River + Beach Episode

 Taijiang National Park on a boat in the pouring rain was kind of surreal, but super cool to see all the fishing life out there. I am a huge mangrove fan, so that was probably my favorite part, but I was fascinated with all the different types of nets and ropes and ways of pulling fish up. I was a bit tired by the time we got to the museum part, but I locked back in to learn about the gradual filling in of land into the wetlands of Tainan because it reminded me a lot of Southern Boston (although a lot more drastic).

As cool as Taijiang was, I was a bit wet and very tired, so I was not quite sure how I was going to make it through the rest of the tours that day. Thankfully I was rejuvenated by the most gargantuan and delicious bowl of beef noodle soup at our next stop. After that we quickly walked by Fort Zeelandia and stopped at a calligraphy house / museum before heading on to the Anping Tree House, which was a serene location to walk around, it felt like we were incorporated into the tree. I wanted to do some work / thinking on my project that day, but honestly I needed a break to let our brainstorm marinate and see some more inspo, so the day worked out pretty well.

The next day was our free day, and I took it pretty restfully, but it was still really fun. Austin and I feasted for breakfast with a massive serving of rice omelet + pork, cabbage and scallions for very cheap before heading over to a coffee shop with Kalin and Jessy that turned out to be way more of a tasting experience to geek out about coffee brewing. It was really a cool experience even though I don’t have the knowledge to really describe the flavors, it just felt like another sort of tour to learn about a craft. After that, we went on to a thrift store where I scored a really cool coat, but after that we went to an even cooler place. It was a vintage store that was pretty far out of my price range, so I didn’t buy anything, but it was mostly Taiwanese designers, which was really cool to see. I geek out about fashion design and clothes, so being able to see an array of vintage Taiwanese designer brands from a range of decades was super cool, but sadly they didn’t let me take any photos.

We met up with a bigger group at Yuguang Island to see the sunset. It was an incredibly beautiful sunset, and it really made me appreciate the night a lot and the insanity of being with people from the design cohort on this side of the world. The next day was back to work with my group. The brainstorming stage was definitely a bit rough, but I feel like we are finally on the same page, and are getting some good work done. There are still a lot of questions we need to answer, and stuff to figure out, but I am getting excited about our ceiling tile idea. We did some research and started some revised sketches over some breakfast, but I think mentor hours are very much needed to solidify some things.

After that though, we got to see some very different crafts from what we’ve seen so far. My favorite was definitely the embroidery shop because it is something I am familiar with and have done a little of, but it is just so drastically different from the embroidery and hand sewing techniques in the US and Europe. I had seen work like that in temples on this trip and been amazed, but it was wild to see it actually being made. Definitely showed me some interesting techniques and ideas for thread manipulation. The incense store was also pretty great, some incredible smells, but also interesting educationally. Before this, I knew very little about the process of making incense, and its origins. The bakery afterwards was also great. I am overall very tired, but I just keep seeing inspiration and really cool stuff in Tainan that is making me want to design, so I’m ready to pull through for this project.