i was excited to go home. but now I'm stuck here in taiwan for another 30 hours.
i hate philippine airlines.
!*@&^#^%#^!(
they're the ONLY ones who canceled their flight to manila.
could they possibly be any more inefficient or unhelpful?!?
Saturday, October 31
stuck
i was excited to go home. but now I'm stuck here in taiwan for another 30 hours.
i hate philippine airlines.
!*@&^#^%#^!(
they're the ONLY ones who canceled their flight to manila.
could they possibly be any more inefficient or unhelpful?!?
Tuesday, October 27
on the bus from downtown
i've been cooped up in an air-conditioned hotel room and an air conditioned classroom (and during the weekend, in an air-conditioned bus) for too long!
with no agenda in particular in mind except to get some air and stretch my legs, i asked eds and glenn if they were interested in going downtown after class. i think they were feeling a bit of cabin fever too, so they quickly agreed.
we actually just walked around, mostly did window shopping. most of what's here's in manila also anyway.
it still amazes me that school kids here head home from school so late! eds says that most of them have after school co-curricular (note: CO-curricular) activities like extra classes or tutorials, so they end at around 9pm. 9pm!!! and back to school at 7am the next day. i can't imagine. anyway, the buses are filled with schoolkids at that hour. imagine coming home from school later than your parents who come from work. well, actually now i wonder what time parents come home from work...
Tuesday, October 20
windows
sunrise from the 18th floor... the mountains of hsinchu.
today in class i sat next to the window because that's where the electrical sockets were (and my laptop battery is now good for only about 30 minutes or so). that turned out to be a blessing "in da skies" (literally). outside the window is a ficus tree laden with ripe fruit. constant bird calls kept me distracted (and awake) from the mostly physics- oriented lecture on micro/nano fluid dynamics.
during the lunch break i stepped out of the building to have a better look and got 2 more taiwan lifers:
lifer #3: light-vented (chinese) bulbul
lifer # 4: japanese white-eye
by the way lifers 1 & 2 were:
#1: black drongo - perched on electrical wires last sunday from the taoyuan airport
#2: oriental turtle dove - saw 2 on separate occasions from the bus in the science park.
i caught a glimpse of some mynah (but only saw the white spots on the wings) and a raptor, also while on the shuttle, but they were brief flybys so i couldn't get enough for an ID.
more to learn and see tomorrow...
today in class i sat next to the window because that's where the electrical sockets were (and my laptop battery is now good for only about 30 minutes or so). that turned out to be a blessing "in da skies" (literally). outside the window is a ficus tree laden with ripe fruit. constant bird calls kept me distracted (and awake) from the mostly physics- oriented lecture on micro/nano fluid dynamics.
during the lunch break i stepped out of the building to have a better look and got 2 more taiwan lifers:
lifer #3: light-vented (chinese) bulbul
lifer # 4: japanese white-eye
by the way lifers 1 & 2 were:
#1: black drongo - perched on electrical wires last sunday from the taoyuan airport
#2: oriental turtle dove - saw 2 on separate occasions from the bus in the science park.
i caught a glimpse of some mynah (but only saw the white spots on the wings) and a raptor, also while on the shuttle, but they were brief flybys so i couldn't get enough for an ID.
more to learn and see tomorrow...
Monday, October 19
today's dinner
Sunday, September 27
the flood...
i would've never thought it to happen to us
.
one minute i was playing with the dogs, trying to clean pearl's ears (oh wait, who's pearl? that's another storm altogether). from the terrace i watched the water rise, until we all started getting panicky.
rugs started to be rolled. then it was already to late to bring out the cars to higher ground. we started grabbing everything in sight and carrying it to the second floor.
the last picture i took before utter panic was this:
the water about to breach the windows. (when we inspected the damage later, the water line reached up to about 3 inches above the horizontal grill). we gave up when we began to see snakes (tiny ones) swimming everywhere (yes,even inside the house).
absolutely helpless, we all retreated to the second floor (6 people and 3 dogs and 1 cockatiel). and the water continued to rise and rise and rise.
i tried not to think of my beloved car which had never, ever failed me, being swallowed by the dirty flood water. of my dad's car and my sister's car in the same garage. of the cockatiels, budgies and the lone lovebird who were probably in panic over the rising water. of the books and photos from fiji and concep that i was not able to save. of all the furniture floating around. (yes, it was amazing, everything floated: the dining table, the antique four poster bed, the upholstered sofas, the carved chests, chairs, shelves, kitchen tables, even the chest freezer).
from my bedroom window, i watched people swimming in the street (video later), a brown shrike relentlessly fishing out drowning insects from the water, and my niece's plastic slide and swing set floating in circles in our front yard.
and just before the flood waters could breach our 6 foot fence. it stopped raining. and the flood waters started to recede. in an hour we could survey the damage. it was heartbreaking.
but then the people on the street shouted that there was a dead body in the creek. and i saw that our next door neighbors lived in bungalows. and i heard the devastation all over metro manila on the news.
it will be a MAJOR overhaul, cleaning and tons of things to throw out. but for me and my family, tomorrow the sun will shine, and everything will dry out. i still have a lot to be thankful for.
i read in the papers that yesterday typhoon ondoy dumped 341 milliliters of rain on metro manila in 6 hours. the averag rainfall for metro manila for september is 391.7 millilters. ano ba namang laban natin dun?
.
one minute i was playing with the dogs, trying to clean pearl's ears (oh wait, who's pearl? that's another storm altogether). from the terrace i watched the water rise, until we all started getting panicky.
rugs started to be rolled. then it was already to late to bring out the cars to higher ground. we started grabbing everything in sight and carrying it to the second floor.
the last picture i took before utter panic was this:
the water about to breach the windows. (when we inspected the damage later, the water line reached up to about 3 inches above the horizontal grill). we gave up when we began to see snakes (tiny ones) swimming everywhere (yes,even inside the house).
absolutely helpless, we all retreated to the second floor (6 people and 3 dogs and 1 cockatiel). and the water continued to rise and rise and rise.
i tried not to think of my beloved car which had never, ever failed me, being swallowed by the dirty flood water. of my dad's car and my sister's car in the same garage. of the cockatiels, budgies and the lone lovebird who were probably in panic over the rising water. of the books and photos from fiji and concep that i was not able to save. of all the furniture floating around. (yes, it was amazing, everything floated: the dining table, the antique four poster bed, the upholstered sofas, the carved chests, chairs, shelves, kitchen tables, even the chest freezer).
from my bedroom window, i watched people swimming in the street (video later), a brown shrike relentlessly fishing out drowning insects from the water, and my niece's plastic slide and swing set floating in circles in our front yard.
and just before the flood waters could breach our 6 foot fence. it stopped raining. and the flood waters started to recede. in an hour we could survey the damage. it was heartbreaking.
but then the people on the street shouted that there was a dead body in the creek. and i saw that our next door neighbors lived in bungalows. and i heard the devastation all over metro manila on the news.
it will be a MAJOR overhaul, cleaning and tons of things to throw out. but for me and my family, tomorrow the sun will shine, and everything will dry out. i still have a lot to be thankful for.
i read in the papers that yesterday typhoon ondoy dumped 341 milliliters of rain on metro manila in 6 hours. the averag rainfall for metro manila for september is 391.7 millilters. ano ba namang laban natin dun?
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