Oct I, Weeks 10 & 11: Staying Seaside

Happy belated Double Ten Day (10/10)! These past two weeks, we had seven days of school and seven days off. Ah, vacation. I haven't been feeling great, but during the recent vacations, I got to visit Xiao Liuqiu and Keelung for the first time.

On Monday, October 2nd, we went back to school. It was tiring, for sure, but it wasn't bad. I also got to have dinner with the Taibao cohortmates and a visiting Kaohsiung ETF, which was nice.

I didn't do anything at school on Tuesday due to midterms, but I did get to lesson plan at least. Then after school, I went to a café to do some creative writing with another ETF. We didn't end up writing anything, but I liked seeing them and just vibing. Also the desserts we got were tasty.

Back at the apartment, the three of us ETFs made ratatouille (with substituted tomato sauce for fresh tomatoes), pasta, and eggs w scallion. I had a great time cooking and chatting with them! We also watched TV and hung out for a while. One of the night's highlights was me trying and failing to feed my roommate a piece of starfruit.

Wednesday was pretty windy due to the incoming typhoon, but the day was ok. Classes went well enough, then I worked on my myna sculpture during pottery class. It's... coming along. The commute home was super windy, but I didn't mind it too much. It reminded me of scooting on the Kinmen Bridge, which I've definitely missed. At home, my roommate and I did some more poor man's Just Dance, then took a walk and grabbed dinner. Pretty chill evening.

Classes were canceled on Thursday due to Typhoon Koinu, which hit the southern tip of Taiwan. The weather in Chiayi wasn't bad though, just pleasantly windy.

My roommate and I went to Carrefour for home appliances, and among other things, we got a rice cooker and an air fryer! After coming home and doing some chores, we made mapo tofu and sautéed veggies for dinner.

We had school on Friday, and admittedly, waking up at 7am before a four day weekend wasn't that fun. School went okay though despite some tech and power issues. I headed to Kaohsiung afterwards, and I met up with my partner. Fun fact: apparently, you can rent electric scooters using an app, much like how you rent YouBikes. We used an electric scooter to get to our hotel, then to get to dinner and dessert.

On Saturday, we made the trek down to Xiao Liuqiu, which is a tiny tropical island known for its sea turtles and coral reefs. We took a shuttle bus to Donggang Wharf in Pingtung County, then a ferry from the wharf to the island. Along the way, we ran into an EMI ETF and her friend, checked out the golden temple gate at Donglong Temple, and got sushi and sashimi at the famed Huaqiao Fish Market. Was it hot and tiring? Yes, it was. But it was also worth it.

When we finally made it to the island, my partner and I went to Geban Bay Beach (also known as Venice Beach). The beach was a bit rocky, but it was lovely. There were lots of shells, coral fragments, and hermit crabs, and the water was much clearer and colder than I expected.

We watched the sun set over the beach, then we walked around the different stalls in town for dinner. The food wasn't bad, but my favorite part of the evening was getting mango shaved ice.

On Sunday, I slept in a little, then my partner and I got lunch. The big event of the day was snorkeling with sea turtles at Beauty Beach! I was incredibly anxious beforehand given how poorly snorkeling went the last time I tried it, but this time, it worked out! Besides a couple scrapes on my knees, I managed to enjoy my snorkeling unscathed.

It was wonderful to see everything—shoals of striped yellow fish and glittery blue fish, clown fish, giant clams, brittle sea stars, and sea urchins—as well as just float around. We also saw four or five sea turtles swim past us, and one even passed directly under me. It was incredible.

After snorkeling, my partner and I went to a nearby café for some iced matcha. We spent a while talking to the owner, who told us about living in Xiao Liuqiu, then we went to a leisure area with lots of craggy rocks. Despite the wind and drizzly rain, I had fun walking around and peering into the dark blue waters. It reminded me a bit of staring into the sea on Bali.

For dinner, my partner and I went to the island's local Persian restaurant (Iran Bazaar Xiaoliuqiu). The owner was quite friendly, and he liked chatting with my partner in Farsi a little and talking about Persian culture. He served us a kebab with saffron rice, Persian tea, Persian nougat, and two kinds of Persian ice cream, and he even handed us a bag of dried figs too before we left. It was all wonderfully delicious. At the restaurant, we also ran into a YouTuber we met last year and spent our dinner talking to her too.

I went for a walk afterwards with my partner, and along the way, I bought a little stuffed turtle keychain. It's still unnamed, but hopefully not for long.

On Monday, I woke up a little earlier than the day before. My partner and I had lunch at a Thai restaurant, then went to see Vase Rock. I liked seeing the rock, but I especially liked checking out the different tide pools and admiring the sea. I think I spent almost an hour just watching the different crabs, fish, and starfish in each tide pool.

We went on a little huandao (環島), or trip around the whole island, next. One of our stops was Secret Beach, where I spent a bit of time swimming and checking out their tide pools (which were far less interesting than the ones at Vase Rock, sadly). We also went to Sunset Pavilion to look out over the sea again and enjoy the fresh air.

Later, the two of us walked the Shanfu Ecological Trail. I liked the views of the beaches and rock formations, and I thought it was interesting that there were even some bunkers (reminiscent of the ones in Kinmen) along the path. After we watched the sunset, my partner and I got some sea turtle-shaped egg cakes (海龜燒雞蛋糕) filled with custard and chocolate. Although I woke up earlier, I felt like the day was a lot chiller than the day before. Possibly because I didn't have to spend over an hour panicking about whether or not I could snorkel.

My partner and I went to dinner with our YouTuber friend, plus her freediving instructor, who we met the night before, at Xiao Liuqiu Island Bistro. I had a nice time chatting with them plus the freedive instructor's wife, and the food was wonderful. There was mahi mahi, steak, jambalaya, brownies with ice cream, and more.

I wish I could say the rest of the evening after dinner was equally relaxing, but it was not. Both the battery and the spare battery, which we'd switched out for a new one earlier that day, were drained, and we were stranded in the mosquito-infested dark for a little while. Luckily, it was only half an hour, and we managed to contact the rental place for some new batteries eventually.

We left Xiao Liuqiu early on 10/10 Day to beat the rush back to Kaohsiung. Although we had to wake up at 6:30am, I think checkout and the trip back to Kaohsiung went pretty smoothly. Lots of napping. We got back to the HSR station by 9:45am, dropped our bags off at the station, then got lunch and went to a café.

Later that afternoon, we went to the Kaohsiung Fine Arts Museum. The two of us walked around the different exhibits, then I ended up taking a half hour nap on a bench. Afterwards, we went to dinner with a Kaohsiung ETF and caught up.

Wednesday was our first day back at classes. It was tough going back after such a long weekend, but teaching went okay, and I enjoyed doing my pottery class. Update on my myna bird: I made its body and tail feathers. I also spent more time chatting with some of my ninth grade girls, and one of them even made a little talon for my bird.

I just ran errands after school, but for dinner, I had Vietnamese with my roommate, the Taibao apartment, and one of the Chiayi city apartments (the Wufeng apartment). I missed seeing people! We had fun hanging out afterwards too, and a couple of people came over to see the Puzi apartment and eat ice cream.

On Thursday, I had a pretty okay day. Teaching went relatively well, then after school, we had some much needed layout changes to the apartment. Good news: my roommate finally has a "room"! One of the changes our handyman made to the apartment was moving a ceiling fan in the living room, so now my roommate can finally close the sliding door that partitions her "bedroom" from the rest of the living room. Yay, house upgrades.

The rest of the evening was spent running errands and doing chores, etc., etc,. then my roommate and I made dan bing at home. They weren't bad. We honestly just added egg to some scallion pancakes we heated up from frozen. Also, our air fryer finally arrived!

Friday was, as usual, a little tough to teach, but could've been worse. The morning class went well, then the afternoon class and the club were okay. I'm definitely still figuring out how to tailor them to the students, but they're getting better. Then, I went to the HSR station after school and took the train up to Taipei to see my partner.

I met some of his roommates at his apartment, then had dinner with some former Kinmen ETAs and one of his roommates. We weren't able to go to the restaurant collab between some of our Kinmen friends and a Taipei restaurant, and we ran out of luck looking for other places to eat, too. Maybe it was because it was Friday the 13th, maybe it was just how it was. Maybe it was both.

The next day, I went to Keelung for the first time! My partner's intensive Mandarin program had a trip that I was able to join, so we woke up at 7:30am and took the bus to Keelung with the rest of the program. We walked around Badouzi Seaside Park first, and the views were stunning! It was surprisingly bright out despite Keelung's reputation for being rainy. I made friends with the other students as we walked around, then we all had lunch at a local seafood restaurant.

We went to Heping Island Geopark afterwards, and unfortunately, it started to drizzle. I walked around and made more friends, hung out with a former Yilan ETA who's now a student in the same program as my partner, then had an ice cream sundae with seaweed. It was pretty good.

After it stopped raining, some people went swimming in the saltwater seaside pool, so my partner, some other students, and I hung around the pool for a bit. There were lots of different fish swiming around, which was neat. Then, some of us walked part of the Huanshan Trail and admired the different rock formations. It was nice. Minus the part when I accidentally crushed a giant snail underfoot, which was absolutely devastating.

Fortunately, the rest of the trip passed without snail-related incident. We saw the Zhengbin Port Color Houses, then went to the famed Keelung Night Market for dinner. The night market was huge, bustling, and had an amazing selection. In spite of how crowded it was, I think it was probably one of the best night markets I've ever been to.

After we got back to campus, my partner and I had a LINE call with the old Kinmen cohort. It was lovely to see everyone again! We spent a couple of hours catching up, chatting, and just enjoying seeing each other's faces. It felt weird chatting over a video call instead of going to a bar or hanging out at Hong House together, and it was just another reminder of how things have changed, but I'm glad to have caught up with people. I missed them dearly.

Sunday wasn't the best day. The first half of the day went well: lots of sleep, seeing friends, hanging out. My partner and I went to lunch with a friend, then walked around a park near Taipei Main. The not great part of the day hit when I was going back to Chiayi. I just felt... miserable. I tried to read and write and whatnot, but it didn't really help. I also drove out to a Turkish restaurant to see people for dinner, but it also didn't help. Calling my mom and reaching out to other friends made me feel a little better, though. Hopefully, I feel better soon, because I also couldn't sleep until 3:30am.

It's been a fun past couple of weeks traveling around. I've had a good time seeing new places and chatting with people, but in between each trip, I've been feeling a little down. I've still been going through it, and I'm still feeling weird and unsettled in the site despite my attempts to develop routines and see people. I don't think I've seen most of the cohort for weeks now. There're a ton of different things so far that are adding up, and it kind of feels like a death by a thousand cuts.

I'm still looking forward to the next couple of weekends, at least. There's a game jam a friend and I are doing one weekend, and my partner and I's one year anniversary is another, so those'll be fun! Fingers crossed things get better soon.

Writer's Note: This post was originally written on Monday, October 15th, 2023.