Earthquake

Which city do you not want to be in when you experience your first earthquake?

I'd be guessing you might choose to avoid any of the top 20 most earthquake-vulnerable cities.
I'd be guessing you might especially not want to be in the one ranked number 1: Kathmandu.

http://rosemary-e-bachelor.suite101.com/worlds-20-most-earthquake-prone-cities-a209850

It took us a few moments to really realise what was going on.
Several of us in the Guest House were in the communal area, making dinner, putting on a film, using the internet...then Whitney was like "is that an earthquake?"

There was a little bit of flapping and the conversation went a little bit like:
"should we put shoes on?"
"do we have time?"
"do we do the triangle thing?"
"do we just get out of the building?"
"is there time?"
"no - let's just get down"
And we all found refuge under the dining room tables and next to kitchen cabinets.

The shaking lasted around 30 seconds (it felt longer) and in that time we prayed and then we giggled about how we'd knocked stuff over in our haste, making it look like a more dramatic earthquake!

After it stopped, we got out and went down the street to our nearest family from school (the Secondary Principal's family - they've been in Nepal for years, and so we felt safe with them!). There were lots of people out in the streets discussing what had happened.

I'm not gonna lie - the whole experience was pretty terrifying.
Kathmandu really is expected to be brought to the ground in the event of a major earthquake.
Thankfully, the epicentre, although hitting up to 6.9 on the richter scale, was 169 miles east of the city.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14965598

Everyone here is fine, and everyone at school was fine.
The kids were pretty much just excited the next day, greeting each other with overdramatic "YOU'RE ALIIIIVE"s and wanting to tell everyone exactly where they were and what they were doing when the earthquake hit.

So there you have it.
I've survived an earthquake.

My major faux pas in the whole experience, however, was the fact that I'd been mid-facebook-conversation with a friend when it hit.
And so I typed to that friend "gotta go. um. dude. pray. earthquake" then disappeared offline.
Way to worry someone...

But hey, prevent a friend from worrying, or get them praying for the situation.
I now know which one I choose under pressure!