Ellen In Amerika!"MY EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AND MY ADJUSTMENT TO LIFE IN CALIFORNIA SINCE SEPTEMBER 2008"

What a disaster this morning, when we saw the news of the devastating  8.8 earthquake in Chile. The people were so scared by the 3 minutes of earth shaking. It is still pretty scary there, because there are still aftershocks. They have had an even bigger earthquake in the past: In May 22, 1960: A magnitude 9.5 earthquake in southern Chile and ensuing tsunami killed at least 1,716 people. The country is pretty well prepared for earthquakes, but the infrastructure has been damaged pretty severely, and there have been a lot of people killed. As of noon, PST the casualty numbers have not yet been told. Chile’s national emergency agency is now reporting as many as 400,000 victims in the Bio-Bío Region (south of Santiago) alone. On MSNBC, a journalist interviewed in Chile via Skype cautioned that the number could refer to those injured or those who have lost property and may not mean a death toll.

Today’s earthquake in Chile is the strongest since the 2004 Sumatran quake in Indonesia that generated a devastating tsunami. The event was the result of a “subduction zone earthquake” that happened in a geologic setting similar to the Sumatran event,  the Pacific tectonic plate, slid eastward, then beneath the South America Plate. That is the geologic environment in which the largest earthquakes occur. It’s like if you have a fancy sports car and an SUV and the sports car comes up behind and crashes into the SUV – the sports car is going to go underneath the SUV.

This was hundreds of times larger than the Haiti earthquake in terms of the amount of energy released. The amount of energy released does not necessarily correspond to how many people die or how many buildings are damaged.  Tectonic plates, comprised of about 60 miles of the earth’s upper crust, move roughly at the rate our hair grows, Sawyer said.The mountains along the western coast of South America are evidence of the region’s history of tectonic plate collisions. Chile experiences frequent seismic activity and large earthquakes because the country is situated near the boundaries of the South American and Pacific plates. Since 1973, there have been 13 events of magnitude 7.0 or greater in the region.
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6889037.html

The coasts of Mexico, California and Oregon have been warned for tsunamis. We live near the coast, but our house is not at the beach, so we are safe in case a tsunami hits Ventura County.

FYI In  Dec. 26, 2004, a  magnitude 9.1 quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed 226,000 people in 12 countries, including 165,700 in Indonesia and 35,400 in Sri Lanka. The earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, had a magnitude 7.0.

Then, because I was searching the web, I read this:

Strong earthquake strikes off Japan; 2 injured, No reports of serious damage after magnitude-6.9 temblor

The world is shaking this year already a lot!

Last night, when we were just about to go to bed, I changed the tv channel and bumped into the snowboard competition. Vaguely I remembered my son Niels told me that there is a Dutch snowboarder at the Games. I thought, to be honest, no chance we will win in this topic. How wrong can you be, Ellen. I was just about to turn of the TV when I heard the reporter saying,  the Dutch snowboarder ……. Only the word Dutch made me already alert (pretty chauvinistic, I know) and I stayed up to watch the rest of the race. Wow, what circumstances they had to go downhill. I was impressed Nicolien was doing so well. Dan was already upstairs, but he could still hear me cheering for the Dutch girl. And yes, she got Gold! Wow, isn’t that a great. I was very happy for her to see her dream come true.

Then this morning I found out through a comment of Laura that the Dutch team for the ice skating team pursuit, haven’t perform that well. This morning I was able watch a video online and saw the race. Again communication problems between the Dutch. It is almost embarrassing. But I am very happy for Chad Hedrick and the two other young American ice skaters, they earned it! Today will be the finals. I hope the Dutch can take at least the bronze  medal and that the Americans will win the gold medal. I am now officially making a complaint toward NBC. On their schedules online, they said last night’s race was only on Saturday. So, i missed it. Thank you NBC!

It is now 3.35 PM. I just read that Team USA won the silver medal and The Netherlands got the bronze.

Tomorrow the final game of  ice hockey between Canada and the USA. Before this Olympic Game event, I never watched an ice hockey game. I actually did not like it! It is often so rough and the players fight a lot. And to be honest, there is no Dutch team performing in this one.  But now, living in the USA and seeing the enthusiasm of both America and Canada, I am infected with this virus as well I just say, let the best team win!

They weather is very bad again here. Storms are coming in from the ocean and the first big rains have hit us already. I think we will have more rain now than we can use The sky is so dark grey, it feels almost like a rainy day in Holland. Bah! on the TV there are warning alerts for mud slides again. I hope people there do not have to evacuate again.

After I boiled a chicken this afternoon, I shredded the meat and separated it in several bags and put it in the fridge. I made a chicken noodle soup of the bouillon for tonight as a starter. For dinner I am going to make chicken tortillas with the veggies from our garden. There are not many veggies left now in the garden section  I also found time to do an hour of Spanish lessons. It is starting to get more difficult. But I do have another Spanish sentence for today:

“No voy a comprarlo porque es muy caro = I am not going to buy it because it is too expensive.”

Ryan just came in, but he and Dan are on their way to his mother’s house again. He forgot his X box!! During dinner, we had a so funny situation. Ryan has moved up with his English to an honor class (He has, except for Spanish all “A”) Anyway, I asked him if he wants to go to more honor classes because of his high grades. I also asked him how to say in English all the different subjects, like Health, Math, History etc. He did not know exactly what I meant, so I said the Dutch word : “School vakken” For us Dutch that is a totally decent word. So, when Dan and Ryan started to look at me in a bit shocked way and started to laugh and told me I just said a very bad word, I really did not know what they meant, so I repeated the word and again they were saying: Oh, Ellen..you’re not suppose to say that word. Then, suddenly I “heard” myself what it sounded like. It was pretty hilarious. After a long explanation, I finally got them understand me.