Sometimes What We Learn at Home Doesn't Apply Abroad

Yesterday morning we had an amazing earthquake at around 7:00am. It was fantastic!

I am from an earthquake prone area, but Seattle doesn't get as many tremors as they get here in Cuenca. Normally, here, the earth will shake lightly for a few seconds and no one moves or stops what they're doing. It's just how it is. They are always called 'temblores' and not 'terremotos'. However, yesterday, we reached terremoto (or earthquake) status with a quake of 7.1.

USGS report on the quake

The quake hit about 150kms outside of Quito (250kms outside of Cuenca) and was approximately 180kms deep. It shook for what seemed like 45 seconds to a minute and made lamps sway and everything rattle. As I have been so well trained to do the minute the shaking started I got in the doorway. I would have put myself under the desk I was sitting at, but I no longer fit under a desk... too much curling up in to a ball. That seems like a great idea, right? It's what they teach us in school and what we all know to do. Well, wood houses and cement houses are two very different things, which didn't cross my mind at the time. Half way through the shaking Arturo came to get me and we all went outside (instead of hovering in a doorway of a 3 story cement house).

There was no damage reported in the entire country, but I sure learned a lesson; doorways in cement houses are not an option when a terremoto hits. Sometimes what we learn at home doesn't apply when we're abroad...