Our First Earthquake

Well, we finally experienced an earthquake. Preliminarily, it was placed at a 6.5 (US Geological Survey) and a 6.6 (Taiwan Central Weather Bureau). There have been lots of little ones since we arrived here, but this was the first one we felt. It happened at 1:51 am our time as I was getting ready for bed and Paul was playing Bioshock. I asked him if he was moving the mattress with his foot at the same time he was about to ask me if I had started dancing on the bed. It was surprisingly strong and perfectly rhythmic. It was more than a little surreal and a little frightening. Logically, I know earthquakes do not start out small and become big, but at the time you can't help but wonder if it is going to get better or worse. It was disturbingly like turbulance on a plane. To someone as terrified of flight as I am, it is not comforting knowledge. Terra firma is supposed to be safe. Now it has gone and betrayed me? How can I sleep at night? (Remarkably well, I soon hope to find out.) It was not unexpected, though. There have been four earthquakes in the 4-5 range of magnitude in the last 72 hours, so I figured we would eventually feel one. Still, better to have a series of frequent, small earthquakes than one major one. Also, I got to fill out one of those "Did you feel it?" questionnaires for the US Geological Survey, and now I feel special.