Yesterday’s earthquake was by all accounts mild: a mere 5.4. But try telling that to someone who was in an elevator—like me—when it struck at
11:42 a.m. Not a place you want to be during life’s little shake-ups. Plus, my school is right down the road from the epicenter. Myself and the fellow occupant, a coworker and friend, got out unscathed, though.
Campus was closed for the rest of the day to check for the structural integrity of various buildings, granting me a free day off. Yippee!
The funniest thing, though, was the reaction of some of the Japanese students that I encountered as they were ushered off campus.
小ちゃかったね！(That was small)
全然問題ないよ。(There’s not a problem at all)
They laughed that the school took such strict precautionary measures, when in Japan, a rumbler like this would have been but a blip on their hyperactive and overworked seismic scale.
Students from other parts of the world—particularly those that were in China during its recent roller, and those from the Middle East where it seems drought is the only natural disaster—were reasonably shaken up. Yes, pun intended.
Today’s obsession: Getting a golden opportunity to drill the values of journalism into my students’ heads. They’ll be set loose during today’s class to interview anyone and everyone who will talk to them about the quake. Go get ‘em tiger!
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