Introduction to Tainan

Days: 13/21
Teas: 32 

Day 11

After spending a couple days with the NCKU students we got an official introduction in the Industrial Design building on campus, our home base for the next week. All of the students had slides with their favorite places on campus and some suggestions for good places to visit in Tainan which was really sweet. Then we got a campus tour including the other design building where we found that the design students at NCKU have a lot more space and tools than we do and were immediately jealous. 

When we were done with our planned introduction, the NCKU students invited us to play volleyball with them on campus. We got to see some of the freshman activities and played in the pouring rain. It was interesting to see how much preparation and organization went into welcoming freshmen, it was much more robust than my undergrad.

To warm myself up after the game I took a food suggestion and got Taiwan fried noodle soup! Maybe my favorite food I’ve had on this trip. 

Day 12

We got a more formal introduction to circular economies with a 3 hour workshop after hearing a little about it at the Homework studio in Taichung. I knew some things before from my engineering background, but this workshop had an emphasis on the importance of utilizing the inner rings of a circular economy, or the most efficient rings, that I hadn’t seen put that way before. The statistics used were Taiwan specific which was also a unique insight into how these systems are different outside the US. 

The Use2use brainstorming design cards we used after in our groups helped steer our ideas towards the concept of circular economies and circular design which was really helpful since I don’t think we have the habit of that built into our design methods yet. 

After a long day of brain heavy lifting, we went out for xiao long bao and got some cocktails made with tea from another NCKU student food recommendation! 

Day 13

On our free day I went to Yuguang Island beach to see the sunset and then to Shennong street where we went to the cutest jewelry store. We talked to the woman working there and she said that they make all of their jewelry and a lot of her designs specifically were my favorite. A lot of the store was brass pieces that I found interesting because I have been wanting to try brass casting. I wish I had had more time to ask her about her design process.