A surprise came to us that evening. Our HR teacher Ayelet came to see us there at the dormitory. She told us that she had electricity and internet where she lived and she brought some news form our parents. She had told them that we were all alright. She had sent a message to my mother:
”I just got a phone call from a teacher who was at the school and though she is home now, she was there when the worst happened and she confirmed everyone was ok.She said Ifi left school safely with her host family.”
I was so relieved after I heard that. I wrote an email for her to pass along to my parents, for them to know that I was fine and safe it went something like this:
”Hi mom, everything is alright. I’m alive and we are having fun. We are at the school dormitory and it’s safe here. Everything is ok and I miss you.”
Tsitika also wrote a message to her family:
"Hi mama, hi dada! I love you so much and I miss you, It's been a little bit of an adventure but I am OK and I am with friends. I am well and please don't worry too much and please try to get some sleep. I am not going to die because I am not in immediate danger."
Chayses message went like this:
”Hey I'm fine. It's just like urban camping! I love u and can't wait to get home. Just relax, don't worry and get some sleep!”
We also took some photos to show our parents that we had no injuries and that we were having fun.
Ayelet told us that during the earthquake she had been skyping with her brother on her iPhone and that her brother saw what was happening right then.
It was time for dinner, we took turns because there weren’t enough plates and chopsticks for everyone to eat at the same time. We got some rice and soup to eat. It really felt nice to eat some warm normal food.
I had been eating cookies and lollipops from disneyland for the past 2 days so it was just what I needed then. Also I have to mention about the cold 10 minute rice that we had and the cold curry. Plus we had some Calorie Mate cookie bars that we called ”dog shit”.
That evening brought us another surprise. The school principal came to visit us also. We had never actually met him, but we had heard a great deal about him. We had actually made a private joke about him. Every time a helicopter flew near us we said that it was the principal. Also there was a joke about him going to places with his jet bag.
I’m not sure if I understood right, but there was a dog staying with us at the dorms, and I think it was the principals dog.
We also made some jokes about Bai eating that dog if he was too hungry, because he is Chinese and Chinese people eat dogs.
I thought that I couldn’t have been safer then. We got warm food and everybody seemed happy. It was really weird. We played cards at night and we were a bit noisy I guess, but we had so much fun. At that point it seemed like we just were at some camp. We made some really weird jokes too and I can still remember Chayses laugh from the other room when Bai said something really funny in English. We were having the time of our lives in the middle of a crisis.
We didn’t have much drinking water nor we had any electricity. It would have been nicer to think that we just didn’t have any money and everything was going to be okay soon. But the problem was, we had money and it wasn’t going to end anytime soon. Unfortunately my host mother was going to pick me up and take me home the next day. But I wasn’t gonna go, I wasn’t gonna leave my family again. That night I slept next to Tsitika in the same room with Chayse and Bill. It was hard to fall asleep. The Chinese boys were still talking in the next room. I was happy, but I still was a little bit afraid, so I did something I hadn’t done in a really long time: I prayed. I prayed for my friends and for my self to get home safely. I thought ”God if you exist, now is the time to prove it”.
The next day came and we didn’t sleep much and we woke up early. I was just waiting for my host mother to come. Everybody said to me that I have to say to her that I’m not going with her. We ate breakfast some rice, eggs an muffins. It was actually a lot better that I had originally expected, it was like luxury even after the curry. We had fun again playing cards and everything. Bai said that he had forgotten how to speak Japanese because of the earthquake and when he started to play the accordion to us he made a lot of mistakes and said the same thing had happened with his playing. Bai was really funny, interesting, and quirky. He loved to joke, and he had learned much of his English, it seemed, from watching violent movies in English.
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