found a website where I can learn some Swedish. I can say a few things like, Hey, How are you? Good. I come from America, etc etc. And I know what to order if I get to a Swedish restaurant, meatballs!