Typhoon Days

Before I came to Taiwan I had heard of typhoon's and had some idea in my mind that they were something like a tidal wave. I don't know why I thought that, because I think it is more like a hurricane than anything else. So, if there is a really bad one, all the businesses close and the government declares it a Typhoon Day. Since I have been here(two months almost exactly), there have been 3 declared Typhoon Days. Two of them have been on weekends, which means the only thing I get to do is sit indoors and pout. One of them was on a weekday and we got to stay home from school. I just don't know why there can't be more during the week. Do they plan it this way?

Today, Bethany, Sam and I decided to brave the typhoon and go to FE21, the department store in town. We got a cab there, which was slightly scary because the cab was actually rocking a few times(winds can get really strong during a typhoon). We made it there, wandered around for a couple hours, spent some of our paycheck, and when we were ready to leave, we went to the front desk to have them call us a cab. "No more taxi's" we were told. What? No more? Okay....

So, we went downstairs to have a cup of coffee and decide what we were going to do for dinner. When we were just about done, we ran into a girl from work who informed us the department store would close in 10 minutes. Now it was time to really figure out how we would get home(we were not within walking distance, and it didn't really seem that safe to walk with sign posts flying around and all). Basically, we stood by the front door for about 20 minutes(yes the place closed) looking at each other, wondering what we were going to do. We asked for a taxi, and they kept telling us there weren't any. Finally, I guess we looked distressed enough and some lady came up to us and handed us a slip of paper with a four-digit number on it and said "Your taxi number". Thank goodness someone decided to call a cab company that was working and we didn't get stranded in the mall! I didn't really think anyone would just abandon three helpless-looking white people, but you just never know....

We came home and I cooked some more fajitas. Yum, that was worth it.