my first typhoon!

You might have heard news reports about Shanghai being hit by what might have been "potentially the most destructive storm in a decade" - prompting the evacuation of 300,000 people from the city's outskirts, the shutdown of schools, and, (most alarmingly!), the relocation of the Women's World Cup to Hangzhou.

But thankfully, Typhoon Wypha didn't do much in my part of Shanghai except dump 7" of rain. (if you're curious, Wypha is a common girl's name in Thai) It was a bit inconvenient and wet, but it could have been much much worse. Thanks for everyone who checked up on me though. Just want to confirm that I'm alright, although I did get a few scary emails from my program director warning me to stock up on water and supplies.

I also have a pretty good typhoon story...

I have about a 20 minute walk home from school, in addition to a bus ride. Sadly, school was not cancelled for us, and I happened to get out of class on Tuesday during the height of the storm -- think ankle-deep streams on roadsides, sewers overflowing and water literally gushing out from the ground. Even though my shoes and socks and pants were entirely soaked, I managed to keep my upper torso pretty dry under my umbrella. What I completely forgot about was my backpack...

When I got back to the apartment, it was soaking. And swimming in a little puddle in the front pocket was my cell phone. Basically, Wypha broke my Razr. I was really upset at the time, but I figured that at least a typhoon is a pretty good way for a cell phone to break, if it's going to break eventually anyway. (almost as good as my cell-phone-breaking-in-China story from last summer... I left it in my pants pocket and managed to put it through the washer AND dryer without noticing)

The best part of this story is the ending though. After a few hours of not working, I let my phone dry a bit and it started making noises. A few hours later it began receiving calls, although the screen was still blank. And now, 2 days later, it suddenly started to function completely and perfectly!

No typhoon destruction, miraculous cell phone recovery - Praise God for the big things and the small.