Design in Taiwan - Blog Post #4 - Tea and Chocolate

     Hello blog! Today is 09/13/2024 which marks the 13th day of our study abroad in Taiwan. More than halfway through our trip and closer to my senior year start date. Anyways, let's jump into the blog!

    To start off, I wanted to share this interesting set up for the hand sanitizer dispenser near the hotel elevators. I never really noticed the metal bumps on the floor near the feet of the dispensers until this moment when I rubbed my shoes against the bumps to test its grip. My feet didn't slip, so I assume that this was placed underneath where the stray hand sanitizer would shoot out from the dispenser, so people wouldn't slip walking near it. I think the design could have been executed a bit more thoughtfully, so that it would blend into the ground a bit more or at least be shaped in an elegant way. 

        The next day we left for Nantou and Taichung. In Nantou, we visited the Yoshan Tea store and did a tea bag workshop where we made these cute little bags filled with tea leaves that we can use as air fresheners, aroma for baths, clothes fresheners, etc. 

    Then we had lunch at this restaurant that had a giant grass yard with yoga balls and a giant inflated soccer ball that people can play around with. I thought this was a fun addition to the dining experience-a fun exercise after eating a full meal. 

    After lunch we visited one of two bamboo workshops. This one in particular had a bicycle with a structure built with bamboo which held up when a couple of us took it for a test ride. I don't think I've seen this in the U.S. so, this was definitely a surprise for me. I love designs that have a mix of naturally-derived and manmade materials.

    We encountered another one of these bicycles at the storefront of this workshop but the grips are shaped like chocolate bars. This is the kind of design I love: small things that are practical and cute. I honestly can't believe I found this because it's a small object and from a distance, you'd probably assume it was a regular bike grip. 

    After visiting the bamboo storefront, we arrived at our hostel in Taichung. At the hostel, we had to switch our shoes for these slippers pictured below when entering the hostel. The public seating area had this shoe rack with a sign that said, "Worried about losing your slippers? Use the shoe rack and remember the number!", which I didn't catch at first until I found myself losing my slippers, mixing them with others, and thought, "I wish there was some way to keep track of my slippers,". Then, in the corner of my eye, there it was, the god-given shoe rack I asked for. After this discovery, I thought about how well-designed the hostel was. On top of a cozy and sophisticated atmosphere the experience itself was well-thought out for the guests.

    That's all for today, thanks for reading!