Hello blog! Today is 09/11/2024 which marks the 11th day of our study abroad, also meaning that we are halfway through it already. Time flies so quickly when you're not paying attention to it. Anyways, let's get into it!
The picture below was taken during a break after our lecture at NCKU, my group members and I went to the nearby FamilyMart to get some refreshments. I thought the packaging was so clever-using the texture and color of the rice ball to serve as the shape of the dog's head (the dog is Shiro from Crayon Shinchan, a popular children's cartoon back in the day), and then using the plastic packaging to add the dog's face.
After the lecture, we went to Indigo Dye and completed a workshop on dyeing cloth with real Indigo from the plant. The first picture was taken in a bookstore that you have to walk through in order to reach the workshop area, and I took it because I thought it was a cute moment to share (my classmate translating the text of a children's book).
During the workshop, we were shown different folding techniques to achieve different patterns after dying the cloth. I chose the flower method (pictured in the second picture) which requires one to fold the cloth like a fancy napkin in a radius around the center, in order to get a circular pattern (pictured in the third picture). Also, in order to keep the whiteness of the cloth after dying it, you'd have to fold it in a certain way with popsicle sticks or clothing pins to cover the parts you didn't want to get dyed.
After dying our individual cloths, we walked to the nearby city temple, but on the way there, I noticed that the residential areas had these grates on the outside of the windows. They differ in their pattern for every grate we see, but I don't quite know the significance-I will ask one of my Taiwanese classmates for more information!
Next up, is the temple frieze. I first learned about these in a class about ancient art, so it was surprising to see it at a Taiwanese temple. In that class, I learned about how different cultures blend parts of other cultures into their own through the use of art. This topic is similar to our current project goal, so this is something I'll keep in mind for later.
When we got back from visiting the temple, we went up the stairs to the second floor of the bookstore and noticed the light fixture in the corner of the first floor was shaped like a bird. I thought it was cool to see how it was designed to light up underneath the bird, through its belly. The bird is also perched on a little ledge like how it normally would in nature. Although this is an objectively purposeless design, it brought joy to me and my classmates when we noticed it, so in my eyes, it's purposeful.
The next day I wasn't feeling too great, so I went to a clinic with a kind classmate to see a doctor and get some medicine for whatever was making me sick. Turns out I had the flu, so the doctor sprayed some medicine in my mouth (the device looked like an airbrush tool which I though was interesting) and prescribed me this medicine to take after every meal. I noticed that each of these packets had popular cartoon characters printed on them, which made sense since the clinic I visited was a pediatric clinic. I assumed that these were to excite the children to take their medication, so that they're more likely to take them.
That's all for now, thanks for reading and talk to you soon!
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