In Chinese culture, the number "8" is associated with wealth and good fortune. In Hong Kong, it's also associated with killer typhoons. Here's the breakdown of the typhoon levels: No. 1 means it just got stronger than a tropical storm, No. 3 means you should try to stay indoors as it amounts to a rather bad thunderstorm, and finally No. 8 means that both work and class get canceled and all public transportation shuts down within 2 hours of the warning. No. 8 typhoons are also announced using the "Black Signal." Well, it was just one of these "Black Signal" typhoons we were expecting Wednesday night after I wrote my last blog update. Typhoons, like hurricanes, spin off in all sorts of unpredicted directs and, let's face it, Hong Kong's a small target. This week's typhoon, "Typhoon Chanthu," looked like it was heading straight for Hong Kong for a while so we were all pretty stoked about the possibility of not having class on Thursday.
In light of this, and the fact that we had 2 birthdays on the hall, there was only one thing to do: Have a party! Admittedly, the party had been planned fairly well in advance so only the "typhoon party" aspect of it was spontaneous. Since Chris and David both had birthdays, everyone chipped in to buy a cake. There were also several runs made to Park 'n' Shop to buy other party essentials, and we even invited Han Laoshi. What's more, she actually came! I'm still astounded by this given that the party didn't start until almost 11:00pm. She brought us some interesting things to munch on, too. I particularly liked the sesame-soy fish jerky. And, if we didn't have enough food already, David's mom had arranged a surprise cake delivery for him. Considering that we had about 16 American college students and a Chinese teacher, I'm amazed some of the snacks lasted through the night.
As for the night's activities, it was nothing too complicated. I'm glad I brought my iHome because that way we were able to have some music and, in addition to that, the main feature of the evening was a 2-on-2 "beer" pong tournament. I use quotations because, in fact, we used water. Aren't we all such good exchange students? I'm just calling it "beer" pong because it's played the exact same way. I can't remember who won (if anyone) or who lost, but I think everyone got the biggest kick out of teaching Han Laoshi how to play--and she wasn't half-bad! Around 12:30am, things fizzled out and by 1:00am we were cleaning up. And you know what? Typhoon Chanthu still hadn't made an appearance. We had class in the morning.
Needless to say, of the people who even bothered to show up, everyone was in zombie-mode. I'm not proud to acknowledge the massive quantities of Coca-Cola Light I downed in an effort to defeat tiredness. My morning apple wasn't much help, either. So much for that "more caffeine than a cup of black coffee" thing. Here's one of the most important words in Chinese class: lei. It means tired. I probably use it 3-4 times a day...minimum.
Anyway, we were all kind of bummed that Typhoon Chanthu was apparently now heading straight for Cambodia. During our lunch break, the weather was just as sunny and pleasant as you can imagine. All during afternoon class, everyone was looking out the window but nothing changed. Well, that is until about 2 minutes before the end of class. Just as Yang Laoshi was wrapping things up, we heard a huge boom, saw a bright flash, and all of a sudden, it was raining buckets. One of our teachers checked the Hong Kong Observatory website with her phone and, guess what? Typhoon Chanthu changed paths again, and this time it was heading straight for Hong Kong. The weather here changes faster than I could ever have imagined.
As much as everyone had been anticipating this storm, it was no longer welcome since class was over. By the time we (finally) got back to the dorm, it was officially a No. 8 typhoon, or tai feng. For all intents and purposes, we were stranded at the dorm which, although inconvenient, was not that big of a deal to me. I just went about my regular business, did my homework, unplugged my electronics for fear of a lightening strike, and eventually sat down to read more of "Allan Quatermain."
Still, what didn't seem like a big deal to me meant trouble for some other unfortunate souls. Around 6:30pm, Chris and Justin appeared to ask what we were going to do about dinner. Personally, I was planning to cook with the ingredients I had bought the previous day in Shatin, but neither of those poor guys had any food in their rooms! I guess some people don't know to always keep emergency food (I always stock crackers and peanut butter in case we're suddenly hit with the nuclear holocaust or--oh, I don't know--a TYPHOON!). Thankfully, since I was planning to cook anyway, I didn't have to resort to my bomb-shelter cuisine. Also, I had planned to make enough food for 3-4 meals so that I could eat on it during the week. Instead, I offered to share. Both guys compensated me with HK$20 a piece, but it was just an estimate since I didn't remember the exact cost of each ingredient. Plus, I felt that, even though the typhoon had provided me with all the benefits of a monopoly/oligopoly, extorting money from people in times of "crisis" just isn't a nice thing to do.
Using Diana's tiny frying pan of which the fickle hot-plate seems to approve, I cooked chicken with mushrooms, which I served over spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli topped with marinara with steamed broccoli on the side. All of the Chinese girls who live at the other end of our hall kept coming into the kitchen area to sniff and make "mmm" sounds. I'll take that as a compliment, ladies.
So I fed the needy, and myself while I was at it. I also think many people learned an important lesson about preparing for bad weather. However, if the power goes out, I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm the only one who brought a flashlight (and backup batteries). Still, progress is progress I suppose.
Regarding Typhoon Chanthu, it had indeed hit monstrous proportions and it had even made an almost direct hit on Hong Kong. We still did not, however, reap any benefits from it as it was all over in time for us to go to class this morning. Even worse, I believe that I'm starting to come down with something. Hopefully, I just slept funny last night, but all day today I've been unusually fatigued, out-of-breath, with a killer headache and a sore throat. On top of that, I seem to be losing my voice, which sucks even more since I have language class 5 hours a day. So, with all that already making my day long and uncomfortable, I had yet to make the most gruesome discovery so far.
There is a Methodist summer camp full of middle-schoolers now living in my dormitory. I'm not talking about 20-30 cute and timid little kids, either. There's got to be 400-500 of them because, as I write, they are outside my window taking up an entire stadium, singing obnoxious camp songs, playing loud games, and chanting "Jia You!" Just for the record, jia you literally means "pump gas," but it's equivalent to saying "Go! Go! Go!" as a way to cheer people on. For instance, if you were rooting for me to do well on my test, you could chant "Mai Rui Rui, jia you!" over and over again.
I bring up the test because it is one of 3 good things from my day today. The first good thing is that I finished "Allan Quatermain" and have now checked out James Clavell's "Tai-Pan." Initially, I was looking for "Shogun" but, since the library didn't have it, I figured I'd take a look at this book by the same author about the founding of Hong Kong in the 1840s. The second good thing is that Han Laoshi loves me. I'm pretty much always rather early to class, whether it be the morning or the afternoon section. Even though she's my morning teacher, her office is directly across from where we have afternoon class with Liu Laoshi. Therefore, Han Laoshi came in to hang out with the early-birds for a bit and, of course, she came bearing treats. Sometimes I feel like a stray cat being fed, but she just loves to bring us snacks--especially ones we probably haven't tried before. This time she gave us tiny "Taiwanese Shortcakes." Mine was pineapple-flavor, and tasted kind of like Fig Newton's crazy cousin, which was altogether not bad. I'm not, however, running out to the Park 'n' Shop to buy a bag for myself. Finally, the best thing was that I finally was able to see my grades from the test on Wednesday. Grades here are apparently done on a curve, which is nice. It, for some reason, reminds me of the old piece of wilderness survival wisdom regarding encounters with angry bears--you don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun the slowest person. Well, I fortunately am not the slowest person. An "A" on this test was a 91, and I made a 92 on my listening section and a 96 on my grammar section. Give me another couple of years and the Chinese language won't know what hit it!
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