More Typhoons

My parents were supposed to arrive in Taiwan tonight but they were delayed because of a typhoon- the first typhoon that's really lived up to its name in Taiwan. It was incredibly windy last night, and very windy and rainy today- stuff blown down everywhere, kind of hard to walk on the streets. I hear it's much worse farther north- 100 mph winds and a meter of rain!

The north part of the island announced a typhoon holiday for today last night, but I had to go to work this morning. I took a taxi to the train station because I thought I'd be leaving directly from work to go the airport- it was crazy, the wind was blowing so hard that I could barely open the taxi door. It was terrible at school today, and the government called a typhoon holiday for the afternoon for the rest of the island so I went home. It's weird here- everything totally follows the government's declarations about typhoon days, which they usually call the night before. The only real typhoon day we got the weather wasn't bad at all- the paper showed pictures of a family picknicking in a part (although it did rain most of the day). You would think that down here people would say, "Well, the government didn't call a typhoon day, but I can barely stand upright in the wind and fallen tree branches have made some roads impassable, so maybe we'll tell people not to come to work," but no. Imagine if we did snow days in the US that way!

My parents' were supposed to lay over in Tokyo and then fly here, but the flight to Taiwan was cancelled, and they are spending the night in Tokyo (!). They said everyone is nice and helpful but doesn't speak much English. Should be getting to Taiwan around 10 tomorrow. We'll be spending some time in Taichung, then head down to Kenting (the beach resort area at the southern tip of Taiwan), then to Taroko Gorge, one of Taiwan's most famous tourist spots. Should be a good vacation!