I live in the city of Luo Yang, in Henan Province, not too far from the Yellow River in Central China. I notice from surfing the internet that there is an increasing amount of paranoia and disinformation being promulgated about how awful it is to be here. All I can say is, It ain't happen' to me or anyone I know. My Chinese friends understand the difference between international politics and personal friendships, and even co-teachers who aren't not particularly close to me have gone out of their way to show us that they know we are not the enemy. It's really nice, because we are not on the tourist route, and there are not many =maybe 50 Americans in this city of six million. It would be much more difficult for us if we did not have our internet connection, though, because it is very hard to get any non-Chinese news except by way of the net. I teach 5th and 6th grades at a rather expensive private school, but books and paper to write on is still at a premium. ONe of our friends in the state was kind enough to send us several boxes of recently replaced and unused children's text books and another box of popular magazines from the U.S. YOu can't imagine what a treat a four year copy of "National Geographic" is for my kids. ANd these are the "haves". THe "have-nots" do without a lot more. What I learned here is that even though people seem to live reasonably happy with much, much less that Americans, The last ten or twelve years have been the best for Chinese people in a long, long time. MIllions dead in civil wars in the twenties, millions more in the JApanese occupation, still more in the revolutionary struggle after World War 2, may be a million lost in Korea, 30 million starved to death as a result of the "Great Leap Forward" in 1959, chaos and madness during the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, and after that, a period of realtive peace, Tianammin Square, and more peace and greater prosperity for some with the development of a market economy (socialism with a Chinese character, as they call it here) So when I see someone my mother's age walking around, I think, " My God, what has that person lived through?" But it's Spring, the fields are green, we are off to Cheng Du for a week. More when I get back Seth from China