The length of time I’ll be here is still indeterminate but is looking longish. That being so I’ve decided I have to just live my life wherever I am, not wait until I get home to tend to stuff. I decided to get new glasses here instead of waiting until Taiwan – I’d heard they were expensive but on the other hand I figured having all those conversations about regular vs. thinner lenses and glare-coat vs. not would be a lot easier.
At the first place I visited there were a lot of lenses that were OK, but indeed expensive – €100 each lens plus at least €100 for the frame. There wasn’t anything I particularly fell in love with, though. Today I had some spare time until I was supposed to meet someone for dinner, and it was raining, so I ducked into one of the many other optician shops nearby. Found a pair that looked great *and* they were only €189 including lenses, including ultrathin option and antiglare coat. That’s less than I paid for my last US pair. And as a bonus, when I asked the guy to take pictures with my phone while I was deciding (because I can’t see how glasses look when I’m not wearing my glasses!) I got the best profile photo I’ve had in a while. He was able to check the prescription right in the shop – much faster than an American optician does it, though on the downside he didn’t check for cataracts, night vision or peripheral vision as they usually do.
They’re a little more similar to my current pair than I’d have preferred – I was hopin for more of a change – but since my current pair are the most flattering I’ve ever had by a long chalk, that’s not much of a negative. The main difference is that the new ones are plastic instead of metal. They look brown in the photo, but actually the fronts are red while the sides and back are orangey. I get to pick the glasses up Wednesday.
Cute!