This morning Hal and I went to our third Chinese lesson. Our teacher's name is Bobo and she is great. We can now say phrases like "I would like a cold black tea with no milk and a little sugar." Our homework for this week is to write down an introduction of our family, such as "I have 5 people in my family. They live in Seattle/Alaska. They are..." we can also write "I am American", "but", and any number 1-99 in Chinese characters. Well, its a start. We meet with her once a week for an hour, but are considering upping it to twice a week.
I'm learning to bake with a toaster over. This week I made banana bread.
We have been doing our best to get out of the city and do things on our weekends. We have been to the mountains several times now. Our big adventure this past weekend was a trip to the northeast coast. Yilan is a surfing town. The plan was to para-glide in the morning and surf in the afternoon. Due to typhoons in the vicinity of Taiwan, the wind was neither good for paragliding nor surfing. So we hung out on the beach, boogie boarded, had a couple beers, and sunburned. Something to know about the beach in Taiwan. If you go in the ocean past your knees and do not have a floatation device, you will be chastised by a lifeguard's whistle. It was still a great day.
Guess what I bought today... new shoes? No. A bathing suit? No, but closer... Plane tickets!!! To the beautiful island of Palawan in the Philippines. For a full seven days from October 14-22, we are planning on doing... absolutely nothing on the beach. :)
Oh, and we got memberships. Today is Costco Grand Opening Day!
Love to you all!
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Typhoon: French for "Sideways Rain in My Ear"
You all will be happy to know that we survived Typhoon Saola. Our friend, host, and Taiwan role model Katie left to go back to Washington on Tuesday night. Siri and I both had middle of the day classes on Wednesday, so we spent Wednesday evening cleaning and rearranging the apartment to make it feel a little more like home. We decided to break from our cleaning and have dinner. I left the apartment on my scooter to get some take-out and was hit by pre-typhoon wind and rain. The rain was coming from all directions at the same time. People were pulled over on the side of the road just waiting for the intense gusts to stop. I saw trees uprooted and fences had fallen down. I powered through the ferocity and arrived at the restaurant only to find that their front glass door had been shattered by the storm. When I arrived back at the apartment, Siri said "Hey school has been cancelled tomorrow due to a Typhoon coming in!" I said "No shit!"
We merrily spent the next day cleaning and rearranging our new abode. The weather was much more intense before the typhoon hit than during. We were supposed to get between 30 and 90 inches of rain in this two day period! Siri and I walked down to the river to check out its level and were amazed by how high it could rise in just two days! We also saw some nice fish happily resting in some slow pools on the side of the river.
In other news I got in my first scooter crash. Now before you start freaking out- #1-I am okay, #2-nobody was injured, #3- my scooter is okay. I was late for class so I was probably going a little faster than I should have. In classic Taiwanese driving style a van decided at the very last minute to make a right turn in front of me. On most roads in Taiwan there are 1 or 2 car lanes per side of the road and a scooter lane to the far right. The scooter lane is used for various purposes other than its obvious intended purpose. People park in this lane, people walk in this lane, many cars use this lane to pass other cars! I was riding in the scooter lane next to this car as they decided to take a last minute right. Let me say this- just because you used a blinker in the 0.2 seconds before you actually made the turn, does not mean that you gave adequate warning to other vehicles in the immediate vicinity. I slammed on my brakes (which are shotty at best) and ran right into her passenger side door. The scooter and I made a dramatic fall to the ground and my school bag flew off to the side. Surprisingly I wasn't hurt, not even a scratch. My scooter was not hurt, not even a scratch. I do not know if the lady's van had any damage, I'd doubt it. She stopped and got out with a confused look on her face. I yelled in frustration- "You have to use a blinker!" flashing my hand as best I could like a blinker. She, no doubt, had absolutely no idea what I was saying. I showed her my blinker on my scooter and said "you can't make a last minute turn!" I got back on my scooter and pulled away yelling some English gibberish that she could not make any sense of. I think the experience was good for me. It was inconsequential and I think it will make me a more cautious driver. So there. Also- I was not late for class.
We merrily spent the next day cleaning and rearranging our new abode. The weather was much more intense before the typhoon hit than during. We were supposed to get between 30 and 90 inches of rain in this two day period! Siri and I walked down to the river to check out its level and were amazed by how high it could rise in just two days! We also saw some nice fish happily resting in some slow pools on the side of the river.
In other news I got in my first scooter crash. Now before you start freaking out- #1-I am okay, #2-nobody was injured, #3- my scooter is okay. I was late for class so I was probably going a little faster than I should have. In classic Taiwanese driving style a van decided at the very last minute to make a right turn in front of me. On most roads in Taiwan there are 1 or 2 car lanes per side of the road and a scooter lane to the far right. The scooter lane is used for various purposes other than its obvious intended purpose. People park in this lane, people walk in this lane, many cars use this lane to pass other cars! I was riding in the scooter lane next to this car as they decided to take a last minute right. Let me say this- just because you used a blinker in the 0.2 seconds before you actually made the turn, does not mean that you gave adequate warning to other vehicles in the immediate vicinity. I slammed on my brakes (which are shotty at best) and ran right into her passenger side door. The scooter and I made a dramatic fall to the ground and my school bag flew off to the side. Surprisingly I wasn't hurt, not even a scratch. My scooter was not hurt, not even a scratch. I do not know if the lady's van had any damage, I'd doubt it. She stopped and got out with a confused look on her face. I yelled in frustration- "You have to use a blinker!" flashing my hand as best I could like a blinker. She, no doubt, had absolutely no idea what I was saying. I showed her my blinker on my scooter and said "you can't make a last minute turn!" I got back on my scooter and pulled away yelling some English gibberish that she could not make any sense of. I think the experience was good for me. It was inconsequential and I think it will make me a more cautious driver. So there. Also- I was not late for class.
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