happy air defense drill day to you!
AUGUST 13TH, 2026
FEELING: happy :3
I knew this was going to happen!!! I know you are reading the title and getting scared mom but it was not scary nor dangerous. Anyways, after class today at 2:30 we knew there was going to be a military drill throughout the country and it apparently only happens like once a year so my classmates and I were clamoring to see it. BUT! Let’s not get to the (mildly underwhelming) climax too soon.
On my way to class today I realized I forgot to put on deodorant and I went to like 3 stores with no luck. Apparently deodorant is a rare commodity in Taiwan, they don’t have my Puerto Rican/Greek musk… Anyways class was fun, we were in fact having so much fun that we invited our teacher to go out drinking with us later. She said she wasn’t allowed to during the week but maybe on the weekend, she’s only 24! We could be sisters. After class we all got food at this beef noodle restaurant, pics included! The food was so so epic.
NOW! Time for the cool part. Basically Taiwan has these air defense/military drills as practice in case China ever invades. They drive tanks around and fly cool military planes, turn off the wifi and some electricity, and don’t let anyone walk around outside lest they want to be fined. I had heard about this from my family and wanted to see it for myself with a good view so I dragged everyone to Taipei 101 but we soon discovered that 1) you need to pay money to get to the top, and 2) there wasn’t even a guarantee that there would be planes and tanks. There were not planes, nor were there tanks. We basically went to Taipei 101, didn’t go anywhere except the mall on the first floor, and then stared out the glass doors looking at an empty street.
When there were 10 minutes left in the drill I decided on giving up my quest to see tanks and suggested we get ice cream. We got this awesome Dairy Queen chocolate volcano and shared it, yay! Then I went home and helped teach my aunt and uncle how to ride bikes, bare in mind I did in fact learn to ride one like 3 days ago.
You will not believe this, but after I started writing this some tanks drove by! I got a blurry picture but I think it’s super cool that I got to see this while I’m here. I have a pic of a bigger tank buThe military drill is working… I can feel my Chinese getting better… 台灣是真的中國, 大陸人沒有腦子! (For my non Chinese readers that means “I had a great day today!”) /hj
ps. no newsletter this month because I already sent one earlier!!!
