Week 7: Happy Teacher's Day!

This week, we celebrated Teacher's Day (which falls in Confucius' Birthday). On Monday, the vibe at school was pretty festive in preparation for the holiday. All the students had sheets of paper with different boxes they would fill in with teachers' names if they performed a specific task for the teacher. One student asked me to teach them how to say, "Happy Teacher's Day" in English, and another complimented my hair. I also received a nice bottle of state-distributed Kaoliang (高粱酒), which is a type of baijiu (distilled Chinese alcohol) specially made in Kinmen.

During lunch, I hung out with another ETA, then came back and finished teaching. Apart from finding worms in my dragonfruit during breakfast, I had a pretty good day. At least 20% of my thoughts were dedicated to enjoying how short and swishy my new haircut was.

Tuesday was fairly chill. Besides solo teaching, most of my day was spent signing more papers for students. I taught my classes how to say, "Happy Teacher's Day," in Spanish and how to sign it in ASL as well as say it in English. I also received a handwritten note from a student saying, "謝謝老師教我讀書" (Thank you, teacher, for teaching me to study), which was remarkably sweet!

Wednesday itself was Teacher's Day, so we started the school day with an assembly. Each class gave a different teacher a handmade card, and mine was a little portrait! The PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) also gave us each a large metal cooking pot and $600 NTD worth of FamilyMart gift cards. The rest of the day was spent going to an English Village workshop at Jinhu Elementary, playing badminton in an un-air conditioned gym, and hanging out with another ETA.

I wish we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Day more in the US, especially since teachers do such important work. I hadn't realized how much work goes into lesson planning, classroom management, engagement, etc. every day. Although I've always appreciated my teachers, being a teacher has definitely given me a new appreciation for them, especially their ability to do everything while waking up around 6am.

Thursday felt a little long. Classes went smoothly enough, and I went to get taro shaved ice with another ETA during lunch. We also met another waiguoren (外國人, or foreigner) at the shaved ice place and chatted with her for a bit. It's surprising how many 外國人 besides us Fulbrighters are on Kinmen, especially given how remote it is compared to the rest of Taiwan. It's even more surprising how many 外國人 we've encountered on Little K—we expected zero, but we've seen three already.

After classes, another ETA came to pick me up since I still don't have a scooter. Unfortunately, his scooter didn't agree, and its tire popped not five seconds after I'd gotten on. We'd scootered away from Jhou Huan, so we had to walk the scooter back to the Family Mart nearby, then wait for one of his coworkers to arrive. Then we had to catch the 5:30pm ferry, then grab dinner and immediately rush to Chinese class. Although I never really had a break between work and going to bed, I did get to hang out with some other ETAs once we got back to the apartment, which was nice.

Friday was pretty rough. As soon as I woke up, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus. Somehow, I slogged my way through EV without passing out, then ran some errands on my way home.

One of my errands was buying a bike helmet, so I stopped at a bike shop on the way home and chatted with a shop owner and her dog.

I think the high point of my day was petting her dog, who was a lovely, older beagle with the whitest face I've ever seen. He was so sweet! He definitely reminded me of how much I miss my dog back home.

Later, I had dinner with a couple other ETAs, then watched some movies and did chores. It was nice to just stay in and have some time by myself to relax. Even though the pace of life here isn't terribly fast, Fulbright's keeping us pretty busy, and I think all the late nights and lack of sleep finally caught up with me.

Saturday was a whirlwind of hopping from place to place. At the apartment, one of my roommates and I taught our other roommate how to ride a bike, then I went to the Zhaishan Tunnels with some other ETAs. We weren't quite sure what the tunnels were used for, but they had a couple underground canals, and apparently there'll be some concerts held there in the coming weeks.

After the tunnels, we went to an art festival in Houpu Plaza in Jincheng, where we met a former Fulbrighter who was doing henna. She was very kind, and it was nice to talk to her as she gave us each henna. After that, we went to Juguang Tower to see dance performances representing the four elements (fire, water, earth, and air). There were modern dancers and students from Jhong Jheng Elementary playing instruments, but the best part was probably the fire troupe.

One of the other ETAs said it was the hypest thing they'd ever seen, and they were right. It was incredible; there were fire twirlers, flaming box twirlers, and a woman with a headpiece, fans, and a skirt of fire! The energy from every single performer was dialed all the way up, which included several synchronized yells. They even lit a flaming wire piece in the shape of Taiwan.

Once we'd had a quick hotpot dinner, our cohort headed to KTV with some of our local friends. It was great minus the bruises most of us got! The tables in the room were all set close together, and none of us could see the edges of them since they were glass and the lights were off, so most of us ran into tables at least once.

On Sunday, I spent most of the day out and about. I biked myself to and from my Mongolian folk dance class, which was nice, just tiring. Later, I had lunch and hung out with a couple other ETAs, then practiced scootering in preparation for the scooter exam, which I still haven't taken. Then I hung out with other ETAs, got dinner, saw a light show, and went to Chenggong Beach.

I think going to the beach was one of my favorite parts of the day; it was a balmy, dark evening, and I liked watching the moonlight reflect over the waves. So far, I haven't had many opportunities to enjoy being outside—it's usually either a million degrees or buggy out. Also, being on the beach really made me realize how much I miss alone time. Fingers crossed I pass my scooter exam next week so I can finally be independent!

Writer's Note: This post was originally written on Tuesday, October 4th, 2022.