six

Currently on the plane back from taiwan. I spent the last 3 weeks traveling all across taiwan, from taipei to taichung to tainan. Each city had its own charm. Taipei was a hustle bustle city and was always raining. The streets reminded me of tokyo, the way all the shops were so tiny and packed together. We worked with National Taiwan University in a design project and worked with Helen and Kristin to design a little umbrella holder with a bike. That week in taipei I was still getting used to the country, and I got sick towards the end, so I don’t think I had as much fun in taipei as I could have. I’m sure the city is very charming if I explore it correctly and live in the right places. We also went on tours walking around the city, we visited pinlin the tea town and ying ge the pottery town. I think that I am a very rushed person, so traveling with the group really wasn’t much my speed. Often on these tours I felt drowsy as a combination of this and the heat and humidity of taiwan. Working with NTU students also wasn’t my favorite experience of all time. They had trouble grasping the basics of design and also they don’t speak english very well so it was hard to communicate with them.

Taichung was more spacious of a city. We stayed in an amazingly designed hostel that gives me inspiration for what I want my future home to be, but unfortunately we only spent a couple days there so I cant form an opinion of the city.

Tainan was my favorite of the cities. The weather was much better so going outside didn’t feel like a chore. I was also finding my place within the group of people that I was traveling with, figuring out who I like spending my time with. The people from NCKU, for me, were also much easier to get along with because we all had a common ground of design. They took us around the city showing us all of the good food spots, sunsets on the beach, bars, and so much more. I still felt the same about all of the workshops or tours that we did thoguh, they all felt very dragged on and too long, making me feel very drowsy and tired while doing them. Working on a design project with the NCKU students was a little better than the NTU project though. For one, I came in with the experience from the last design project, I knew what the process should be for designing, how the slides should be structured, etc. Also, the people from NCKU has a lot of design experience, whether that be in design thinking or technical skills like rendering. I had a much better experience working with them because it felt like they could “keep up.” Though this is not to say that it is their responsibility to keep up, it is also on me to make sure that they are on the same page even if that means slowing down.