Cold weather and Earth tremors
on Tina's Journal (China), 20/Nov/2009 12:10, 34 days ago
The temperature in Simao has dropped radically over the last few days. The persistent rain is not helping either. Up to last weekend during the day, we were experiencing temperatures in the high twenties. The last few days however, it has been closer to 15 degrees! The houses here are not centrally heated, so it's quite chilly sitting indoors lounging around. I fished out this blanket I had stored away, and didn't think it would actually come into much use. I really hope the rain clears. Having solar heating for the water supply means relying on sunny days. It wasn't so bad during the rainy season when we may have had a few days of cold water, it was still warm then. But, showering in cold water in cold weather isn't my idea of fun. Working in the office too, I have needed to wrap up in my warm fleece. I have been preparing for a work trip I have to do beginning Sunday. I leave for Mojang County and have to visit five schools as part of the follow-up visits required after the Team Leader Training we did last month. I'll be observing the TLTs in action. I will also have to give a model lesson in each school and facilitate meetings with the school leaders and Education Bureau. It will be quite similar to the follow-up visits I did last term. It means I'll be away all next week and I hope the road conditions are bearable in these weather conditions.I had a strange experience whilst I was sitting up in bed, watching a DVD on my laptop yesterday evening. All of a sudden my bed moved and I immediately thought something had got under the bed, perhaps a large animal of some kind. After having this stupid flash thought, I realised it must have been a small earthquake. After quickly checking under the bed and trying to move it myself, I knew it to be true. The bed is a heavy metal one and couldn't be moved so easily. I immediately called Ali to see if he had felt anything and he said that Edie had experienced exactly the same thing as she was also in bed. I mentally prepared myself for a quick escape in case it led to something bigger. Being on the fifth floor of a building, isn't the safest place to experience an earthquake. Yunnan is prone to earthquakes, the last big one in this area was only two years ago measuring 6 on the Richter Scale and caused some considerable damage.