Typhoon Soulik - Update 1

I will try to update as regularly as I have new information.  

I have new information.  And some old information that you all might just want to know.  

In case you were wondering.  I live in Taichung right now.  Which is in North-Central Taiwan.  

I'm really proud of how accurate that pin is.  Like EXACTLY where I live.  Doing this for Taiwan is hard because the English spelling of Chinese words (pinyon) is hardly standardized. 

Time for a little geography lesson.  Taiwan is an island formed from a mountain range deep on the ocean floor.  What that means is that the entire center (spine) of Taiwan is all mountains.  Pretty high mountains for the region too.  

What do you remember from 4th grade?  The blue part is obviously land.  (AD shout out!)

Mountains and typhoons have an interesting relationship.  Interestingly enough Taichung is probably the safest city on this island in the case of a typhoon.  We are very well protected by the mountains and are significantly more inland than many of the other cities. 

Additionally, typhoons are a part of everyday life here.  Think about how the US would be reacting if a Cat IV hurricane was heading for NYC.  The collective freakout would probably register on the Richter Scale.  Here?  Not a word.  Ruth and I were chatting with the woman who was doing our facials tonight and she was not in the last bit worried.  Taiwan and Typhoons.  They are practically synonymous.  This small island nation has to be built to withstand gale force winds and torrential rain.  There are channels cut into the ground to guide run off from the mountains.  All of the rivers have overflow basins.  Flooding procedures along the coasts are standard.  They've done this before and they will do it again.  It is nothing new.  

Now for news of Soulik himself.  Tracking has, surprise surprise, changed.  

Let me break this image down a little bit for you since I think a lot of the time people misread these things.  The color of the typhoon symbol indicates its wind speed. Soulik is still teetering on the edge of being a supertyphoon but I'm not going to go into that now.  He's clocking winds of up to 155 mph.  Land masses have a tendency to cool oceanic waters down and so as Soulik draws nearer to Taiwan and further into the East China Sea, the water feeding the typhoon will be considerably colder.  This tends to weaken hurricanes and typhoons.  As a typhoon weakens it is carrying around less moisture and mass and tends to speed up its movement as a whole (not the wind speed.)  Right now Soulik is a slow moving storm, he has been this whole time, averaging around 12 knots.  As we look at the distance between the typhoon symbols in 12 hour increments, we see that the three purple dots and the one red one are about the same distance apart (the typhoon is maintaining a steady speed.)  However, after landfall in Taiwan the green symbol is quite a bit further away.  Our typhoon is going to weaken.  This is all very typical.  The yellow circles around each typhoon symbol is an estimated range of where the eye of the storm may be.  Because computer predicting models are only so good the further out in time you try to predict the less accurate the model will be.  

But why the sudden drop from a Cat III storm to a TS in the span of less than 200 miles?  

If you've ever lived in a mountainous area with an otherwise predictable weather pattern (like Denver) then you are familiar with the fact that mountains do crazy things to weather.  They sometimes act like literal speed bumps for huge storms.  In this case, it would seem that Soulik is going to rage into Taiwan with 130 mph winds and then have the life squeezed out of him between the upper layers of the atmosphere where typhoons don't thrive and the jagged tops of Yushan and the like.  All of the moisture being sucked up into this beast is going to rain down on Taiwan in a fury of gales and lashing branches.  While over land, typhoons don't usually grow stronger as sources for warm water are not prevalent.  So once the life is sucked out of Soulik over Taiwan he will float on his merry way and enter China as a Tropical Storm, soon to be a Tropical Depression and then just a band of slow moving, barely menacing thunderstorms sprinkling on Korea after the storm hooks back out over the Yellow Sea.  

Soulik looks like he might weaken a bit in the next 6-8  hours because of some cold water pockets, but there is definitely a window for re-intensification in the 12 hours after that.  

"Wonderful!" you say.  "That's all fine and dandy, Bess.  But what about you!?"  

Me?  I'm fine.  I live on the 2nd floor of a recently renovated home with sturdy walls.  Ruth and I stocked up on junk food, ice cream, baked treats the essentials tonight.  Tomorrow we will grab a couple extra gallons of water, find the flashlights, etc.  We have hours and hours of movies to watch, board games to play, and girl talk to have.  We are soooooooo fine.  

I will continue to update the blog as things change.  There is plenty of time for this storm to morph into a million other things.  He could fizzle out over a trough of cold water before even reaching Taiwan.  He also could benefit from a decidedly warm wind coming up from the Philippines and strengthen into a true supertyphoon.  I will not be counting my chicks before they are hatched.  

Blog updates will go on as scheduled.  I have a rivetingly delicious one that is set to go up at 8am Thursday morning CST.  In the event that the power goes out I will have limited means to update the blog but I will do my best to be in contact with my family who will then post news as they feel appropriate.  

I want this one.  Ruth is rooting for classes to be cancelled on Friday.  Send safe thoughts and prayers my way but don't wish the storm to disappear.  I want the experience and I love the excitement.  I'll see if I can snap a few photos too.  :)  

Last post until the morning! 

B

Typhoon Soulik

The last couple of days the weather weirdo in me has been clambering and prying its way out. 

TYPHOON!

This little gem has popped up over the Pacific and is making its way towards the South China Sea as we speak. 

Look at that circulation. The support bands.  The clusters of thunderstorms.  :D

Soulik is clocking in maximum sustained winds at around 130 kt and gusts up to 160 kt.  For those non-nautical/aviation folks, we're looking at a storm that has sustained winds in the range of 150 to 160 mph.  Soulik's eye is estimated to be about 25 nm across (just shy of 30 miles) and is incredibly well formed.  He's a Category IV for the time being.  So far, what makes this storm impressive is its height.  It seems to be extremely tall and is therefore capable of dumping absurdly huge amounts of rain.  There are very well formed thunderstorms that are supporting the typhoon which were photographed from a NASA satellite that flew over the area early this morning.  Favorable winds and water conditions will continue to fuel this storm as a Cat IV until it is just nearly directly south of Japan when it will encounter a subtropical steering ridge and turn towards the north.  At least, that is what the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor, HI is saying.  Soulik is right on the edge of being a supertyphoon right now and as it continues to build strength over warmer waters that classification should stand.

For a long time the NWS was showing the track of this storm much farther to the north.  They finally came around and admitted it is headed straight for Taiwan. 

The tracking for this storm has been wobbly at best.  I'm not used to following storms in the Pacific like this so I'm unfamiliar with their tendencies and also the tendencies of the reporting authorities.  As best as I can tell this storm is going to hit northern Taiwan with significant force if not the brunt of the storm.  The rocky geography of the island will take its toll and Soulik will be downgraded to a CAT I or TS before it reaches mainland China.  The diameter of the storm is out to about 200 nm right now and might contract as its strength grows.  No matter where the eye of the storm passes, I will be affected.


AND I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!  


Excuse me while I go hoard water and non-perishable foods.  I'll keep you updated as the storm progresses.  For now we have blue skies and big white puffy clouds.  I expect the wind to pick up tonight. 

Q&A - Week 4

The point of the Q&A posts was certainly not to ensure that I wrote once a week... but that is what they've turned into.  I apologize.  I find myself working many hours these days and rarely ever leaving the school campus. There isn't much on the campus that is interesting enough to write about so I have to stockpile the interesting for later.

1)  What are you going to do for the 4th?  (Wayne)

Well.  Last weekend a few of us went to a 4th of July/Canada celebration that was put on by the City of Taichung Chamber of Commerce.  It was a good  attempt at providing the many ex-pats and foreigners here in Taiwan some good ol' 'Merican patriotism.  There were Exploding Cheese Hamburgers and craft beer.  There were men selling Indian food and more with Turkish ice cream.  There were German pork steaks and a Mexican stall complete with quesadillas.  There was Spanish paella and sangria and so on.  As best as I can tell, for the Taiwanese, "American" is anything that isn't Asian.

This was the sky as we were leaving for the festival.  Photo credit goes to Andrew. 

There was also American/Canadian style music.  The band that played while were there was a trio of Indie Rockers from Glasgow....

I rest my case.  It was a good try.

I'd seen this particular Turkish Ice Cream guy.  I knew that he messed with people when they bought their cone.  So when Andrew said that he was going to partake (unknowing of the comedy to come) I whipped out the camera and thought I would try to catch it.  Mildly successful I think. Editor's note: This is what happens when you don't check your settings before you take a photo. 

I did do one extremely American thing that night however.  I finally got my hands on good cheese.   Heck, GREAT cheese.  The Wisconsin in me is still alive and well.

On the 4th specifically I did... nothing. Some of the Americans on the Morrison Campus had a bon fire and some sparklers.  Mostly, I stressed about work and spent a few hours preparing for my classes the next morning.

2)  Junk food.  Give us a break down. (Janet)

Everything. They have Lays, and Doritos, and Ferroro Rocher.  Granted not all things taste the same.  They also have new things like pea chips and shrimp chips (no I haven't tried them yet), they have horse beans (I'll leave that for another post) and almost everything is garlic flavored.

A common snack for me is dried mango and cashews.  Or chocolate covered almonds.  Or popcorn chicken (available semi-fresh from your local 7/11). 

3)  Where the HECK have you been?

Right.  Okay.  So.  What?  The last week and a half has been really quite hard.  I have been working many, many hours.  I've had some big, big decisions on my plate.  I've also been waging a war on all fronts in our home against bugs and vermin.  The housing provided to us by our employer has some serious cockroach, mosquito, spider, mice, gecko, etc problems.  After waking up from a short nap on the couch Friday afternoon with a cockroach in my hair I LOST IT.  I booked a hotel in downtown Taichung and I was out of there in less than an hour.  My roomies and I spent the weekend at a schmancy hotel downtown and did absolutely nothing.  We lounged around in comfortable beds.  We soaked in functioning air conditioning.  We enjoyed the bug free bathrooms.  It was a little slice of heaven.  Most importantly... we did no work.  Work was not an option.  We didn't discuss work, we didn't whine about work, we didn't do any work.  We just vegged.

I've learned to appreciate my surroundings and the effect they have on my mood.  The last two weeks I have not had any motivation to blog just because I could never relax.  I was always watching out for a cockroach to run across my foot, or a gecko above my head.  That's no way to live.  Thankfully, Ruth and I managed to arrange other housing which we moved into last night.  Let me tell you.  It is great!  I slept so well last night.  I had a calm morning where I actually sat down and ate breakfast.  I'm organized and clean and ready to go.  I actually tried to look cute for work because I could use the bathroom to get ready without a full on offensive from the spider clan.  There are of course lingering stresses but hopefully in the next week my blood pressure will return to a normal, healthy state and my blogging will resume as normal.  I do have quite a lot of fun things to write about.  At least I think so. 

Check back for your normal programming starting this week. :)

Friday Q&A - Week 3 For Real!

Well, folks, now that I am feeling a wee bit better on a bunch of cold medicine, I am sitting down to write the Q&A post for this week.  The turn out for questions was a bit low but have no fear I will still make a good post.  I'm so good to you guys. :-p

Let's get a few of the little questions out of the way. 

1. Have you found any square dances? (From Dawn)

No ma'am.  I have not.  However, I haven't exactly been trying.  I did a bit of research before I came and realized that there are a few clubs in Taipei but not many elsewhere.  Actually, not any elsewhere.  I have been so busy with work stuff and being social with the people I have met I haven't had much as a frog's hair of time to make an effort for a dance.  To be true, the draw of dancing for me back in WI was always the people.  I am sure I could find Taiwanese equivalents of all of you but I don't think it would be quite the same ;)  Have no fear Jerry and Zodie,  I am still trying to remember my A lessons.  MIX!  

2. I still want to know if people in Taiwan are pet freaks like so many people here.  Do they have pets?  Is it normal?  What kind of pets? (From Ellen)

Yes.  People are freaks about pets here.  Specifically dogs.  Just not normal dogs.  You'd never see a Labrador or a Cocker Spaniel here.  Every single dog you see is a toy dog.  They are all miniature versions of what they are supposed to be.  They are all perfectly groomed to be as cutesy as possible.  You will usually see a toy poodle being carried through the night markets or through the grocery store.  You will see just as many men carrying these dogs as women.  On the flip side there are a lot of stray dogs.  They all seem to be either total mutts or there is a breed of dog here I don't know about which is entirely possible.  They are all kind of short and a little mangy (probably because they live on the streets Bess, duh.)  In the village right down the street it seems like some of the shop owners have unofficially adopted these dogs and they are usually quite friendly.  

For example, the salon where I go to get my massage and hair done there is a pleasant lady dog who has become a friend of mine.  She prefers to guard my chair while I am being attended to.  She only leaves my side when her male owner steps outside but as soon as he is back she is back to nuzzling my hand with her wet nose for ear scritches.  She could not be a stray dog at all for all I know.  I only say she might have been a stray at one point because she doesn't wear a collar and she has the same look as the rest of the street dogs although better groomed.  My favorite part about her is that one ear sticks straight up and the other droops low.  Here she is sitting next to me and watching the door on my most recent visit.  I tried to take a photo of her while I was scratching her ears but she wasn't having it.  

In conclusion, Aunt Ellen, the answer is yes the people here are freaks about pets, no it is totally not normal by our standards, and I've only ever seen dogs.  Oh and one other thing, sometimes you will see people walking their dogs but driving along the side of the road very slowly on their scooter holding the leash in their hand.  It is quite entertaining. 

3. Will you be going to any festivals?  (From Linda)

Yes.  In fact, we are going to one tonight.  It is a festival here in Taichung for Fourth of July.  Obviously it is mostly foreigners and expats who go but I guess a few thousand people turn out every year.  There is live music and good food from what I hear.  I will let you know more when I get back.  :)

4.  Do you see many butterflies?  They are supposed to have many. (From Linda) 

Honestly.  I've seen one.  A HUGE black one.  It landed on my head one day when I was standing out in the courtyard at school.  It scared the bajeebers out of me and all my students laughed at me.  I have no doubt that they have a lot of butterflies here but even though I live in a "rural" part of Taichung I still live in a city by any definition. Perhaps there would be more butterflies in a even more rural part of Taiwan.  

5.  What the heck are you doing there, Bess?! (From a few people)

Good question my friends.  A introductory answer to this question can be found over at the About page.  However, now that I am here in Taiwan a few of those things have been slightly altered so I will be addressing this topic more in depth later this week.  Check back for that. 


Bonus!

Ever since I did the Taiwanese Scootering 101 post I have been trying to snag photos of the funnier scooter situations.  I finally got one.  We sometimes say that the scooter is like the Taiwanese sedan.  

Exhibit A:

Sorry that it is a little hard to see.  I had to act quickly. 

By counting limbs you can tell that there are actually four people on this scooter.  Dad driving is quite obvious, as is Mom.  You can see Junior's arm emerging from what I can only imagine is a very confined space between Dad's back and Mom's chest.  You can also just barely see the top of Juniorita's helmet and one of her feet in what is also probably quite a small space between Dad's chest and the handle bar of the scooter.  It truly is a family vehicle here. 

I'll do my best to snap a few more photos as time goes on.

Friday Q&A - Week 3

Is it Friday?
Yes

Should there be a Q&A Post?
Yes

Will there be a Q&A Post?
Yes

Will it be posted today - Friday?
No

Why not?
Bess is sick and tired and needs to get her sleep and simply doesn't have the energy.  Check back in a few days.

That is all.

Doctor's Visit

So about two weeks ago I had an distinctively Taiwan experience.  I wanted to share it with you guys because I think you might find it interesting. 

A little back story here.  The summer after my freshman year of college I had a pretty invasive surgery to repair a bunion and stress fractures in my left foot.  It laid me up for the entire summer, was quite painful, and for the most part successful.  I was left with a pretty large scar and some weird nerve connections.  The doctor put in a titanium plate and four titanium screws to fuse together the affected joint.  The screws will stay in for the rest of my life unless a problem arises.  

That foot has always been a little tender since then.  If I stub my toe or hit the scar it certainly isn't a joyous experience.  However, about two weeks after I got to Taiwan I started noticing a bump on the top of my foot.  It would swell occasionally and was painful when touched.  It slowly got more painful and from messing around with it I realized that I could feel the head of one of the screws.  

I began to worry that something had shifted and that the screw was starting to back out of the bones and wasn't sure what to do.  In mentioning this to our neighbors, the Johnsons, they explained to me how the medical system works here.  

If you are a permanent resident, citizen, or have an Alien Resident Card (ARC) you are entitled to the socialized healthcare which cuts most doctor bills in half.  I don't have healthcare so I was worried about going to the doctor, thinking it would be outrageously expensive. I was also worried that I wouldn't be able to find a doctor that I could effectively communicate with.  

As the beginning of my teaching was coming closer I started to worry more and I decided that I needed to do something.  It was starting to affect the way that I walked.  

I asked the Johnsons to help me and they stepped right up.  They knew an orthopedic doctor about 10 minutes away that they had seen multiple times before.  Added bonus: he spoke English!  I learned afterwards that all medical students in Taiwan are required to speak English - just depends on how well they do. 

The office hours were something like 9am-12pm, 3-6pm and 7-9pm.  Which seems logical.  They take time off for lunch and dinner and get to spend time with their families.  They have a few hours to run errands, go to the bank, do all of those things that are hard to fit in at weird times.  It also gives patients who work full time jobs the ability to visit the doctor without missing work.  Why don't we do this in the states?  If you get sick outside of normal business hours then well... too bad for you!

Anywho.  The Johnsons were willing to take me to the doctor themselves.  Mrs. Johnson was an RN back in the States and in the last 28 years in Taiwan she has picked up a pretty good understanding of the language. 

I had to fill out some paper work but because I'm not Taiwanese and I don't have an ARC I didn't have much to write down.  Heck I don't even have a real address.  Approximately two minutes later I was in talking to the doctor.  He spoke perfect English! I explained the situation and he pushed and poked around my foot for a while, asked a few questions, prodded a little more, made me squirm a little and then proudly announced I needed some x rays.  My American healthcare system experience has trained me such that immediately red flags with dollar signs went off in my head.  Shoot, I thought, this is going to be expensive!  I was also worried about it taking a long time.  I didn't want to make the Johnsons stay any longer than necessary.  I envisioned waiting for hours. 

Less than a minute later I was in with the doctor taking x-rays.  Next I had to wait a whopping 4 minutes for the x-rays to be developed.  Shortly there after I was in the doctor's office again going over the x-ray.  

This is what we call hardware. 

The results were that everything actually looks really good.  He said the person who put the plate in did a really good job.  The bones have fused together nicely and nothing seems to be out of place.  What I am experiencing is some arthritis due to the extra stress being put on other joints in my foot since that one is immobilized.  As soon as he said that I remembered that my surgeon told me that probably would happen.  I just didn't think it would happen so soon. 

He commanded that I rest for two weeks.  No jumping, no running, no dancing, just nice easy relaxation.  

I was in and out of the office within 20 minutes.  But now comes the best part.  The entire visit, including my x-rays (burned to a CD for me so I could send them back to the States) cost me 500 NT.  That is USD$16.64.  Yes.  That is less than my copay with health insurance back in the States.  I didn't make an appointment.  I didn't deal with any nurses.  I just talked to the doctor like a normal human being.  I had a problem, he addressed it, and I left.  It seems so simple.  Why is it so hard?

The Johnsons told me that if I had done the same thing with the healthcare here it would have probably cost me about 200 NT (USD$6).  The downsides they have identified is that the doctors tend to be very cautious and can over diagnose and hyper prescribe.  As a part of national law they can only distribute three days worth of medicine at a time, which you pick up directly from any doctor.  They tend to prescribe more medicines (even ones you can pick up at any grocery store) because it is a way to make a little money.  However, the biggest difference they talked about was that for the Taiwanese the idea of being a doctor isn't about being rich.  It is accepted as upper middle class position so the doctors are not seen as money grabbing.  People trust them more, people see them more, and the system works.  

I, in no means, want to start a political discussion about socialized health care or health care back in the States.  I simply wanted to share my experience with you guys, especially since it was so positive.  
In the two weeks since I have tried my best to rest but I've begun to get stir crazy.  The rest period has ended.  I went to a boxing class and a jiu jitsu class tonight.  I highly doubt the doctor would consider that rest.  Ah well.   I will tell you about my experience at class a different time! 

Adventures in Taipei

Welcome to the real world Bess.  Welcome.  Weekend is over.  Time to work. 

I had a girls weekend in Taipei and I would say it went pretty smoothly.  

I had my first High Speed Rail (HSR) experience and it was fantastic!  The magnetic levitation technology is mind blowing!  I had a nerdy discussion about it with my coworker Andrew (he is a mechanical engineer) and that made the trip all the more cool.  

Here Ruth is modeling our waiting for the train to arrive.  It pulled up in the split second between when I pushed the button and when the shutter actually moved.  That is how fast it is!

Snacks are required for every train ride.  Fact.

Ruth and I were on our own for most of the day.  We wandered about and tried to do some shopping.  We were feeling unsuccessful so we settled for getting a mani/pedi.  

Do you see my little piggy toes?  There they are!

Ruth was such a good sport.  You can kind of see me taking the photo.  These people took FOREVER to do our nails.  We were in there for over an hour and a half.  And within seconds of leaving the salon Ruth's toes were ruined and three of my fingers were smudged.  I don't know how we could sit there that long and the polish still was not dry.  It was frustrating but we didn't let it get us down. 

We kept on with our shopping and saw a few examples of "Engrish."  We use this term to describe any examples of a Mandarin to English translation gone wrong.  

For example.  What do you guys think this one is supposed to mean?

Yes.  The bear has stars for ears and in case you can't read it his face is missing all the normal features and instead just says "Sir."  Huh?

We didn't stop in here but I sure wish we would have.  Anyone have a good joke to go with this one?

Anyone see the "My Deer" store in the back?  

This isn't exactly an example of Engrish but I just can't figure out what it is supposed to be.  Can someone tell me what the shadow is and why it is there?

Or do I not want to know?

This is one of my favorites.  We see this all over Taiwan.  I think it is a tourism advertisement.  Nonetheless it makes me giggle every time I see it.  We've taken to making a game of it.  If we see one while walked around one of us shouts out, "Taiwan touches MY heart!"  Teehee.  

Mom.  I've found the perfect purse for you.  If it only had an asterisks that specified Panera salad.  I'm not sure I understand why this is a thing.  

I am equally unsure as to why there is this stuffed deer in the middle of this shop.  Any ideas?

Oh hai!

However entertaining all of those things were.  This was by far the most frightening!  Yikes.  Just yikes.  Who can come up with the best caption for this one?

And the last photo for this post.  All you square dancers you can buy your petty pants here for about USD$3.  I'm not sure what the Taiwanese girls here use them for but I am sure they use them.  The Taiwanese female style is very "cutesy" and young.  Even the older women dress like they are twelve.  It was very frustrating shopping since none of the clothes fit me and none of them were my style.  :(  

Alright.  Maybe that wasn't my last photo.  We might have one more.  Anyways.  After hours of grueling shopping we took a little rest break for lunch and devoured an embarrassing amount of KFC.  I'm getting a little sick of Taiwanese food and so I needed a taste of home. 

So much chicken.

After our caloric intake we decided to head back and rest for a bit.  After we recruperated we met up with our other coworker Wendy and we all went to a lounge/club called Brown Sugar.  It is a jazz bar essentially that caters mostly to foreigners.  We sat around, ate more fried American food, and listened to a great jazz singer.  It was a good night to just relax. 

We made a point of sleeping in the next day.  Sleep is not something any of us have been getting in surplus lately.  There is always more work to do.  Then we took an early afternoon train back and this was the view from the HSR station.  

Most of Taichung is in this picture in some way or another.  My back is to the outlying rural areas of the city and beyond that is the ocean.  In front of me is downtown Taichung and then the mountains that make up the center of Taiwan. 

It was a great trip to Taipei.  I was happy to feel like I got to use my camera some.  Sorry for the photo overload but I though you might enjoy it a little.  

Back to teaching now.  Let me know what you think of the funny things I saw!