Bird sounds and alarming announcements.

So we are sitting and watching tv (we have like a hundred channels but only 10 in English) when we hear what sounds like a bird. That's strange because we haven't actually seen birds here and the wind is howling outside and we're on the 9th floor. We hear it again and again..finally we realise its our doorbell!! LOL..so Emlyn answers and its a lovely neighbor checking if we know the typhoon is coming and if we've prepared. For example we have to fill up the bathtub in case the water gets cut off.

Then we're sitting and watching tv again (hey there's a typhoon outside so this is all we can do) and we hear an announcement over the local intercom..all in Mandarin of course! So we understand nothing. We start stressing when the message gets repeated a few times! But we don't see people running outside so it can't be an evacuation..hmmm..anyways we have an intercom in the apartment so we try the different buttons..we find one for the lift, so you can sit the whole day and see who goes up and down the lift! So cool! finally we find the right button for the reception desk (remember everything is written in mandarin symbols). Luckily we have an extremely friendly man working at reception and he speaks some English! So we ask him what the announcement is about... and its just about fetching cake at the reception because its Father's Day tomorrow in Taiwan! LOL....luckily we hadn't started packing our bags yet for the evacuation:). Just to explain why father's day is on the 8th of August (the 8th month) here...its because 8 in mandarin 'ba' sounds like father. Cute!