Taoyuan: Day 1 of 39

Internship at Ming Chuan University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. 5 weeks, Office of International Students. Housing provided.

So, I applied, interviewed and ended up as the intern here at MCU. I officially moved in yesterday in the afternoon, and spent the day getting settled and relaxing. For those of you cocking your eyebrows at home, yes. That's Dani code for "I unpacked my things, walked around, freaked out, holed up for a while, and walked around some more." Let's all just roll with it.

Some stuff:

1) I have four roommates: Tracy from Vietnam, a girl from Korea (not sure of her name yet) and Lauren from the University of South Carolina. Both Tracy and the Korean girl have limited English, but are very nice and friendly. Lauren was great, she helped me get some necessities and took me out to dinner with some of her friends.

2) No mattress on the bunk bed where I sleep. So, buy a mattress, right? Sort of, but hold up, player. The only mattresses they really sell are actually bamboo bottomed pallets with a thin layer of cotton stuffing and fabric on the top. Like a sleeping pad you'd take camping. Not that I take sleeping pads camping, I'm pretty much a badass who sleeps only on my polar bear skin rug laid over the jagged rocks that lay by the side of Lake Minnetoka.

3) I have no idea what I'm going to be up to as an intern. It seems to involve some office work, some accreditation work, some presentations about American Higher Ed and frequent travel back to Taipei. I have some anxiety about being able to do the tasks they've set up for me, but I guess this is a case for "fake it til' you make it." 

4) I had a great dinner (Taiwan classmate alert: Those Heineken bar places are all up IN Taoyuan! It felt like coming home), and drank Taiwan beer the appropriate way -- one person is in charge of pouring everyone else's and they don't wait until your glass is empty. They just pour whenever it gets down some. Lauren took me out with three of her friends : Chris, a Taiwanese student; Valerie, a German student and Benjamin, a German student also. Definitely interesting.

5) Tomorrow I'm going to Taipei to get my hair cut and colored and conditioned. Hold the phone. Say what? Yes. Gentlemen, tune out. (Gender stereotype alert, holla!). Yes, I'm going to get my hair "done" in Taiwan. I'm actually trying to learn the appropriate pronunciation for "Leave the length, adjust the layers, give swoopy bangs, take weight off the ends, dye it an espresso brown and lay a gloss coat on it." Yeah. Really. No, not kidding. Not even a little. If I walk out of the salon with some crazy asymmetrical haircut, I'm not even returning to my dorm. I'm on the first flight back to the US, so keep your eyes and ears open for that.

Well, that's it for today (or yesterday, I guess). Taiwan class people: I hope your travels home were comfortable and exciting. I miss you guys lots *cough* I mean, now that you're all gone I'm free to do all the crazy stuff you were holding me back from. Dem's jokes, you guys are great, see you soon.