On shaky ground

I always thought this would happen to me while I was in Jakarta. But I guess, when you least expect it, surprising things happen!

I experienced my first earthquake in Manila last week. It was not a puny one either. It was a hefty 6.2 on the Richter's Scale.

Whenever I asked people what an earthquake felt like, they'd always say they felt giddy. I didn't really understand until I experienced it myself. It was all over in less than 10 seconds but every second is crystallised in my memory - maybe because I was absolutely calm through it all and I thought it was almost funny! Let me start from when I got back to my desk on the 7th floor of my 22 storey office building after lunch.

Suddenly feeling giddy!

Me thinking to myself: Whhoooaaa!! What did I have for lunch? ~~giddy!!~~ Please don't embarrass yourself by fainting in the office!

Than I realise that I'm shaking, the chair I'm sitting on is shaking ... I turn to the Swedish guy beside me.

Me: Is it an earthquake?

Swedish guy: I think it is! (looking wide-eyed and laughing)

Me: Really??

A random Philippino in the office: Look, the blinds are swaying!

Me: So do we go downstairs?

Swedish guy: Yeah I think so.

Other Philippinos are already leaving the office. By this time the shaking had stopped.

So I get up to leave the office and see my friend from Malaysia returning from the Gents.

Fellow Malaysian: Where's everyone going?

Me: Earthquake la...we have to evacuate the office.

Fellow Malaysian: Earthquake meh? What earthquake?

Me: You didn't feel it??

Fellow Malaysian: No la...where got?

Me: Never mind.. we all have to evacuate - safety procedures.

We walked down the 7 flights of stairs and spent about an hour outside the office building, drinking Coke and making friends with other locals who told us that they hadn't had an earthquake this big in sometime. A group of men smoking opposite our office building told us they saw the building swaying slightly during the earthquake.

Finally after the security team deemed the office building safe, they allowed us to go back inside.

The next day...

I sat on my chair at my desk and it rocked a little to the side..

Me: Oh fuck! Earthquake!

... than I remembered my chair had uneven wheels at the bottom.

It obviously took sometime for the reality of the earthquake to sink in!

~Anya~