"Teechur Rora"

Hello to everyone that reads this! I'm sure once things in Taiwan become less and less novel I will be blogging less, but as it is here is a short update! The title of this post is something that continually makes me smile as a teacher in Taiwan. Most of the children here cannot say my name. Instead I am called, "Rora, Rola, Dora, etc...." Dora is a big one, and I'd like to say it's because of that Spanish explorer phenomenon... Anywho, it's really cute watching a class of 12 adorable pudgy faces try and work through my name. The ones that sort of get it then love to repeat it over and over again (which soon loses it's cuteness...).

I guess my big news after this weekend then is to report on Super Typhoon Sinlaku that "took us by storm" so to speak. Though Kate and I were excited to see our first tropical storm, we were majorly disappointed! Lacking true windows in our apartment (we only look out to see city balconies), we mostly experienced Sinlaku by sound (it was quite loud!). Unfortunately we just spent most of the weekend bored inside the apartment itching to get some fresh air. We did make a mission to Pizza Hut on Sunday evening (after we had lost our umbrella's on Saturday evening...). The pizza was definitely worth getting soaked to the bone and lost in Taipei on a bus!

Today I read in the Taipei Times that we clearly did not experience the worst of the Typhoon as apparantly 18,000 households lost electricity and hundreds lost water (ironic in a rain storm...). In our neighbourhood we had some trees fall down but most of the cleanup was done before I went to teach this morning. Here is a photo from Saturday night (we went to the local bar during the beginning of the Typhoon...)

I'd like you all to believe that I pushed that tree over myself... Though, it's pretty tiny so not the greatest accomplishment... Anyways, hope all are doing well in Canada! More updates coming soon!