Typhoon typhoon typhoon!
Man, it is raining so hard right now and winds are blowing everything around. But everyone here just enjoys the wind like it's free AC and every now and then we have to get up and mop up parts of the floor or something because of the rain.
Oh jeez, the walls started shaking in the room I'm in but my cousin is fast asleep like nothing happened.
Yesterday, we (my cousins and I) spent half the day sitting around playing computer games and watching movies. My second cousin would come over every couple minutes and beg me for the computer password so he can use it whenever he wants.
People here are pretty into Harry Potter. We went to the bookstore and we were all reading different books in different parts of the library (even me) and then after an hour, my Aunt came looking for my cousins and me and then we went to look for my Uncle. We couldn't find him for like half and hour and then we thought to call his cell phone (duhhh) and we found him standing in front of this screen watching subtitled Harry Potter like a little kid with his bigs eyes. It was quite funny how tranced he looked :)
We spent the other half of the day shopping at another department store. I bought this pair of hot, black shoes and a white purse :) My Aunt caught on to my color selection and after everything I touched that was black, white, or red, she would joke around and ask me why I didn't like the pink or blue one better.
We went to this amazing dumpling (aka pot stickers as Americans call them) restraunt and I discovered the wonderful flavor of red tea (sometimes called black tea). It's 8 dumplings for $1 US and you can get them fried or boiled.
Here's for the math wizzards:
If it is 800NT for 40 liters of gas
And 32NT (or 32.5NT to be exact) is equal to $1
How much does it cost for 1 gallon (in US dollars) in Taiwan?
Today was an icky day. Really. Though I had fun, I might have caught a cold (I know what you're thinking, "in this hot weather?").
The typhoon today started earlier in the day and it was raining and pouring buckets of water down from the sky, but I had stubbornly worn the shortest shorts I had and my Krispy Kreme shirt along with flip flops, so I was instantly soaked to the bone.
My Aunt and I went to pick up and drop off my younger cousin (we call him Little Tim because my brother is Big Tim) and his two little friends. It kind of makes me wish I had a younger brother because they were all so funny and cute! One of them was this little, skinny, lanky kid with a big smile and big glasses. He was kinda like the runt out of the three and they teased him the most.
We went out to this little tea shop that my Aunt goes to so much that they know here well, and bought some tea for my mom. It's my mom's favorite kind of tea and you can't find it in America, much less very easily in Taiwan. But to get to the shop we had to walk through this market under a tent and man, I gotta tell you, this was probably the most uncomfortable I've ever been in Taiwan. It was crowded, water was running through the cracks between tents, monks would randomly jump out in front of you bowing, and worst of all, there was every possible type of raw meat hanging or being butchered. Beef, chicken, chicken heads, every type and size of fish, squid, octopus, duck, and the worst was I saw a pig's head hanging. Ohhhmygosh I got so bothered my nerves became all shot.
We went out to lunch and I was shaking really bad because I was so disturbed and cold and wet and I think I dropped food out of my chopsticks like 3 times because I was shaking so badly. Luckily my Aunt didn't notice because then she would have freaked out, taken me home, made me drink a gallon of tea, and felt bad for the rest of the day.
To add to that, I had to pee really bad and went to the Taiwan version of a porta-potty which made me feel even more sick.
At least I'm warmer and showered now, and the Typhoon is blowing so wildly that I'm not even hot or sweaty. I'm feeling better although I still didn't gain my appetite back (we went to this amazing burger place, the one I told you about, for dinner and I couldn't even finish my meal).
My Aunt and myself talked about family, relationships, friendships, school, cars, clothes, shoes, careers, traffic, robotics, my mom, my parents, food, my Uncle (her husband), and Coldstone. I think I'm a little homesick right now talking about home so much.
Okay I have to wrap it up because my Aunt says the power might go out (and all my email thoughts might go to waste - haha). But this Typhoon is scaring me a little bit