Day in the...Sun?

Today was, against all odds, sunny. And I do mean all odds. Last night all the weather services and typhoon watch websites showed a tropical storm heading straight for Kaohsiung; we had the preliminary rain and wind most of the day yesterday, and today had a promised 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms. I talked to my friend Danny, who was supposed to come today to see the city, and he agreed to postpone until Monday.

And then I woke up this morning to sun shining through my curtains; it wasn't even overcast for most of the day. Go figure. Well, ast least Monday is still forecast to be nice! (Knock on wood.)

So, all that to say, I spent the day much as I would have had the weather not cooperated: lazing about the apartment and enjoying my first weekend in about a month which did not involve me going places and doing things.

The one thing that was different, however, and which I greatly enjoyed, was that I got to go to dinner with my host family tonight! They picked me up at 5:30 and took me to Hotel Kingdom, where they treated me to a fantastic Hong Kong-style buffet. At Margaret's suggestion, I had a little bit of just about everything, from oyster to stewed rib soup to deep fried seafood cakes to crab and curry dumplings to a delicious milk-pudding-and-passion-fruit dessert. It was fantastic.

Please note that I have in front of me a bowl of scrumptious cream of corn-and-seafood soup, topped by puff pastry. Mmmmm....

I had a lot of fun just chatting with them, about everything from American (and Taiwanese) immigration debates to the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan to the fact that I have Cherokee in my ancestry to how Steven's Chinese family name is actually Hakka in origin to what I want to see while I'm here in Taiwan. (Wow, apparently I'm into run-on but still technically grammatically correct lists today...)

After we finished eating, around 8pm, we decided to head over to the Kaohsiung Museum of History for the last hour they were open, since we were in the area. And, for the record, it's both gorgeous and free! We came on the last day of one exhibit and the second day of another, meaning we hit the jackpot of being able to see an exhibit about the cultural rituals surrounding marriage and childhood, and of seeing one about the Daliao area of Kaohsiung.

GORGEOUS building!

They let (encouraged, even) me get inside the display!

These are BIBS. Just saying.

Fantastic day, with or without sun! Moral of the story: take your day, just add host family, and everything becomes sunny. :)