Yesterday we went out in the morning to get a few things done. First stop was the bike shop where, for US$10 they replaced the back brakes on both of our tires while we waited. We thought about getting some grocery shopping done but decided first to check out a new restaurant for lunch called Salad Maniac. We biked between a few raindrops but no big deal and stopped smoothly at the shop, seeing as we had lovely new brakes on our bikes. The salad was fabulous.

By then the sky had darkened quite a bit so we headed home. Again, there were a few drops as we pulled into the parking garage but by the time we got upstairs to the apartment the skies had opened wide. When it rains here it can be really impressive. I've been in thundershowers in Connecticut where it rains buckets. The difference here is how long those buckets can be sustained. We were back home around noon and it poured the rest of the day.

We went out in the afternoon to walk around the park just to get out of the apartment. We ran into a couple of our colleagues who were also feeling the cabin fever but we were about the only people out. By evening the streets were mobbed. We met a friend for dinner at the mall and the place was crazy busy. What do you do on a rainy Saturday evening? You go to the mall, of course. The Kaohsiung Arena is next door to this mall and it had some kind of event going on. From the signs outside my best guess is that it was about Kawasaki scooters or possibly hiring English tutors for your kids. It was hard to tell.

There are plenty of rain coats for people on their scooters but for walking around it's all about umbrellas. At the mall entrance there was a woman handing out narrow plastic bags to slip your umbrella into while you walked around the mall. Out on the streets virtually every shop has an umbrella stand next to the door. Some people carry around these clever plastic telescoping umbrella covers that keep the wet umbrellas from dripping all over the floor.

Come October we will begin to forget about all this rain. Until then I plan to keep complaining.