The first time I felt an earthquake in New Zealand I thought my students were pulling a prank on me.

It was the middle of the night, and I woke to the sound of my windows rattling. My room was unique in that the windows actually looked out onto an indoor balcony, which the two neighboring rooms used to hang laundry and sometimes keep plants. The window in my bathroom lifted up and the bottom half opened like a door, which was how I personally accessed the balcony. Sometimes I worried about how easily some stranger could climb up the fire escape, lift the hatch in the floor of the balcony, and then open the window and unlock my balcony door and enter into my bathroom.

Unlikely I know, but still possible.

Which is why when I heard the window rattling and something fall ov...

Please subscribe to keep reading.