children.
to earthquakes, or that I’ve just stopped caring about
them.
There was another strong quake in
Niigata yesterday morning, and the shocks were felt in Tokyo. This one hit just
before 11:00, so I was at work when it happened. I felt the first initial
tremors, and knew it was more than just a big truck going by outside. But there
wasn’t any rumbling or other quake noise, so I didn’t think too much of it. The
other teachers didn’t
either.
We looked at each other
and were like, “oh, a quake.”
Of
course, the kids knew what was going on, and they were looking at us, wondering
if we were going to tell them what to do. (We’d practiced earthquake drills just
two days before.) We just sat there discussing it while it was happening, and
only after it was done did we realize we should’ve had the kids do the “hiding
under the desks” thing.
Oops.
After
it was done, we critiqued our performance and knew we’d screwed up. We’ll do
better next time, unless, of course, we’re tied up in some gripping arts and
crafts activity.
During this
quake we were making pumpkin masks.
^.^
(We
couldn’t let something insignificant like an earthquake interfere with such an
important task, could we?)