Week 38: Beaches, Bivalves, and Birthdays

Beaches, bivalves, and birthdays (oh my!). The week was busy, busy, busy, but I had a great time. I got to check out different places in Kinmen I'd never been to, meet another ETA's friends from back home, and go to a decades-themed birthday party. We also got to go oyster harvesting for the first time, and we had another dinner with the director of Fulbright.

Monday was a little tiring. Unfortunately, the single cup of milk tea I had at hotpot the night before was too much for me (even with melatonin), so I slept terribly. Classes weren't bad though! Before one of my classes, I drew on the chalkboard with one of my sixth graders, and she pretended she was a customer ordering food from McDonald's and Milkshop. It was particularly endearing.

During lunch, the other Little K ETAs and I went to a soda shop + museum/beef noodle restaurant/café. Although all three establishments were technically separate, they all shared one building. The beef noodle soup and the fresh soda were pretty good. The owner of the soda shop explained that most of the sodas were made with natural flavoring, and she told us the mulberry soda was seasonal (it's apparently mulberry season in Taiwan and Kinmen right now).

I liked having lunch with the other ETAs! We usually all eat lunch at our own schools, then hang out afterwards, but I liked being able to actually eat lunch with the others. I don't see them much during the school day (if at all). The rest of the day was the same as usual. I went home, had dinner with some other ETAs at the local spicy noodle restaurant, then had Chinese class. Not bad.

I slept much better that night, so Tuesday was less tiring than usual. The kids liked a new sentence pattern game I introduced, and they chatted with me a bit outside of class. I also got to watch one of my second graders practice the Taiwanese national anthem on the melodica and another two second graders play a duet on the melodica and the ukelele. The day was pretty good, and I liked the little green mango I got for lunch.

After school, I ran some errands, then went to dinner at Kim's Noodles with a bunch of other ETAs plus another ETA's visiting friends. It was a nice dinner, and I felt like I hadn't seen a bunch of the other ETAs as much recently, so I liked eating together.

Wednesday was oyster harvesting day! Classes went well enough. My fifth graders, who had just been at English Village the two days before, told me they'd seen my boyfriend there, and they described him as "being tall and having a beard". During lunch at a nearby restaurant, two of them also saw me with him (as well as another two ETAs, one of whom they recognized from English Village last semester), and they excitedly waved to us as they walked past.

After hanging out with the other Little K ETAs, another ETA, and his visiting friends, I headed home to get ready for oystering. Oystering is a major industry here in Kinmen, and the county is known for its oysters and oyster omelettes.

Due to the way that oyster mud stains clothing, our coordinator advised us to wear clothes we could either wash easily or clothes we'd be willing to throw away. In preparation, myself and most of the other ETAs made a trip to Joytown, one of the local stores, and bought some wonderfully interesting clothes the day before. I had a long sleeved polo I could only describe as "叔叔-core" ("old Taiwanese uncle-core") and a pair of black windbreaker pants, and later, I was also given a purple and white sun hat that was wonderfully "阿姨-core" ("old Taiwanese auntie-core"). My outfit truly ran the gender spectrum of old Taiwanese folks.

From Guningtou, the entire cohort, our coordinator, our guide, and the director of Fulbright caravan-ed to the oyster fields, and it was wonderful. We'd never had such a full caravan before—I felt like a migratory bird returning home with its flock, or perhaps a baby turtle returning to the sea with its brethren.

Oystering itself only lasted an hour or so, but it was a wonderful, wonderful hour. The sky was a beautiful blue, and the oyster fields were a beautiful, gloopy gray. Our cohort split up to harvest oysters, and my half of the group went with the tour guide and an oyster shu shu (uncle). We learned a ton from the tour guide, including the fact that oysters are typically harvested in Kinmen between December and May, and the youngest oyster farmer in Kinmen is a youthful sixty-five years old.

It was fun! I might've been perpetually wet and gloopy, but I was also having the time of my life wading around in that mud; it reminded me of wading around in creeks and streams at nature camp as a kid. A couple other ETAs and I really got into scraping the oysters free, and another Little K ETA told me that she could already envision me in my past life as an oyster ayi.

In addition harvesting oysters, we also spent our time looking for different animals in the mud. I found a ton of little crabs, including speckled ones, black and brown ones, hermit crabs, snails, and more. According to the intertidal flora and fauna book my partner got me, the crabs we saw were likely Japanese shore crabs. Later, I also saw a couple tiny sea anemones and worms too. They were so interesting that I think I probably could've spent another hour out there just staring at local creatures.

After we washed our harvest (and ourselves), we got to eat some oyster fritters as well as a couple oysters raw. Although I've had raw oysters before, these are the best ones I think I've ever had; they were deliciously fresh and salty! We also got to try raw oysters with Kaoliang spray. Also delicious!

We had dinner later at a seafood restaurant in Jinhu. The food was so-so, but the company was lovely. All the ETAs, our ETF, our coordinator, and the program director were there, and the director gave a little speech about enjoying the rest of the grant period. Afterwards, we all went to a nearby FamilyMart and got ice cream, then headed home.

Thursday was also somewhat mollusk-themed. At school, classes went well, and one of my third graders even insisted on teaching me a card game so I could play with them between classes. Between classes, I also noticed that some faculty had taken down the school's name in preparation for the sixtieth anniversary celebration, which presumably includes putting up shiny new characters.

Since it was pretty hot out, I went with my partner for taro shaved ice during my lunch break. He'd already had one that morning (his school gave a tour of the island to a school from Taoyuan that included eating shaved ice), but he was more than willing to go back and get another. We also got to see the little dog that lives at the restaurant, whom my partner's dubbed "Baxter".

After school, one of my partner's kindergarten students and her mom invited us to hang out, so we did. Since it was hot, they decided to go to... the same taro shaved ice place we'd been for lunch. It was delicious, but I felt bad my partner'd had not one, not two, but three taro shaved ices that day. I liked chatting with the little girl and her mom though! I think I understand a little more Chinese than I thought; I could follow the conversation and understand it better than I'd expected.

The girl and her mom then showed us around some different parts of Little K. The trip was certainly interesting. On the way to a laser tag place and park, we had to squeeze past an excavator (the mother convinced the construction workers to stop working so we could get past).

She then showed us a beach next to the Kinmen bridge, where some of the little girl's classmates were digging for clams with their parents. The little girl herself handed me another clam she'd found, which was sweet, but which also made me responsible for this poor, living clam I didn't have time to put back.

After school, I did some chores, then went on a clam mission to put the clam back in the ocean so it didn't die. Unfortunately, the closest saltwater to me was the oyster mud and saltwater at Jiangongyu Islet, so I scooted over and put it back. It was spooky out there in the dark, but I didn't die, so that was nice.

I then picked up some Vietnamese food for dinner, then went to movie night in Jinning. This week's movie was Freaky Friday (the one with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis), which I'd never seen before, but which was so, so good. A little unhinged, but that was the vibe of the early 2000s, I guess.

Friday was my first day properly solo teaching! My co-teacher for EV was away in Taiwan, so I taught the fifth graders by myself. The students of the week were from Kaishuan (one of our ETF's schools) and Shang Chi (the smallest of the three Little K elementary schools). They were surprisingly well-behaved and willing to play games. Then after the morning classes, I went to lunch with the other ETAs and got a banh mi and a mango smoothie with boba pearls. The afternoon session went well (even though we were down two teachers).

I stopped by Orchid Lake (Lanhu), which was pretty, after school, then headed home. That evening, we had a birthday dinner at a favorite local Thai restaurants. I'm sure the restaurant owners see us come in and immediately wonder whose birthday it is—I think this is the third birthday we've had there.

It was lovely seeing everyone just hanging out and chatting at dinner, especially an ETA who was visiting from Kaohsiung. We also had a ginormous cake prepared and sung happy birthday to our cohort's birthday girl. It was sweet!

After that, everyone headed to Hong House to get ready for the birthday party. It was decades-themed, so we paired (or trio-ed) up and chose different decades to dress up as. We were also all dressed up as different iterations of the birthday girl, so we tried to dress like she might dress in our respective decades. My partner and I went as the 90s, or the late 90s, so I dressed up in a kinda grunge-y denim on denim fit, and my partner dressed like a frat boy.

We had a fashion show where each decade walked together, and it was wonderful. The last decade, the '00s, had possibly one of the best runway walks; the two ETAs walking were wearing bedazzled yoga pants with the birthday ETA's first and last name across the butts. They turned around to reveal her name after they came out, then hip bumped to "Toxic" by Britney Spears. Amazing.

The rest of the party was incredibly well-planned. The two people who organized the party, the birthday ETA's partner and one of their roommates, acted as secret agents and gave the rest of us our "mission". One of the activities they planned was sock wrestling, which is exactly what it sounds like. I was feeling nauseous, so I couldn't compete (and ended up spending an hour and a half laying down in a dark room), but everything sounded like it went well. Lots of insane cheering. There was also a round of "chubby bunny", a Kahoot! about the birthday ETA, and an improv game. When I came back later, I also watched them play a blindfolded dancing game. Even though I couldn't really participate for most of the party, it seemed like a good time.

I still didn't feel great the next day, but I managed to go to Good Day Café in Xibian for brunch with everyone. I also saw one of the Shang Chi students at the restaurant, which was a little surprising given that Shang Chi is the westernmost school in Kinmen and Xibian is the easternmost point of Kinmen.

After brunch, we went to Xibian Beach, which I'd never been to before. It wasn't the biggest beach, but the sand was warm, and the water was too. I waded around with some other ETAs and chatted, then checked out the tide pools. There were tons of beautiful sea shells and a lot of marine life! I liked watching the little fish dart around, the snails and hermit crabs crawl along the walls of the tide pools, and the crabs emerge from beneath their rocks to snip at passing fish.

Eventually, a fog rolled in, so most of us headed home. I took a nap, then later went to dinner in Jinning with some other ETAs. It was a pretty good meal. Then, we watched Catching Fire at the Jinning apartment, then I went home. Despite the rain and the lingering nausea, I had a nice day chilling with everyone.

Sunday was nice. In the morning, I had dance with two other Hong House ETAs, then I had lunch and dessert with my partner. The two of us went to GoWow Food Lab, which is an Italian restaurant that plays American country music (reasons unknown), and we got to talk to the waitress that works there. We haven't seen her for a while, but I liked talking to her, and it was nice to practice Chinese, too. As with earlier in the week, I was surprised at how much I understood.

After that, my partner and I got douhua, then I took a nap. Good times. Once I ran some errands and did some chores, some other Hong House ETAs and I went to Mike's Quiches for dinner (there was no hotpot that night). As usual, the food was delicious! We got to try a new pomegranate fizzy drink they were testing out, plus got a free cheese calzone and a toasted garlic focaccia.

I've had a great week! Being around the cohort always makes me happy, and I liked being able to meet new people and do new things around Kinmen. I especially liked oystering with everyone as well as celebrating another ETA's birthday. Even though I felt nauseous for a good portion of the birthday party, I had a great time, and I liked having an excuse to dress up and party with the cohort.

As fun as the week was, the Fulbright director's speech at our post-oystering meal reminded me of how fast the weeks are slipping by. We only have seven weeks left together, and that means we only have seven more weeks for sleepovers, parties, adventures, and everything else here in Taiwan. It might never be like this again.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love my cohort dearly. Dearly, dearly, dearly. I still can't believe how few weeks are left in the grant period, and I hope we can all keep in touch after it ends. Here's to hoping our friendships last.

Writer's Note: This post was originally written on Wednesday, May 10th, 2023.