The American Women’s Club held that charity book fair last month… I forgot to update you on that. A really great event– we collected over 5,000 books and sold them for prices between 5 and 20 RMB. Super cheap. The fundraising target was 8k RMB to buy a new library for a local migrant children’s school. Guess how much we raised? 60k! That’s right. Over $7k USD in one day. Can you believe it? I was so impressed and amazed by the power of such a small group. Kudos to the chief event organizers.

That said, I have to comment on the location of the book fair: Season’s Villa. Obviously, it’s an expat community, but my god, after entering the gates, I entered an alien world. It actually reminded me of Disney World. Yeah, THAT ridiculously posh with huge-ass houses, manicured lawns, a clubhouse rivaling a five-star hotel… bizarro for sure. When I left the book fair, I asked the guard to call me a cab. He basically told me to walk out of the community to Huamu Road, because cabs don’t drive around Season’s Villa. Huh? Apparently, everyone has a private driver.