Shopping in Seoul

This weekend my husband and I went to Seoul to eat at one of favorite places, Coco's Curry House. It is a chain restaurant that has some of the best Japanese curry you will ever have. We took the metro train from our town to a nearby larger town and caught a KTX into Seoul. The KTX is a faster train that only stops along major cities. We usually just take the intercity buses but it was a Korean holiday weekend and we wanted to avoid traffic. It was my first time on the KTX and I was overall impressed with the ease and comfort of travel. The only downside is they sell standing room only seats as well so a middle aged Korean man spent the 30 minute ride hovering over us. Once in Seoul we made our way to Myeongdong which is one of the major shopping districts. We had our late lunch at coco's and then I decided to do a little shopping. They have many department stores and big chains as well as smaller mom and pop type stores and street vendors. The area is always crowded with locals and tourists alike. The smells of fish and funk mix with the smells of coffee shops and steaks. We went into a H&M so I could buy some new clothes for fall. By American standards I am a small girl so despite the fact that Korean sizes run small I can usually find my fit. That being said, I ALWAYS try things on here because you never know. As I went into the changing room with a bag full of stuff I was optimistic, but oh lord was I in for a surprise! Just to give you a reference I am size 4 and I was trying on size 6 clothes to account for the difference in fit. First up was a pair of plum skinny jeans, they didn't make it past my knees. I have larger calves from working out and wearing high heels so much but Korean "skinny" apparently meant bird legs. Oh well, lets try something else. Next I went for a cute maroon dress I thought might be nice for my husband's squadron Christmas party this year...one word? Boobs; I have them, Korean women don't. Every thing was looking good until the zipper got to my bust and holy hell! My small C's were pancaked to my chest and I thought if I took a big enough breath I might just burst out at the seams. It wasn't all bad news, I did manage to find a cute pair of pants that fit and a couple of sweaters. To some of you this might sound odd. Shouldn't a size 6 be a size 6 no matter where you are? But as most of us know even in stores at your local mall sizes don't always fit the same regardless of what the tag says. The same is true for different countries. Despite H&M not being a Korean brand the line of clothes it sells here is tailored to its consumer. Case and point; I have a pair of Nike running shorts I bought while back home visiting my family that is a size small and it is larger than a pair of size medium Nike running shorts I bought here in Korea last fall. If there is a lesson to be learned here it is that size is relative. Our society puts so much pressure on us to be a certain size or to look a certain way. We go into stores and constantly put ourselves down when we can't fit into the size we thought we were. When in all honesty our sizes can't truly be standardized because WE are not standardized. Some of us have wider hips or a little bit more of a booty, some of us have twig legs some of us have tennis legs, we have small boobs and big boobs, and broad shoulders. Stop trying to fit into clothes and start buying clothes that fit YOU! Stop studying labels and sizes and start learning your body's unique beauty. If women started thinking of our bodies this way we would have a lot less women with low self esteem and a lot less women forcing themselves into clothes too small walking around looking like a busted can of biscuits. Which lets be honest, that look of a big booty stuffed into a tiny pair of shorts is something we all find visually offensive.