I’m Allison.  And this summer I’m learning Mandarin.  Hence, Mandarin Allison was conceived at 12:27 a.m. on June 25, 2013.

The mother of the newborn blog herself, delighted that delivery went smoothly.

Remember that face.  She will be an international reporter one day.  She was one of the 36 students picked for the TUSA (Taiwan United States Sister Relations Alliance) Ambassador Summer Scholarship Program.  And one of five who isn’t majoring or minoring in Chinese/Linguistics/International Studies.  So she feels incredibly fortunate for the opportunity to travel to Taiwan and learn about Asian language and culture, with the idea of one day reporting on this region of the world.

With 42 out of 60 udemy.com Mandarin lectures under my belt, and being able to recognize a few menu items (chicken, beef, noodles, rice), I head to Taiwan.  I can only learn more from here, right?

I leave Cleveland Friday night, and so commences my 21-hour-20-minute trip to Taipei.  From there, I take the High Speed Bullet Train across the entire island to Tainan, where I will be studying at National Cheng Kung University.

Didn’t Carl Sagan mention something about a pale red dot? Exploring foreign territory.

More to come when I’m actually in Asia, not Ohio.  Zàijiàn!  (Goodbye!)