The First Day of School

So yesterday was the first day of school and university here. This means the metro is crazy as heck. Now usually I am squished between women in pretty tight quarters on my way to work, but yesterday I attempted several times to even get inside the metro car and just bounced back off the mass of females and had to wiggle my way into the next train. Yaksarra (what a pity).

The school children where uniforms here. This involves usually blue button down shirts or white button down shirts with navy blue long skirts for the girls. The shirts and skirts all can have a little variety, maybe a little embriodery here, a little number there, a little buckle on your hip. And then of course the girls get to decide on their choice of tastefully matching head scarf. This was probably one of the most adorable things I have ever seen, despite it being hot, crowded, and everyone being grumpy.

In my C5 class we talked about how "cute" the kids in their uniforms are and compared our experiences of school uniforms and uniform violations. I regaled them with my stories of plaid pleated miniskirts (how this was condoned by a school was beyond them, especially a religious school) and taught them the term detention, while telling them how I managed to get detention for a straight month in eight grade. We commiserated about getting in trouble for wearing a non-uniform jacket when its cold in the winter and about little ways to make yourself look different while wearing a uniform, and having to wash them so often (or if you're me or some of my friends just not washing them and keeping your plaid pleated miniskirt in the trunk of your car to put on over your pajamas in the school parking lot). Haha. Anyway, for one of the first times I was truly glad I had had a school uniform and could share this experience.

And now the year begins in earnest...