It was a very strange experience for me to come here only knowing what I'd seen on the news and then realize how wrong my perceptions had been - it's at the same time worse and longer lasting damage than I imagined and also less sensational. I've become increasingly curious about learning about the earthquakes the longer I've been here and it's only made me realize now that I can never understand what it was like to be here in February no matter how much I want to. But I think trying to understand is, in itself, valuable and I've been a little disappointed that many of the exchange students I know didn't seem to share this sensitive curiosity. What I'm trying to say with all this rambling is that I wanted to share the small insight I might have gained from all the thinking I've done while living here and I hope people who don't live here might understand a little better too.
This video project came at a perfect time because the first major recovery development since the earthquake came last weekend. There wasn't much hype about this beforehand, which I think made it even more heartwarming. They opened up one corner of the central business district (aka the red zone that has been guarded and fenced off since the earthquake while they knock down most of the downtown's buildings) and turned it into a few blocks worth of shops, bus exchange, and pedestrian urban container shopping area. I was so impressed and touched to be here for this and it was really incredible to see the streets absolutely flooded with people in a place that's just been behind a depressing fence the whole time I've been here. This is the first really visible sign of recovery there's been and I'm so pleasantly surprised that this came soon enough for me to experience it.
Everything colored used to be closed
Arch in the background is the Bridge of Remembrance - if you go way back to my second ever blog there are pictures of it still fenced off
Being a dork with Prime Minister John Key
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