Dancing in a Typhoon

Jacek, Isa, and I wandered around the “exercise room” in our apartment complex. This exercise room is actually two clustered groups of very strange exercise machines, strangely placed outside. The machines include sculling contraptions, strange wood platforms screwed together that appear to be for strengthening arm muscles, and yellow circles with the yin and yang sign on them that spin when pushed. After long consideration, Jacek decided that these swirly circles must be to improve your inner chi, because no other obvious reason was apparent.

As Jacek toned his abs, Isabel stretched her calves, and I worked my back incredibly hard (I would find this out the next day when I awoke to find that my back muscles felt like they had been put through a cheese processor), incredible amounts of rain began to fall from the grey sky. It was raining neither cats nor dogs. It was raining more along the lines of hippos, possibly even whales, and definitely the remaining bursts of Typhoon Koppu.

We scrambled to the nearest shelter, which happened to be a very scrawny tree; in fact, we probably would have stayed dryer if we had stayed without “protection”. We sent a scout out, usually Jacek, to find another relatively dry spot. After multiple dashes through the torrents of rain we made it safely and soaking to our apartment.

Once inside the dry haven of our rooms, we hurriedly swapped our more than damp clothes for a dry pair, removed our shoes, and as we sprinted out the door onto the slippery marble tiles, shouted to Dad, “We’ll be back!” Outside we splashed in puddles, observed goldfish from a very close distance, according to the rushing guard, too close. We climbed over Elephant chess tables, hopped on smooth stone “foot massage” paths, and to the astonishment of little, old Chinese women, who rushed by huddling under their umbrellas, dragging their protesting grandchildren by the elbow, tried to build dams out of twigs (fun, but unsuccessful).

Once we were soaked to not just the bone, but to the bone marrow, we slid up to our 14 floor apartment laughing and shouting, “We danced in a Typhoon!