Snow Day

When I was a child growing up in Texas, snow days were few and far between.  In fact, I can only remember two, and one was due to ice, not snow.  Once we moved to Wisconsin, however, snow days became a real possibility and my number one prayer to god all winter long.

As a teacher, snow days are no less exciting.  In fact, don’t tell the students, but I’m fairly positive that teachers enjoy the day off way more than the kids.  We even have a buddy-system-slash-phone-chain to spread the Christmas cheer at 5:30am when the news channels announce school closings.  

In Taiwan, snow days are not even on the radar (haha, get it.... radar.... like doppler radar.... ).  But guess was IS possible???  Typhoons!  Now, extreme weather is nothing to laugh about.  People can get hurt.  But if you’re just a simple buxiban teacher living in Wugu, like me, the promise of a day relaxing with 8 additional hours to waste on Facebook far outweighs the dangers of drowning in a highway underpass.

Rain, rain, go away

So, Tuesday was officially a “Typhoon Day.”  It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as nicely as “Snow Day,” but it gets the job done.  And technically, there wasn’t a typhoon -- just a LOT of rain.  But let’s not split hairs, here.

What do you do on a Typhoon Day?  Thankfully, not shovel snow.  I started my typhoon day in the usual manor, putzing on iTunes and facebook-stalking people from college.  Then I got my act together and invited my friends to visit me in Wugu.  Nothing says “day of fun” like the buzzing metropolis of Wugu.

Beats shoveling snow!

Lucky for me, my friends are sympathetic, and they agreed to make the hour-plus journey from Taipei out to the boonies.  I lured them with promises of 7-11 coffee and cable television (not a joke).

Flooding in Wugu! (The picture is from Facebook)

The river behind my apartment on a normal day

The river on "Typhoon Day"

After delighting in said 7-11 coffee, we headed down the street, past the stray dogs, to my noodle lady.  If you didn’t know already, I have the best noodle lady in all of New Taipei City.  She makes delicious noodles, gives me free Chinese lessons, is very concerned about my (lack of a) love life, and best of all -- she translated her menu into English just for ME!  So of course I wanted to show her off to my big city friends.

Next, we headed back to my apartment to bask in the luxury accommodations.  My roommates had a couple friends over for dinner as well, so we all hung out together, drinking expired Taiwan beer.  (Why is this my life?)

Around 8pm, we were feeling spontaneous, and maybe a little loopy from the well-aged pijiu.  We called one of the local salons and made an immediate appointment for NINE girls.  We didn’t mention that four were non-Chinese speakers.  Eh, oh well.

Beauty school dropouts

A couple hours later, we were all looking (more) beautiful and hoping for a repeat typhoon day for tomorrow.

Glamour shots