Typhoon Conson

Some of you probably heard but a level 2 typhoon hit Manila last night. Feels super bizarre to even be writing this. Here's how it went down; it's rainy season here but so far Filipino rain ain't got nothin' on Portland (as expected) BUT with the heat and all there's constant thunderstorms and more lightening than I have ever witnessed in my life. Last night I was teaching my doubles at the Fort (5pm/6:30pm) these are normally my most-packed classes. The 5pm was a little light but at 6:15pm there were 2 clients there for class. Really? I thought it was me of course, is my class getting repetitive? Do they hate my PM Dawn throwback cuts? But then someone told me that there was a "storm" coming so everyone was inside or something. Oh, ok. I brushed it off thinking about how silly Filipinos are with a little rain. MY MISTAKE. No one said the word TYPHOON.

Cut to bedtime, I had just finished watching an episode of Dexter (standard), time for bed-cue AC and fan tonight cause it's rather hot. By this time it was raining a little bit. But within an hour I woke up with thrashing rain on my window and the most violent sounds of wind I've ever heard. This wind sounded like it was here to kick some serious serious ass. And it did. Let me just say this, it's one thing to live alone in a foreign country as a young woman but experiencing a level 2 typhoon in the middle of the night on your own is not where it's at. By 1am the power was out in all of Manila; so goodbye Air-conditioning and fan. I just laid there in a hot pile of sheets and comforters (on my back of course) trying to time-travel back to my diving trip in Dumaguete.....my beach cabin there was hot as shit and there were ants crawling all over my bed but I still managed to sleep through the night in paradise why couldn't I do it here it's just a thunderstorm right? Wrong. You can't fall back asleep to noises like this. Creaking and cracking of trees and roofs. I honest to god was laying there waiting for my windows to give in, or my building to fall over (I live on the 10th floor btw). I read this morning that the winds got up to 75 MPH.

When I woke up this morning, the power was still off. I had a headache from being so damn hot and not getting any sleep thanks to the Mr. Creepy Typhoon. I laid there trying to remember what I'd seen last night looking out my window at 3 in the morning. Deserted streets, taxis with emergency lights on, sheets of rain, trees falling over. It felt like a strange dream. When I went out later for coffee the city was so quiet, kind of post-apocalyptic. The street I take to the studio was blocked off with yellow caution tape since each palm tree that lined the sidewalk had snapped and fallen directly into the street. There were pieces of roofs lying on the streets, broken glass. Serious stuff. Everyone I know here is safe and has their electricity back (me too obvs) but the news reports keep increasing the number of people who died from this storm, as of right now 26 were killed and 38 are missing. http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article515327.ece

"The wind howled like a child screaming," said Rigor Sambol, 52, a father of six who lives in a coastal shanty town on the outskirts of Manila that was partly destroyed.

I think it's time for me to get back to the PNW on some solid ground. 1 more week.