Typhoon and School Activities

We had a four-day weekend for Mid-Autumn Festival, which was great. The not so great part? I barely got any sleep. Typhoon Usagi recently came to Taiwan, which meant that these past few days have been filled with a tremendous amount of rain and wind. My first umbrella got ripped apart because of how strong the winds were. Then there's the howling at night. I don't think I ever experienced this strong of a typhoon in Japan. I was honestly afraid of the windows in my apartment shattering from the sheer force of the wind, which was made all the worse by the fact that they're located right next to where I sleep. (I really don't want to wake up with a glass shard stuck in my eye.)

I already have a bit of a tough time sleeping through the night here, because I'm not used to how flat the pillow is or how hard the mattresses in Taiwan are (I know, I sound like such a princess, but I swear, I can usually sleep anywhere!). Recently I've been waking up more and more often with a serious neck ache. But these past few days, not only has there still been lots of humidity (it doesn't even go away with the storms), but the noise from the typhoon has repeatedly kept me up. It sounds like a giant smashing his big fist into the walls.

Luckily the typhoon is gone now (or so they say), so I'm hoping for a good night's sleep tonight after 4 days of little sleep. It rains so much in Taipei. I know I shouldn't be this surprised because Taiwan is a tropical country, so the rain makes sense, but it's really inconvenient. I'm kind of worried that having just one waterproof jacket won't be enough to get by here, especially during fall, when the weather becomes even more unpredictable. Plus I haven't been able to do a lot of the stuff I've been wanting to do, like running or hiking. How am I supposed to train for the race in October when I can't even run? I suppose I could run in the rain, but I'm worried about catching a cold or damaging my music player. Since I have class nearly every day, getting sick wouldn't be very pleasant.

On a good note, I'm starting some free courses this upcoming week, on top of my regular language courses. I signed up for a basic pronunciation class (I really need a tone refresher course), a TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language) listening prep course, and just for kicks, a Shaolin Fist Punch course. I don't really know what that last one entails, but I'm excited because I always wanted to do martial arts as a kid but my mom wouldn't let me (not for girls, she said). Now I can finally see what it's all about! That class filled up really quickly (only 15 spots) so I'm glad I was able to get in.

Basically, starting from this week, I'm going to be spending a lot more time on campus. They're going to do a Club Fair this week, and NCCU has a fair share of clubs, including academic clubs, athletic clubs and just-for-fun clubs. A few friends and I are planning to join the Film Club, although I'm a little worried all the movies will be in Chinese with no English subtitles. Oh well, I'm curious regardless.

I think this week will be very busy (starting a new language exchange as well!), but in a good way.