She Speaks, She Stumbles, She Scores!
I can now officially say I have ordered food on my own in the absence of any native friends.
However, it was a bit of a struggle.
Normally the lab goes out to lunch together, but for whatever reason, today consisted of a lot of people either going by themselves or in pairs. I suppose everyone had a lot of work to do. In the 3 minutes I got up to use the restroom, Ping and Chen went out to lunch, and I ran into them when they were coming back. Ping apologetically said he tried to call me, but that my phone was off. I told him not to worry about it and that it was no big deal, while all along I was thinking, "Crap. Now what?"
I trekked off on my own down the street and bought some strawberry milk tea at a local Nikko Mart, then started scanning the little hole-in-the-wall food stands for anything I could remotely recognize. I stopped at this place with jiaozi, one of the few things I could read, and I recognized the character for 'soup' with a picture next to it. I panicked and spoke very broken Chinese, and I apologized to the lady as I was paying that my Chinese was very bad. She smiled, and I felt a little better. I went back to the lab with my milk tea, jiaozi, and soup, psyched that I got through it (but painfully), but also realizing that if I ever want to eat anything other than jiaozi during my tenure here, I better learn some more fast.
Lab was pretty uneventful today. After the stellar day yesterday, it was hard to compare the two. And on top of that it's Friday, and this week has been really intense for me in so many ways. This morning I worked more on understanding this paper I need to present on TGF-B growth factor and its effects on ALI (aculte lung injury). I also added to my existing powerpoint presentation (if I sound dumb, at least I'll have pretty slides). I'm understanding a little bit more everyday. I feel kind of stupid because I feel like I should be expected to read through the paper first time and get everything, but I've basically spent the whole week studying it trying to understand the concepts and methods. Should I need to put this much work in? I worry if this is a sign I am grossly underprepared.
This weekend is kinda planned, kinda not. I skipped the gym due to great fatigue today and obviously skipped yesterday due to the museum. (I don't like this pattern, although I can justify it by letting my muscles recover from intensity after two weeks of doing nothing. Starting next week, though, the discipline starts.) Tomorrow I'm planning on exercising in the morning then paying a visit to the Taipei Zoo, where supposedly a bunch of rare and exotic Asian animals are located. If I have time, I may take the subway over to central Taipei to Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the world) or to the National Concert Hall, which I am sure I will frequent many times during my tenure here. (That seems to be home to a bunch of substantive culture.)
Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow.
However, it was a bit of a struggle.
Normally the lab goes out to lunch together, but for whatever reason, today consisted of a lot of people either going by themselves or in pairs. I suppose everyone had a lot of work to do. In the 3 minutes I got up to use the restroom, Ping and Chen went out to lunch, and I ran into them when they were coming back. Ping apologetically said he tried to call me, but that my phone was off. I told him not to worry about it and that it was no big deal, while all along I was thinking, "Crap. Now what?"
I trekked off on my own down the street and bought some strawberry milk tea at a local Nikko Mart, then started scanning the little hole-in-the-wall food stands for anything I could remotely recognize. I stopped at this place with jiaozi, one of the few things I could read, and I recognized the character for 'soup' with a picture next to it. I panicked and spoke very broken Chinese, and I apologized to the lady as I was paying that my Chinese was very bad. She smiled, and I felt a little better. I went back to the lab with my milk tea, jiaozi, and soup, psyched that I got through it (but painfully), but also realizing that if I ever want to eat anything other than jiaozi during my tenure here, I better learn some more fast.
Lab was pretty uneventful today. After the stellar day yesterday, it was hard to compare the two. And on top of that it's Friday, and this week has been really intense for me in so many ways. This morning I worked more on understanding this paper I need to present on TGF-B growth factor and its effects on ALI (aculte lung injury). I also added to my existing powerpoint presentation (if I sound dumb, at least I'll have pretty slides). I'm understanding a little bit more everyday. I feel kind of stupid because I feel like I should be expected to read through the paper first time and get everything, but I've basically spent the whole week studying it trying to understand the concepts and methods. Should I need to put this much work in? I worry if this is a sign I am grossly underprepared.
This weekend is kinda planned, kinda not. I skipped the gym due to great fatigue today and obviously skipped yesterday due to the museum. (I don't like this pattern, although I can justify it by letting my muscles recover from intensity after two weeks of doing nothing. Starting next week, though, the discipline starts.) Tomorrow I'm planning on exercising in the morning then paying a visit to the Taipei Zoo, where supposedly a bunch of rare and exotic Asian animals are located. If I have time, I may take the subway over to central Taipei to Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the world) or to the National Concert Hall, which I am sure I will frequent many times during my tenure here. (That seems to be home to a bunch of substantive culture.)
Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow.
posted by Shannon @ 9:54 PM
<< Home