Day 4 - I Almost DIED At The Hands Of Mr. Tornado...

It was a damn long day and I felt I almost died over and over again on Day 4 of my first module of my on-campus residency here in Oklahoma. I can't find much words to describe what happened, so this post will be filled with photos as a picture paints a thousand words.

Dr K brought us to the Wichita Mountains. We set off really early in the morning. The bus picked us up at the hotel at 7.30am.











We then went to Mount. Scott, which is one of the peaks at Wichita Mountains.

Besides the whole day hike which was a tad tiring, when we got back to the hotel, it seemed that everything was just like any other day, washing up, having dinner, preparing for the next day, etc. I was watching tv and then the program was disrupted abruptly. A weather update came on. There were loads of details and it seemed gibberish to me. What caught my attention was the word "tornado". My lecturers have warned us before that the period we were coming over is the tornado season. But I did not expect to meet Mr. Tornado so early into the trip.
My classmate Dan then called my room. We decided to stay in our rooms while the rest of our roomies went out for dinner or for a smoke. He asked if I heard a siren and what was the siren about. I suspected it was a tornado warning siren because of the weather update that disrupted my tv program.
When the next weather update that again disrupted my tv program came on, I listened to it more carefully. There were reports of golf-ball-sized hails in some parts of Oklahoma and it seemed that there might be a chance that a tornado will hit Oklahoma City, the city I'm in. The tornado alert was on for about an hour, but it kept prolonging and prolonging and through the weather updates, it seemed closer and closer.
By this time, some of Dan's and my roomies were back already. Will aka Uncle, Dan's roomie, called my room. He was on the phone with Felicia and told her to go up to see the storm. Before he could finish what he needed to say (actually he wanted us to bring the dishwashing liquid up lor), Fel hung up the phone and told me about seeing the storm. I grabbed my phone and we went out of the room. Ad our room was beside the laundry room, we, being so damn excited, told everyone in the laundry room to see the storm. The next moment, you will see 10-ish people running out of the laundry room, down the corridor, squeezing into a lift, knocking on the guys' room door, running past the living room and into their balcony with Will looking shocked and standing by the door. When we reached the balcony and saw nothing, Fel and I asked Will, what storm. When we knew it was a false alarm, Fel and me just stood there laughing and laughing till we both squatted down. So damn freaking paiseh lah!
But I was damn tired already and needed sleep. It did not help that I'm sleeping the closest to the windows and in any chance of a tornado, windows should be avoided at all costs. I was excited and kinda scared. Excited because I've never seen a tornado before and kinda scared because I don't think I should meet one. So I went to bed, hoping the tornado will change course and not suck me out of my room window.
About an hour later, Fel came into the bedroom and shouted "Jasmine, wake up! Hailstorm!" When I could finally open my eyes, she has already ran out of the room. I was too sleepy to venture out to the lobby or upstairs to the guys' room to take a look, instead, I opened up the curtains and took a look. The thunder was loud and the wind was strong. My windows were vibrating!
I was actually kinda scared. Lucky for me, the tornado did not come on full force. If it did, I might have been sucked out of the window while sleeping. Given that I always sleep soundly, as evident in my reaction when Fel came into the room, I don't think I could have made it to the shelter in time.

Shopping coming right up!
19:47 OK time...