4:30 7.1

Shake. Rattle. Roll. I guess that is how it went. How ever it goes it all started at 4:30am September 4th 2010. Golly Did it ever start. I have been in earthquakes before but in comparison they were nothing to what rolled through Canterbury this morning. I awoke to what I couldn't comprehend. It was pitch black in my room except for the white ceiling that was illuminated by the moon through my window. It is a very weird feeling being shaken everywhere without any thing to focus on. No horizon, no perception, nothing. Just black all around and vague whiteness above. Back and forth side to side accompanied with crashing sounds and the moaning of stressed timber. With nothing to see I seemed to look up. As I looked up to what I thought would seem concrete I found only doubt. Above me was an attic filled with who knows what, but this morning what ever was above me marched to the position the earth intended it to. I remember hoping that the roof wouldn't cave. With black all around, white above, shaking back and forth to and fro, the stressing moaning and eerie creaking of timber filling all around and the crashing of everything everywhere colliding into my ears I didn't have a clue what to think or do. I just remember looking up and realizing what was happening....

We all emerged from our rooms. We adorned what we wore to bed and still carried the interrupted sleep under our eyes. We were all giddy and somewhat childish as we stared across to one another and awed at what shook us form our slumber. We shifted and sorted through what items, books, and trinkets found new homes. The floors were now library's, pantry floors now produce isles, and bedrooms looked to belong to your average collage student. A mess to be sorted, as well our thoughts for the next hour and with out a doubt next few days. As we collected so did the aftershocks. Varying in size and power, none of us were silent nor was the house.

After it was mostly calmed I went back to sleep. I laid there in my bed staring at the white ceiling that I came to question earlier. I stared and felt my bed wiggle every now and then. I could hear a rumble and then a shift of the house. I laid there and stared. White. I remember laying there and feeling something come over me. Something I have never felt in my life. Honestly a new feeling and a very strange and uncomfortable feeling. For then and there I felt it.

Never in my life have I ever felt so far away from home.