Earthquake (4-27)

On Saturday, 20 April, I was lying in bed waking up when the bed started to shake. I knew it was an earthquake. After about ten seconds, the shaking stopped and all was fine here. When I looked out the window, I noticed that students in the nearby dormitory were outside. They weren’t there long; so I knew everything was OK. An hour later, Yang texted to say she would come out. Since everything was OK, there was no need for her to do that. And if things weren’t OK, she couldn’t do anything anyway. I was able to convince her that we were all OK and she didn’t need to come out. She takes her responsibility to take care of us quite seriously.

Megan felt small aftershocks Sunday evening, but I didn’t. Someone else reported feeling small tremors on Saturday that I also missed.

Since the tremors were slight and minimal, I had no feelings of fear or concern here. But students were very concerned and most that I talked with were afraid. They had experienced and remembered the much more destructive 2008 earthquake which caused the death of 68,000 people. The magnitude of this year’s earthquake was between 6.6 and 7. 179 or more people were killed and 6700 (Numbers vary in different sources, but they are close to this for the most part.) were injured. In comparison, it seems minimal, but it’s still an earthquake.

When I had students talk about their weekend in classes on Monday, most mentioned the earthquake and their fear. At English Corner that evening, many asked us what we were doing and if we were afraid.

English Corner was sponsored by the chemistry and math departments. However, their students didn’t plan the entertainment; so one of my girls took over that responsibility and organized some singing. Students from the other departments were required to attend and had to register. The two activities took most of the hour. Only about fifteen minutes were left for chatting, but we stayed longer to chat with those who stayed for that.

One consequence of the earthquake is that we now have about 950 high school seniors and a hundred of their teachers on campus. Their school was damaged, and, as seniors, it is very important for them to finish the term because they will take the national test that determines the university they can attend. They are living in the other side of our building. The students all have an ID card hanging around their necks. One day there were a large number of boxes outside the building. They had clothes and backpacks and other items for the students. There is an increase in the number of security men around the campus, especially in areas where these students can be found.

They arrived on Wednesday. When we were going to lunch, we noticed students at a table near the dining hall wearing red caps. One of my students was working at the table and explained what was going on. Students receiving red caps were volunteers to help the arriving students. On my way to the office for my office hour, I saw two of my students standing along the street with many others. They were waiting for the high school students to arrive. So I waited with them. Soon many buses came down the street. Students got off and went to their assigned area. Reporters were recording their arrival. Students I talked with were very proud to be helping. A few others wanted to help but had arrived too late.

As I started walking to the office, three girls called to me. They were looking for me and went to the office with me. One is in one of my classes. They wanted to talk to me to improve their oral communication. So we chatted for over half an hour. They wanted to meet with me every day. That’s too much, but I agreed to see them twice a week, one of which is my office hour. We’ll see how this goes. This was the first time anyone has come to see me during my office hour except the time a girl came to collect the umbrella she had loaned me. It was nice to put that time to use.

I had Amanda help me download a VPN on Sunday. Since I couldn’t access the website to do that without a VPN, she copied her program onto my computer and we registered me on her computer. It all went smoothly. So now I can post blogs and read Allison’s and download newsletters from my friend and the CLF. I can also access websites I have been unable to access for lecture research. And I can access Facebook. I was missing feeling connected with some of those friends.

My watch battery died. I decided that, since the face was very rusted after Vietnam last year, it was time to say good-bye to Mickey and get a new one. We went to Carrefour after the earthquake, and I now have a new Snoopy watch. I like it. Megan, Katy, and I got lost in the clothes department and each bought a few items. We’re ready for spring! My pants are size XXL and XXX. I guess I’m larger in China than in Thailand. I was pleased to find the special not white rice is also available at Carrefour.

Spring weather has come off and on. After a few hot days, the weather cooled down again. It has done this a few times. Then at the end of the week it got hot again (in the 70s). Yang commented on how it was very hot on Thursday. When I went to class, students said it was very hot. I asked if they wanted to turn on the fans. They said “no” because that might make it cold. It’s certainly not Thailand where fans were on all the time once the temperatures exceeded 70.