layers

Qingdao, as I have previously mentioned, is a very cold city, and people seem to dress accordingly. Some people however, seem to go a little overboard, or at least when it comes to their children. While all my children show up looking a little like sausages, when it comes to my 5 year olds, the layering becomes ridiculous. Half-way through class last week, I saw one little boy sitting there with sweat dripping down his face. Even though it was about 75 degrees in the room, he was still wearing his jacket. I made him take it off. Underneath, he was wearing a sweater. I asked him if he was still hot, and he said yes, so I made him take off the sweater, underneath which was--yet another sweater. Underneath that was a padded shirt, and underneath that was another long sleeved shirt. I spied yet another layer under that shirt too. I looked around the room and noticed that about half the children were still in their (down) coats as well, not to mention their padded shirts and jackets and vests and sweaters. I made every one in the room take off at least one layer, if not two (or in some cases, three). We had to put them in the back of the room in a pile, and the pile covered about two rows of desks. Yet about 20 minutes later, some of the children had put most of their layers back on, even though the class room was really warm. Not only do children wear this many layers on top, but they also all wear two or three layers on the bottom as well. Under pants, many children wear padded long underwear or two sets of regular long underwear. I could maybe understand all of that outside, but inside I don't understand why they don't feel ridiculously hot.