Midnight Rumbler   2004-11-09

So there we were unwinding from the day's teaching in front of the TV when suddenly our hardwood floor started to creak and groan. We looked at each other. Earthquake.

Okay, no bid deal. We'd experienced a couple of earthquakes over the past few months so the feeling wasn't entirely novel. Something started to feel different, however, when the chairs we were sitting on started to shift and the cups and plates on our "kitchen" rack started to clink together. We both bolted upright in our chairs and stared at each other - frozen. The earthquake wasn't stopping. Bigger deal.

We sat frozen for about ten seconds as our entire building shifted and shimmied. Then we stood up and headed for our one interior door jam. The feeling of the floor moving and the sound of dishes sliding into one another was unnerving to say the least. Marlene opened the apartment door. A neighbour appeared to be heading for the stairwell and the relative safety of outside. A quick game of charades confirmed his intentions.

We looked at each other. What do we do?! I scrambled over to our swaying bureau and pulled our passports and plane tickets out. Pulling on our clothes and flip flops we raced out the door. About 30 seconds had elapsed with varying size tremors rocking the building. We flip flopped our way down the three flights of stairs and out onto the busy street below.

No one seemed overly excited. We asked, Chou, the friendly doorman for the "piano bar" next to our apartment, if we should be concerned. He speaks about ten words of English, two of which are our names, oh, and Canada and the Yankees. With the other half of his English vocabulary a few hearty laughs at our expense he convinced us that we'd be okay. So, with slightly shaking legs and quickened pulses we climbed back up to our apartment.

It may have been a relatively small earthquake as far as Asian standards go, but we were well shaken and stirred. I'm heading across the street to 7-11 right now and buying that five litre bottle of water the Preparedness People are always going on about before they're sold out.

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