On buying clothes in Korea

For those of you who have known me for a long time, you know that I used to be a much bigger guy than I am now. For comparison, then:

The thoughtful English major

And now:

The grossed-out English teacher

You can see, a drastic change, but it's not like I'm some tiny waif these days.

So this weekend, I needed to grab a new pair of jeans for reasons that are much lamer than you might imagine. I was in Pyeongtaek, and some friends of mine showed me this really nice little shop that basically sold nothing but denim (and some shirts, but it was basically a jeans bar). I walked in with my friend and the shop owner greeted me and asked what I was looking for. So I told him I needed a pair of jeans and he asked my size as I began rifling through the styles on display. I said "I'm a 34 in US" and he looked at me and quickly said "No, 32." Miffed (because I'm pretty sure I know my own size, thank you very much), I said "No, I'm a 34." And he responded "How about you try a 32?" So I decided what the heck, I'll just put them on.

AND THEY FIT. Seriously, this guy is MAGIC or something. It was amazing! He took a look at me and he knew my size! This was doubly exciting because I'd been shopping for a few new cardigans and whatnot the past week, and having no luck because my torso is apparently just inhumanly large for this country. Who knew? But now I have pants! And life is good.