Optional Uniform & Library Love!

Tuesday February 19^th, 2013

Full high school day again but with a twist! For some reason I don’t yet know of, from Tuesday to Saturday students are allowed to wear normal clothing instead of the school uniforms. Score! But if you notice how I mentioned Saturday it becomes less of a ‘score.’ For another reason I don’t understand, this Saturday is a school/work day for all of Taiwan. Gosh darn it! XD Though the school day will be cut short for me thanks to a planned Rotary activity. To be revealed later…

So I arrived on campus dressed in jeans, T-shirt and windbreaker feeling merry. After looking around at other students my heart froze. All I could see wear orange shirts and navy sweatpants with orange stripes down the sides. Did the classmate that told me I didn’t have to wear the school uniform lie to me? Would I get in trouble for wearing normal clothing? Now that I think about it, why would we not be required to wear the uniform? Such thoughts passed through my mind but I didn’t worry too much because I knew there was nothing I could do about it.

Turns out students could wear normal clothing. The thing was that not everyone would. Only a handful of students in each class took advantage of the occasion, which was quite a sight to see. It’s strange to see them in outside clothing and therefore amusing. Upon asking why so many students stuck with the uniform their answer made sense. It’s convenient to just slip on in the morning without a second thought and it’s comfortable. Fair enough though it was fun to wear jeans to school. ;)

First half of the morning was spent unconscious followed by a lunch of salad and a nap. Afterwards a teacher gave me a bunch of reading over Taiwan and Chinese culture, which occupied my time. P.E. class was the last part of the day and was surprisingly fun. With five other classmates, we played a friendly half-court game of basketball. In this game I actually scored several times, my first baskets in Taiwan! It’s exciting because I’m no good at basketball so actually making some hoops was a pleasurable shock! More importantly it was bonding time with the other girls! Best part by far!

For dessert at dinner I was given two different pineapple cakes. One was normal looking as it held a rectangular shape and contained pineapple filling in the middle. Pineapple cakes are known for being rectangular so it was completely ordinary. If you ever get a pineapple cake in Taiwan, it will look more or less like it. The second confused me though. My host father said it was a pineapple cake but sweeter than the other. Puzzled I gazed at its flatness and wondered where the filling was, if any at all. Taking a bite of it, I was reminded of a sugar cookie. Another bite inwards and my question was answered. In this peculiar specimen of a pineapple cake the filling was extremely thin and only gave a faint but blended taste. It was more like a pineapple pancake! Note to self: buy pineapple extract and try making pancakes with it cuz this stuff was tasty!

Side note: If you haven’t tried pineapple cakes yet and would like to, I strongly recommended buying a few different brands and sampling each. The reason for that is there are many variations for the same sweet. It’s kind of like chocolate chip cookies. Some are hard, some are soft. Some have milk chocolate chips while others have semi-sweet chocolate chips. The shapes are different, so are the ingredients, etc. With pineapple cakes they either use real pineapple (which can be a bit sour) while others have a fake gummy inside. The encasing batter also varies and as I just pointed out, so do the shapes. My point is if you try one pineapple cake and find you don’t like it, there’s a good chance you just haven’t found your brand match yet. I sense expeditions to Chinatown for me and for anyone who wants to join in! Allow the curiosity to flourish! ;D

Tonight was special because my host father took me to a public library surprisingly close to our home, maybe a ten-minute walk away. It’s a fair size and had few people there but did indeed have English fiction to select from. Something I noticed was that the Twilight series had multiple copies of each book aligned on a shelf dedicated to just it. No other books at numerous copies, only Twilight. Funny how there’s a similarity of popularity of that series even in Taiwan. XD

Happily choosing two books, “The Children of Hurin” by J.R.R. Tolkien and the “Peeps” by Scott Westerfield we checked out and headed home. High school shall no longer be boring! YES! >:D

Alrighty, good night y’all. Peace!