Birthday Gift: Typhoon Soudelor

I’m 23! JK- I’m actually 22! In Taiwan, their custom is when you are born- you are automatically one years old. Hence- my 23rd birthday cake…I aged two years in one year. Another cultural theology here is that 8 is a lucky number. I am actually born on August 8, 1993. (08/08). It is said in my family that my mom held me in until this date because it was lucky. I can only imagine the pain she must of went through if it was truly that case. I love my birthday though, it is easy to remember and it is lucky in Taiwan. 8 is my favourite number as well. If you also count the letters in my first and last name, it equals to 8. I also have 8 piercings (by chance but now I won’t be getting any more!).

In Taiwan, 08/08 is actually Father’s day. In Mandarin, Father is “Ba Ba” and the letter 8 is “Ba”. They decided to make Father’s day on August 8 because it simply worked in their culture. On Father’s day, it is important to travel home to visit grandparents, to visit your father, to pray to your ancestors and spend time with family. My parents on the other hand- they told me I could stay and hang out with my friends.

I don’t think I will ever forget my 22nd birthday.

I’ll start off in the beginning of the story. Essentially, Taiwan is in the pacific and is a little island. This makes it prone to typhoons and the citizens are very used to it. During our first week of work, we actually had a couple of typhoon days. This means- everything is closed except 7/11 and the cinema. Everyone stays home to watch TV and what not. So far- every typhoon day we have had, there was very little rain associated with it. As Westerners, we obviously go out because it seems as nothing happened. We heard there was a lot of typhoon talk around 08/08 but we made plans to go out to a club. I went to the gym on my birthday (ended up signing up with a membership with World’s Gym) and kept getting phone calls from both of my aunts, my grandparents on both sides and every other family member I knew in Taiwan about being careful. I was looking outside my window and it was sunny so my friends and I decided- hey- its probably a false alarm again. Let’s go out!

We went to 7/11 and I got mini shots for everyone. We went to Club Myst- (right by Taipei 101) one of our favourite places to go out to. It was me, all my suitemates and a bunch of others we joined us from the internship. It was barely raining and since we got in early- we actually got in for free. We had an amazing time, they got me shots and we had a blast on the dance floor. FYI- Taiwan- all you do is pay for cover and then you get free drinks all night (I’m not kidding). Around midnight to 1 am, I am starting to feel a bit tired and so they decided its time to get me home. This is where the fun actually starts. We go down the elevator and out the door. The moment I open the door, it flungs straight back to me. It was CHAOS. The winds were so strong and we couldn’t walk without being pushed back. The cabs were crazy because they were trying to get the club goers home but most drivers weren’t even out on the road because it was crazy outside. I saw a cab open and I think I actually stole it from someone else because I jumped right in, grab 3 of my other friends and we headed home. As we are driving, our teeth are chattering because we were drenched from the rain. I saw trees falling everywhere, debris flying around, it was chaos. As the taxi driver turned into our street, there were giant trees in the way. He told us this was as far as he could get us and we threw him the money and grabbed each other by the hands. I remember crawling over branches and trees. We finally made it to our door and quickly pushed each other in. We were DRENCHED. I remember trying to get out of my soaked clothes, taking a hot shower and sitting in bed wondering – OMG WHERE ARE THE REST OF MY SUITEMATES. I had completely ditched them. I was so out of my mind and focused with getting a cab that I did not know what happened to them. I’m not going to lie- I actually was so scared something bad was going to happen and if it did, I would never forgive myself – it was my birthday! I tried staying up all night to wait but I passed out from the alcohol. Once I woke up, I saw that everyone was safe and sound.

The next day, we gathered ourselves up and started getting phone calls and messages from those we knew in Taiwan. They were all so worried and wanted to know if we were okay. Keep in mind- at this point we didn’t walk outside yet. We all gathered up in my room and we talked about what happened last night. Apparently, my roommates had to wait up to an hour to two to get a cab. They went through the same ordeal as us. We were googling the storm and saw that places were out of power and a friend’s workplace- their roof caved in. It was hugely destructive. We decided we needed food so we went outside and we knew one place would always be open – 7/11! As we walked outside, we saw so many branches and trees that fell down, pieces of rubbish that flew onto the street and not a person in sight. I guess it was true on how everyone stays inside during typhoon. We went to 7/11 and restocked on instant noodles. We broke “borrowed” our dorm managers room (Yakuba) because he was away on vacation to make dumplings on his stove pot. Reading the news, it stated that hundred of homes were damanged/destroyed and over 5 million households lost power on our island. The craziest of all was that the storm hit us with the same strength as Hurricane Katrina did back in 2005. I can’t believe it.

They call the storm, Typhoon Soudelor and it became a category 3 to a category 5 in a couple hours. It was CRAZY. I just can’t help to think how lucky we were to have no injuries. There was also an earthquake that occurred nearby. A couple of our friends we saw that night actually ended up staying in 7/11 and made it on the news because they couldn’t get home safely. I think that the biggest thing I learned is to really listen to the locals because when they say don’t go out- they mean it.