An 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocked one of Chile’s most populated areas, where one of Baker’s own has been studying.

Baker alumna Ali Sherman graduated in December 2008 and has been living in Chile for the past year. Sherman said in an e-mail that at the time of the earthquake, she had just moved into a house in the city of Valparaiso, which is northwest of the capital city of Santiago.

Sherman said she had returned home around 3 a.m. on the morning of February 27.

“I was standing at my window in my bedroom looking up at the hills, which are really pretty at night, when I realized all the lights were trembling,” Sherman said.

She said she wasn’t worried at first because she had been experiencing tremors every few months since she arrived in Chile. However, after 30 seconds she realized the shakes were getting stronger.

Even though Sherman was home alone when the earthquake struck, her boyfriend had taught her what to do in the event of an emergency. She said he told her to turn out all the lights, disconnect the gas and to stand in a doorway.

“I had a really sick desire to stand at the window and watch, but if my house did decide to fall, that would land me at the bottom of the rubble,” Sherman said.

Sherman said when the shaking ended, the first person she contacted was her boyfriend. Getting a hold of friends and family was very difficult because the phone lines were jammed, the Internet was knocked out and public transportation had stopped.

She said she was finally able to get a friend with Facebook to write on her sister’s wall to let her parents and siblings know she was OK.

While the epicenter of the earthquake was 600 kilometers away from Valparaiso, Sherman said the town is a mess, and many of the stores are closed due to the damage.

“My house has a lot more character now,” Sherman said. “Pretty cracks in the walls, especially the corners. At one point, I literally sat and watched one wall pull away from another. My floors are all uneven too and have squeaky spots.”

Sandra Schumm, associate professor of Spanish, said she knows Sherman very well through classes. While Schumm was living in Madrid on sabbatical, Sherman was studying just 45 minutes away in Alcalá de Henares, and they visited each other often.

Schumm said she sent Sherman a Facebook message a couple of days after the earthquake and Sherman got back to her right away.

“She has a very positive attitude toward life and she handles things well,” Schumm said.

University Minister Ira DeSpain said he has known Sherman ever since his FYE class her freshman year at Baker. While he has had no direct contact with Sherman since the earthquake, he has left messages on her Facebook.

DeSpain said Sherman visited with him the last time she was in the United States. He said through international study, Sherman was learning the difference between the necessities of life and the luxuries of life.

“She really enjoys the travel part of education,” DeSpain said.