Nov II, Weeks 16 & 17: Oh, home, let me come home

Lots of updates these past couple of weeks. Among other things, I got a new scooter, we had Thanksgiving conference in Taipei, and I finally got to go back to Kinmen! It's been a pleasant past couple of weeks.

     Monday, November 13th, was the start of my YouTube lesson at Budai. As expected, it went well. The day was relatively chill, and I was also given a cute planner for 2024 (which also included maps of the Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung MRT stations). Also a postcard of a black-faced spoonbill, for some reason. Fun fact: apparently, lots of black-faced spoonbill migrate to southwestern Taiwan in the winter.

     After school, I went grocery shopping with my roommate, and we chatted with our local friends and shopkeepers along the way. We also made friends with a woman selling flowers by the side of the road.

     For dinner, we made roasted salmon in the air fryer as well as air fryer broccoli and some bread we bought from a local Vietnamese grocery store. I'm a little bit more thankful every day that we bought an air fryer, because everything was delicious.

     The next day at school went well enough. The kids liked the YouTube lesson, and one of them was eager to show me his K-Pop-themed worksheet. At the end of the school day, I was handed a bag with some small fried good stuffed with vegetables, plus I was given a piece of handmade sushi. Yum. Then, I drove home a different way than usual, and I got to see some lovely flower fields and beautiful magpies.

     I taught oral exam review at Guogou on Wednesday, and it went okay. As usual, my favorite part of the day was pottery class, during which I finally received my fully-fired myna. I also received my money frog, which I worked on glazing.

     After school, I drove to the city to sell my scooter, and I managed to buy one that fits me! It's 125cc, but also small enough for me to put both my feet on the ground (which is surprising). Afterwards, I hung out with some city ETAs, then had Thai food for dinner with some other cohort people. It was nice.

     Thursday classes passed quickly enough. I moved one of my Friday classes to Thursday so I could help them review, but fortunately, it went okay. I left for the Taipei conference that evening, then saw my partner and started reading The Three Body Problem, which was interesting (and full of sci-fi).

     Friday was conference day! Our guest speakers this year were two dancers who talked about Indigenous culture, including song and dance. They taught us two songs and two dances, then we all joined hands and sung and danced. We did less dancing and more running and weaving in various circles, but I had a good time, and I liked learning about Indigenous dance in Taiwan. When I was growing up, I also learned a bit about Indigenous dance through my folk dance troupe.

     After catching up with old friends and meeting some ETAs, we spent the second portion of the conference watching a beautiful contemporary dance performance called "South". It was captivating to watch how the dancers moved, and I could've watched them for hours.

     Once we checked into our hotel (of which there were three this year; the Chiayi cohort stayed at Palais de Chine), I headed to the venue for Thanksgiving dinner. As usual, the food was wonderful, especially the truffle mashed potatoes and all the little desserts. I particularly liked the hazelnut and chocolate dessert they've served at other conferences before.

     There was also a lot of socializing, of course, as well as photo taking and dancing. I think the band was the same as last year, and as before, they absolutely killed it. We also had some of this year's ETAs take over the stage, which included some dancing, singing, and even an improvised keyboard solo. After this year's conference, I think I can say that the Thanksgiving conferences are probably my favorite by vibes alone.

     Afterwards, I hung out at the hotel with some cohort members, and we played card games and did KTV in languages that none of us spoke (like German). I probably should've gone to bed earlier, but I had a nice evening.

     Unfortunately, my lack of sleep caught up with me the next day. I checked out of the hotel, went to my partner's apartment, and took a forty-five minute nap before heading up to Tamsui to meet with him and some of his Mandarin program friends. I arrived much earlier than they did, so I spent an hour or so just wandering the streets of Tamsui and reading more of The Three Body Problem.

     When everyone arrived, we walked around Tamsui Old Street, chatted, and went to Wuji Tianyuan Temple up by Yangmingshan. We got some bowls of tangyuan from a passerby, then we toured the temple, which looks like the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. One of the volunteers there was very kind, and he showed us all five levels of the temple while explaining the significance of each of the statues and different aspects of Buddhism. Since the tour was in Mandarin, I didn't quite catch all of the information, but it was interesting.

     Sunday was spent catching up on a little sleep and just being generally exhausted. My partner and I had ramen for lunch, then we went to an ice cream place called Le Buno for dessert. The two of us split a dragonfruit and orange-flavored ice cream served in a frozen dragonfruit rind, and it was pretty good. Then, I took the HSR back to Chiayi, finished my book, and had a chill evening.

     Monday, November 20th, was spent lesson planning. I taught one lesson about Setenil de las Bodegas in Spain, but otherwise, I just did computer work. Budai's getting ready for midterms, so I only have a class or two both this week and next. After school, I drove my old scooter to the city to switch it for the new one. Yay, new scooter! I then got pho for dinner with some city cohort members, then went home.

     Tuesday meant no classes for me, so I just lesson planned all day. In the morning, I also got to watch my ninth graders perform beiguan (北管, běiguǎn), which is a kind of traditional music. They did well, I think. I ran errands, then reheated dinner and watched TV with my roommate. I also called the third Little K ETA from last year, and it was wonderful! I missed her dearly, and I liked hearing about how she and the rest of the cohort are doing.

     The next day, I went back to Guogou. The whole week, I administered the students' oral exams, so I didn't have to teach any classes. In between the exams, I played some piano on the keyboard in the library. Then, I went to pottery club and finished glazing my money frog and the coin in its mouth. It's coming along! I'm a little bummed I won't be at pottery club for the next two weeks, but I'm excited to see how the project turns out.

     My roommate and I spent the rest of the night cleaning the apartment in an attempt to rid ourselves of the multitudes of tiny ants that suddenly besieged our house. I think we succeeded, but not before we spent a couple of hours scrubbing and mopping every inch o the apartment. Argh, ants.

     On Thursday, I administered the rest of the kids' oral exams, which meant I had over seventy over the course of the day. They went well enough, but boy, were there a lot. I took a train to Taipei after school, then got dinner at Gongguan Night Market with my partner. Pretty lowkey.

     I went back to Kinmen the next morning! My partner and I woke up early, then we flew from Songshan Airport to Shangyi Airport. Once we checked into our hostel and had some luroufan for lunch, the two of us went back to Little K, and I finally got to see my kids!!!

     It was a sweet reunion; the moment I arrived at Jhuo Huan, my third graders (my former second graders) noticed me, and they grabbed me by the sleeves and paraded me around the school cheering. They showed me some new baby chicks the school has now, then I sat in on their reading class, during which some of them traced different drawings that they gave to me.

     Apparently, there was a reptile handler visiting the school, so I spent my next period with my now-fourth graders holding snakes, petting tortoises, and learning about herpetology in Mandarin. I picked up very little information, but I had fun hanging out with the kids and the animals. It was interesting to see which kids were excited to touch the snake.

     Between classes, I said hello to my new 201 class, then hung out with 101 (the former 大班 students) while they ate pizza for one of their classmates' birthdays. Their English is pretty good, and they even remember some of the vocab I taught them last year. At one point, I also went to visit the kindergarteners, who were briefly confused, then quite excited to see me. As usual, they loved lining up for high fives and showing me different things around the classroom. I missed how sweet, curious, and energetic they are!

     School ended all too soon, but I got to wave goodbye to them and hang out with the students who hung around. I chatted with my remaining fifth and sixth graders, including one of my basketball-loving students, and I also caught up with some of my former coworkers. Before I left, I also played a little basketball with some of my kids again.

     It was a little weird being back at school, but it also felt so, so normal. The kids were a bit taller than before, and some of them had different hairstyles, but otherwise, it just felt like a normal day with my kids. I've missed them dearly, and it felt nice to be somewhere familiar.

     Me, my partner, and another Kinmen ETA-turned New Taipei ETF drove back across the bridge, then we went to dinner at our favorite Indonesian restaurant with our favorite Indonesian ayi. Seeing her again was lovely, and as always, her food was delicious. We ate dinner with another former Kinmen ETA as well as a current Kinmen ETA. It was nice to chat with everyone and hear about how some of the students are doing this year.

     Afterwards, we went to Vent Bar in Jincheng, then hung out at our hostel until 3am. I was exhausted, but happy to just hang out with old friends again. Being in Kinmen, much like being at school, felt pretty normal, and I missed it.

     On Saturday, I went to Good Day Café with the other former Kinmen ETAs plus one of our LETs from English Village. It was nice to see her again and catch up on how she's doing. We walked around the Fuguodun Ocean Platform nearby afterwards, chatted, made up random sayings, and took photos with a giant crab statue. Y'know, normal things.

     The five of us also piled into our former LET's car and went to the yelling fountains at Nan Stone Trap Park, which shoot water higher the longer you yell. My throat hurt a bit afterwards, but it was fun being able to just yell. The person overseeing the fountains joked that we seemed pretty stressed, then asked if we were teachers. Oops.

After we got back to our scooters, we spent the rest of the afternoon getting boba, then walking around Taihu, where we saw a couple of hoopoes flitting around. I missed those funky little birds! I haven't seen any yet in the rest of Taiwan.

The five of us watched the sun set from the pavilion in the middle of the lake, then hung out at Everrich for a bit before dinner in Jincheng. I had fun hanging out in Shanwai again; it reminded me of going to English Village and getting boba during lunch.

     For dinner, we met up with one of our old cohortmates and his partner at Mike's Quiches, which moved locations and rebranded as Isola Pizza Napoletana. We all caught up with each other and said hi to our restauranteur friends. The food was excellent! Among other things, we had fries, fig and salami pizzas, truffle and clam pastas, bolognese, calzones, and fried desserts.

     Afterwards, we all went to Live House to hang out. The scoot was a little chilly, but I missed the wind. We met up with another former Kinmen ETA as well as some other local friends (including the owners of Isola Pizza Napoletana), and we spent hours vibing together. Regretfully, we had to leave a bit early for our flights the next morning, but it was nice to be out together again.

     Leaving the next day was a little hard. My partner and I woke up, then we flew back to Taipei around 10am. We were seated on the wrong side of the plane to watch most of the island go by, but I caught glimpses of Taiwu Mountain and Taihu as we left. The next several hours were a bit of a blur. I tried (but failed) to take a nap, slogged from Songshan Airport to Taipei Main, had lunch, and I took the train back to Chiayi.

     Once I returned, I had two storytelling sessions at 朴子好書室 (Puzi Haoshushi), which is a bookstore/multi-purpose space. For the first session, another Chiayi ETA and I read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, then for the second, we read The Bad Seed by Jory John. The sessions went pretty well, and the kids seemed to really enjoy the arts and crafts portions (drawing their own monsters and doing coloring sheets, respectively).

     These past couple of weeks, I've been exhausted again, but I've felt a little less unbalanced. Being in Taipei, seeing old friends at the Thanksgiving conference, and going back to Kinmen all made me feel a little cheerier. Going back to Chiayi is still tough, though. I'm finding myself dreading getting back on the HSR every Sunday, and sometimes, I feel like I'm just going through the motions of an everyday routine during the week.

     Last year's feeling further and further away, which both helps and feels a little sad. I'm still processing for sure, but it helps catching up with old friends, students, and coworkers, because it reminds me how much everything's different now. Also, as much as I loved being back with everyone still in Kinmen, being back on the island also didn't feel the same without everyone else from last year. I guess it was just more proof that as much as Kinmen felt like home, it was really the people that made it.

     I'm grateful for the year I had, and I'm hoping this one turns out okay, too. Until next time!

Writer's Note: This post was originally written on Monday, November 27th, 2023.