As most of you have probably heard, Christchurch is still being shaken by aftershocks. The latest batch came this Monday, the first Monday of the final exam period. As I sat by myself studying in a big empty room on the bottom floor of a rather tall building, I survived a 5.5 and a 6.3 not even thirty minutes apart as well as close to 20 other smaller quakes. Immediately after the quakes, I was okay, but once the shock wore off, I began to freak out.
With the ash cloud causing cancelled flights and being so close to when I'm scheduled to go home, these quakes really messed with my head. After witnessing what happened during February quakes first hand, it is hard not to think about getting trapped or crushed by buildings that you once felt safe in. Turning for physical comfort, I baked nearly all evening long and ate myself to the point where I thought I was going to be sick. Around midnight, one of my pod mates and I decided that we couldn't sleep in our rooms because we didn't feel safe with only one exit so we brought our sleeping bags into the kitchen and set up camp for the night after making the kitchen "earthquake proof" (aka putting everything on the ground so it couldn't fall off, creating easy exits, setting up a shelter under the table). We then started watching silly movies to try to make us fall asleep. We couldn't have been asleep more than 45 minutes when a small aftershock startled us awake and out the kitchen door faster than you can imagine. Traumatized once again, we went back inside and huddled on the floor trying to watch my childhood favorite "Peter Pan" to cheer us up.
Needless to say, when the beautiful Miss Judy, our cleaning lady/mother found us on the kitchen floor the next morning, she was rather concerned. Knowing that I love to bake, they sent me to the dining hall kitchen where I had a pass to bake whatever I liked and help wherever I wanted to from 8am-5 pm. I thoroughly enjoyed being on my feet and working all day because I hardly noticed the constant quakes. It was also good to get my mind off of things and have a job to do. I will be forever grateful to the staff here at Lincoln Uni that have taken care of me very well throughout my stay!
At the end of the day Tuesday, my adopted kiwi family, the Butchers, took me in there home and put me to bed for some much needed sleep. 11 hours later, I woke up still tired but ready to try to go back to campus. Once on campus, I got my paperwork filled out so that I would not have to sit any of my exams. Instead, my final grade for my classes will be calculated with an Aergrotat, which from my understanding is when the professors look at the work you've done throughout the semester and assign a grade based on this work when you can't take your final. With my finals being on the 4th floor of a 7 story building, there was no way I was going to be able to take them.
But now that I am done with school, my only job is to say goodbye to those I have met and love here and get ready for the journey home. Slowly but surely I have been packing up my room in between aftershocks and naps (as I am also sick), stuffing the material things from the last 4.5 months together to get a 23kg suitcase. While it's not an easy task, the end goal makes it well worth the effort.
I will be headed home in four days, 19 hours, and thirty minutes from right now <3
No comments:
Post a Comment