)Today, Virginia had an earthquake. The tremors were strong enough that the aftershock hit Washington, where I live. Imagine you're from the east coast, pretty sheltered, because the worst you have to worry about is a heat wave. Now imagine the entire building begins to shake. You don't know why, you've never dealt with this, and the shaking is getting worst. Things fall. The teacher begins to scream, "Everyone, calm down!" The principal also shouts for us to calm down and stay away from windows on the intercom. Well, someone has the voice of reason and we all dive down under the desks.
After the entire everything starts shaking, we all brush ourselves off and resume class, jittering and quailing about what just happened. Gas leak, bombs, earthquakes were all ideas thrown around. The Principal doesn't help, telling us that we can't be dismissed and we have to calm down. Finally, we get the news: That was just an earthquake, the Metro system isn't safe, and we can't be dismissed without a parent, and we're being evacuated.
Finally, we're allowed to be free, where we spend the next two hours waiting for a bus, then another hour fighting Earthquake Panic Traffic to home. And that's the story of how I survived the first earthquake I've ever survived. Yay.
Anyone else feel the quake?
One of my friends, who lives in Boston, said he felt the quake too. I've done some field work in WY (where, thanks to the tectonic activity in Yellowstone, I've experienced earthquakes before), so knew exactly what it was as soon as it started. It still always feels weird, though, and I could only imagine how nerve-wracking it'd be to experience it while in class (yay for still being on summer break)! Glad to hear that no one was hurt in your class, though, and that you got back all right, Azunara!
