A post-hike shower was beyond necessary, and afterward I climbed onto my bed for one of the last times and stretched out. We were having a little going away party with some of Emily's friends that night, so I knew a little rest was a must on my agenda. As Chasley showered and Emily had a snack, I laid down on my bed and thought back on the week, jotting down things in my journal and whatnot. And that's when it happened: on my very last night in Chile, I finally got my bona-fide Chilean earthquake.
The building swayed, the apartment trembled, the furniture creaked. It was fabulous. Much to my mother's horror, I felt myself thinking, "Come on, Earth, do it again!" You know, like when a young dad throws his toddler up and down in the air-- terrifying, but the kid can't get enough.
Emily yelled out from the kitchen to make sure I was okay, I yelled back that I was fine, and Chasley... well, Chasley, being Chasley, was oblivious.
That night Em's host parents informed us that the region had endured a 5.3 earthquake. I suspected that my parents would hear about it on the news and suffer immediate heart attacks, so I pecked out a "Don't panic, we're fine" email before we left for the night.
The next morning I was in the middle of an outrageous dream when my dreamworld started shaking and swaying. I opened my eyes, rolled over and looked at Chasley, who was looking back, and both of us knew immediately that we had experienced not one but two earthquakes, which is about double what we had experienced before.
We found out later that while we had been out dancing with Emily's friends there had been several other rumbles in the night-- we just didn't notice them due to our own rumbling.
So that was a weirdly pleasant wake-up call... although, I can't say I wanted to stick around for anymore lest Earth decide she wanted to show off.
No comments:
Post a Comment