When my host mother came home she told me to pack my things. But I had already packed my things so I just changed my school uniform to some warm comfortable clothes. She told me that my host brother was staying at his work place for the night and the same went for my host father. My host sister was all the way at the center of Sendai and the trains had stopped so she had gone to her friends place there. My host mother told me that we were going to go to this culture center near our house. We went there by car and took some food with us, like cup noodles and bread. The place was crowded. We could hardly find a place to sit. Finally my host mother saw some of our neighbors sitting next to the wall and we went to sit with them. They didn’t say a word to me. They probably thought that I wouldn’t even understand if they did.
Thank god I had my ipod with me so I could watch a movie. It was really hard to entertain myself there. If I was at school it would have been different. I would have had my friends there, my family, my important people. I fell asleep early but another massive earthquake woke me up. My host mother just stood up but I was too tired of it all. I couldn’t move, I thought that I can’t run away from it anymore. I fell asleep again and at around 4 o’clock in the morning another earthquake woke me up. I opened my eyes and I saw people running to the door. I saw some bright light and I asked my host mother what was going on and she told me that a oil factory exploded near our house. And the fire kept spreading. I wasn’t afraid anymore.
Our neighbors were gone, there were two young men sitting next to us. It was 8 o’clock in the morning and I was wide awake. I heard one of them saying that he probably had to say good bye to his car. I figured out that the tsunami had destroyed it. We got a piece of a newspaper that said that the earthquake was an earthquake of 8 M. I thought that it couldn’t have possibly been that small, because on the wednesday before the big one we had an earthquake of 7 M and it didn’t feel big at all. The two guys sitting next to us started talking to me. I was so happy because my host mother had disappeared and I was bored there alone. My host mother came back with two cookies and with some tea and she gave them to me. She told me that we could go home. The earthquakes had calmed down so it would be safe to return.
We drove back and I went immediately to the kitchen to write my diary.
”I’ve been trying to contact my friends and family since yesterday but for nothing. My parents must be very worried about me, like I am about my friends. I keep seeing this picture in my head that when I see my friends again I hug ’em. The truth is I just want to go back to school to see them again, to really hug them.
It’s like hell being in this house. There is no food, no water and two boring people and an annoying dog. What am I supposed to do? I can almost imagine Chayse saying to me ’Try to bear with it, tomorrow we’ll all be together again.’ Well unfortunately it might be impossible to see them tomorrow. I could just go there, but I have this strong feeling that a certain someone will think that it’s too dangerous.”
Soon my host brother came home. He had walked all the way from his work place to home. He was freezing but he was still smiling to me. And he talked to me casually like no earthquake had ever happened. We ate some cookies together again and then I asked my host mother the big question. ”Can I go to see if my friends are okay?” Se said that we would go together and that she would go check if any supermarkets or convenience stores were open. I was surprised, like big time. I was so ready to go.
She took me to the school dormitory for girls and I went inside to see if Tsitika was there. All the girls started to scream when they saw me. Kou-san told me that Tsitika was with the boys and I said that i would go there to look for my friends but one of the teachers stopped me and told me that they weren’t at the dormitory. The teacher gave me directions to the place where my friends were. I ran to the convenience store as fast as I could to find my host mother. I told her what happened and we went to the other dormitory. At the dormitory the people told me that the students had gone to the supermarket so we drove there as fast as we could.
I saw my friends getting on a bus so I just jumped out of the car and screamed Tsitikas name. She heard me and ran towards me crying. I cried too. Chayse and Bill came out of the van and we all hugged. It was just like in the picture in my head, except better. I was happy to see them but they had to go back to the dorms, I told them that I would be back the next day.
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