Earthquake Pt....Quatro?

I live in Japan, not Mexico. You can imagine how bad my English classes are when I teach them in Spanish.

I can't tell if it's the crazy wind or more aftershocks that keep rocking my house. Either way, it's a tad noisy with the window frames rattling.

Today went on as usual. It was a bit of a more somber mood at school, but things were normal at the Board of Education office. The most common question I got was "Where were you when the quake hit?" Because the school I was at this morning, I left that same school about 30 minutes before the quake hit on Friday. I asked the students how they felt. Most of them have never been in an earthquake before. They asked if earthquakes in California had tsunamis. I tried to explain tectonic plates in broken Japanese which ended with me drawing a picture of Japan as an island and California...part of a much larger land mass. I tried to explain that the Northridge earthquake was much stronger for me. However, my co-teacher immediately shot me down saying that this was the 5th largest earthquake ever recorded. Yes, co-teacher, that may be true, however the Northridge earthquake was much closer to my house. I'm sure he didn't really care; he just wanted to crush me in front of the class...again.

Tomorrow is graduation. As we keep experiencing aftershocks and brace for another "big" one predicted to hit in the next couple of days, life is moving. Everyone is keeping their cell phone on them and on. We're constantly checking the news and websites about the nuclear reactor, even though it probably wouldn't reach us up here. There are blessings about living in the middle of nowhere.

While I get ready for a spring break vacation, I know at least one of my friends is waiting just to be able to get water and power again. The thought of buying an iPad right now seems completely irrelevant. It reminds of the day when we found out that one of my friends got cancer. Everything became irrelevant--the midterms, the interviews, the papers...irrelevant. It really puts things into perspective. Because when life stops, perspective changes. The importants become less important and the take-for-granteds become more valuable, more cherished.