Campus correspondent
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 11:32 p.m.
Since the earthquake on May 12 that left tens of thousands dead or missing and millions homeless, China has not been the same.
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For University of Florida student Anthony Paglino, life has not exactly been the same either.
Paglino, an economics senior, was getting ready for his first day of class at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu at the time of the earthquake.
Paglino was carrying his video camera when the earthquake hit and began recording as the building started to shake. As he was running down the stairs, he quipped, "All right, so maybe we don't have class."
"At about 2:28 p.m. it sounded like a train running down the hallway and we didn't know if it was normal," Paglino said. "At the time, it was nothing too serious. There was no immediate response or chain of command, so we were just waiting for someone to tell us what was going on."
The university was spared major damage, the extent coming from collapsed tiles and cracked plaster, he said.
The hardest aspect of dealing with the earthquake was not the initial hit, but the mind-games and psychological aspect that the aftershocks posed, Paglino said.
"The earthquake was not scary at the time," he said. "But the aftershocks and not knowing if the building you're in is going to fall on your head was very scary."
On May 13, relief efforts and response to the disaster were unreal with donations from other countries and student involvement with helping the victims, Paglino said.
"The army shipped orphans from the villages to our campus right next to our dorms," he said.
The UF students also helped with the relief effort as they bought parcels of milk and delivered them to the Red Cross.
On May 18 the earthquake agency expected another quake and the entire city of Chengdu moved outside in tents for fear of more buildings collapsing, Paglino said. "Imagine everyone in New York City in Central Park living in tents."
Paglino compares the differences in China's response to the earthquake and America's response to Hurricane Katrina. "The responses to these disasters are side-by-side. There are obviously more vivid differences as China did a very good P.R. job with no one making excuses," he said. "Somewhere down the line someone will be blamed for poor construction of these buildings, but China did the best it could."
The timing of the earthquake could not have come at a worse time for China with the Olympics in August and recent issues concerning Tibet and China's poor environmental policies.
However, the earthquake provided an opportunity for China to come together and work as a cohesive unit, Paglino said. "The response to this earthquake definitely showed a softer side of China that showed more of a human aspect and not the Communist Party."
Hopefully this disaster is a chance for China to make the best out of a bad situation, he said.
Paglino and seven other UF students were studying abroad in Chengdu through a UF-sponsored program and arrived the weekend prior to the earthquake. The students were studying first year Mandarin Chinese language along with Chinese economics and Sichuan culture classes.
The UF students only spent about 10 days in Chengdu before the UF International Center decided to relocate the program to Tsinghua University in Beijing, where UF has an existing program with about 30 other UF students.
"We had class for two days after the earthquake and then (the government) put out a warning saying that another earthquake was expected in the next three days," Paglino said. "Then we found out we were going to be shipped out to Beijing."
Aftershocks and fear that dams might burst prompted the UF International Center to relocate the UF in Chengdu program to a safer location.
Cynthia Chennault, professor of Chinese poetry at UF and the program's director, said in an e-mail that the students were never endangered, but there was concern that remaining in an increasingly congested city, with hospitals filled with the injured, was not conducive to the academic program.
"We will try to revive the program next year to offer a more economical alternative for summer study abroad in China," she wrote in an e-mail interview.
Since relocating to Beijing, the UF in Chengdu students are slowly acclimating to their new surroundings. They are continuing classes at Tsinghua University taking first year Mandarin Chinese language and a Beijing culture class.
Paglino earned the Freeman-Asia Scholarship, which will require him to speak and give presentations about studying abroad in Asia when he returns to the U.S. in August. Paglino plans to help educate Americans about that part of the world, because many Americans are not familiar with Chinese history, he said.
"With this opportunity to travel China and because of the earthquake, I plan to help break many of the stereotypes about China," he said.
"Nothing could have prepared me for the experience I have had. China is an enigma, and I am learning things every day," Paglino said. "Every day I step out of the door, something happens."
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