Please don't go
As you may have heard Hurricane Gonzalo hit St. Maarten. The day leading up to it, the day of, and the day after contained a lot of different feelings so I'll just give you a play by play:
Sunday, 2:00: we receive an e-mail informing us of a minor tropical disturbance that may or may not pass through but won't affect AUC's scheduling (Ehem, block exams).
I immediately confer with Vaishaley, my roommate. We joke that I should do my infamous rain dance of 2nd grade (I consider it).
Sunday 4:00: We receive another email saying Gorgonzola might actually be a thing but not a big thing and just get some water in case but schedules will NOT be interrupted.
My natural reaction was "oh.. I guess I should probably wash some underwear". Ok, that's a lie. Vaishaley went about preparing as I continued to study and then I realized holy crap this might be real and washed some underwear. AND made a single can of tuna salad. Why that was my second instinct, I don't know. Why I only made one can... I really don't know. It was yummy though. I also made cup of noodle in bulk (recipe: crack open styrofoam cups, be disappointed that the noodles don't reach the bottom, put them in a big bowl, cover them with water, microwave them, poke them every minute to see if they're done yet, add one pinch of saffron. HA I GOT YOU! I never poked them). My logic was that cup o' noodle can withstand about as much as a cockroach so they would definitely make it through hurricane Gorgy. Plus, yum.
6:00: It starts to rain... I panic and fill up anything that might even remotely be able to hold water. I also made 2 pots of coffee. No one wants to risk me un caffeinated. Especially not me.
Midnight: I give up on studying and resign myself to not being #1 this time (HAHA) and go to bed.
6:00: We receive an email that blocks are pushed back. I don't know if there was a hurricane happening at that point because I immediately dropped my phone and went back to sleep. I did first confer with my roommate that blocks were indeed moved and flip my pillows to the side of the bed away from the window. I'm not a mad woman!
11:00: I stroll out of my cave to see that hey, there is something happening, I go on the balcony and am filled with glee over the wind and excitement. Little did I know this part was the disturbance.
12:00: study study study (and premade cup of noodles 😚)
2:00: starts to get real so I decide a nap is best.
3:00 REALLY starts to get real, Vaishaley and I open our window to listen. I mean.. To decrease the chance of it shattering.
5:00 Stuuuudy wow the sky is like really black but MCB isn't going to learn itself!
6:00 We receive an email telling us to close our hurricane shutters with a crank that we all have in our dorms. No one in the dorm had the crank. Ok, 3 people did. After some serious panic by all Josh stopped by and graciously put down some of ours but naturally the ones in my bedroom were jammed. One more night of sleeping backwards. (you don't know, that five feet could save my life).
9:00: reassure my family that I am not dead. Hear a coconut hit my window and reconsider my cool and collected demeanor. It was officially no longer exciting and officially terrifying. The transition happened right about the same time it switched from tropical disturbance to full blown CNN worthy, send in the Red Cross hurricane. OK it was only a class I BUT STILL. A hurricane kind of sounds like an airplane landing on top of you while you're being sprayed down with a fire hose. We had flooding on the second floor, I mean... What?!
11:00: feeling content that I am as smart as I ever will be I go to bed ready for exams.
6:00 no exams, back to sleep! Are you sending a pattern?
I spent every single one of these days inside of my apartment studying so when I did finally venture out to explore (ok, my cup o' noodle ran out and I was hungry) I was really shocked with the damage. Trees were down, there was stuff EVERYWHERE, everything was flooded, everything smelled weird, but people were already cleaning and did not seem to mind one bit. The market near campus was open despite having no power, the restaurants at the casino were mostly all open, and everyone seemed pretty cheerful. I mean, I get it, every day occurrence here but my world had been rocked so I expected an equal reflection. Thankfully, my peers reflected my "what the heck" feelings.
I returned to study. I didn't think it was possible to study anymore either, trust me. And watch the Mindy Project. I'm not perfect, ok?
Wednesday 8:00: I had gotten used to sleeping in and, given I wasn't scheduled to start until 11 took full advantage. I checked my email once: no notification about exams pushed back. Weird. Checked it again 10 minutes later... Still no email. I was starting to think they actually expected me to take these exams. After checking a third time I decided I did in fact have to get up. I was disappointed too.
Fortunately, after the few days of rest, we'll get to come back slowly with double lectures for a week and a half. Damn it Gorgonzola.
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