Shaking things up in En Zed...

I am super behind on my posts. But I will go back and explain the North Island Extravaganza another day. Instead, I am going to comment on all of this earthquake craziness.

Yes, my friends, it is true. I have survived a natural disaster. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake just rocked all of our worlds down here in Christchurch, New Zealand. Good news is the only damage done in this house was the TV breaking. All the rest of the 'damage' was just stuff falling on the ground and such.

But let me explain how it all went down. I just spent the last week in a camper van. So when I wake up to everything moving at 4:30 am, I'm thinking that I am somehow back in that camper van and I am so so confused. So I look around for my phone for some light. When I realize that I am, in fact, in my room I am even more confused. Then I'm like wait, is this an earthquake?? So I just sit in my bed as my whole room keeps moving violently and try to assess the situation. You see, I had never been in an earthquake before and wasn't really sure what the proper reaction to one would be.

Once the big one stopped, my host mom and dad come running down the hallway asking if I'm alright. I'm like, "Yeah, was that an earthquake?". They stare at me like I'm insane because OF COURSE it was an earthquake. What else could it have been? Because they are kind people they answer my question in a nice manner, but they had to have thought I was mentally unstable or something. Furthermore, because I really had no idea that this was a big deal, I turned around and went right back to sleep. Had I known this was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, I may have had a more ridiculous reaction... like perhaps screaming or crying or informing my parents that I was okay.

I kept getting woke up throughout the night by the aftershocks of the earthquake, but my host parents had told that this would happen so I wasn't scared. Just annoyed because I wanted to sleep. Finally, after a more violent aftershock, I woke up for the day and signed onto facebook.

When I signed on, I had 20 notifications. I'm thinking, "Man, I'm so cool today." Well, come to find out, this earthquake thing was quite a big deal. Apparently making breaking news headlines over there in the states. Who even knew?! I promptly see my sister's post that is basically her freaking out. So I call her up to tell her I'm okay and then I talk to my parents to verify that I am okay. Sorry family, I really didn't know it was a big deal.

Then, come to find out, we're not allowed anywhere near the city, we have to conserve our water, and we're still feeling aftershocks two days later. So much damage and I had no idea. I thought all earthquakes felt like that. Clearly, I was wrong.

Good news is University is closed for a week. Extended break? I think yes. So we immediately rented another camper van and we're setting off for Queenstown, Fiordland, and who knows where else tomorrow. Oh what up natural disasters.