Out of bed and under the desk in 0.6 seconds.

At 4.29am on Thursday morning, LA had a very rude awakening. My first earthquake. I complain a lot about my fight or flight instincts kicking in at the most inopportune times, but I have to say that this time I was grateful.

I had experiences a tiny quake when I was in NZ a few years ago. We were staying at the bottom of a volcano for the night, so it was to be expected. I felt the ground quickly dip down and come back up again. My parents were in the next room, and simply thought someone had slammed a door. This experience is what I have based my expectation on for quite some time now - the it is quick and without the shaking we see in movies. The one I experienced on Thursday morning was very different.

There was shaking. I knew what it was straight away, and leaped out of bed and under the desk. It only lasted around 4 seconds, so by the time I was under the desk it was over. I waited for a few seconds to see what would happen next. Then I got up and opened my door to see what my housemate was doing. The conversation went something like this:

"Kate, are your alright?"

"Yes. Was that a..?"

"Yes, that was an earthquake."

"Ok."

Then I closed my door and went back to bed. It was so casual for everyone else, but for me it was quite intense. I couldn't get back to sleep - the adrenaline was pumping, and we had another three or four smaller ones before I left for work at 7am. I got to work, and the Americans I work with were telling me how tiny that one was. The Aussies coming in for coffee, on the other hand, where experiencing it like me - a new, scary and adrenaline pumping event.

It turns out it was a 4.2 magnitude quake in San Fernando, about 15kms from my house. Im definitely ticking off a lot of firsts this year!