Week 5: Night Classes and Night Markets

This week's newest development (besides the majority of our cohort having scooters now!) was us starting to take Chinese classes at the local university (National Quemoy University, or NQU). They placed us into three classes based on prior experience, then sorted out a class schedule. Those of us in Class C had our first class on Monday night, so I was home for probably all of ten minutes between getting home from work and heading out to get dinner before class. I think it went well! The class was pretty relaxed, and it felt more like a two hour conversation with some vocabulary and reading sprinkled in than a formal lecture.

Tuesday was a bit tough for me. I solo taught some classes again since one of my LETs was still sick, but it was particularly challenging since the kids were rowdy from the three day weekend. I made it through all five classes though, then ran some errands. While walking around looking for dinner, I also saw a familiar face: one of the lion head masks we used for Chinese dance back home!

Wednesday and Thursday passed fairly uneventfully. More cohort members are getting sick, so some of us have been taking sick days. It also seems like the kids are getting sick too; more and more of them are attending class via iPad-mounted Zoom. I spent most of Wednesday night staying in and decorating my room, then spent Thursday trying (but failing) to register for a gym membership, then going to Chinese class again. Even though I couldn't join the gym, I did get to walk around and check out the facilities (which included a swimming pool, tennis courts, and a huge dance room).

Although I think the week was certainly difficult, I think staying in and getting work done was probably helpful. I also think that decorating my room's helped me feel more adjusted. Good news: the nausea's been slowly subsiding!

Friday was English Village (EV) for me, so I spent the day at Jinhu Elementary rehearsing and prepping for EV next week. It was a long day, but I got a sticker from my LET at least! After work, both of us and another ETA had dinner and went clothes shopping in Jincheng. Along the way from Jinhu to Jincheng, we also stopped by a little night market by Carrefour (whose semiannual schedule no one seems to know). There was stinky tofu, fried squid, tang hulu, quail eggs, etc., so we stopped to try some tomato tang hulu, which came wrapped in sweet rice paper.

Dinner was amazing; we got braised pork over rice (滷肉飯) with fried over-easy eggs and some veggies. Afterwards, we walked around different streets, passing different dessert stands and apprently a particularly cockroach-infested street corner. I also learned more about haggling (講價) from our LET as we shopped. The three of us ended up in a little square with traditional housing and tiled balconies teaching each other Mandarin and English. Personally, my favorite English word that we taught our LET was "to vibe" (v.).

This weekend was the Wind Lion Festival in Shamei (Jinsha Township), which celebrates Kinmen's local guardians. Wind lions, which largely resemble normal lion statues but with capes, are scattered across the island, and they're believed to control the winds and protect against evil spirits. Most of us ETAs went to the festival on Saturday, where we got to build little papercraft boxes, make peanut-filled pancakes shaped like wind lion heads, and win free things. I didn't get to make a pancake thing, but I got a free utensil set at least. We also got to watch different performances, like a guzheng duet and a famous Kinmenese singer.

Some of us went with some local friends later to check out a "tree house" (which I misunderstood as "treehouse"). The "tree house" was, as the name would suggest, an abandoned house with a tree in it. Besides the bugs, exploring the different rooms of the house was pretty cool, and we saw some nice tilework and architectural elements.

After checking out one of the wind lion statues nearby, a couple of us went for dinner at an incredibly intimate Indonesian restaurant. The restaurant was actually a family's front living room, and we sat on their couch to eat dinner while they watched TV. We chatted with the family while we waited for our food, which was excellent, then headed over to Jinning to do KTV.

As much as I enjoyed hanging out with other ETAs and LETs this week, the lack of independence from not having a scooter is starting to get to me. I feel like I can't get anywhere by myself, and if I do, it'll take forever. I also feel bad that I always have to ask for rides or rely on someone else to go anywhere further than a couple of feet (meters?).

I've still only ridden a scooter four times, but with any luck, I'll pass the driving exam (both the written and driving portions) soon-ish. Until next week!

Writer's Note: This post was originally written on Sunday, September 18th, 2022.