The travels of Justin

[Part 1 is here: Danger on Campus]

Today was pretty uneventful, but that’s only if you measure it by Chinese standards. This morning I mingled in the morning crowd for safety as I went to a print shop to print some homework out to hand-in. I was startled by a large group of students with shovels examining the holes. I’ll guess there were 20 students, but the crowd moves fast around the hot zone so I couldn’t look too closely. It seemed like they were examining the holes, and possibly trying to fill them with dirt. For a creature that apparently can burrow tunnels of such a great size, I’m not sure what effect filling the holes may have, but I’ll reserve judgment for the time being. I also saw a backhoe parked nearby, so this seems to be a serious initiative. I will attempt to get pictures tomorrow if I can get close enough.

There was a report of a short girl being taken down into the tunnels, but it turns out to have been a mistake. I’ve been told her boyfriend was supposed to meet her at her dorm which is located near to the hot zone. When she wasn’t there to meet him, he may have leapt to the conclusion that she’d been abducted by the creature. Friends are saying that he forgot that his watch is set 10-minutes early to avoid being late for appointments and he probably only missed his girlfriend by moments. Despite the “business as usual” attitude, everyone is taking the threat very seriously. Is it possible their story only has a happy ending in order to calm to student body? This whole situation is just beyond anything in my experience.

The only real news I have to report tonight is a suggestion I received from a contact high-up in the student union. This person, whose identity I must conceal, has suggested it might not be a gopher; instead, it might be some creature related to the pangolin. This certainly might explain the strong foul smell in the air that I had assumed had to do with the spring cleaning of sewers that is also currently being conducted around Tianjin and the school. If you, like me, have no idea what a pangolin is, you may want to read a description of a pangolin from Answers.com. Obviously what we have on campus isn’t a normal pangolin. Some friends have suggested there may have been some mutation and have connected this animal to a recent explosion of a chemical plant in northeast China.

Stay tuned…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 19th, 2006 at 8:53 am and is filed under Life and living, Tianjin, China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.