A Day in the Life: Wistfully Linda

APA Month continues with Wistfully Linda, 20-something California girl sharing A Day in the Life from her current residence in Taipei, Taiwan.  I can feel the lush air already from her gorgeous pictures!

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9:05ish - Crap, gonna be late. Roll out of bed, toiletries, change clothes as quickly as possible while still barely awake.

9:20ish - I used to take the MRT (Taiwan's metro rail system) but now I grab my breakfast and catch a ride to work on my friend's scooter.

When I first came to Taiwan I'd be so excited to get rides on scooters and motorcycles that I'd do a lot of laughing and screaming in exhilaration during the ride because it was SO AWESOME. And my taiwanese friends would shake their heads and mumble things about crazy Americans.

But now that i've been here a while, I'm as calm and cool as mango shaved ice. So much so, in fact, that my friend doesn't even notice when I almost lose my balance while leaning back to take photos of the back of his head.

 9:30ish - Ok, fine, I might have gotten in SLIGHTLY late, but only because I went to get a photo of the office building for you. The sacrifices I make!

I currently work at biotech startup. I was in R&D as a research assistant for more than a year (I majored in molecular and cell biology in college). But as of March I'm now the company's marketing specialist, which makes me officially the first (and currently only) employee in Business Development/Sales & Marketing -- aka our company's BDSM department. Yes, really. The worst thing is when I mentioned to this to my coworkers and they didn't know that BDSM is, and asked me to explain... in Chinese. SO. AWKWARD.

10ish - By this time I've finished my breakfast, checked email, plugged in my earphones, and am awake and lucid enough to write some fiction for my day job. At least that's what it feels like -- I write descriptions and web copy for products that don't yet exist and draft answers to fabricated FAQs (in English, thankfully).

11:40ish - My friends in R&D come out of the lab and ask if i want to go buy lunch with them. I'm shocked when I look at the clock; they're usually not free for lunch until 12:30 or 1. We walk to the parking lot around the corner where food trucks gather. There's a good variety of food to go for when we plan eat back at the office.

 12ish - I eat my pink guava at my desk, read blogs, and check Twitter.

1ish - One of my coworkers at the other lab texts me to say they're on their lunch break, inviting me to join them. I usually do, a few times a week, but since I already ate, I decline and say maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile, I switch gears and struggle through some QA documents that involve my department. What's worse than having to read a ton of dry, boring procedural documents? Attempting to do it in Chinese!

My reading skill is good enough for me to be able to get through the Chinese version of the hunger games comfortably (probably because I read it in English first, haha), but I can barely make it through a single sentence of this stuff. And not only do I have to read them, I probably have to rewrite them, in case the auditor decides to ask someone from sales and marketing (aka me, the only person in the department) about them. So yeah, Google translator is my new BFF even though its translation is awful. I found the Listen function pretty helpful, though.

2ish-5:30ish - OMG FREAKING LONG MEETING.

6ish - Whoa, within 10 minutes I'm the only one left in the office. Lab people are still around, though.

7ish - Time to go! I say good bye to friends still working on experiments and head out.

7:30ish - I go to the library to check out some books. Sadly, the children's/YA section closes earlier than the rest of the library, so I won't be able to get those YA novels i wanted to read. Instead, I browse the regular English fiction section and pick up several books that look interesting.

8:15ish - Near the library there's an all-day breakfast store. I usually get a red bean pastry there after my visits to the library, but since I haven't eaten dinner, I also get some steamed xiaolongbao.

9:30ish - It's rainy and i'm tired, so I don't go for a run like I've done, oh, twice so far this year (which is already super impressive considering how much I hate running). I should get to work on my blogs or writing, but I'm feeling lazy (as usual) and decide to unwind first by poking around on the internet.

10ish - I occasionally do some productive things between less productive activities. "Productive" mostly this means sorting/processing/resizing photos, making outlines and notes for blog posts and my WIP, and occasionally fleshing out those notes and bullets. Time goes by ridiculously quickly when I have internet access, and I don't get as much done as I should have, but then what else is new?

12ish - I shower, blow my hair, and then check a few more things on my laptop.

1ish - SLEEP!!! Goodnight, Taipei!

 (And yes that's really the view from my balcony!)