Eye of the Storm

Typhoon Haitang hit Taiwan yesterday with fury. The government has shut down all businesses on the island today, a somewhat expected day off. It's not as bad as the last one though. Last year we got one, the wind was so strong it whistled and the windows shook and rattled so much in the middle of the night that I feared they would cave in so I retreated to the bathroom where I sat for nearly an hour.

I just came back from a walk outside. There's something so dangerous yet eerily alluring about the ultra high speed winds of a typhoon. Armed with a full body 7-11 poncho, I walked around the block. I passed fallen branches, leaf covered cars on the side of the road, the occasional taxi, a few pedestrians struggling with their bent umbrellas. I only got scared when I saw roofing bricks strew across the sidewalk. I thought to myself, "Hey, it would probably hurt if I got clonked in the head by one of those." So I made my way back home but stopped in the small sheltered area by my bank and stayed there for a good twenty minutes watching Mother Nature release her anger.

The rain comes down sideways in long layers. The air is fresh, so fresh and moist. Breath it up. The trees lean over. Which ones are strong enough to survive. I look over to the small atrium where the fish and the turtles in the pond swim happily in circles completely oblivious to the chaos that is happening outside their little world. Before entering my building I take a few snapshots of the sun with my water proof camera. There's an open patch up there. It seems the clouds are twisting around it. I feel strangely like I'm being watched.