Week 17: Super Stressed!

The week started somewhat chill. On Monday, I only had one class due to the fact that the other two classes got moved around, so I spent the rest of the day lesson planning. I also spent a little time playing piano and stretching since I had so much time. My coworker also handed me a chocolate cake at one point, which was allegedly meant to commemorate the birth of the child of Jhou Huan's accountant.

During the school day, I hung out with the other Little K ETAs, and we checked out Bada Tower (八達樓子), which is a war monument in the middle of a roundabout. After that, we checked out a little souvenir shop nearby. There wasn't anything unique to Little K in the store, but there were little wind lion statues and dried taro snacks at least.

Later, I got dinner, then went to Chinese class with the oher ETAs. Most of us hung out at the nearby FamilyMart afterwards and bought some ice cream. I innovated on the classic chocolate and milk (not vanilla, milk flavor) twist by buying some Oreo-flavored Pocky and sticking it in the ice cream. 10/10, would do again.

Unfortunately, Tuesday teaching was stressful from start to finish. I woke up and had to take the ferry due to wind speeds on the bridge, then had to prep for the day's lead teaching and co-teaching. I managed to get everything done though!

Later, I also worked on a poster for an event for Saturday. I had been planning on having a poor man's Just Dance event for a while, but I finally decided to hold it on Saturday. Along with designing a poster on Canva, I also created a YouTube playlist of some of the must-dance dances, including "Rasputin", "Umbrella", and "Final Countdown".

Driving home, I also figured out how to feel a little more secure while driving aross the bridge; if I put my bag on the scooter hook, my center of gravity is lower. Also, if I fill up one of our water jugs at school and keep it in my bag, I have a nice counterweight to keep me from falling over.

Back at the apartment, we had spaghetti night! One of the other Little K ETAs invited Mr. Hong House plus a couple others over to have spaghetti, so four of us ETAs and one of our LETs had dinner together. The spaghetti? Delicious. The vibes? Impeccable. We had the Christmas lights on, Christmas music playing, and a game of UNO to play. I think we listened to "Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber at least four or five times. We also ate the chocolate cake I got from Jhou Huan, which was delicious.

After eating, we decided to put up the Christmas tree that the 3F ETAs had bought for their floor. A couple other ETAs came to hang out, and we all just vibed together while we decorated the tree. I think we might need more ornaments for the tree, but it's already very cute. My boyfriend came home a while later, then he recounted his dinner experience with some other Kinmen visitors to us before everyone went to bed.

Wednesdays mean workshops (sometimes), so the next day, I scooted from Jhou Huan to Jinhu. After our workshop, we had a birthday surprise to prepare for one of our LETs from EV. The other LET helped us plan, and we had a big card, a gift, some candles, and not one, but two cakes for her! The first was a tiramisu cake from a local café that we had all bought her, but the second was a huge cake with Ariel (the Little Mermaid) on it that her boyfriend had dropped off.

The LET whose birthday it was was overjoyed, and she gave each of us a hug before blowing out her candles and sharing her cakes with us. There was probably too much cake even for over twenty people to eat, but they were awfully good cakes.

Since we had a dinner with the director of Fulbright a couple hours later, I stayed around Jinhu until then. I went to Tai Lake with my partner and two other ETAs, then we walked to a little island with a bunch of birds. We hung out at the pagoda at the top and watched the sun set, then drove to Xi Bian together for dinner.

Later, both my partner and I ended up sitting at the table that the director chose to sit at. He was nice, but most of dinner was spent talking about Fulbright-related stuff.

Thursday was overload day for me. Since my class schedules had been rearranged, I ended up with five classes in a row starting at 8:30am. I got through them, but boy, was I tired. I had Chinese afterwards, then came back to the apartment and felt generally overwhelmed. In all honesty, I ended up crying out of stress during the school day.

I think I cried on Friday too. I had EV, which was ok. The students were very sweet, and we had our first ever three-way tie between the students during the review game. Unfortunately, I had to leave early to give a talk at a local vocational high school. It was a little tricky finding the right classroom, but I made it.

The talk I gave was on adoption and my experiences as a Chinese-American adoptee in the US. I think the students were a little zoned out since it was last period during a Friday. They did ask a couple questions though, which was good.

At home, I got some work done, then started making some 韭菜盒子 (jiǔcài hézi, or chive pockets). I wasted an hour and a half, apparently, because they did not turn out well. I definitely didn't flavor my mung bean vermicelli enough.

I then sat in my room and felt overwhelmed again, then opened a Christmas package my family sent. Customs wouldn't let them send fairy lights or some of the other stuff they wanted to, but I did receive some hair clips, pine tree-scented soap, and some Christmas cookie cutters.

I loved the package! It made me miss my family a little more; both the inability to cook something simple from back home and also receive half of the Christmas stuff they wanted to send was a little frustrating. I then cried again, but less out of stress and more out of missing home. I've had little waves of missing specific things from home, but I think this is the first time I've actually been homesick for all of it.

The next morning, I went for brunch with my partner, and we tried our first oyster omelettes here in Kinmen. Afterwards, we walked around Jincheng a bit, then went back to the apartment to do some work. Pretty chill day.

Poor man's Just Dance night ended up being moved to next week, but some of us ETAs still got to hang out that evening. Myself, some of the other Mr. Hong House ETAs, and the Jinning ETAs had a KTV night in the Jincheng apartment. Once we set up the projector, we spent the next three-ish hours singing, drinking, and eating snacks.

On Sunday, I got brunch at a cool restaurant right by the apartment, then walked around Jincheng again. After doing work for a little while, I went with some other ETAs to the Little K North Wind Chicken Art Festival. Sunday was the final day of the two month-long event, so I was excited to check it out.

I was surprised to see almost all of my students and coworkers from Jhou Huan there! It turned out that there were exchange students from National Taiwan University in Taipei visiting, so my school was hosting them. I also found out that one of the military-costumed people running the event was one of the Jhou Huan kindergarten teachers.

While we walked around, the other ETAs and I watched a couple of military-themed comedy skits, picked up some "Chinese propaganda flyers", and also collected stamps for a program booklet we received. It was an interesting experience, to say the least.

Later, we got taro shaved ice at a nearby restaurant, where we got to pet the owners' dog. His name was Qian Qian! He was very sweet, and also very desperate for our food.

After crossing the bridge, which was beautifully illuminated, we went for our weekly hotpot. The ETA who usually organizes hotpot night hadn't returned from her weekend trip to Taichung, so we had to go without her. We got to catch up with her after dinner though, which was nice. Apparently Taichung was pretty cool, so hopefully I can visit some time soon!

As you can probably tell from this post's title, I've been incredibly stressed all week. It feels like I'm running out of time to do everything I need: lesson planning, studying Chinese, writing essays and emails, calling friends from home, running errands, and sleeping.

I'm hoping to make more time for myself next week so I can get work done but also relax a bit. So far, it's felt like every single second of my schedule has been accounted for. If I'm not teaching, I'm lesson planning. If I'm not lesson planning, I'm commuting. If I'm not commuting, I'm running an errand. And if I'm not doing any of those things, I'm asleep.

Fingers crossed I feel a little better next week.

Writer's Note: This post was originally written on Sunday, December 11th, 2022.