Shake, shake, shake
I didn't get a good night's sleep on Saturday. Not because I was nervous about hanging with the dancers, but rather that we had an earthquake at 5:30 in the morning and I couldn't get back to sleep. You might have heard about it, it made the international news. Oddly enough we got e-mails of concern from Illinois before we got phone calls from the company office in Hong Kong. But for us, it wasn't that big of a deal. We were about 200 km (120 miles) from the epicenter, so while we got shaken, there was no damage.As a native of a flat, stable land, I took the earthquake quite calmly. Of course, I was sound asleep when it hit. By the time I was awake enough to think about my safety, the quake was over. I then waited for any cries from the children, and when there were none, I rolled over and thought about going back to sleep. The thought of buildings collapsing crossed my mind, and I said a quick prayer for those folks who might be living in older or poorer buildings. It never really occurred to me that we might be residing in an unsafe building. (I heard later that at least some of the students were hustled out of bed and ended up having to stand outside for a half hour.) Why wouldn't Yunnan have the same strict building codes as Seattle? I actually don't know how safe this building is or not. I suppose that's just one of the hallmarks of being a foreigner--you assume things are just like home until you learn otherwise.
Anyway, things look fine for us. The folks over in Pu'er City, however, are still suffering from the aftereffects.
posted by John @ 7:06 AM
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