For the record, I am South African. I know what to do in dangerous situations...Don't stop at traffic lights after dark in JHB,
don't walk around alone in CT,.don't learn to surf in case you
encounter a shark, if you going to drink and drive, don't live near the
hospital in Knysna
because there are road blocks there and when you come home at 3am and
find two idiots in your house stealing your crap...it is probably best
not to let the double brandy's you had been drinking convince you its
okay to try and outrun them when they make a dash for it...I consider
myself street smart...But dudes if you had asked me before I googled it, lord know what you do during an earthquake!!!
Sitting in my room, trying to get onto skype,
minding my own business when my bed starts to move. I won't lie, I was a
little confused but thought it must be a flash back from those dodgy
chocolate brownies I ate at that party that time... or the result of all
the Chinese flu meds
I have been taking and have no idea whats in them...but then the
computer started to shake, and the window and somewhere in my brain I
remembered China...Earthquakes...and decided to check on flatmate...Mari was
in bed watching her picture move on her wall, thinking to herself
"My... the wind is strong today"...considering our apartment was now
shaking like James Bond's martini ( you get it, shaken not
stirred...anyway) that is kind of funny... The two of us stood in the
door frames of our rooms because in a Country, SA, that has had one
earthquake in like 19-footsack
we were taught at school to stand in door frames. At this point Mari,
in her Pj's said "Do you think I should put some pants and a bra on?" We
road it out and then were like "That was it?"...we have seen those
Hollywood blockbusters where the earth cracks down the middle of the
city and Bruce Willis narrowly escapes by jumping into an abandoned jeep
and speeds off to safety, rescuing a hot chick and some kittens on the
way... I wanted to go and smoke on the balcony to celebrate the end of
it until I realised everyone was evacuating the apartment buildings and
considering this was our first earthquake we figured, we should probably
do the same.
But you learn a lot about yourself when you
are evacuating a building during potential danger...I had time to find
my lighter and cigs and grab my phone and would have sat down to facebook
a little but the Internet was down...Mari was standing in front of the
mirror doing her hair...I mean if you going to get trapped in a 22 story
building, one needs to do it in style...with coffee, smokes and a
cellphone to take pictures... Also I have totally inappropriate emotions
and inappropriate times...I cry when I am angry, laugh at funerals and
it seems I found the whole thing rather exciting.
We went
downstairs and sat outside the entrance of the apartment block with all
the Chinese folk...trying to google earthquakes and aftershocks so we
knew how long we had to sit there and when we could go back upstairs
like normal people and drink coffee before class...A lot of people were
in Pj's with high heels and their Louis Berton bags..but mostly people
used the evacuation time to drink tea on the grass, grab some noodles
for breakfast or do their veggie shopping...We did see a few families
come out with plastic shopping bags of clothes and that did seem a
little concerning... One of the mothers from Mari's students stopped to
say Hi and in broken English told us that we should have taken a bottle
of water in our bags and then said, wanna come for breakfast. Actually
she said "Go breakfast. Lets go" but same difference.
Anyway,
30 minutes, no collapsed building we figured we would go upstairs
although I shat myself in that elevator ride 17 floors, I can not lie. I
felt aftershocks Saturday and Sunday...Mari didn't..So we assumed it
was in my head but I googled
it (Got to love that google) and there has been 1336 aftershocks up
until Sunday evening so turns out I don't have post traumatic stress
disorder after all! I have since googled
what to do during a earthquake...One of the sites first points was to
own a fire extinguisher...which we don't so we screwed...And then to get
onto all fours, hide under a sturdy table (Nothing made in China is
sturdy) and cover your neck and back with your arm apparently, ( I mean
so technically they want you to be on all three's not all Four's and
protect your back, neck and head with one hand...I am sure they just
made that shit up)... lets hope we never have to test it out...
My
bucket list of travels did not include natural disasters...But I am
glad it happened now and not in Thailand because Tsunami surfing, not
the kind of adventure holiday I am looking for.
Anyway,
jokes aside, 8 people died in our city from that earthquake, 186 in the
area surrounding the quake in total. 24 people still missing and over
900 people injured. In 2008, Earthquake in the same place, killed 90 000
people... I remember seeing it on the news, worst Earthquake in China's
history...I am thankful that I was not here then...nothing comical
about that. But given that they were five years apart, I will be long
gone by the time Chengdu rumbles again.
No comments:
Post a Comment