Oct II, Weeks 12 & 13: Autumn and Anniversaries

Welcome to autumn! As with last year, the weather's just started to cool down after Double Ten Day. I've still been feeling weird getting used to this school year, but I think these past two weeks have been a smidge better. Recently, I had some little Kinmen reunions, did a game jam with a friend from home, and my partner and I celebrated our one year anniversary!

On Monday, I was feeling pretty down. I still went to Budai for school, but my LETs let me rest in the office, so I spent the day lesson planning. Then, I had guabao for dinner with my roommate and called a friend from home. It was a tough day.

Tuesday got a little better. I still didn't feel great, but one of my LETs kindly left me a crepe cake and a milk tea. I rested in the office again, but I got to lesson plan and do other productive things at least. Then, after school, I went to dinner with my roommate at a nearby seafood place. The owners had so many little dogs—six or seven little white dogs, and one Jack Russell Terrier-esque dog—and they were adorable.

I went back to Guogou on Wednesday. Classes were okay, and I liked my pottery class. Then for dinner, part of the cohort and I went to Democracy Turkey Rice with one of the Fulbright advisors. As usual, the turkey rice was delicious. Then, we had dessert at a tangyuan restaurant, and I went with some other ETFs to IKEA afterwards. It was... not a large IKEA. But it was cute, and I missed vibing with them.

Thursday classes went well. Between classes, an LET handed me a stack of volumes of Spy x Family unprompted. I've never mentioned knowing anything about the series, nor having a pre-existing interest in it, but I suppose I've just been assigned a new interest.

After school, my roommate and I used our new air fryer for the first time. I've never had an air fryer before, but I loved using ours! We made roasted pumpkin in ours, then we made roasted pumpkin seeds. We also made stir-fried rice noodles with egg and stir-fried tofu, and our upstairs neighbor brought us some sliced Asian pear too. Then, the two of us finished the last episode of our show.

On Friday, classes were a little tough. I'm still having a hard time figuring out which activities work for the English Songs Club, but at least it seemed like they liked the song of the week ("Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen (2012)). After school, I went to a new café called 1935玉勝巷 with an ETA, and we chatted over Alishan tea, coffee and some bread the café owner made himself.

The two of us and some other ETFs had dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant together, then went back to the Puzi apartment to watch Pride and Prejudice (2005). I'd never read the book or seen the movie before, but it was wonderful. 10/10, would watch again.

Saturday (at 3am) was the start of the game jam my friend and I joined. I slept for maybe a couple of hours, then hopped on a call with my friend to plan for our game. The theme was "In the Blink of an Eye", so we ended up settling on a story about ecological succession and forest regrowth after a fire.

After I slept a little more, I woke up in the afternoon and started writing. Besides a lunch break and a dinner break, I spent the whole day just writing. Has it been a while since I've written anything creative, especially prose? Perhaps. Did I feel like I couldn't focus for more than fifteen minutes at a time? Possibly. But it got written!

During my dinner break, my roommate and I went to the Puzi Night Market. I've never been before, but it was much larger and much better than I expected. In addition to the usual quail eggs, fried squid, scallion pancakes, and whatnot, there were Thai banana crepes, sugar-roasted chestnuts, grilled mochi, stinky tofu, and skewered fruit jellies.

There were also fireworks, live music, and a religious procession. Despite how crowded the market was, I had a good time wandering around, and I even saw a couple of my students from Budai. Hopefully, I'll be able to go back to the market and explore more soon.

The next day, I spent the day doing art for our game. However, I also saw my partner and checked out a rooftop market during my afternoon break. During said break, my partner and I had lunch, then we went to a café before he had to head back to Taipei. It was a brief reunion, but I was glad I could see him!

Afterwards, I went to the Puzi First Market with my roommate. Apparently, the building was originally developed for the local market to move into, but it took so long to build that the market moved elsewhere and people moved into the building instead. Now, it's a labyrinthine, semi-open air apartment complex.

The market on the roof was small, but it was nice to have a Puzi community event. We saw one of our coordinators and some Taibao cohort members, plus we got to chat with a local who has apparently been moving back and forth between Taiwan and the US for years.

Monday, October 23rd, was my first day teaching at Budai in two weeks! I taught four classes: three culture classes (two eighth grade classes and one ninth grade class) and one English class (seventh grade). I think they went well enough—they liked the virtual corn maze, at least.

Then, after school, I continued doing some work fixing the background art I made. Unfortunately, the game engine we were using didn't like having images in it, and my writing partner has been having a hard time figuring out how to fix that. Oh dear.

During an art break, my roommate and I also went to dinner with the Taibao crew, and we went to a local ramen place. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I saw them, but it was nice!

The next day, teaching went fine. After school, my roommate and I went shopping for ingredients to make bánh xèo and Vietnamese spring rolls with some city cohort members. It was lovely! The four of us spent a couple of hours listening to music, vibing, and cooking together, and it made me wish cooking regularly with other cohort members was more feasible.

In addition to our spring rolls and bánh xèo, we also made more roasted pumpkin in our air fryer and cut up some fruit. Everything was delicious, and I'm hoping we can have more cooking nights in Puzi in the future.

Wednesday was the first day I tried to do stations during class. It went well with one eighth grade class, but not with the other. Yikes. In the afternoon, I did some productive things, then went to my weekly pottery class. As usual, pottery was fun! I remade the wings for my bird, then some of the other students and I made little hearts together.

After school, I went to Xinying District, Tainan, with some other cohort members. We drove about half an hour south, and I liked watching the sun set over the countryside and passing through some little towns. I also missed doing scooter caravans!

The five of us had curries and beef bowls for dinner, then we went shopping at NET and Carrefour for a little. Even if the excursion was only a couple hours, I had fun exploring part of Tainan and seeing some cohort members again.

School on Thursday went well enough. I ran errands after school, made more bánh xèo with my roommate for dinner, and met one of our neighbors' cats. I also worked on some gifts for my partner and I's anniversary. Despite being somewhat stressed all day, the day wasn't bad.

Friday went better than expected. I was worried about how some of the classes might take to this week's material, but they did great! My ninth graders loved the stations, especially the origami lotus station, and they were much more focused than I expected. I had my English songs club afterwards, which wasn't bad, then I rushed to the HSR station to go to Taipei.

From the moment I arrived, my entire weekend was packed with stuff to do and people to see. When I first got to Taipei, I went to a birthday dinner for my partner's roommate, then we went to a Halloween party. I didn't have a costume, so I grabbed a pair of headphones and decided to go as an "e-girl Twitch streamer" at the last minute. My partner's costume? "Soundcloud rapper".

The party was a great time! It was some of the much-needed socialization time I've been missing, and everyone at the party was friendly and fun to talk to. I've missed being in bigger group settings.

Saturday, October 28th, was my partner and I's one year anniversary. Neither of us could believe that it'd been a whole year, but somehow, it had been. A year ago, the Kinmen Bridge hadn't been open. And a year ago, we were still figuring out how to teach and how to live in Taiwan (and Kinmen, especially).

We went to the Jianguo Flower Market to buy flowers together, then went to Taipei Pride. I've never been to a pride parade before, but Taipei Pride was fun! I also liked catching up with some other Fulbrighters from different sites afterwards. I haven't been able to talk to a ton of ETAs yet this year, but I had fun getting to chat with some of them for a bit.

My partner and I went to Japanese buffet for dinner, and the sushi was pretty good. I think my favorite was the sugar-glazed salmon nigiri, but I also liked the handrolls. We also had some excellent crème brûlée. The most interesting part of the meal, though, was hearing them play dramatic music as our eating time came to a close. I can't say I expected that.

On Sunday, I had brunch with the remaining former Kinmen ETAs (including my partner). Brunch was delicious, the convo was fun, and I just missed being around everyone. The more I look back at last year, the more it feels like there was something sort of magic about living in Kinmen together. And I'm not sure how to bring some of it to this year.

I caught the HSR back to Chiayi, then had another Kinmen reunion as I met up with one of my former LETs from Jhuo Huan. We had late lunch at a seafood restaurant in Dongshi, which included steamed clams, fried oysters, and squid, then walked around nearby. It definitely felt different talking to him outside of the context of teaching together at Jhuo Huan, but it was nice! I had fun reminiscing with him as well as chatting about Taiwan, Europe, and traveling. He also handed me a small box of teas from his family's teashop, which was sweet of him.

I'd never been to Dongshi Pier before, but it was cute! There were lots of families flying kites and older people playing music, plus there were colorful stores and a splash park. While we walked around the harbor area, I also saw fields and fields of oyster farms stretch into the distance. It was lovely.

After a while, the two of us drove down to 白水湖壽島, which is a sort of sandbar/beach in Dongshi County, to watch the sunset. Although we missed the peak of sunset (and I don't have any photos of the sunset itself), it was gorgeous. Possibly the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen—the sky was filled with soft, rich tangerine and lilac light, and the sun was huge, low, and red. As we drove, the different fish ponds and reservoirs reflected the sunset too, and everything was bathed in orange and purple. Honestly, I couldn't help staring at the sun a couple of times. Oops.

When we finally arrived, my former LET and I walked around the sandy area, which was littered with driftwood, tiled remnants of houses, and oyster shells. Walking around, chatting, and watching the sun set was nice. After the last of the sun slipped below the horizon, the two of us parted ways, and I drove past the fish farms and fields back to Puzi. As with saying goodbye to the former Guogou ETA from last year, saying goodbye to my LET was bittersweet. I liked hanging out with him and feeling a bit more normal again, but it was hard knowing I might never see him again.

I then had dinner with some other county cohort members, hung out at the Taibao apartment, and just had fun with people. During part of the evening, we drank bubble tea and watched part of the Avatar: The Last Airbender finale dubbed in Mandarin.

Even though I've had a tough couple of weeks, I think this Sunday was some of the most fun I've had in a while. I liked running from place to place to see people, and seeing people from last year felt emotionally satisfying, too.

I'm still trying my best to set routines, see people, and find everyday joys here, and sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it's tough. I know this year won't be like last year, but the extent to which this year is different from this year is still hard to adjust to. Hopefully, I find new things and ways to make the most of this year soon.

Until next time!

Writer's Note: This blog post was originally written on Tuesday, October 31st, 2023.