PoWeR ouTaGe
Yesterday, Nov. 5, there was an "islandwide" power outage since I-don't-know-when. I woke up at 4am and there wasn't electricity anymore so I went back to sleep. I woke up again at 7:30am to get ready for my 8 o'clock class and there wasn't any power still. Let me make you realize the importance of that thing here in the U.S. and probably to some other countries as well... IF YOU ARE USING THINGS THAT NEEDS ELECTRICITY, that is.
I walked to my classroom to see if my instructor was there. No one was there. I wanted to talk to check out our building but the sliding door won't even work since it required electricity. I decided to go to my workplace to check if my supervisors were there. I didn't bother going to the front door because if I slide my smartcard there, the alarm will go off. I knew no one was inside so I decided to go through the library to get to my workplace. The library was closed since the doors won't open anyway (I guess). Oh well... without electricity, those doors won't open (and some other doors on campus.. aaah!).
I was hungry because I haven't had dinner yet from the day before. Since I live in Hale 1 (the dorm where we cook our own food), most of my foods are noodles and other instant foods. I do have "real food" but you need to cook them of course. I was going to get myself breakfast but then I remembered... we have an electric stove. So I couldn't make myself breakfast. I had some food that I cooked the day before but they were very cold. The microwave won't work either (of course, duh!)
I just went on with my day without any breakfast in my stomach. I went to check my cellphone if it has been charged. And though I plugged it before I went to bed, it was still low in battery - I mean, the battery icon was blinking! I was so bored but I couldn't make any calls. Good thing our landline phones were working still (thank goodness they're not IP phones yet!).
I wanted to do a bit of homework until my laptop dies. I pressed the power button on --- it booted up --- and tadah! It only had 1/4 of its battery life left. I was still going to use it just to check emails but the internet wasn't working. Oh yeah, duh! There's no power! I felt so handicapped!
Again, food came to my thoughts. Just when I'm about to decide to eat something, that's when I remember that none of the appliances in our unit works. The caf could have something but I didn't want to eat there either.
I read a few pages of a book when Jesse called. At least I got something to do for the next 8 hours. It was an adjustment for me to go to places to find food when power is out because back home, we didn't need to do that. Our stoves (well, in most families at least) are gas stoves so we don't need electricity to cook food. There will still be school as well since most schools don't use computers to have class lectures and/or discussions anyway. Even though you have a lab class that required the use of computers, school will still go on since not all of your classes need computers. Also, we'll usually (but this is depending on what school you are in) still be able to do our homework since the homework assigned wasn't posted on the Internet; we were reminded of them VERBALLY. We also didn't need power to take exams (again, depending on what school you are in) because we didn't need scantrons or stuff like that. Exams were graded one by one by the instructor (sometimes by the class).
I just wondered how handicapped I felt here in Hawaii when the power was out yesterday. It was like a very big deal if the power will be out for more than one day. I really should've felt even just a little bit glad yesterday that I had a "real" excuse not to do my homework but at the same time, it made me long more to go "home" already. Maybe next time, I'll keep dry woods and branches of trees so I can make a fire to cook food... hehehehe!!!
I walked to my classroom to see if my instructor was there. No one was there. I wanted to talk to check out our building but the sliding door won't even work since it required electricity. I decided to go to my workplace to check if my supervisors were there. I didn't bother going to the front door because if I slide my smartcard there, the alarm will go off. I knew no one was inside so I decided to go through the library to get to my workplace. The library was closed since the doors won't open anyway (I guess). Oh well... without electricity, those doors won't open (and some other doors on campus.. aaah!).
I was hungry because I haven't had dinner yet from the day before. Since I live in Hale 1 (the dorm where we cook our own food), most of my foods are noodles and other instant foods. I do have "real food" but you need to cook them of course. I was going to get myself breakfast but then I remembered... we have an electric stove. So I couldn't make myself breakfast. I had some food that I cooked the day before but they were very cold. The microwave won't work either (of course, duh!)
I just went on with my day without any breakfast in my stomach. I went to check my cellphone if it has been charged. And though I plugged it before I went to bed, it was still low in battery - I mean, the battery icon was blinking! I was so bored but I couldn't make any calls. Good thing our landline phones were working still (thank goodness they're not IP phones yet!).
I wanted to do a bit of homework until my laptop dies. I pressed the power button on --- it booted up --- and tadah! It only had 1/4 of its battery life left. I was still going to use it just to check emails but the internet wasn't working. Oh yeah, duh! There's no power! I felt so handicapped!
Again, food came to my thoughts. Just when I'm about to decide to eat something, that's when I remember that none of the appliances in our unit works. The caf could have something but I didn't want to eat there either.
I read a few pages of a book when Jesse called. At least I got something to do for the next 8 hours. It was an adjustment for me to go to places to find food when power is out because back home, we didn't need to do that. Our stoves (well, in most families at least) are gas stoves so we don't need electricity to cook food. There will still be school as well since most schools don't use computers to have class lectures and/or discussions anyway. Even though you have a lab class that required the use of computers, school will still go on since not all of your classes need computers. Also, we'll usually (but this is depending on what school you are in) still be able to do our homework since the homework assigned wasn't posted on the Internet; we were reminded of them VERBALLY. We also didn't need power to take exams (again, depending on what school you are in) because we didn't need scantrons or stuff like that. Exams were graded one by one by the instructor (sometimes by the class).
I just wondered how handicapped I felt here in Hawaii when the power was out yesterday. It was like a very big deal if the power will be out for more than one day. I really should've felt even just a little bit glad yesterday that I had a "real" excuse not to do my homework but at the same time, it made me long more to go "home" already. Maybe next time, I'll keep dry woods and branches of trees so I can make a fire to cook food... hehehehe!!!
Labels: electricity, food, power outage, survive
posted by Lois Sparks at 6:46:00 PM
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