Today I am blessing you with another plus-sized story. However, this time it occured in the lab while persuing my STEM degree. If you haven’t read my last article on this topic, Click Here to find out more about it. But for now, I will give a brief introduction.
Why I Was in the Lab
I am a STEM student. This means that I need to take a lot of science-related courses. Since I transferred from my university back home, some of the courses I didn’t need to retake, but other courses, such as laboratories, were a must. And so, I spent a lot of time this semester in the lab.
This semester, I am taking two laboratories: chemistry and biology. In order to take a laboratory at university, everyone needs to have the proper saftey equiptment. This, includes a lab coat. Of course, I didn’t bring my lab coat from home because of two major reasons. One, I didn’t expect to have to take a lab, since they were first-year courses. And two… I had other things I thought were more important to pack than a lab coat.
“If I need one, I can buy one”, is what I thought.
Issues Finding Clothes in Korea
But here is where things get a little tricky. Korean sizes have their own charts, and the stereotypical Asian body is very different from the typical Latin body. Clothes that fit Latinas normally don’t fit Asian women well, and vice versa. I have had a lot of trouble finding clothes that suit me and make me feel comfortable. In turn, I am sure that there are Asian women in my home country who feel the same way.
So, it should not have come as a surprise that I also had had issues finding a properly fitting lab coat.
The Search for a Lab Coat
I went to the store and I asked the woman at the counter for a lab coat. A big one. She smiled and guided me to the lab coat aisle and gave me a size 77. Not that it made any difference, because the sizing chart is different here. I had no idea how big a 77 was.
Thanking her, I paid and went straight to a bathroom so that I could try it on. I would’ve been too embarrassed to try it on in front of the woman, and for it not to fit me. I started buttoning it. First, I got it over the chest with ease. But then, I got to the middle section, more specifically my hips, and… not a chance.
I sighed. Even when I have progressed a lot in my own weight loss journey, things like this can sometimes be sad or even discouraging. Nevertheless, I try my best to remind myself that my body type is different from others here. I may need just a big size for it to close around my hips.
The right size for me was most likely a 110. I don’t want to put too much thought into the number. I don’t want to think about how many sizes I skipped from the 77 she had presented me with. But, to be honest, whenever I wear my lab coat that is the right size, it looks like I am a minion.
With 110 I look like a kid that’s wearing their parent’s clothes. It is big everywhere – sleeves that are longer than my arms, and the back width is way bigger than it is supposed to be. The only place it does fit properly is my hips.… but at least I could find something that I was able to actually put on my body at all.
To be honest, I don’t think this is the end of my plus size in Korea series, so stay tuned to learn more about it and how I have been coping with it. Being such a different size and body type than the typical girl you’ll see on the streets of Korea definately comes with it’s challanges.
