More Rain

It rained for my first 2 weeks, give or take, and then it was sunny for about a week, and now the rain has started in again. So today I got to ride my bike while holding my umbrella for the first time. My bike getting beat up actually helped, because the left handlebar is now closer to my body, and I had my umbrella in my right hand, so it was generally easier to steer. Which was lucky, because with the rain, came the wind as well, and the umbrella served as a sort of wind trap swining around this way and that. Sometimes I had to point it forward (if I was biking into the wind), and sometimes I had to put it off to the side. I always wanted to keep it pointing into the wind, because it was a pretty crappy umbrella, and I was afraid of what would happen if the wind got carried away and turned it inside out. After a while I realized it wasn't really raining that much, and so I closed it and made it to class without event.

I try to be a vegetarian here but it is hard. Partly because I don't understand what I'm ordering a good part of the time, and partly because I don't think that people understand why I'm doing it, which would make the whole thing pointless. Going back to not understanding what I'm ordering, today at lunch I was pretty sure I did. I could read every word, and the dish was named "Five Flowers Homestyle Food" or "Five Flowers Dish of Politeness" or something like that. I was 100% sure about the five flowers part, and I recognized the other characters, but one apparently had more meanings that I had thought. Anyway, five flowers seemed a promising name for a vegetarian dish, so I ordered it. When it arrived there were big fat chunks of beef strewn about. Since I ordered it, I ate it, and it was good, but now I know not to order 'five flowers something something'.

In the afternoon I went to the library for a while. It got dark, and I decided it was time to go home. As I left the library, I went to grab my umbrella, and I though someone had stolen it, but I just forgot what color it was. So I grabbed it and headed out to my bike. The wind had picked up more (apparently there is another typhoon coming in this weekend. The first I heard about it was when my individual class teacher told me to call ahead because we might not have class tomorrow.) I opened my umbrella and started riding my bike home. I made it to the crosswalk over New Student road without any problems, where I waited for the light to change so I could cross. As soon as the light changed a man in a uniform started blowing his whistle vigorously and loudly. It seemed to me he was blowing his whistle with far too much gusto, and I wanted to harangue him with a number of questions such as: "Who are you?", "Where did you come from?" (That was the first time I had seen, the man. I think he just comes out at night, when traffic is heavier), "Why are you blowing you whislte so loudly? Can't you see that everyone you're signaling to is within ten feet of where you are standing, and would certainly be able to hear you if you blew less loudly?" and most importantly "Do you think we couldn't perform the simple function of crossing the crosswalk without you blowing your whistle and waving your batton so aggresively?". But I didn't ask him any of those questions because the were mostly rhetorical, and I really just wanted to cross the street. So I ingnored the man and set off shakily into the intersection. I made it about halfway across without hitting anyone, when the wind gusted, and my umbrella suddenly turned inside out, throwing me off balance. I turned the handlebars, but I kept peddling too, and as I turned the handlebars, my left knee hit the left handle bar (the one that was bent closer to my body) and swung the bike back around the other way. I was forced to put down a foot and stop. As soon as I stopped the umbrella flew right side inside again, and I decided to have done with this umbrella business, so I closed it and rode on my way. Due to my consternation with the whistling man I got a late start, and stopping in the middle to close my umbrella put me further behind. The green man walking on the electric sign turned into a red man standing before I got out of the intersection, but no cars honked at me so I think I made it through alright. I left my umbrella closed for the rest of the trip home, and the jury is still out on its overall usefullness.

I had some sandwiches with rice, tofu, and peanut butter powder for dinner. Almost like a good old PB&J sandwhich. Afterwards I went to my first Muay Thai class. It was pretty good. The teacher is an English guy, but he's lived in Asia for the past 6-8 years, and I think he knows what he is talking about. We just practiced a couple of different types of kicks. He made an analogie between the human leg and a baseball bat, you just swing it in from the hip. So that was cool. I really do think it will be good training. He seems to train in a smart way too, which is good, because I don't want to hurt myself.