I am constantly scrutinised and complimented by both the students and the teachers when it comes to my appearance and wardrobe.  Both the students (as young as they are) and the teachers are very observant, and any slight change I make is noted by them.  If, for, example, I wear my hair up as opposed to down, or in a ponytail instead of a roll, the students will immediately comment when I walk into the classroom:  “Ree-yona, she is beautiful!”.  This goes for change of earrings and shoes too.  Everyone will always oo-and-ah when I wear bright colours and of course, red symbolising what it does in China (fortune and joy), I will get a lot more of those oos-and-ahs whenever I  sport red.  It is why I chose to wear red on the day I had all my interviews.

The students and teachers are always admiring my clothing, even coming up close to feel the fabric.  I find this quite amusing as I am pretty sure half my wardrobe in made in China anyway.  They find it incredible that I only ever wear dresses, but honestly – when I turned 40, that was me SO done with jeans.  I actually cannot bare anything other than a pair of yoga pants or leggings around my waist/hips.  It has always surprised me how many people LIVE in jeans because, quite frankly, I find them to be the most uncomfortable item of clothing ever invented.  (I actually saw a brilliant 'someecard' on Pinterest a while back and it went something like this:  "Let's open a store called Forever 43 and sell yoga pants and red wine").  I LOVED it!

The teachers have also commented on the fact that none of my clothing has a pattern in it.  My scarves do and my bag does, but I think they feel that the solid colours in the actual clothing is a little boring.  Dunno.

We have had some really hot days in Spring and today was one of them.  I wore a sleeveless dress to school.  There were a lot of comments flying about, as there were when I wore a strapless maxi a while back.  I was really confused by this because it is not as if they are modest in other ways.  The female teachers wear shorts to school.  I have noticed though, that they will always wear pantyhose with them – or on hot days, they will wear something sheer.

I think one of my classes clarified it for me today, however.  When they saw my bare arms, they started pointing at my arms and shouting “black”.  I couldn’t quite figure it out.  I thought maybe there was some grease on my arms – (I helped a woman on my way to school today who had wiped out on her scooter.  I had no idea they were so heavy, because as I lifted it off her, it basically fell on me).

Anyway, they eventually started yelling “sun”, and then it began to fall into place.  I am as white as snow at the moment, so it is not like they were referring to my tan – rather they were trying to caution me against getting one.  The Chinese are obsessed with white skin.  It is hard to find a skin cream or lotion for one’s face or body that does not have a ‘skin whitening’ ingredient in it.

There is an old saying in China, apparently, that says that fairness covers one hundred faults.

I thought you would like my Chinese farmer’s hat that I picked up in Nanxun Old Town a while ago.  I actually bought it during a hot spell because there was nothing else to be had.  It now hangs on my living room wall.  It cost less than a US$.