A friend of mine has been really pushing me to record my memories of my two years in Turkey. I'm very glad she is, because the memories are already getting murky (but it was almost 9 years ago that I moved there). So I made a layout of the most difficult experience there, and the second-most difficult one of my life (I'll let you guess what #1 was).
The journaling is hard to read. This isn't what I wrote at that moment, because what I actually wrote was pretty bare-boned.
Here's what it says on the page:
August 16, 1999
I moved here two weeks ago. I've learned a few words here and there, but nothing too big yet.
The art teacher said something interesting in our meetings. He said Istanbul gets a "big" earthquake every hundred years, and that we're 30 years late. I don't know how seriously I can take him; he calls a teacher a "loose cannon," but I think that describes him far more.
August 17, 1999
I'm not sure how true the "30 years late" comment was, but Istanbul is definitely on a fault line. Two, actually.
And they moved at 3 this morning.
My window was open just a little, so I woke up to hearing it rattle. My first thought was "oh! The wind wants to get out!" and then I realized my whole bed was shaking. It was the longest 45 seconds of my life. Not knowing as much as I know now, a few hours later, I didn't stand in my doorway...just lay flat on my bed, hoping to help it stop moving or something.
I quickly got dressed and left the apartment. The power was off...not sure if it was turned off as a safety precaution or if it was cut off somehow, but it was a dark trip down 4 flights of stairs. Others in the building had lighters and candles to light the way.
I met up with other teachers and we walked up to the nearby park until the sun came up. We talked about how scary it was and how we didn't know what to do.
It's the first time since I got here that I saw the stars. All the lights in the whole city were out. Very, very eerie to have a city of 15 million DARK.
The phone was still working when I got back to my apartment, so I tried calling my family. They called me a few minutes later, having heard from my cousin about the quake. I reassured them that I was fine, just a little "shaken" (no pun intended).
August 20, 1999
WOW. Talk about bonding with the people here! I've learned a new word ("deprem" means earthquake) and anyone who speaks any English is quick to talk about family they lost or is missing, or asking how I made out. I can't believe how connected I feel!
We're still having strong aftershocks. Yuck. Hope those stop soon!
***
And here's what my real journal said the day after the quake:
I lived through the most difficult day of my life thus far, and God-willing nothing will top it. The 45-second 7.3 to 7.8 magnitude earthquake (later it was determined to be a 7.4) yesterday morning really was horrifying, and it took the entire day to calm down. Until next week, I'm going to still be a little jumpy, but I already feel calmer.
Watching Turkish news was horrible. They showed too many dying and caught and sobbing people to be able to watch it.
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