A Startling Wake-Up Call

Living in South Korea, the thought of war breaking out is never far from the back of my mind.  But, it's just that - in the BACK of my mind.  Last week, everyone was concerned that something would happen on the 10th.  If not on the 10th, then the 11th.  The 15th was an important date to the North Koreans, so something could happen on that day too.  Yesterday was the 15th of April and the day went on as normal.  Even the regular morning news was on instead of coverage of what could happen between North and South Korea.  It was a welcome change of pace.

This morning, however, we got a startling wake-up call.  LITERALLY!  I'm not sure of the exact time, but it was between 5:30 am and 5:45 am.  The air raid siren came on the intercom in our apartment complex.  It lasted maybe 10-15 seconds, but it scared us awake.  Zach and I immediately checked our phones to see if we got e-mails from the U.S. Embassy.  Nothing.  We have a Facebook group for all of the foreigners living in our apartment complex.  Questions were being asked without any real answers.  The weird thing was, no one else besides those in our apartment complex, seemed to have had a siren go off.  Our best guess is that the security guard accidentally pressed the wrong button.  If it had lasted longer, there would have been more cause for concern.  What a way to wake up!

While looking for an e-mail from the U.S. Embassy, I saw that my aunt had sent an e-mail about a bombing at the Boston Marathon.  We went back to sleep, and when we woke up about 30 minutes later, I turned on CNN morning news.  It had coverage of Boston.  While what happened at Boston was absolutely terrible, I cannot help but to be a little selfish and relieved that the tragedy that really happened was not actually in South Korea but somewhere far, far away from me.  (Just being honest.)

Thoughts to Boston and to all those affected.