Friday the 13th

Well, the end of the world never happened today. Sorry, Harold Camping.
(watch the CNN story at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MjGqPfihks
or read an reporting the earthquakes that did happen today at: http://newyork.ibtimes.com/articles/149752/20110521/doomsday-earthquake-taiwan-new-zealand.htm)

On a similar note, I wanted to blog about the events of Friday the 13th. We had just come back down the mountain after a fabulous four-hour hike with three of our students who remained at the end of their last week (Aaron, Amy, and Ray Ray). We had hiked up to Cerro Dantes, past the Continental Divide, and back, in the midst of an awesome thunderstorm (however without rain or lightning). A great break from the office and the CIEE conference that we were hosting on our CRC campus at the time.


Upon our return, after a great ab workout that culminated our afternoon exercising, I was in the office with Stephie, the coordinator of the CIEE conference group. It was 4:48pm, and I was at my desk. Emily was in her room (which is funny, because her experience of the events that I am soon to detail involves tumbling out of her bedroom window), and Bean was out running errands (please do drop in on her blog entry of her experience). 


The earth started to shake (this is not the first, nor will it be the last of the earthquakes I have experienced in CR), and Stephie and I looked at each other, eyes wide. She exclaimed, "Earthquake!" in English, and I said, "Está temblando!"--ironically (since neither of us used our native languages)--as I and I instinctively shot out of my seat and looked for a doorway to stand in. But unfortunately no such sturdy frames were to be found, as I heard the beams crackling overhead. Looking out the big windows, I saw the cars (and bus) parked in our parqueo (parking lot) trembling side to side, the tree hedges swaying back in forth, and then as I ran out to the entrada (entryway), I noticed the light swinging to and from. The earth was still moving beneath us, and it had been at least 10 seconds at that point!


Diego, our maintenance man, shot off the bus, which he'd just climbed onto to leave at the end of his work day. Running back into the academic building past us in the entrada, towards the classroom where the CIEE members were meeting, he repeatedly shouted very forcefully and with great concern, "¡Fuera del edificio! ¡Afuera, afuera!" (Out of the building, outside, outside!). People came pouring outside. They discovered that none of their smart phones or handheld devices carried a phone signal. We did still have power and internet, however. People crowded the office and computers, wanting to make contact with family members in other parts of the country, and to look up the datos (results/facts) about the event that had just transpired. After about 15 minutes, I found this report: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0003et0.php. 

As it turns out, while the earthquake's epicenter was not too far away (just about 20 miles from us), it was pretty deep into the earth's layers, up in Turrialba, near one of CR's many active volcanoes (The green dot on the map represents about where we are; San Rafael de Heredia is just north of San José). The 20 seconds of the rolling 6.0 earthquake was a nice addition to our already very stormy thunder-filled afternoon that preceded the quake, and was then followed by a great lightning show aand continual stormy weather that evening. I still have yet to hear of any damage. It was just a rather exciting turn of events for the evening.


I refer you to Bean's blog post recount of her experience (http://thebeankielbon.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/was-that-an-earthquake/), most specifically drawing your attention to the second of three YouTube videos that she's embedded of some Tico costarricense jovenes (youths) and their reaction to the 20-second temblor. If you understand Spanish, it's hilarious!