Look at the forecast we had today on our little subtropical island! Seeing this drop in temperatures I was so excited to slip on some jeans and head out for the morning school drop off rounds with a hope of not having to change out of sweaty clothes upon return!
My giddy glee soon was met with some dampening, however, as I quickly became aware of some group weather-appropriate attire rules that I hadn't gotten the memo about. Here were a few key moments of realization that my non-conformity was making the general populace uncomfortable:
- As we approached the apartment lobby door to exit, one secretary and the head manager both responded with concerned looks, miming about our bare arms that should be covered, and several instructional phrases about what I should do about it, all said in incomprehensible Chinese. I smiled, said my minimal Chinese phrase of "I like" while pointing outside, and continued escorting the boys out.
- Lucky for us, Julien had a little mishap at the public park restroom while using the squatter potty and got his shorts all wet (understandable). So we had to detour back to our apartment to change his uniform. All he had available were his uniform sweat pants, so on they went, and fortunately so because he was greeted at his school gate with another concerned exclamation that he had bare arms--I can only imagine the horror had he had bare legs as well!
[This is photo I snapped at the public park restroom showing the tissue paper options in the vending machine. Provided TP is not a standard public service here and people either pack their own or, in this case, choose the zodiac-appropriate packet for a $0.33 purchase. ]
- This is me doing my part to make people around us comfortable. Even though I chose not to put on a jacket myself (why choose to sweat when the option to not sweat is finally here?!) I did dress Theo as any responsible Taiwanese mother would do. I received this smile of approval in response to that decision :)
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