How many storms does it take to ruin a vacation?

The answer is "Somewhere between two and four."

I've been obsessing over the weather ever since Ketsana plowed through The Philippines and threatened my vacation. Apparently there are three more storms on its coat tails.

From left to right you will see the path Tropical Storm Ketsana took before it became a typhoon and slammed into Vietnam. Next is Typhoon Parma which is already forecast to hit a Category 3 and effect both the northern portion of The Philippines (i.e. Manila again) and possibly southern Taiwan as well.

Then there is Tropical Depression Eighteen. I have no idea what to think about that one.

Last but not least is Tropical Storm Melor which is forecast to become a Category 1 typhoon as we are all switching our calendars to October. Melor is also forecast to head toward Taiwan.

Of course, we all know how fickle these storms can be (in other words, how rarely meteorologists get it right this far out). We have days before we can be sure what will happen.

It looks as though two of them are headed for Taiwan. The Central Weather Bureau here is going nuts. They're watching and waiting on the edge of their seats. I think they're probably nervous that they'll mess up like they did with Morakot and people are going to get angry again.

Then again, Morakot was also a much slower storm than what Parma is forecast to be. It was barely a Category 1 storm when it made landfall.

My hope is that these things don't mess with Taiwan too much until after Meghan gets here. I don't want her to get stranded in Hong Kong or something like that. At least if she gets here we can hole up in the apartment together and weather the storm drinking wine, watching movies and talking about boys.

Then hopefully it will all have passed by the time we're ready to head out to The Philippines.

Darn storms going and messing up all my plans. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll just all dissipate into thin air.

Why won't it stop raining?

So I really love rain, honestly. Rain smells good, the sound of it hitting the windows is relaxing and the moisture in the air is great for my skin (I have inherently dry skin).

But wow, lay off already.

There was so much rain in three days that — for fear of it over flowing — they had to release some of the water from the Shihmen Reservoir, which as of Thursday night was less than half full.

There is so much moisture in the air that the laundry I hung up to dry 24 hours ago is still wet. Seriously! I wanted to wear those jeans today.

Note to self: give two days to do laundry just in case.

We don't have a dryer, so it's not even an option. At the dorm we had a dryer that you had to pay $40NT for. I was happy to spend the little extra cash simply to be able to get my laundry done in a reasonable amount of time.

The next two weeks are going to be super long.

I was supposed to start three new classes last week — one Tuesday, one Friday, one Saturday — but because of the typhoon I only ended up starting the Tuesday class.

Now they're adding another class to my schedule on Thursday so I'm starting three new classes this week. I'm also subbing both of Tess' summer classes which meet with the foreign teacher twice per week instead of once. That's an extra six hours on top of the usual two-to-four hours per night.

I'm clocking 33 hours this week and next. Of course, I suppose next week I could get even more if they decide to add even more classes to my schedule.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be getting new classes. The sooner I get a full schedule the better. I'm considering the option of teaching outside classes. Gloria sent out a flier to each teacher today asking if we want to teach outside classes.

I need to look at the details more closely. I don't know if these are at local public schools or other bushibans (cram schools) or what (and I'm not sure about the legality of it). I just really like the idea of paying down my debt and saving a lot of money.

I would be so happy if I could get my sister completely paid back by the end of September. Then I need to save for my vacation in October and my vacation to go home (whenever that happens). I also want to try to pay down at least one-third of my student loans while I'm here and hopefully go home with some cash.

I was also considering a month-long trip to Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand, but now that's starting to sound like I'm pushing it.

We will see.

What is this the "Iron Chef"?

We pretty much holed up in our apartment for two days. Well I did anyway.

Good ol' Typhoon Morakot ended up hitting the south a lot harder than everyone had anticipated. It was supposed to come right over Taoyuan, but the worst we got we a little rain and some winds that didn't seem very bad.


Up in our fifteenth floor apartment, we opted for throwing paper airplanes out the window to see which way they went. (Straight up until they were destroyed by the wind, rain or both, by the way.)


A long exposure on Friday night. The sky looked so awesome.

Apparently the storm actually killed 10 people and caused several landslides, etc. Not to be insensitive, there is no way you would believe that if you were here in Taoyuan.


Taiwan is also no longer nearing a drought after getting over a meter of rain in two days.

Meanwhile, school was cancelled both Friday and Saturday. Thursday night Katie and I went ot Carrefour (and so did the entire population of Taoyuan City) to grab the essentials: water, flashlight, food, booze.

I think our tiny little refrigerator had more green and brown glass bottles in it than it did food.


This is 7 a.m. Saturday. Strange considering the storm hadn't even passed us yet. It looked incredible.

Saturday night we had Megan over for dinner since it would be the last time she got to see Tess (insert sad face here). Tess is going on vacation and won't be back until after Megan leaves to go home (and then the White House, eek).

We had decided earlier in the day that we would each make one thing. Justin and Katie made black bean burger patties and a mango curry sauce to go on top. I made (an awesome) mango salsa. And Tess made a salad with cabbage, carrots, cucumber, broccocoli and mango.

Notice a theme?

It actually happened sort of by accident but I swear it seemed like an Iron Chef dinner. You know, they have one main ingredient that has to appear in every dish.

Merely a couple of weeks ago I decided I didn't really like mangos. I think I should alter than slightly. I don't like mangos by themselves, but mixed with the proper ingredients, they can be incredible. You can find the recipe for the salsa on my food blog Cathartic Kitchen.

And, yes, I know that blog is in dire need of some work. I started putting it together before I realized I would be moving to Taiwan instead of D.C.

Now that's it's Sunday, all of my roommates have left for vacations. Tess is back in Canada for two weeks and Katie and her boyfriend, Justin, are in Peng Hu.

What should I do with an apartment to myself for five days?


Probably clean. Our pile of shoes next to the door is nothing compared to our kitchen after a million people showed up last night. Impromptu parties are the best.

What does Morakot mean?

Taiwan is about to be engulfed in a typhoon.



I have been obsessively watching the radar of Typhoon Morakot. The storm is actually quite large and it appears the eye will be almost directly over Taoyuan by Friday night.

It's funny to see this tiny little island covered by the storm on a satellite picture. I can't even imagine a storm that covers Texas, much less the entire USA. The size of this country is still a little bizarre to me.

I read that the high-wind portion of the storm (technical term) is estimated to be about 250km (about 150 miles) wide. That's less than the distance between Austin and Dallas.

I know it's supposed to be scary, but I'm actually kind of excited to finally get through my very first typhoon. I've never been in one before. I've seen my fair share of tornados though.

Morakot — which is apparently Thai for emerald — is currently rated a Category 1 storm on both the Western and Taiwanese scales, though it is quickly picking up speed. Apparently, in Taiwan they only have Tropical Depression, Category 1, Category 2 and Category 3, as opposed to the Western version with a Tropical Depression, a Tropical Storm and then Categories 1-5.

Wunderground shows that the storm will be a Category 3 (on both scales) by the time it hits us directly. The eye should make landfall tonight on the East coast. Winds are can get high upward of 130 mph. (Yes, I used Google to convert that from kilometers. The metric system means nothing to me.)

I was told to be careful of flooding, but living on the 15th floor, I somehow don't believe that will be an issue.

I guess I need to head over to the Carrefour to buy some water (the water mains will probably shut off if it gets as bad as they say) and food to get us through the next two days.