I am Julia (24) and have taken part in the Blind Applying campaign. I have been selected by Evonik for an internship at the Advanced Project House Light & Electronics (PHLE) in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For five months, I will be working on the synthesis and application of metal oxide particle coatings and experience a new culture and living environment. For more information about Blind Applying visit www.blindapplying.com

Sunday, 13 April 2014

a list of first impressions

  • a warm welcome from my flatmates (also European interns at Evonik) and a lot of help to get started in Taiwan
  • a mattress on the floor, a desk and an office cupboard (= entire furniture of my room) in a clean flat with a big living room and two bathrooms in a 16-storey building with a large swimming pool
  • busy streets with heaps of scooters driving like in Roma

  • Sim card and transponder card to pay for public transport were easy to get, ATM next door
  • phone: "connection not available, unable to perform operation" atm: "error. transaction cannot be processed"
  • eating with chopsticks works quite well
  • a lot of signs in English, very few people can speak English
  • charger of the toothbrush works with the 110 V power supply, hairdryer doesn't

  • greatly relieved - the atm finally decided to give me money

already the first weekend trip - my very kind workmates invited me to join them for the FGS weekend temple retreat in Kaohsiung (more information) to learn about Buddhism and experience the monastic way of life 
  • saw and heard a lot of things, I never came across before
  • heard a  lot of things, I came across quite often because they are common sense
  • still cannot really connect to the idea of beeing religious


back in Hsinchu
  • starting to feel sick - nose closed, sore throat - probably because it is, especially compared to outside, freaking cold everywhere inside 
  • locked myself out of the second bathroom where all my stuff is in and gonna be a purely natural beauty on my first working day tomorrow

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