I was told when I arrived " Wait until you live through one of the Tremors/earthquakes here" and I indeed had no idea how regular and "normal" their occurrences would be!
Nor was I aware of how each one would remind me of the awesome, powerful God I serve who controls all the earth, the winds the waves ( Mark 4) , the Tsunamis and every single Tremor or earthquake that touches Chilean land. How in awe I always am once one of the 3 tremors that I have witnessed have ended, at how powerful the Earth's natural forces are, as well as recognising how unpredictable, wild and bizarre this earth is we live in. Knowing all of those unpredictable natural disasters were ultimately controlled by the Lord is so incredible to me and served as a vivid reminder of how Big my God really is. Something I believe sometimes it is easy to forget.
 Experiencing a couple big tremors ( as the Chilean people call them, but American's would consider them a quake) is like nothing I had ever experienced before, and the first one was by far the worst! Purhaps because It awakened me from my slumbering to my entire apartment rattling and shaking. Everything when your woken up is more extreme simply because your in that half awake/half sleep state, and nothing is making sense. :) I just remember sitting up and holding on to my bed until it passed, and then pacing my apartment for a couple minutes trying to digest what had just happened and slow down my heart rate, clearly going right back to sleep was not going to happen!

What is fascinating to me about these Tremor's are how different the entire experience is from say, a Hurricane which many of us have experienced ( if you live on the east coast) Forecasters are usually able to determine when they will be touching ground, the areas that will be affected, and thus making it possible to be emotionally and physically prepared. While an earthquake is very sudden, often unexpected, and different lengths and force depending on where you are. But just like Hurricanes on the East coast are normal and expected, these Tremor's are very normal and expected here in Santiago.

When people ask me how I feel during or after a quake ( Tremor),  my response would be it is a 2 fold emotion. One emotion is feeling awe and wonder of God's creation as well  as being excited and scared at the same time. Those couple of minutes are usually filled with my mind racing with, " Upstairs or downstairs, stay put or leave, inside or outside?" As well as with thoughts like..." This is kinda awesome!"All at the same time!

The most recent earthquake ( By U.S standards, though it might of been considered a Tremor here in Chile) was over a 6.0 and was long as well as powerful, what a shocker...it was in the middle of the night as well!
Alesha and I ran out of our rooms at the exact same moment....met up together by the stairs, and I must admit...we were laughing by the time it was over. Our dishevelled hair, puffy yet overly dilated eyes, were a site.

It will be interesting to see how many more Tremors or quakes I will experience during my time here, and I am sure...they will bring about stories and memories that I will never forget.