Personal space, grooming and shoes

I may have mentioned my general level of clothing anxiety on this trip. After a few weeks, it’s already getting hard to wear the same black dress over and over.  And Korea does not make it easy to wear practical walking shoes because most people are insanely good looking.

In Korea women with short skirts and long hair totter around on 5 inch heels. Men with carefully styled razor hair cuts and tight clothes send your gaydar into over drive.  American teachers are told to squirt a boy’s hair with water when they’re not behaving.  The hair horror!

When a young Korean couple is dating, they show their unity by wearing same-same clothing or same-same shoes.

Yes. They match.

Vinnie and I are on the prowl for some terribly awesome same-same underwear.

Once married, Korean women settle down into sun-hiding visors, or even better, towels wrapped around their heads. The fear of the sun extends down their body, from elbow-to-wrist fake sleeves or gardening gloves and umbrellas.

With all their care and attention to their looks, it must be super interesting for Koreans to see someone who doesn’t look exactly the way they expect.  Sometimes they will simply try to make you fit their mold.  Your feet don’t fit into their largest size 250 shoe? Get the shoehorn!  Make this work! A 250 shoe is an american size 8, which I haven’t worn in at least 15 years and no shoehorn in the world is going to convince me to walk around in size 8 high heels.

It’s not uncommon to be stared at in Korea, sometimes this staring extends to touching, smelling and sometimes even tweaking. There is a different definition of personal space in Asia, more specifically, there is no personal space in Asia.

If I were to repack for this trip, I might just bring a pair of high heels, my hair straightener and a rape whistle – not because anything untoward would ever happen in Korea, but you need a way to keep the adjumma’s at bay.