拜拜暑假，實習你好

bye bye summer and hello internship!

we got back to taipei just in time for me to see some of my friends that were here just for summer programs one more time. i got to explore their campus (師大 National Taiwan Normal University) as well as 迪化街 (dihua street) and 大稻埕碼頭廣場 (dadaocheng pier plaza). 師大 is nice and flat and is closer to city center as well as bigger night markets. 迪化街 is a nice market street with some restaurants and museums sprinkled in here and there. we actually saw an exhibit on old homes all over taiwan. the pier was at one end of 延平河濱公園 (yanping riverside park) and had a bunch of picnic tables set up next to food stands that also had seating on top of them looking out at 淡水河 (tamsui river).

i also found a place nearby for soufflé pancakes before term started!

internship

august 22, 2022 i woke up around 6:15 for a 9:30 call time for my first day at my internship. now, i know that's really early, but i was really worried i would be late given that i hadn't scouted the commute yet. (rush hour i have now learned to be seriously chaotic and i get caught in it both ways...) i was also worried i wouldn't be able to find the building. so anyway, i get there insanely early and wander around trying to find the building. it turns out that it's literally next to one of the MRT station exits and of course that day, i chose the wrong one. it was ok though because i gave myself (too much) time. i actually arrived before the office opened oops. so i walked around the area and got some supplementary breakfast at a 7.

once i got to the office, i got a really quick rundown of things but that day was a huge press conference so everyone was pretty preoccupied. they prepared a list of videos for me to watch relating to the foundation and their work and so far, that's mostly what i've been doing. they want me to watch the videos and write my impressions, thoughts etc. usually lunch break is 12-13:30 but that first day the office ordered food together so we have enough time to shift gears and prep the press conference space. i helped a coworker pick up the food and did some errands to pick up stuff for the conference. then kind of helped wherever i could. once the reporters were arriving, i helped them sign in and do the covid procedure stuff (temperature, etc). the second day was more of the video work and playing with a FB messenger auto reply activity's beta version. i also got my first "check my english" request that day. sometimes i randomly overhear people saying something to the effect of "maybe have sophia check that english" but i've only done it once so far. and can i just say, good thing i did because the auto translate software they had used on it made some glaring mistakes. not saying translating was easy–it's surprisingly hard. on the third day, besides the videos, i started the process of finding all the news articles and mentions on radio of monday's press conference.

as for the people, they're all really nice. sometimes they refer to me as 妹妹 (little sister) and i do get confused a little because one coworker goes by "fifi" and well, iykyk. on the third day of internship something i did not expect was collective 拜拜ing (offerings to deities/pay respects by bowing and burning incense). the 7th lunar month is ghost month (中元節/盂蘭盆節) in Buddhism and Daoism meaning that ghosts can visit our world and play, eat our food etc. apparently that day was the day they go back to the underworld, so we burned incense on the roof and stuck the sticks in snack bags and in-between fruits to give to the ghosts. once the incense burned down, we returned and burned joss paper shaped like old and new money to make sure the offerings were well received.

the lunch break is nice and long so after i grab food, i usually go to 中正紀念堂 (Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall) since it's only a block away.

other than internship, i also had my first one-on-one classes focusing on listening and reading, but really the purpose is targeted to get our proficiency to superior, especially on the OPI (oral proficiency interview). the one on monday was a little rough because it is almost immediately after i got back to the dorms. wednesday's was better because i decided that would be my day off from internship. not only does it give me enough time to prep for class but i get a day to sleep in in the middle of the week :)

i'm kind of dreading when our 直選課 (direct enrollment class) starts because by then i will have made a schedule and habits that will probably have to change for time management reasons. in the end, i'll have three classes on fridays too.

on an unrelated note: the sunsets recently have been popping off and i spent 6 hours playing mahjong yesterday...

(the first photo was from commuting back on the MRT and i was on the wrong side of the car! it might've been the best sunset yet. there was a huge storm just before)

♡蘇晨