QUAKE!

So it turns out I am more afraid of earthquakes than a bunch of 12-year-olds. But, let’s be honest…EARTHQUAKES ARE TERRIFYING! Seriously, it’s like riding an unpredictable roller coaster that will potentially never end. Not cool, tectonic plates, not cool. The kids were all like, whatever, no big deal as the ENTIRE room started shaking violently. They dove underneath their desks but then just continued on their merry way chatting and laughing whereas my face went completely void of color and I started shaking along with the ground and everything around me. Some role model I am. At least they couldn’t see my terrified expression hidden behind my hands.

To be fair, however, it was a pretty decently sized quake, the kind that makes national news (we turned on the TV in the teacher’s room shortly after it ceased, and there was Ageo, all famous and televised). So there, I am not such a coward after all. When we got the all clear over the PA, I crawled skeptically out from my measly desk shelter and explained to the kids and the teacher that it was my first real quake. Their jaws collectively dropped, their expressions more suited to someone telling them they had never seen the sun before. Yes, kids, Miss Marisa is just chalk full of fascinating surprises.

The teachers were so concerned about me when they found out I experienced a real earthquake for the first time. They all asked me if I was okay, and I answered that I was physically fine, just a bit “shaken,” a joke I could never realistically expect them to understand (which sucks, because it was SO WITTY!). Then the vice principal sat me down and drew a picture on the whiteboard of Japan and the tectonic plates located beneath and around it. He said I better understand it and I better get used to it.

The really eerie thing was that last night, I was watching an episode of Modern Family where there was a huge earthquake, and then the same thing occurred today. Trippy…