Tremor! (For those of you who don't know that's basically a mini-earthquake). Today I finally felt my first temblor, they happen a lot here because Chile is on a huge fault line, however this was the first time I felt one. The temblor today which happened at around 8:00 p.m. was huge, in the epicenter was an 8.0 on the richter scale and in Santiago it was a 5.8. It was awesome- everything just started shaking and you could see everything rocking. My host brother ran into my room to make sure I know it was officially a temblor and we went outside to watch- you could even see the cars rocking back and forth. There was a threat of having a tsunami along the coast however it never happened.
I, along with my fellow exchange students in Chile, was extremely excited to finally experience my first temblor because 1. I'm in Chile, I have to experience at least one before I go and 2. it is a really cool feeling to have the ground moving under your feet. However most Chileans get really scared during temblors. In 2010 there was a HUGE earthquake here that destroyed tons of houses and had a death toll of around 525 people. For them it just brings back bad memories and fright because they've seen what happens when there is a real earthquakes.
But for us exchange students who are just living in this almost fantasy world without any true worries or responsibilities, it was bakan (Chilean slang for awesome).
No comments:
Post a Comment