TYYYYPHHHHOOOOOON!!!

I can't even describe how nervous I was about my first typhoon. I had bought a bunch of food to stock up, filled up gallons and gallons of water bottles, premade food, filled up the bathtub with extra water. John just downloaded some movies....
Then at work people were NOT BOTHERED AT ALL.  I was worried about getting down the mountain, they didn't think anything of it. I was worried the electricity would go out for days, and they didn't think anything of it. When I would talk about my nervousness they would say "awww cute, its your first typhoon, awwwww".
Mean while my head is exploding with how crazy this storm will be. A bunch of them went out to a bar drinking hoping for a typhoon day, which we got :) I was notttt going out to drink, at a bar, when a giant swirling mass of clouds, lightning, torential rains, and 1,000,000 mph winds was about to hit!!!
Then, the typhoon hit and I didn't even notice. I was sound asleep. It just rained a lot. Talk about a massive non-climax. The next day we saw damage on the news of coastal homes (people who literally live on the beach, or right next to a river), there were some pretty bad mud slides that closed down some roads in the mountains, and flooding. Basically typhoons are noooooo biggie.
The next next day on my way up to school I took a video.....

 Straight up in the clouds at school!!

VIDEO-

Thennnn, a few weeks later another two typhoons rolls up.  One did a drunken loop-t-loop around the island while the other headed north. 

John and his throat herpes.

John had this throat problem for about 4 weeks in the beginning of our time here. It was stressful figuring out what the hell was going on with him, and a little frightening what some of the doctors dx were. Let's start with the first doctor John visited.
Doctor #1- This was an old man practicing medecine from his house. He went in, Yating translated what he was feeling and he said cold. Then, he took John into a back room and administered two shots in his buttocks. What were in these injections?? Who knows. John did not ask. Then the doctor gave John a ziplock baggy of micelaneous pills that looks more like happy pills than real medecine.
He didn't get better.
Doctor#2- This doctor was in a legitimate clinic.  He took a look at his throat and said the same thing, cold. But John learned his lesson and told him the story about the old medicine man and his history of strep.  He directed John to go to the hospital to see a doctor.
Doctor #3- In the ER(only access to a doctor on a Saturday afternoon) of a Taipei Hospital, we waited about 30 min to see a doctor who could speak English. Finally, we got some answers..... the doctor was very helpful understood what was going on and prescribed ANTIBIOTICS. But because this was an ER doctor she could only give him 3 days worth. He was supposed to make an appointment to see a specialist Monday.
John started to get better.
Doctor #4- This doctor, swabbed the inside of John's throat and gave him mucinex thinking it was allergies.
John did not get better.

This is about the time when we called Dad and he told us to get our hands on more antibiotics. SOOOO, if you waltz into a pharmacy and ask for antibiotics, they give you as much as you ask for without a RX. PREEEETTTY sweet!
After taking a good solid round of antibiotics, John got better.
The funny part was listening to people's thoughts on what he had (mainly locals).  We heard oh, he has "heat" and just needs to drink grape juice. We also heard he needs to suck on nasty chinese medecine throat drops (which he did...and that temporarily relieved pain but did not speed up healing).
Here are some pics, if you dare look at them....

Note:  This sounds much scary than it was. John never got a fever, he never felt weak, had a cough, any other symptoms except crazy sores on his throat. We learned that you need to keep track of other medecines other doctors give you so you can show future doctors what the hell is up. Also, John was starting work with 2-3 year olds from 8-5 so was not getting much rest. ohhh annnnnd, always take a translator or just go to an Engligh speaking hospital (and we know where they are now).

TEMPLES!

They are evvvvvverywhere, S L and XL.   Taiwan's main religions arrrrrre- Confucian, Daoist, and Folk religions.  I think Daoist has the coolest temples and  houses dozens of Gods to help you for differing problems. Walking around the streets sometimes you see tables set out in front of businesses with fruit and incense.  So bascially this is like an offering to your ancestors on full-moons.  Gotta watch out for the little trash can looking things that they burn fake paper money in for their ancestors as well;  I thought this was a trashcan and threw some trash in there one night, talk about a bad omen.

Burning stuff...

Burning more stuff...

Confucian Temple

People's prayers

There is a museum area that shows you the progress of Chinese civilization.

This first one talks about the first Chinese symbols as a system of knots.

Pythagorean Theorem

When saying a prayer, you write in on a wooden tag and walk around the temple, then you ring this bell to send the prayer off.

Oldddddddd instruments

John and Dot's prayer :)

Money burning thing

All these figurines are centered around an old guy playing checkers.

Daoist Temple

Offerings

You walk around with a bunch of incense and offer one incense to each god surrounding the main temple.

This was the main center temple