Typhoon Day!! Day 1

Where in the World is D Today?

Chillin' at Starbucks.

Today I didn't have to work because it's a Typhoon Day! Here in Jhongli, it's not too bad, so far. I walked to Starbucks without any problems. The hardest part of my walk was convincing the guy outside the KTV I really did NOT want to come in for a beer.

*That will make sense to Taiwan people, but not to everybody else. In short, there are two types of KTV. One type of KTV you go sing with your friends, be silly and have fun. The other KTV men go to, "to have a..... beer" You can fill in the blanks yourself.

Since I have the basic philosophy and personality type that will talk to anybody who is friendly to me, it sometimes leads to interesting and sometimes comical situations. The KTV guys are usually very nice to me but usually don't speak English. So the explanations of "beer" are usually physical gestures and pretty descriptive. Everybody usually has a pretty good laugh at it. Like I said, they're always nice to me. But I have enough Chinese now, that I can tell them No, I don't want that. They smile and wave and say bye-bye. Sometimes they give me a card and shake my hand. I have generally stopped going down the streets where I know that I will get approached. But it was during the day and these places are generally closed early afternoon. But maybe they open early on Typhoon Days! Or maybe everybody doesn't get the day off for Typhoon Days. Starbucks is open, so why not KTV. The service industry is the service industry no matter how you slice it, right? HA!

They rest of my Typhoon day looks to be a bit boring. My landlord didn't pay the internet/cable bill!! I'm irritated on multiple levels. There's a Typhoon and I'm completely cut off from the world unless I go out in to the dang Typhoon to use the internet at starbucks.

I went to the gym but it was closed for the Typhoon Day. It should be noted that I do understand why some places are closed. People commute from all over. So just because it is sort of calm in Jhongli, another county may be getting hammered. So it is safest to NOT make people go to work. So I'll keep hanging out here at Starbucks for a bit. Do some Chinese homework, etc. I can write my Chinese name now. It takes about a full minute to do. But that is a big improvement from it taking 2-3 minutes just to write the first word!

That'll do it for now.

Peace
戴格智