As I lay fitfully dreaming one morning, I was suddenly jolted out of bed by a blaring siren. Living in South Korea, my first thought was that North Korea was attacking. Here's a rundown of my panic.
11.00 Immediately, I hurried to the window and not being awake yet, ran into my sliding patio door as I tried to open it. Standing on my tiptoes to see past the apartment building filling my window, I looked to the sky for smoke.
11.01 Seeing no smoke, I ran into the sliding door again in my haste to my computer. I googled "North Korea attacks."
11.02 Finding no recent news pieces, I texted the other foreigner living in my building.
11.03 Panic moves to confusion as the sirens continue.
11.05 I receive a return text and she reminded me of what she had told me when I first moved here. Occasionally, the nearby firehouse will run drills, using air raid sirens.
11.07 The sirens become more than irritating.
11.10 The sirens finally stop. After ten minutes of air raid sirens, I'm ready to shove a pencil in my ear.
There's quite a few reasons why it was ridiculous of me to think N.Korea was attacking. However, having been asleep, I was unable to use my brain. In the end, I'm thankful it was just a firehouse drill and not something dangerous.
Haha I had a similar reaction when I heard that for the first time. Mostly because I couldn't figure out why they had tornado sirens in a country without tornadoes.. haha.
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