In September I always find myself wondering when the humid, hot, sweltering weather of Kaohsiung will ever let up. And I long for the fall weather that I've been conditioned to expect, having lived in New York and Canada for most of my life. Then in mid to late October the cold snap comes unannounced and there's a definitive shift in the weather. The air is different, the humidity has dissipated.

I've been feeling alittle withdrawn and nostalgic for my friends and family as I realize that Thanksgiving and the holidays are fast approaching. I'm reminded of the many warm gatherings I've hosted in my apartment in New York, especially during Thanksgiving. I'm missing the making of those memories. One thing that I love doing is playing hostess and cooking for my friends and family.

I think I need to get back in touch with my nurturing side. I'm planning an impromptu dinner party for my parents and their friends tomorrow. It's practice for the dinner party I'm planning to host for my upcoming birthday.

Sunday, October 12, 2003

The rooster's got it in for me again...

At 5:00am this morning I was yanked out of my precious sleep by- the unmistakable crowing of a rooster! I was sleeping at my scuba diving partner’s home and we had planned to wake up at 7:00am to head for Kenting for a day of scuba diving. I tried in vain to fall back asleep, but there was just no way to block it out or sleep through it. “Nature’s alarm clock” had rung and I couldn’t just smack the snooze button. Soon I was ready to go out and smack that rooster, but who knows where it was- the reverberating cock-a-doddle-dos could be coming from any number of directions. For the next two hours, the rooster continued to cock-a-doodle-do nonstop, in what seemed like an obsessive-compulsive fashion.

There’s something inescapable about a rooster’s crow that commands you to wake up. I’ll bet that someone who had never heard a rooster’s crow would bolt out of sleep upon hearing it. I was in sheer hell. For two hours I stubbornly refused to give into the rooster. I tossed and turned, hid underneath my pillow, getting more frustrated by the minute and causing myself more anguish that would be paid for in my waking hours in the morning ahead.

This whole experience was a rude reminder of the hell I experienced during my first few months of living in Kaohsiung. The first apartment I lived in in Kaohsiung was located in an older part of Kaohsiung near a traditional open market where live chickens and roosters are kept. I remember being tormented daily by morning cock-a doodle-dos. I’m getting a headache just thinking about it now.