Language School 103: Shaken and Stirred

 James Bond liked his martinis "shaken, not stirred". One morning at language school however, we got shaken and stirred in an unexpected way. It was a vocabulary lesson that was a surprise even to the Thai teachers.

View from our Language School window.
Not tall by today's standards, the 13 floor building
seemed tall in 1982 and especially tall
during an earthquake!

We usually arrived at the school a little early and would claim a seat in the lobby on a rattan couch and chit-chat with whoever was there waiting for class to start. One Friday morning we were calmly chatting when suddenly it felt like our sofa had slid 5-6 feet across the floor.  I turned my head to see who was fooling around with us and had pushed the sofa so hard but no one was there. This was just beginning to register in my brain when the sofa just as suddenly slid back to where it started. But wait! The whole sofa wouldn’t slide like that, would it? No, the whole building had just moved! What’s happening???

About this time, as many of the Thai teachers as could fit in the doorway of the teacher’s room were standing, wide eyed looking at us just as we were looking equally wide eyed at them. There was a lot of chatter in Thai using vocabulary we had yet to learn but one word could be heard above the rest. Pan Din Wai (แผ่นดินไหว)!!!! Earthquake!!!!

I suppose those from California, Japan and other earthquake prone areas looked with bemusement at all of us that got so excited at this minor shake. But for Marcia and me, this was our first earthquake so we deserved to over react! The Thai teachers led the way and we escaped with them and other students down the 11 flights of stairs to street level. Once on the street, we looked up at all the tall buildings surrounding us and started to consider the wisdom of being on the ground where all the buildings could fall on top of us if a real earthquake came. Were we better off on the ground or should we have gone to the roof and waited to ride the wreckage down to earth? With all our combined wisdom, the student body and teaching staff never came to a conclusion.

Unfortunately, exactly one week later, the very next Friday, another tremor hit and shook us out of our comfort zone. I don’t think we fled down the steps this time but we were ready to flee somewhere! Anywhere! It was just one shake though so we soon calmed down, though I suppose we had further discussion on whether we should flee up or down.

A Korean friend, Jun Suu Han posing as
teacher for his wife, Ok Hee Han, fellow
Korean Suk Ja Yang, Marcia
& Australian Baptist Loes Devoss

So, two Fridays in a row there were earthquakes. As time does, it marched on and in only 7 days the next Friday came. Were Friday earthquakes going to be a regular thing? Sort of like Taco Tuesdays? Many of the Thai teachers didn’t want to find out so they stayed home. As memory serves there was a noticeable teacher shortage that Friday and a number of classes had to be combined.

No earthquake came that third Friday or any remaining Friday during our time of study though we did experience a few other minor shakes in later years while living in Mae Sariang and Chiang Mai. Marcia and the kids felt a minor tremble in Chiang Mai on December 26, 2004 as we were getting ready to go to Chiang Rai to visit Chuck and Ruth Fox. That evening, we watched the Fox’s TV and got the first inkling that the minor shake we felt had led to the Tsunami that killed 230,000 in 14 countries all around the Indian Ocean.