It was morning time when my roommate and I felt the shaking. We both instantly woke up and looked at each other. Our books and things on our shelves crashed on our desks and floors. We both held on to the sides of our beds. The shaking lasted for several seconds, then we both got up and went into the lobby. Which, looking back now, was maybe not the smartest idea. We probably should have gone under our desks like our schools taught us, but when you are in that situation, some steps are forgotten. In the lobby of our floor, there were already other girls out, and we were all talking. Soon, another shock hit us, and parts of our ceiling fell. I looked outside at some point and could see our building swaying. A strange noise was coming from somewhere, I went over the elevators not to get in them, but I noticed pools of water. There was water dripping down the elevator doors from the 12th floor. The group chat notified us that some of the water pipes on the 12th floor had broken and were flooding the floor's lobby. Another shock hit, and my phone binged with an email from NAU checking on me. I was grateful to them for looking out for me and was surprised by how fast they knew. Little did I know that the whole world knew about the earthquake. I was not in the heart of the earthquake, but the shocks were strong, and all of North Taiwan could feel it. Soon, things started to calm down, and I took the 11 flights of stairs to go get breakfast. My friends who also lived in the building with me shakenly ate our food. One of my friends lived on the second floor, and she was trying to leave when the earthquake moved her door, causing it to be stuck. She was unable to get out for a while, and luckily someone helped her. Of course, as foreigners, we were, no pun intended, shaken up. On the other hand, the locals were a little surprised since it was the biggest earthquake in 25 years, but overall unfazed.
I called my family, who did not know about the earthquake since they were on the road. Luckily, I was able to get to them first before they looked at the news. I assured them I was safe and I was, in fact, going on a trip with friends to the furthest place in Taiwan from the aftershocks, the South. It was a four-day weekend and after that morning I needed a vacation.
