ipod says i have no music

i have an 8gb ipod nano and have been recharging on my friends apple mac. all my music seems to be erased from the ipod however it says that i only have 3.5gbs left which means the songs are still on the ipod??????? when i load into itunes it says that it cannot read the contents of my ipod. i am far from my music library and need any suggestions, i have tried the wonderful 5 from apple to no avail.
thanks for any suggestions

Message was edited by: pettipiere