THE COUGAR DOMINATION PLEDGE DRIVE or, STARTS WITH AN 'R' AND ENDS WITH AN 'ECIPROCATION'*

The Official Pledge Drive mascot, an 11-day old South China tiger cub.

This tiger cub is cute, isn't it? Those watery eyes, that snuggly fur, and those adorably outsized paws, along with that little touch of sadness that just makes the cuteness all the more powerful. He is so cute, in fact, that although I have this newspaper image of him on my desk (ripped from the pages of the China Daily), I can't stop looking at the photograph of that picture that I have posted on the screen in front of me. Then again, I'm a little lonely these days.

School has been keeping me phenomenally busy, but not enough to make me forget that I haven't been hugged in more than 3 months, or that I lack companions with whom to watch all the pirated DVDs I've collected, to enjoy music with, or to battle the human oceans of Beijing. I'm also just about to have the loneliest holiday season EVER. It isn't that there aren't good people around, its just that the best people are in time zones far away from my own and I miss them so.

This is where you come in. I need mail. Desperately. I love to write postcards and letters, but I've been putting so much time into ye' old blog that I haven't been doing so much of that. However, considering the mail I have put out into the world in my lifetime, I think I merit a little something in return. I'm tired of looking into an empty mailbox, or carting up Jessica's twice weekly missives from her well-trained friends. I'm sick of half-heartedly sifting through the mail pile at school, knowing that nothing is for me (mostly I know this because I haven't given anyone my school address, but still - poor me!). Some of you have been extremely good, others could do much better. I'm not going to name and shame, but you know who are you. Thank you to all those who have written or sent goodies. I am so grateful (and responses are forthcoming)! To the rest, now is the time.

Below is my school address. If you e-mail me, I will happily provide my home address, but it seems a little foolhardy just to put it on the interwebs. Besides, if you send stuff to school all the other kids are going to think I am way popular:

China
Beijing 100084
Tsinghua University
Wen Bei Lou, 502
Inter-University Program

中国
北京100084
清华大学
文北楼502

(the Latin-script should be sufficient, but if you know Chinese, or feel like cutting, pasting, and printing, the Chinese-script will probably speed your mail along)

If you don't have the time to make real mail, send an e-mail (though I will probably take a terribly long time to respond). And if you don't want to e-mail, I do always appreciate comments in the handy forum provided below. It just makes me feel like you guys are out there somewhere, and that warms the heart mightily.

Thank you so very much, and happy holidays to all!

*"starts with a '[single letter]' and ends with a '[rest of the word]' are both copyright Mark Siano 1997 or earlier.