TAINAN & TAIPEI & SEATTLE (9/17 - 9/22)

Wow... How do I start my final blog? Where to even begin? For one— apologies if this blog sucks more than my others as I am jetlagged and maybe a teeny bit sick. These last couple of days of the program have been more work and less play, which is to be expected. For the life of me I can't remember what I did on the 17th, though my camera roll places Kalin, Ned and I at Cheers Bar on the night of the 17th. We walked there after dinner to have a drink and chat about the process of our 

projects—something we talked about nonstop until after presentations on the 20th really. There were two shiba inus at the bar, one of which was so rambunctious he had to be taken on not one but two walks. On the 18th, we had a lecture in class on the badlands of Taiwan, and how a team of designers worked to create a metaverse of the area. The work was super impressive, and was a unique approach to bring attention to an older area of Taiwan. We made our own paper metaverses, which were all pretty chaotic looking. Very fun to interact with and see though! After the lecture, my group got back together to put in some work on our project. We grabbed some materials so we could 3D print and set up the presentation / poster. That night I grabbed dinner with Jennifer and Pfeiffer at some steak place nearby and it was by far the worst dinner of the trip. We all struggled with translation and were eventually given the English menu out of pity. There were two options for cooking: medium well or medium. I wanted medium rare but we settled for medium. When the steak came out, we found out medium really meant blue rare—the steak was practically raw inside and it was the chewiest cut of meat imaginable. We couldn't cut the steak, rather we ripped it into bites. The next day more than made up for that steak though! We got to partake in a matcha ceremony and make a japanese 

papercraft. A bunch of us tried on kimonos and I tried on a yukata for myself. Afterwards we went out for poke—which was the best poke of my life hands down. As fun as the days activies were, this was where the work got serious. We rushed back to the classroom and had some final critique before we delegated the work and locked in. I'm super grateful to the work Sydney put in on the project, she worked till early in the morning with me when the rest of our group went to bed. Being the smallest group was hard, especially when the two NCKU students in our group understandably had other obligations besides the project. That night I was up until 5:30 in the morning working independently on the poster and helping Sydney with the presentation where I could. I was dead tired and stressed out of my mind before presentations but we managed to put together a project that I feel we were all proud of. The name fortutensils sort of sucked but I love the experience and system that we worked to create. When we finally presented, I felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. We won the Taiwanese essence award (hooray!) and got to share some afternoon tea together as a group. I took the hardest nap of the trip after but everyone was in high spirits having finished the study abroad. The seniors made a trip to Bar Whisper for the final time before ubering to Heylo. Funny enough, everyone we saw there last time was there that night as well. I think it's the only real DJ style bar in the area so everyone makes their way there when they go out. Somehow, some locals convinced us to come to karaoke with them on the 15th floor of some building. We sung our hearts out for about an hour—my favorite was Vida la Vida by Coldplay. The next morning we reflected on the program over some breakfast and parted ways. I got off the HSR in Taipei with Pfeiffer and Sydney—we were all leaving on the same flight on the 22nd. When I got to my hotel I had a MOS burger and immediately passed out. I had originally planned to go out or sightsee while I was in Taipei but it was raining the whole time and I was exhausted after the last two nights. I met with Pfeiffer the next day for some Vietnamese food and to take the MRT to the airport. The flight wasn't bad at all and I watched two movies: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the Garfield movie. I don't really recommend the second one. Glad to be back in Seattle but I'm going to miss Taiwan dearly. This program has been more amazing than I could've ever expected and I'm so grateful to have been selected to be a part of all this. I'll save the reflection for the final reflection essay but it's been a real joy to be a part of this Design in Taiwan. (Imagine me doing the ID hand sign).

-Austin