Dear Reader,
We are nearing the end of our second week in Taiwan, and what a time it has been.
On Wednesday we traveled from Tainan through Jhushan to Nanto to learn about tea, woodworking, and bamboo crafting. Our first stop was the Yoshan Tea Culture Musuem where we learned about the different types of tea, the tea harvesting process, and also got to make our own tea balls. It was interesting to see the techniques that they used to process the tea and also how the tea master checked all the flavors of the tea with a special tea set. I really liked seeing the different tea sets and was amazed to find out that they use different color tea sets to serve tea in different seasons. We also got to try tea at the museum, my favorite was the Roasted Dong Ding Oolong Tea. I really enjoyed the flavor of it and was pleasantly surprised by the fruitful essence it left behind in the empty cup. After the museum, we went to a Taiwanese restaurant where we ate family style. The restaurant had a somewhat eclectic set up, the walls were mostly made of floor to ceiling glass panels, which allowed for a lot of natural light to come in and also for restaurant goers to have a view of the restaurants garden, which included huge inflatable soccer ball, some yoga balls, a heart chair for two, and a bunny statue. I really want to know why they decided to include these items into their garden, and what the purpose of having these things accessible to their guest was, nevertheless, they were fun to play with. The next stop we made was at a bamboo crafting workshop. At the bamboo workshop we took a studio tour and learned about their bamboo cup making process and also about bamboo as a material. We learned that it's hard to sell bamboo cups overseas in America because it is a material that is susceptible to the climate. If we were to bring one of the bamboo cups back to Seattle it may crack because of the cold and dry temperatures. I love that bamboo is such a sustainable material, however it makes me wonder what other plants can be used in a similar sustainable way and also what other plants are susceptible to damage by the climate? It also makes me wonder if there are sustainable materials from each region of the world that are best suited to making goods in those areas, and if so, how do we make use of them in a productive and respectful way? The last place we stop for the day before checking into our hostel in Taichung was a woodworking workshop. Here we got to see the master woodwork, while also learning about their business and how it has evolved over the years to sustain such a beautiful craft. It was insightful and inspiring to hear them talk about how the workshop has shifted and changed with the times in order to stay afloat economically, while also keeping the art of crafting alive. I admire that about their workshop and hope to visit again someday to see the new crafts they are working on. After all those workshop visits, we finally checked in to our hostel, Star hostel.
I think this hostel stay was one of my favorite parts of the rest of this week. I enjoyed getting to learn about the concept behind the hostel and how it came to be. The owner said that he wanted it to be a place where people could come and stay and feel at home. He also talked about the organic design and how the environment was made to be calming and natural rather than bright and overwhelming. I enjoyed getting to see their use of some Japanese architectural design, and the idea of having people come up to the lobby from their rooms instead of going down to the lobby. The environment that was created was very calming and when we did group work for our projects at the communal spaces it also felt very productive. I want to learn more about how to create spaces help people or how designing certain spaces can allow a person to feel a certain type of way. The overall view from the hostel was amazing. I wish we got to stay a little longer, but I'm grateful we got the chance to stay in Taichung, even if just for one night.
On Thursday we visited the National Taiwan Craft Research Institue (NCTRI). While there was a lot of different crafts to see, my favorite exhibit was "ta-ke-nology" which was a collection of pieces that sought to provoke a discussion on the relationship between humans, nature, and technology. It definitely sparked some questions for me and made me want to explore more about how traditional crafting can be integrated with new technologies to create something wonderful and awe spiring, while also having a comforting or familiar feeling to it. After visiting the research institute, we were served a group lunch and learned about our food from the owner of the restaurant. She talked about how all the food was sustainably sourced food all from Taiwan, and the stores name and overall ambiance was influencing name of the store from the Japanese word "shiawase" which means happiness. She also talked about wanting people to feel welcome and at home. The last stop we made before returning to Tainan was another bamboo workshop where we got to learn how to weave our own bamboo crafts. It was really difficult at first, but it was fun to learn how to weave a simple pattern from the master himself.
Today is Friday and we are back in Tainan. We spent most of the day with our project group at NCKU brainstorming and going over ideas about how to move forward with our project. We talked about using pomelo skins to make some type of sustainable and compostable material and decided to move forward with the idea. Tonight, we met up at Evelyn's apartment to try and make paper out of the different parts of the pomelo. We tried three different mixtures of pomelo and are still waiting to see the final dried results. They look like they're going to come out as full sheets of paper, so we'll see how it goes when we pull them off the paper screens in a few days. Stay tuned for more updates on this. Anyway, as always, here's some of my favorite pictures from this week:
That's all for now, see you soon.
All my love,
Kayla
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