Weather and Appropriate Clothing Choices in Taiwan

This week had two firsts for me here in Taiwan.

On Monday, I wore long pants to school for the first time. This is epic. In case you do not realize the hugeness of this, you must realize that I have worn nothing but shorts, skirts and sundresses since arriving in Taiwan. For the past month, I have worn nothing but skirts and sundresses to teach in ever day. There was a time in my life when I enjoyed skirts and sundresses - a time when I thought that they were cute and fun. That time was July when I still lived in the US. Wearing skirts every day for two months straight will quickly dampen any girl's enthusiasm for that particular clothing item. You must understand that I was not wearing skirts for pleasure (though at first I did find it fun). No no - it was necessity. The weather here is mildly terrible. I would say that it is the only part of my life in Taiwan which I do not absolutely love (other than the food - oops did I just say that? a future blog entry must be dedicated to my lack of enthusiasm for Taiwanese food...). Imagine summer in Arizona, and then add in North Carolina July humidity times ten, and you might be in the same ball park of what the Taiwanese climate is like. Miserable. I walk outdoors, and sweat is instantly trickling down my back. I am perpetually sticky and gross. No amount of deodorant, hand-washing, showers or fans helps. And did I mention that no public schools in Kaohsiung are air-conditioned? That's right - none. So this has been my life for the past two months, and I finally reached the point where I could not - could not - wear a skirt for another consecutive day. Last week I went camping with my school in Tainan, which is up in the mountains, and therefore, marginally cooler. The slight decrease in temperature and humidity made it possible for me to wear jeans on one of the evenings. Not only was I wearing pants, but I was wearing denim! You cannot imagine my excitement. After that, I was ruined. Pants were going to happen in my life weather or not my body could physically handle it. Monday I wore dress pants for the first time to school. It was so much fun that I had to do it again on Tuesday. And then again on Wednesday. Oh joy, oh bliss. I love pants.

My other first this week happened Wednesday evening. I rode my scooter in heavy rain for the first time. I have been out in misting weather before but never heavy showers. In Taiwan, the majority of the population gets from point A to point B by scooter. Rain showers do not change this. Taiwanese people stoically don raincoats and ponchos and saunter forth with an absolute lack of concern for the inclement weather. However, since I had never been out in heavy rain before, I lacked the appropriate gear for such an occasion. Following our biweekly Wednesday afternoon Fulbright meeting with all of the ETAs and co-teachers, my co-teachers wanted to take me and a few other ETAs out for sushi. There was heavy drizzle when we left Sanmin, so we stopped in 7-11 in order for Carol (ETA) and I to buy rain ponchos. They only had the cheap disposable ones, but we figured it would not be a big deal since it was not actually raining that hard. Of course, as soon as we began driving, the heavy drizzle turned into a heavy downpour. I had rolled up my pants so that they fit underneath my rain pancho, but I had no way of protecting my shoes. For some reason, Anita and Carol (the two co-teachers I will be working with next semester) had picked a shushi place 20 MINUTES AWAY! So we were scootering 20 minutes through heavy rainfall. By the time we reached the sushi bar, my high heals were squishy with water, I could wring out a pint of water from my face mask (everyone wears face masks here while scootering to protect from breathing in all of the exhaust and fumes from heavy traffic), and Carol's (ETA) jeans were wet up to her mid-thigh. The best part was that we also got to scooter back all the way back to Sanmin for our Chinese class that evening. Sushi that evening was perhaps not my best life descision ever....

Katherine, Carol and I in our wimpy, disposable rain ponchos.

Carol, Anita and I - notice their much more durable raincoats.

On another weather note, I might be so lucky as to live through my second and third typhoons here in Taiwan in the coming week. Two are currently on a direct trajectory towards the island. One Taiwanese person told me yesterday to pray that it loops around to Japan instead lol. I just hope that it is not as destructive as the last one. Annnd I should probably invest in a descent rain poncho before the impending storm...