I was teaching in the famous Zona Rosa. We were in the middle of final exams.The violent shaking started and the students and I were unable to stand up and leave the room. We continued the exam once the shaking subsided. However nobody showed up to take the next exam. I decided to walk to my apartment about 10 blocks away....realizing then the destruction that was all around me. I found my 4 story apartment building crushed by an 11 story hotel. Hundreds of people died in the hotel along with all of my apartment building neighbors. In the following days, a friend who was working for the national oil company comandeered a huge crane to where my apartment once stood and rescued my piano from atop the ruins... gently guiding the piano, now all tied up with hoses from the fire department, to an unlittered spot in the street. When the piano was placed on the street the hoses broke but hundreds of people who were witnessing the rescue of the piano broke into applause.
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