TERREMOTO

Sorry for the double blog post today, but I wanted to write about this before I forgot! So don't forget to check out the new one below as well :)

On Monday night, we went to the movie theater to see the new movie Terremoto: La Falla de San Andres. (Which is the San Andreas movie in the US). It was our first time at the theater here, and it was quite an adventure. One weird thing here is that their popcorn is usually served with sweet stuff on it, so we had to ask for butter and salt instead. Another strange thing is that when you buy your tickets, you have to select exact seats, like on an airplane. The only spots with 4 in a row open were the first and second rows, so we had to crane our necks a bit! The theater was totally sold out by the time it started.

The movie was SO GOOD. I definitely recommend seeing it in the US if you have not already. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I actually got so into it that I did not even notice the subtitles at the bottom! (Normally I can't not look at them...). The ending was kind of predictable, but overall I loved the movie. It was terrifying though. Chile is one of the most active earthquake regions in the world, and is home to the largest earthquake in history, a 9.5 in Valdivia. Valparaíso right next to us also had an 8 point something earthquake a few years ago. We have been waiting for an earthquake to happen here since arriving, and that movie made it seem so much more terrifying. There are actually small earthquakes and tremors here every day, but most of them are not able to be felt. And then of course the movie was about the San Andreas fault and so when this giant earthquake happened a tsunami occured too, taking over the coast of San Francisco. And we live like 2 blocks from the beach so that made the whole situation even more terrifying. We got home and all 4 of us sat in the living room completely mortified. Also the main character's name was Natalie, which is one of my roommates' names so it just kept getting freakier.

We all went to bed, and then my alarm went off the next morning at 7:30. I was laying awake in my bed when all of a sudden it began to shake. I FREAKED out and hid under my blankets, convinced it was an earthquake and the ceiling was about to come crashing in. My bedside table was shaking a little bit too. Then after probably 15 or 20 seconds it stopped, and I was trying to determine if I was going insane from watching that movie, or if it actually happened. I got up and as I was eating breakfast I decided to google earthquakes and see if anything had happened in our area. Turns out, there was a 5.3 earthquake off the coast of San Antonio, Chile, about 60 miles south of us! I still wasn't sure if I was going crazy or not, but then Grace came into the kitchen and I said there was an earthquake and she freaked out and said, "OMG I FELT THAT TOO AND THOUGHT I WAS GOING CRAZY!" Haha. So then I did not feel as crazy. I was super excited and told Mati about it at work, and he just laughed. They are so used to them here, and stuff like that they do not refer to as earthquakes, they call them tremors. Unless it is above a 7.0, they call it a tremor. Oh well, Grace and I were so excited. Laura LOVES natural disasters and stuff and there seemed to be a big earthquake somewhere around the world every day, so we were waiting until it was our turn.

I have always wanted to feel an earthquake, so I got that checked off my bucket list! Hopefully the plates stay under control while I am here because I really have no desire to witness massive destruction from an earthquake. Especially after that movie.