Week 28: Sun Moon Lake Squad

This week, we had a four day weekend! The majority of the cohort spent the weekend at Sun Moon Lake, which is one of the most famous tourist spots in Taiwan.

On Monday, I taught all my classes, but some of my fifth and sixth graders were temporarily absent due to a county-wide basketball tournament. I also had a new first grade student, who I had the privilege of giving an English name to.

I went back to the ENT for more medicine after school, then came home and did work. For dinner, my partner and I tried a new fried chicken place, and it was excellent! It was run by one of the LETs at Jhong Jheng, and the fries were amazing.

Tuesday was fine. I did my work, was tired, etc. etc. My partner, another Hong House ETA, and I went to another new place for dinner. I got a pork belly curry with rice, fries, and a banana creme brulee, all of which were pretty good. Then at the apartment, us and another ETA watched an episode of Physical: 100, which is a Korean fitness competition show the majority of the Kinmen cohort's obsessed with watching.

On Wednesday, I taught my kindergarteners, fifth graders, and sixth graders. The classes went pretty smoothly! Also, the kids were particularly bubbly. After lunch, we had our weekly EV meeting, then my partner and I checked out an open air scrap metal art gallery. The art was beautifully made; my favorite pieces were the penguin and the giant dinosaur.

Once we had dinner, I went to this semester's new Mandarin class with some other ETAs. There're only two other ETAs in the class this semester, but we're having a pretty good time so far! Our new teacher seems nice.

I didn't sleep well going into Thursday, but classes went ok. After school, I did some laundry, then headed to movie night at the Jinning apartment. We watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon! I hadn't seen it in a while, but it was good. The soundtrack? Especially the cello? Amazing.

Friday was another EV prep day. During a break, another ETA and I checked out the county wide basketball game, which was being held at Jinhu. The other ETA's students lost to another school in the semifinals, but my teams (both boys' and girls') won their finals! All the basketball they play in between classes definitely paid off.

I went to the new fried chicken place with my partner for dinner, then we scooted to the airport to catch our flight to Taichung. We barely made our flight, but we made it! In Taichung, the traffic wasn't great, but we eventually reached our scooter rental place and hotel.

The next morning, my boyfriend and I got fan tuan (飯糰) for breakfast, then went to Miyahara, which is a famous ice cream place. The building housing both the confectionery store and the ice cream store was beautiful! Apparently, it was built in the 1920s as a Japanese eye doctor clinic.

When we ordered, we got a sundae with Hakka ground tea and strawberry green tea. Our sundae also included a free scoop of raspberry sorbet, a bunny-shaped almond cookie, a pineapple cake, and a fragrant biscuit. It was pretty good.

After we finished our ice cream, we had an hour and a half drive from Taichung to Puli. The drive was beautiful but physically demanding on a scooter. To make it worse, we ended up driving over a mountain!! The path was ridiculously steep, narrow, and twisty, but at least the view was nice. There were lots of flowering trees bursting with pink or yellow flowers, and we also saw an enormous golden eagle (which is apparently rare to see in Taiwan).

We finally reached Puli, dropped our bags off at our hotel, then scooted to Sun Moon Lake with the rest of the Kinmen cohort. First, we went to Wenwu Temple, which had a variety of lovely art, architecture, and snacks. Among other things, some other ETAs and I bought passionfruit flavored ice pops, wandered around, and checked out a matchmaking machine. From the temple, we all stared out at the sun setting over Sun Moon Lake, then headed to Ita Thao, the Indigenous village on Sun Moon Lake that belongs to the Thao people.

In Ita Thao, we checked out the night market for dinner. There were vinegar drinks, gua bao, millet wine slushies wild boar scallion pancakes, and more. I got some gua bao, and my partner got some Thao mochi on a bamboo stick, then we sat at the pier and listened to a street performer play piano. The scoot back to Puli was cold and dark, but I liked hanging out with everyone at the hotel afterwards. Although it was a long day, I had a good time!

On Sunday, we spent the whole day at Sun Moon Lake. We ran into another ETA on the way over, then the three of us rented bikes and biked around part of Sun Moon Lake. Although the weather wasn't particularly nice, the water was still a beautiful shade of turquoise. It reminded me of the water in Ha Long Bay, actually. Also, at one point, we stopped to skip stones across the lake, and I found some round, pearly clams (plus a particularly cute Shiba Inu).

For lunch, we met up with the other ETAs for lu rou fan and boba, then went to do water activities near Ita Thao. Another ETA and I went kayaking, as did a couple others, while some chose to do stand up paddleboarding or riding in a paddleboat. I spent the entire hour sitting in a puddle of water, but I had fun exploring the lake and charging our other friends' boats.

We had dinner at a Thao restaurant, and it was excellent. I think the freshwater clams were my favorite dish. Then, we got cream puffs for dessert and scooted back to Puli. Some of us went shopping at NET (one of my favorite Taiwanese clothing stores), but in the end, we ended up hanging out again at the hotel.

Even though we just came off of a one day weekend, I've had a pretty good week while checking out new places. I'm also glad I could make it to Taichung with everyone! Sun Moon Lake was stunning, even if the weather wasn't great. So far, I think my favorite parts of Taichung and Sun Moon Lake have been hanging out in hotel rooms, checking out Ita Thao Night Market, and kayaking.

Writer's Note: This post was originally written on Saturday, March 4th, 2023.