7.6

This morning there was an earthquake off the west coast of Costa Rica. It was a 7.6 in magnitude which is really big. My professors at ACM had never felt one this big before. I was waiting for my class to start when I felt some shaking...I thought somebody was coming down one of the rickety staircases but when I saw the ACM secretary walking out of her office towards me I knew it was an earthquake. Luckily, I didn't have far to walk to the "Zona Segura" (Safe Zone) which is in the ACM backyard. I watched as the ACM building rocked side to side along with several plants and I could hear things clanging together on the 2nd floor. Some of my friends and professors were on the second floor and felt it more than I did. The movement lasted for a minute or two. It was a bizarre feeling... a mix between being on a ride/dizziness. Even after the earthquake my body still felt as if the ground was moving. Shortly after, everything seemed very still; the trees hardly moved, not much noise from birds, etc. Then it rained. My professor Mario said that this is typical. He also said that aftershocks are possible up to a few days later. As of now (almost 14 hours later) I haven't felt one.
Within a half an hour of the earthquake, everything was back to normal and people went on with their daily routines. Evidently Costa Rica is situated on land that is very elastic and can easily move side to side during earthquakes which means that a large earthquake like this does not do too much damage whereas in other parts of the world an earthquake of a smaller magnitude could do lots of harm.
You'll have to look at CNN or another news station, but as far as I know 1 person died and only a few were injured. Everything is good at ACM. We are all safe and so are our families. As many Ticos would say, "Gracias a dios."

Palabras Nuevas
medias (calcetines) - socks
marco - frame
botiquín - first aid kit
fosforos - matches
mareado - dizzy
colibri - hummingbird