Typhoon!

We began to feel that the Central Weather Bureau was the organization-that-cried-wolf: typhoon! it would warn, and then we would get a standard amount of rain. We were unimpressed.

Yesterday morning, on my way to work, I began to take this recent bout of warnings seriously. The wind made a mockery of umbrella-carriers, and the rain presented its own set of trials: it was not so much falling as flying, sideways and in discernible sheets. By the onset of evening, the MRT stations like Zhongxiao Fuxing (pictured at left) were total madhouses. Crazed metro passengers, dripping wet and reeking of a collective wet-dog smell, pushed forward inch by inch. I was nearly trampled by tiny Asian women who were using their umbrellas as first defensive implements, and then offensive ones. I would have been terrified if I weren't so impressed.

Yes, Typhoon Saola was in full swing. It's rained an obscene amount down here, which is fun but a little frustrating. At any rate, a day and a half of classes were cancelled, which meant I had a sudden onset of free time. Today, Jenny and Thekla and Andrea and Andi and I went for a lovely typhoon tea. We braved the rain and the scary public transport and the umbrella-wielding Asian women so that we could do something other than sit around in our boring rooms drinking directly from our gallon-sized water bottles. Maybe that was just me.


This place, a buffet featuring teas and juices and salads and light lunchy-type items, also featured cake. Lots of cake. Yes that is unlimited cake. As in, cake buffet. Needless to say, I fit an improbable amount of cake into my stomach this afternoon. Some cakes had sparkly edible adornments; some had jellies and creams and deliciousness associated with them. It was wonderful.

The rest of our day featured some mango ice and some arcade basketball: all in all, not the cowering-in-a-dark-room that I would have expected Typhoon Day to be.

Back to work tomorrow, I'm afraid, which means it's bedtime for this little cake-filled SAT teacher. Ah, if only these mild typhoons could happen every day...