Of Typhoons, Holidays, and Football

Hey readers, I just have a couple of short times that I wanted to blog about, as nothing major or super interesting has happened lately.

First, we are in the middle of a typhoon this weekend. It started, I believe, on Friday evening, and has continued through Sunday night now. On Friday the winds started to really pick up. You can especially see it when you look up at the giant palm trees on campus and the branches sway back and forth. Some even fall off.

Now I don't want to exaggerate, this is not the biggest typhoon I have been in. Also, in Chia Yi, we are in the middle of the island and are protected on the east by mountains. So for me this is more of a giant wind and rain storm, but nothing dangerous or scary. However, it has rained pretty much straight from Friday evening until now (Sunday night). So it has regulated me to a lot of indoor activities with movies and card games, along with a wet ride to church on the scooter this morning.

In addition to being a typhoon, today is Moon Festival in Taiwan, and in China. Moon Festival is typically celebrated with family getting together and recently having BBQ as a big family meal. It kind of has the family feel of Thanksgiving in America, and it is a major holiday here in Taiwan.

In fact, it is one of only three holidays that we get a vacation day for during the first semester. But alas, the Taiwan education system is not quite like the American one. Normally if this day was on a weekday, we would get a day off of school, however, since the holiday is on a Sunday we don't have to come to school. So, there is no need for a vacation day, since every one can celebrate on Sunday. This brings the first semester count for vacation days (other than weekends) down to 2 days...October 10th and Januray 1st. But hey, Happy Moon Festival everyone!!!

Finally, I do need to bring attention to my readers that Iowa beat Iowa State this weekend in football. Go Hawks!!!!! I was not able to watch the game, but gather it was pretty ugly. I did listen to the first half on the radio through an Internet website, but decided at 1:30 that the game wasn't too exciting and that I REALLY needed sleep. But it was wonderful to wake up and check the headlines. So a good game. Iowa is 3-0 and I can cheer Iowa State on the rest of the year!