Earthquakes

I am writing this from the lucky position of someone who didn't get hurt by any of the earthquakes happening in Taiwan lately. My heart goes out to everyone more seriously affected than me.

In February I moved to Taipei to study computer science as an exchange student. Taipei is absolutely wonderful and I love living here. Except for the mosquitos.
Before I moved here, I've never experienced an earthquake. For some reason I just always assumed it's like a thunderstorm. Loud and over a long time.
Since the beginning of April there have been a number of Earthquakes, most notable the earthquake on April 3rd with a magnitude of 7.4. The biggest since 1999. (I was not in Taiwan at that time). Since then there have been over 1,000 aftershocks and some 'independent' earthquakes. Most of these happen in the east of Taiwan, close to Hualien. That means that most of them can't really be felt in Taipei. For Reference, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 in Hualien 'only' has a magnitude of 3 here in Taipei. For anyone interested: there is a nice website (linked somewhere on the side) that shows all the earthquakes and how strongly they could be felt elsewhere. I didn't feel most of them.
During earthquakes the building(s) starts shaking as if someone pushed against a side of it. Most of them are only about 5 seconds long, some longer some shorter. In my dorm room, we have a high tech earthquake detection device: A heavy necklace that only moves when the building moves. Apart from that there is no 'noise' which is a funny assumption anyways, it would be too far away to be heard (if there is any noise) and the noise that I could hear is from the buildings and things moving. The necklace smacking into the wardrobe next to it, and the wood of the wardrobe squeaking. (Oh and during the big earthquake apparently students screaming, or so I have been told by friends and roommates).
I live on the 18th floor, here it feels as if I'm on a boat and a small wave hits. Or as if someone pushes against the side of the dorm building. All but two earthquakes (and the big one) have been more of a gentle push and movement. But I didn't know I could get sick from the movement. In general, I often experience motion sickness (like on boats or in cars) which stops when the movement stops, but here I have felt motion sick for days. It started one evening when the building moved about every 20 minutes as I was trying to study mandarin. From talking to friends, I know that others are experiencing that too. Even after the earthquakes stop, there is this feeling that the earth/the building is still moving. Some experience this for weeks, I've had it for about four days. It has wained off now for me. It helped me to lay down, then I wouldn't feel so sick. Others say looking into a mirror or going outside helps, for me personally that didn't work.
Tonight I got woken up from an alert to my phone about an imminent earthquake. The building started shaking about 10 seconds after the alert. I was very much ready to panic, so I asked my roommates whether we need to leave the dorm or something (the alert said to be calm and seek cover, which in fact, did not calm me down). Two of my roommates didn't even wake up. Somehow that really calmed me down, I decided that panicking was cancelled and went back to sleep and slept through a bigger earthquake happening literally 20 minutes after that.
So: Earthquakes. Are the smaller ones scary in Taipei? Not really, but very when there is an alert before it. Noisy? No. Long time? No, longest I've experienced was 10 seconds I think. The motion sickness was the worst for me.

PS: There is some really intersting engineering going on with Taipei 101 (the scyscraper in taipei) to help it resist earthquakes. Basically, they have a penduluum at the top which swings so that the bulding doesn't. (If you visit the top of Taipei 101, you can learn more and get a better explanation (and key charms of the pendulum).)