Week 32: All Fogged Up

What a week, for both mental health and weather. After a six day workweek full of thick fog and heavy rain, I'd love nothing more than spending forty-eight hours laying in bed.

As a result of last week being truly everything, everywhere, all at once, I crashed this week. I took a mental health day and caught up on chores on Monday, then went to Chinese class. My social battery was definitely still drained, but I got through the day okay. Then, I spent the evening agonizing over booking things for the upcoming nine-day break in April.

Tuesday was slightly better. It was foggy in the morning, but it cleared up later. I taught at Jhou Huan, then drove a different way home to see the sorghum. After going to one of Jincheng's Vietnamese restaurants for dinner, I finished booking the rest of my things for the April break, then I introduced my sister to my boyfriend during a video call.

The first truly foggy day of the season was Wednesday. The fog was so thick that I couldn't see more than a couple feet ahead of me on the bridge, and my pants were damp with water when I got to school. It was also incredibly windy, and I ended up driving a little slower than usual across the bridge. Most interestingly, the winds that usually made driving back from Little K harder than driving to the school reversed, so driving to school was the hardest part of my commute. School itself was okay though, and I even got to teach my sixth graders the word, "s'up."

In the afternoon, we had another Fulbright workshop, so we scooted forty minutes to Jinhu. I had two bubble teas, vibed, etc. etc., then drove another forty minutes back to Little K to help with the Chinese folk dances. This semester, the older and younger girls are split, so the sixth graders (and one fourth grader) are learning a Xinjiang style dance, while the first to fourth graders are learning a Mongolian style dance. Most interestingly, the latter is set to techno Mongolian throat singing (which is unironically excellent music).

Afterwards, I got lu rou fan, then headed to Chinese class. At home, I laid around, then had some Girl Scout cookies. My partner's family sent him Thin Mints, which were delicious! Admittedly, I can't remember the last time I had them.

Thursday was even foggier than Wednesday. Besides that, the day went well enough. During school, I got to see a little art exhibit of my kindergarteners' building creations. Once I'd finished teaching my classes for the day, I went to the Chaste Maiden Temple with my partner during lunch, then we had Kaoliang ice cream. The rest of the day was pretty chill; I just played piano and stretched in the afternoon, had an important call after school, then went to Go Wow, one of our favorite restaurants, for dinner. Somehow, I ended up in bed at 9:55pm, which was remarkable considering I kept going to sleep around midnight the week before.

EV on Friday wasn't bad. Some of the students had pretty good English, so they'd come up to us and chat during breaks. They also liked to draw and play with a small soccer ball during breaks, so they'd draw or play catch with us frequently. Unfortunately, they also got the ball stuck in a tree at one point, so one ETA had to use a kayak paddle to rescue it.

After work, the other ETAs, our LETs, and I spent probably another hour and a half chatting, so when I headed home, I picked up dinner on the way. I didn't do much at home, just ate with another Little K ETA, then vibed upstairs. Not a bad day.

Waking up on Saturday was surprisingly easy. Teaching was also surprisingly easy until I remembered it was, in fact, a Saturday. It was incredibly demoralizing. The most miserable part of the day besides working on a Saturday was getting drenched by the rain: all day, nothing but pouring rain. After school, I had to drive straight to NQU for our make up Chinese class, where I spent two hours soaking wet and absolutely starving.

Somehow, we rallied for our March joint birthday party though. It was (lightly) Percy Jackson-themed, so some of us dressed up as our cabins (I was assigned Demeter). Among other games, we played a drinking game to "Thunder" by AC/DC, a Medusa-inspired game called Wax Museum (followed by the Mannequin Challenge), and a Fates-inspired maze game. In the latter, teams of three would try to make it through a maze, and only the leader could see through one eye, while their teammates were completely blindfolded. Although we were missing a couple ETAs who had gone to a service immersion camp in Matsu, everyone who came had a good time.

Sunday was the entirety of our one day weekend. I woke up at 11:30am, which felt wonderful, then ran some errands. While running said errands, I ran into some of my students at Carrefour. They seemed excited to see me!

At 2:30pm, the cohort headed to the Jinhu gym for a game of capture the flag. We were relegated to a large dance studio due to space, but it worked out well enough with our teams of four (not including a sub for each team). I hadn't played in forever, but it was fun! Hopefully, we can play it again outside some day.

Later, we had our weekly hotpot night. Afterwards, the two ETAs who'd been in Matsu came back, and one of them regaled us Mr. Hong House ETAs with tales of treacherously slippery roads and Bigfoot impressions.

The entire week felt like an uphill climb, but we all made it through. I'm glad I took some time to recharge throughout the week, especially since it gave me enough energy to go to the March birthday party and capture the flag game. I just wish it hadn't been so rainy all week so we could've spent more time outside.

The fog was persistent, but at least somewhat interesting, as opposed to the gray drudgery of rain. In some ways, I miss the winter weather—as cold as it was, at least it was dry (and I could see further than five feet ahead of me). I'm hoping next week clears up a bit.

Until next week!