as James Brown said "I"m Back!"

...back to trusting the ground beneath my feet (at least for now)

Post-Earthquake

Things have been good after the earthquake here on Feb 27th. The past week and a half has been devoted to getting back to feeling normal. Nothing has changed with my schedule or anything, but most people have trust issues after an earthquake. The ground did shake violently after all...and even if you trust your best friend with your life - you probably trust the ground even more than her.

There have been some aftershocks which feel like a gentle (but scary) rocking but things are slowly going back to normal. I'm finally trusting my apartment and the ground that's under it! :)

Signs that you've recovered from an Earthquake/things I did last week and some odd days:

-you thought it was necessary to get your mind off aftershocks so you bought two new shirts

-you've sat in a park for hours knitting with a good friend

-you went out to dinner with your boyfriend

-you slept in your own apartment...and had a good night's sleep!

-you invited your girlfriends over to your 12th floor apartment for int. women's day and no one got scared

and that's when you know...you can trust the ground again.

Chileans have been organizing relief efforts everywhere and they've held a telethon. I donated a couple bags of groceries and toiletries and a bit of cash. It's hard to help out in a monetary way when you're a poor English teacher. But my heart's in it and I did what I could. I'm also more the type of person that would love to volunteer in groups like building houses or something like that. I guess I'm just not an immediate disaster relief kinda gal. But I still care about all of those affected by the earthquake and I've been thinking about donating blood...although my friend went and said they had too many people going so they are only looking for rare blood types at the moment.

It's really great to see the concern for each other (even those of us that are with homes, families and friends like before the earthquake). People just seem to care more and be more aware of who's around them. It's nice to see...but sad that it takes an earthquake for people to do that.

I even noticed that the Chilean men (for 4 or so days) had stopped whistling and saying "preciosa, linda, hermosa" after the earthquake. Unfortunately, they are back to their old ways. Another very clear sign things are returning to normalcy here in Santiago.