The Players

I'm already starting to miss my new family, and I haven't even left yet. The grad students at Tainan National University of the Arts are a tight group. They work ALL day together (usually from morning to 2AM or later), eat together, play together, and look out for each other. It is an amazing dynamic that I feel lucky to be a part of. So here are a few of the players...

Huimin, Lian-Ting, Yu-Ja, Pei-ei

Yoshi and Osamu (both resident artists), Chun-Chi, Pei-ei, Yao-Chung, Shi-Wa, Huimin

Huimin and Thomas

In this picture, everyone is snacking on food from the night market. They tricked me into eating chicken-butt. This did not freak me out as much as trying pig ear. That was too much. They waste nothing in Taiwan.

Huimin and Thomas are from Singapore. They are always translating everything for me, Osamu and Yoshi. They are wonderful!!!

Yu-Ja, Max and Holly (another resident artist)

On the way back from Taipei, Max was in charge of getting us all to the proper train and helping us to get dinner. He was so nervous about it, and I thought this was sweet. Max also has the best laugh, I smile every time I hear it.

 

Lung-Chieh (aka Long-J) rescues us from the cafeteria on weekends and takes us to the night market for food. He is so patient and has a great sense of humor. He also helped me bargain for a watch. In this picture he's making a plaster mold.

Chun-Chi and Osamu tried eating beetle-nut, which is a common nut in Taiwan that is known to give you a blast of energy, like 3 cups of coffee. Truck drivers eat these a lot, and their teeth turn red and get pretty messed up. You could compare it to tobacco "chew". They tried to get me to try one, but when I saw Yoshi almost throw up, I decided against it. I'll stick with coffee.
OK, more pictures of the grad students to come later, as well as pics of their work.