Earthquake in Paradise

I woke up to a shudder. At first thought, I wonder if I am in the middle of a nightmare. I had watched a The Grudge 2 the night before and was still in an unstable sort of state as far as the mind is concerned. The shudder did not stop and I woke up to see my room mate awake and the whole entire unit was awake as well. The electricity went out for all of Hawaiian Islands. It was only then that I had realise I am experiencing my first earthquake. I was a little surprise that it was so mild. I have never been caught in any sort of natural disasters and to tell you the truth I was a little excited really to finally be able to experience it and yet at the same time, I was hoping it would not being anything serious.

Shortly after, most of the girls in the Hale(Hale is the word for house here in Hawaii) were all awoke and there was a Tsunami warning being issued. Everyone living on the ground level needs to evacuate to the second level. It was amazing to see the different things the girls would bring with them when they were told to evacuate. Some brought their laptops, food, and clothes. Others who are a little more sane pack their 72 hour kit and came upstairs with them. I did not have anything at all. I had not prepard my 72 hour kit. However I manage to put together some essentials for a makeshift 72 hour kit.

I spend the rest of the day in my friend's apartment learning how to play majong and got quite good at it. Now I am addicted to it. When night falls we were still playing with the aid of our pathetic flashlights. We even went star gazing and since it was dark everywhere, everything else on the nightsky was so much darker. I could even see the constellation of the milky way. The power did not come back on till four in the morning. It was an unusual experience, but not something I would rather go through again.

This past weekend the Singapore Malaysia Club here in BYU-Hawaii had our opening social. In view of the mid-autume festival, we have decided plan our activities around this festival. We had mooncake and lantern making. It was a huge success, and all of a sudden, everyone seem to be interested in our club. (Hmm) I wonder if it is because of the mooncakes or was it lantern? Please do not get me wrong but I have never really seen so many people turn up for an activity before. It was always the few Singaporeans and Malaysians that would turn up, but this time, there were Mongolians, Americans, Taiwanese and some others. It was a memorable evening.

I planned out some games as well. We played Mingle. If you have never played it before you should, because it is a fuss free game and there is no limit to the number people that can play the game, but for some reasons, please make sure you are between the age of 19 and 91 for safety reasons. (Just kidding)

Everyone will get into a huge space and move around. I will shout out a number and they will need to get into groups , the person that fail to get into a group will be disqualified from the group. This goes on until the last person remains. So we got to a point in the game where there is only 4 boys and a girl left. Paul was in the game and they refuse to get away from each other, I had to shout for them to space out, and so I shouted, "Paul space out!!!" and he heard it as FOUR!!" He reached out to grab those boys and pushed the girl away... Of course the righteous person (Just kidding) that I am had to interfer, and so I did and he claim he could not hear me and laugh even louder... weird boy!!!

Overall it was a success, and I really enjoy my time with the other Singaporeans and Malaysians. It brought me closer to them, and it was a comforting feeling.