Week 16: Kinmen Visitors

This week, we had three different visitors come to Kinmen! Throughout the week, we also really ran the range of Kinmen weather: hot, cold, windy, foggy. Thankfully, it wasn't particularly rainy, but we certainly had enough of that last week.

Monday was my partner and I's one month anniversary! We didn't have time to do anything together, but I liked spending time with him after school. Once I'd taught my classes, I ran errands with him, then we went to Chinese class. It was a little cold after class, but the two of us then took a walk over the illuminated bridge at NQU.

It was beautifully foggy all day, especially when the sunlight filtered through the fog. When I was driving over the bridge to Little K, I couldn't see anything further than a couple feet on either side; it felt like I was driving into the sky. It also felt like I could pretend that China wasn't just a couple miles away, which felt weird.

I didn't do much on Tuesday. I had my lead teaching, did work, vibed, etc. etc. The clothes I got from YesStyle finally arrived though! Among other things, I had ordered a pair of chunky white sneakers, so I was excited to finally own a second pair of sneakers here in Kinmen.

On Wednesday, the weather dropped from being in the 80s (Fahrenheit) to the 50s. It also got real windy real quick. My classes went well enough, but I was informed that I had three new big English projects to work on for JHES, so I spent a bit of time working on that with one of my coworkers.

While scooting back to Jincheng with my partner before dance, I almost fell over on the bridge. Super fun experience when you're already not the most confident scooter-er. It was so windy that later, I had to have my partner scoot me back to Jhou Huan, then again back to the apartment.

For dinner, I drove to Kim's Noodles in Jinhu to meet up with another ETA. We ran into our ETF and his girlfriend, so we all ate together, then I went with the other ETA to plan for our winter break trip. Since Fulbright's letting us travel outside the country between semesters, I'm planning on visiting Vietnam and Indonesia. I've never been, but I'm excited for the trip!

Speaking of Indonesia, my partner surprised me with a dessert from the island-famous Indonesian restaurant when I came home. The dessert my partner brought is called klepon, which is a dish of sweet glutinous rice balls filled with palm sugar and coated in coconut shavings. The Indonesian ayi that runs the restaurant makes her own variation of klepon, which are triangular in shape and have palm sugar poured on top instead of filled inside.

I ended up having klepon the next day at lunch too! The cultural teacher at Jhou Huan made klepon, cenil (glutinous rice cakes coated in coconut shavings), and a jelly cake, which we were all invited to take. The rest of the day went okay enough. I taught my classes, practiced piano and violin, took a nap, then went to Chinese class.

We also got to have dinner with one of the Fulbright US scholars before class. He's visiting Kinmen for a week or so, and his research focuses on art and border spaces.

Friday was nice even if still a little cold. After EV, I ran some errands, then walked to Lake Tai and sat and wrote a little poetry. I also saw a lovely white egret-like bird (not sure what it was specifically) take off while I was sitting there. Then, I went to the Indonesian restaurant and met up with seven other ETAs.

I hadn't been to the Indonesian restaurant in over a month, but I missed it! I also missed the ayi, who's incredibly sweet, funny, and welcoming. While she was offering some klepon to my partner, she told him that it 賣完了 (had sold out), which we assumed was to keep him from ordering a bunch of it (which he totally would have).

The next day, my partner and I went back to the Indonesian restaurant for lunch, as did the US scholar, his French journalist friend, and another ETA. Thankfully, the ayi was still quite glad to see us. She was particularly happy to see the other ETA, whom she dotes on frequently.

We spent a couple hours eating and chatting with her, and she offered us a specially-made drink called cendol, which had coconut milk, palm sugar, and some squiggly strands of jelly. It was delicious, but unfortunately, she didn't have enough to make us all a second cup.

Once we'd finished lunch, I ran some errands with my partner, then got ready for the evening's festivities. As with last week, this week we also had a potluck. I ran out of time to make what I had planned, so I brought two bottles of sparkling apple cider instead.

The potluck was very cute! Many of us invited our LETs to the event, and some brought their families too. It was a holiday-themed event, but us ETAs (and ETF) brought a card and a cake to celebrate one of our coordinators' birthdays as well.

I loved chatting with everyone and trying the dishes they brought! Among other dishes, there were black sesame mochi things, lumpia, and an eggplant spread to be put on French bread. Someone also brought little gingerbread people we could decorate with icing and sprinkles. Later in the evening, we sang happy birthday to our coordinator, then had a raffle for little prizes. I won a little Christmas tree-themed science kit.

After the potluck, the cohort split up to go to different bars. Some people went to a little bar in Jincheng while the rest of us went to Livehouse, which was in Jinhu near the potluck. We ended up watching the World Cup match, which was at that time between the US and the Netherlands. The Netherlands won, unfortunately, 3-1.

Besides us ETAs, one of our LETs came to the bar with her boyfriend. We also had two more Fulbrighters visit Kinmen—one from southern Hualien, one from Yilan—who met up with us at the bar. It was nice to get to know them, and we ended up inviting them to Sunday's touch football game (which made up for last week's rained-out game).

I ended up staying up for a couple more hours even after I'd left the bar (oops). Those who had gone to the Jincheng bar were all hanging out on the roof of our apartment later, so I hung out with them for a while. It was nice just cozying up in blankets and staring at the stars, but also pretty cold. Eventually, I went inside, then fell asleep around 3am.

Unfortunately, going to bed late meant waking up later. I woke up around 1pm in a panic for our 1:30pm football game in Jinhu. Once I scrambled over to the field, we did some warm ups and some passing drills. As expected, I'm not very good, but I tried my best.

The cohort was split into two teams: the Wind Lions (my team) and the Kaoliangs. We put one visiting ETA on each team, and also had a system to determine who's subbing in and out. We also had mascots! We dressed up Tina, who's a stuffed baguette that several other ETAs have shared custody over, as a wind lion with a little cape, and also brought two full bottles of Kaoliang.

Although the majority of us didn't really know what was going on, we did okay, and we ended up tying! In the last three minutes of the game, we decided to have everyone on the field at the same time, which was glorious, glorious chaos. Throughout the game, we also had to continuously negotiate our parcel of the field from the Jinhu Elementary soccer team, who apparently had practice.

Most of us got boba from Ba Fen afterwards, then split up to do various things before our weekly hotpot. During dinner, fourteen of us showed up for hotpot, including the two visiting ETAs. We all had a good time just chatting, then came back to the Jincheng apartment for a game of UNO. It took a while to finish the round, but as before, I think we all just had a good time hanging out together. There were cookies and Christmas lights—what else could you need? Also, one of the visiting ETAs gave us a bag of dried flower snacks from his county, which was nice.

Although I'm definitely slogging through the week in terms of energy levels, I love seeing my kids at school. I'm getting a little stressed with my workload though, and I'm not sure where I'll be able to slot in the time to do work.

I had a great time this weekend though! As usual, I love hanging out with my cohort members and chatting with new people. I think my favorite parts of the weekend were probably the touch football game and hanging out with our Kinmen visitors. Besides the Kaohsiung visitors during the taro festival, nobody else has really visited us yet.

Even though we're all crazy busy all the time, I think as long as I can manage my stress levels, I'll do just fine. Here's to next week being a little better!