Day 50 -- July 13

Typhoon Soulik came in with a bang. All night until about 6 in the morning there was howling winds and rather interesting levels of destruction. It didn’t look like a war zone or anything but it definitely looked like Mother Nature had had her fun with Taipei. But after the morning, it all fell silent and I was finally able to curl up and get some sleep. I didn’t get up again until noon. I’ll probably sleep really soundly tonight. After I got up the storm had passed. It was so short it almost felt anti-climatic. The day actually turned out to be alright in terms of Taiwan weather. A little bit humid but that’s how the weather is here. But I got pictures of our felled trees and signs stuck in trees.

    I went out with Johnny and Sean around 2, at first it started as a wander around the night market. Then Mikki joined us (she’s a Taiwanese friend.) and we all made a very interesting decision, we decided to get hair cuts. After find some food, G-pai or chicken breast, she took us to this cut little shop in Gongguan and we all sat down for a good time. The people were really nice but I don’t know any of the words need to discuss a proper haircut. I decided that I was going to get it cut very short. It is too hot here for my hair to be long and also dealing with it has become very difficult. And thus I essentially pointed at a picture and hoped for the best. I personally think it turned out really well. It only cost 200 NT or about $6.50 USD. It’s a bit odd having short hair again but I think it will be better in the long run. Everyone got really awesome haircuts. Sean in particular got a bombing haircut, but unfortunately I forgot to get a picture.

Johnny and his manly pink hair robe thing

Before

After

Without the weird stuff they put into my hair

    After we finished at the hair salon we went for coffee. We just sat for a couple hours playing word and writing games for Mandarin. It was fun and I learned a few phrases and words that would probably not be taught to me for a good while. I also talked to Mikki about meeting once a week and having her help me with my vocabulary and new grammar. I will be buying her dinner and then we just talk. I really like her so I think it will work out quite nicely. It’ll also give me more opportunity to have structured conversations. We finally left the shop and made our way back to the dorms.I ate some of the food I bought earlier in anticipation of a major lock down due to the typhoon. I played around on the internet and surprised the heck out of my roommates with my new hair cut. Shilan noticed it immediately but it took Meiling a second to realize my hair wasn’t up it was gone. We all had a good laugh about it. Well last night lack of sleep is catching up with me I am going to go to bed soon. I made it through Typhoon Soulik so booyah, let’s see what tomorrow brings.