My Taiwan Adventure

I swear to you I really should have persued meterology as a career. I find the forces of nature so fascinating. From tornados to hurricanes and volcanoes to earthquakes I'm always interested in knowing more. I'm such a weather geek. :)

One of the forces of nature I'm not terribly crazy about is the sea. More specifically I'm not enamoured with ferry travel on the open sea. I remember being a small child on a ferry somewhere around BC and feeling sick. My father took me on-deck to get some air and I remember the incredible wind in the dark. I thought that might have grown out of that sense of motion sickness. I wasn't sure how I'd respond to being on the open-water ferry on the way to Green Island.

What I've learned is that next time I'll fly when I choose to travel to Green Island, or at the very least take some anti-naseau pills. With the typhoon brewing off the coast on Tuesday the waves were big enough to keep me more than mildly nauseous on the way back to mainland Taiwan. Fortunately, I got to take a warm caring hand from my friend Gavin to get me through the journey both ways. I'm equally proud that I was NOT one of the vomitting passengers. Gavin later told me that the sideways rocking of the vessel was actually more dangerous than the heaving up and down which turned my stomach. Looking at the photo of the typhoon I understand why the waves were so big. :)

Torrential downpours in Southern Taiwan due to the latest typhoon Talim have seen around a meter of water fall in a 24 hour time period. How's that for rain? Gavin and I witnessed previously empty waterbeds filled to close to capacity on our 5 hour trip home to Taipei. We arrived back to see some of the aftermath of the storm. The eye passed over the island during the night. Around 3 am I was prowling around the hotel because the howling winds were keeping me awake.

With the passing of Typhoon Talim I think I finally got a couple of things across about the weather to my dear international visitor. It is hot and wet here. I wish that sentance had more impact with the people at home. I suspect you have to get to see the rain, and experience the heat in order to understand it. Yet, I blather on about this far too much.

On the way back from Keelung's Ghost Festival Parade a couple of weeks back, myself and a co-worker were approached by a young Taiwanese girl. She interviewed us both about Ghost Month and what our impressions were of the parade. I passed along my e-mail address to her to see the finished article. Today I got a link to the final article published on-line. It is full of spelling errors but it's amusing to see myself as the interviewee instead of the interviewer. *laughs* E-mail me if you want the link.