Typhoon Lagoon

The weather in Hong Kong has been a little scary this week. I vaguely remember my cultural trainer telling me about what to do when the weather gets bad. I had only experienced the really intense rain (they call it red and black level I think?) Red was the most torrential rain I'd ever seen, so I can't imagine what black is like. But the thing I should have paid more attention to was what to do in a typhoon. Typhoon is Chinese for hurricane. Earthquakes -- no problem. Snow -- been there. Hurricanes are new for me. What was I supposed to do again? Get under a table? Stop, drop and roll? I really should have paid more attention. Now I will likely step outside for some coffee and fly away like Mary Poppins.

When I got to work the other morning, a coworker was talking about a "level eight typhoon." They reminded me that the levels were 1,3, and 8. Level 10 means you're dead, basically. I'm not sure why they skip so many numbers in between but I knew I was supposed to be scared of level 8 for sure. In general, it's been pretty anti-climatic really. Just lots of rain and some major lightning storms that wake me up at night (those huge windows can be such a pain). Those are cool more than anything else really.

But the creepy thing is that it gets ... foggy ... (can't think of a better word to describe it) at the drop of a hat. Kind of like that dumb movie about the killer fog. It was 5:00 pm and my office suddenly felt very dark. I glanced out the window and it was pitch black -- I couldn't see a single thing. Thirty minutes later, the sun was shining again. Creepy.

Other than the weather, I'm headed to the mainland next week so that should be fun. That and I was making a fruit salad the other day and accidentally slipped on the banana peel that had missed the garbage can. Yes, my life is a cartoon. Maybe that Mary Poppin's thing isn't too far of a stretch ...

UPDATE - 30 minutes after I wrote this, we are now evacuating the office for a level 8 typhoon. Aaaahhhh! People at the office certainly don't seem scared, but I called AC who freaked out to a satisfying degree. :)