Week 10: Taro Time

Monday through Thursday was all quarantine all the time. I can't say I did anything of particular note, just ordered food on FoodPanda, did some reading and writing, etc. I also went insane a little bit, so that was fun.

In all seriousness, I do think quarantine was at least a little beneficial for me in that it forced me to take a break. After talking with people from back home and rediscovering hobbies (as well as finally being able to sleep consistently), I feel more centered.

Being centered and rested lasted for roughly a day. On Friday, I was free... to go back to work. I woke up at 7am, then headed to Jinhu Elementary to teach at English Village. While living in my little quarantine bubble, I had somewhat forgotten that I do, in fact, live in Taiwan right now, but I readjusted fairly quickly.

Even though I was working, I was delighted to finally see other peoples' faces and have people to talk to! The whole day was full of little reunions every time I saw another member of the cohort. The biggest reunion was at dinner, when our cohort met up with other Fulbrighters who were visiting from Kaohsiung (and New Taipei) for the weekend.

Two of the visitors were ETFs who had taught in Kinmen last year, one of whom taught at Jhou Huan. I loved being able to talk to last year's ETA; it felt nice to have someone else who knew the other teachers and the kids. Then after dinner, we rallied the troops and drove to a bar in Jinhu to hang out until around midnight, then some of us hung out at one of the apartments until 1am.

Unfortunately, we all had to wake up quite early the next day for the taro festival on Little K. Given the importance of the taro festival, the ports on both sides were a bit of a mob scene. Even though many of us showed up at 8 or 8:30 for the ferry, the ferries filled up quick, and many of us couldn't make it until 9am. Despite the five-ish hours of sleep I got, I had a pretty good day; I missed being on Little K as well as seeing my kids and coworkers! I saw lots of my students walking around the fair with their parents or with each other, and I got to say hello to lots of them (who seemed surprised to see me after my week of quarantine).

Besides the fair, we also spent our day digging for taro and hanging out on Little K. My group dug up around 5.6 kg (12.35 lb) of taro total! After digging, some of us went to Shang Lin Coastal Beach. I liked combing the beach for shells and rocks, and in addition to some cool pieces of pottery and even a piece of bone (a spine of some sort?), I found some pretty shells and sea glass pieces. After that, we headed to lunch, then back to Big K. Some of us got got to hang out with the Kaohsiung ETAs a bit during lunch, which was cool, then write on the restaurant wall with a marker.

Since so many of us were exhausted from the day, lots of us took naps, then had dinner and hung out. Unfortunately, the plans for KTV were scrapped, but some of us ended up watching the movie To Live, which was about a Chinese couple living through multiple recent chaotic periods of Chinese history.

The sleep deprivation carried into Sunday; although I slept the correct technical number of hours, the quality of sleep was abysmal. I sleepwalked my way through Chinese dance, then hung out with another ETA and ran some errands. For dinner, we met up with another ETA and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant, then ended up talking about language learning and Spanish linguistics (!!!).

The past several weeks have kinda felt like I've slingshotted from 100 to 0, then back up to 100. I think it's been a tough adjustment, but I'm almost grateful for the respite that COVID brought. I'm more grateful though for being free and able to see everyone again! I've missed the cohort dearly, and I'm thankful I can hang out in the world of the living again.

Writer's Note: This post was originally written on Friday, October 28th, 2022.