Week 14: 太累 in 台北 (Too Tired in Taipei)

This week, we had our Fulbright Thanksgiving dinner, then spent the weekend in Taipei. Between seeing everyone at the conference, visiting Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, and hiking Elephant Mountain, it was a bit busy, but I had a pretty good time.

On Monday, I had my class observation at Jhou Huan. I was pretty nervous, but I think it went pretty well! The observers told me I did an excellent job, and they even asked if they could use the recording of the lesson to show future ETAs how to teach younger elementary students. After the observation, I also got to show off a little using the Chinese yoyo, so I felt like I had a good day.

Tuesday was chill. I had my classes, ran errands, etc. That was about it.

Wednesday was similar. I went to Jinhu for a workshop after school, came back to Jhou Huan for Chinese folk dance (after a forty minute-ish commute between Jinhu and Little K!), then chatted with some other ETAs.

Thursday was our last day of teaching before the big conference. It went ok enough until my last class, which felt like a minor disaster for classroom management reasons. I'm definitely struggling with classroom management as the semester continues. Hopefully, the strategies I've been discussing with some of my other coworkers will be effective.

After class, my partner and I scootered to the airport and met up with some other ETAs, then flew to Taipei. We split up, went to our respective hotels and hostels, then I fell asleep.

The next day, my partner and I had breakfast at Yong He Soy Milk, which is famous for, as you'd expect, soy milk. Also youtiao (油条). We got both, and they were indeed amazing. After that, we scrambled to the conference location for our first event, which was an Indigenous culture presentation.

It was nice to see everyone from all the other sites again! Our presenter was an Indigenous artist from the Amis people, which is one of sixteen officially recognized Indigenous groups in Taiwan. According to the internet, the other fifteen are the Atayal, Bunun, Kavalan, Kanakanavu, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saaroa, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Seediq, Taroko, Thao, Tsou, and the Yami.

After we watched an episode of a National Geographic docuseries the artist made, he showed us some of his work, and a couple of us even got to talk with him afterwards. He was very friendly, and he invited all of us to visit his hometown in Hualien County.

Our next event was our Thanksgiving dinner itself. For reasons that're still a little unclear to me, the dinner was held in a hotel roughly an hour or so from where we had our cultural presentation. Getting there was a little tough, but we made it.

The food itself was mid, but I liked chatting with my fellow cohort members, especially since we got to see the ETFs, researchers, and other scholars in addition to the other ETAs. My favorite part of the dinner was probably dancing to the live band. It wasn't anything too crazy, but I think us Kinmen ETAs did well enough at representing our cohort.

We went to a bar after the event ended, so on Saturday, we woke up a little late, then checked into another hostel. For lunch, some of the other Kinmen ETAs and I went to a Mexican place, which wasn't bad. We ate in the park around Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, which was beautiful. With the bright, sunny sky, I think it was a perfect day to look out over the ponds and meander through the gardens.

Once we'd explored the memorial hall, we split into smaller groups, and I wandered around by myself for a bit. I walked around Da An Park, then eventually explored the Jianguo Holiday Flower Market. Later, I met up with my boyfriend, and we went to hike Elephant Mountain (象山) together.

Along the way, the two of us ended up making friends with a friendly Albanian guy visiting on a business trip; apparently, he works for the management division of a Danish off-shore wind energy company. He ended up climbing the latter half of Elephant Mountain without us since it was quite steep, but for the first leg of the trip, the three of us were racing against the setting sun.

The view from Elephant Mountain, apart from the tourists (which of course included us), was wonderful. It was stunning to see the Taipei skyline glitter as the sun went down! Even though I was bitten to death by what felt like every single mosquito on the mountain, I enjoyed hiking with my partner.

On the way back to the hostel, the two of us passed several cafés, including one that seemed to be a beetle café. Said place had both beetle-shaped breads and also little tanks of actual beetles to play with.

After regrouping with another Kinmen ETA at the hostel, we went to an event held by New Bloom, which is a famous Taiwanese activist magazine. We mostly spent our time listening to the ambient music performances downstairs, but we also chatted with a couple other people there, including a pianist and a photographer. Later, we went to a night market for dinner, then met up with a bunch of other ETAs at a nightclub. It was a pretty busy night! According to my phone, I walked 27,293 steps, or 11.58 miles.

On Sunday, we checked out of our hostel, and some of us headed to a Peruvian restaurant with our luggage. The food was excellent, and the family that ran the restaurant was very friendly. The owner was Peruvian, and his wife was Taiwanese, so both of them and their son all understood varying degrees of Spanish, Mandarin, and English. I had a great time talking to them—no matter what language I codeswitched into, they could understand me, and I could understand them. It was incredibly freeing!

I've never had Peruvian food before, but I loved everything I tried at the restuarant. Out of the dishes we ordered, which included ceviche, fish stew, a sausage dish, and a dessert bread with ice cream, I think the fish dishes were my favorite. I'd love to go back again.

Once we'd finished lunch, we all headed to the airport. Three of us dropped our stuff in luggage lockers, then my partner and I went to pick up some baked goods from Chia Te Bakery, which is known for its pineapple cakes. Since my partner adores pineapple cakes, he ended up buying thirty of them, and I decided to buy a box of red bean glutinous rice pastries. Then we headed to the airport, met up with some other ETAs, and went home to prep for Monday's classes.

I think coming to Taipei this time around made me miss home a little more. I've found that in Kinmen, I have an easier time separating being in Taiwan from being in the US since it feels so distinct. On the other hand, international cities all feel very similar, so being in Taipei almost feels like being in the US, but not quite—there're just enough differences to make you feel out of place.

I also think that as usual, coming to Taipei was exhausting. Since the Kinmen cohort lives in such an isolated place compared to everyone else, we don't get to visit very often, but when we do, we tend to stay out pretty late. It's almost always a good time, but also definitely one that takes a toll on my sleep schedule.

In general, I love the city, but I can only be there for so long before I feel a little unbalanced. Oh, Taipei.

Writer's Note: This post was originally written on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022.