Last night during as we settled in around 8pm, which is called 20:00 around here, we felt a strange sensation. All four of us felt as if we were rocking, and not in a good way. We heard creeking noises as the entire apartment structure stretched and swayed. We figured we would make good use of our bomb shelter/luxury walk-in-closet, and gathered there. We looked at our phones to see if there was an alert of some kind.
It took another 10 minutes before the news started to confirm our suspicion that an earthquake occurred. I knew in my heart that the gentle swaying we were feeling meant that not too far someone was suffering much more. Indeed, we felt the horrible earthquake that you may have read about that straddled Iran and Iraq.
We are safe. Our hearts go out to our neighbors at the epicenter.