Clothes

As I've mentioned in a few other posts (see the post called 'Diets Abroad' and also the post immediately preceing this one), I'm on a diet because  I gained a lot of weight, starting when I lived in France, continuing when I lived in Kuwait, and finally, culminating when I was stranded in Canada, unemployed and living with my parents.  When I moved back to Korea, I immediately started my diet, as I knew I would (a Korean's favourite thing to say to a white person is "Don't worry, you'll lose your weight", so I knew there would be pressure to take some weight off).  After a couple of months in Korea, I had lost some weigt, but then the weight-loss started to plateau, so I did something drastic.  I started jogging six days a week and I implemented a no meat, no sugar policy.  I wanted to see if I could last an entire month without any meat or sugar.  It turns out that I could.  After I finished my first month of no meat, no sugar, I took a week to enjoy all the meat and sugar I liked (mmmm, Big Macs and chocolate!) and then I started another no meat, no sugar month.  After the second no meat, no sugar month, it was freaking hot in Korea, and I couldn't fathom an entire Korean summer without ice cream, so I momentarily abandoned my no meat, no sugar diet in favour of the ice cream diet (that is, eat as much ice cream as you like, all day, every day, knowing that it is so hot outside that you are just going to sweat it all off, anyway).  But now, I'm living in Mongolia again, and I guess it's time to resume my diet (even though, on my first day here, I had some women tell me "Don't worry, you'll gain some weight living here" in response to my statement that I don't eat much meat because of my diet).  So, I'm fifteen days into a no meat, no sugar month.  It hasn't been easy.  Actually, I did have sugar once this month without realising it.  I bought a bag of coffee-flavoured peanuts without even thinking that pretty much anything coffee-flavoured is bound to have sugar in it, and I was 3/4 of the way through the bag when I realised that there was, in fact, sugar on thsoe peanuts.  But it was a small bag, so I didn't stop when I realised about the sugar, I finished the bag, and then I forgave myself.  And I'm still patting myself on the back for making it through "15" days of no meat, no sugar, despite that one little accidental lapse.

Anyway, the diet seems to be working again.  I am taking more weight off.  I am fitting back into pants which I never thought that I would fit back into.  Some of my pants are starting to even be too big for me!!  My family would be shocked to see me now, because I'm starting to look more like the person I was three years ago, and less like the person they said 'goodbye' to one year ago.  I'm not sure what I'll do when my clothes are finally so big that I can't wear them anymore.  I'm hoping I won't have to worry about that until much, much later on, because I haven't seen any clothes shops in Ulaanbaatar that I would actually want to shop at.  I mean, there are plenty of cashmere shops, but I can't have a wardrobe that consists entirely of cashmere, can I?  Okay, I'll answer my own question-- I think a cashmere sweater here and there and possibly even a cashmere skirt would be really nice and welcome additions to my wardrobe, but I don't think I even want a wardrobe that consists entirely of cashmere.  There are also the dels (traditional clothes), and I am thrilled everytime I see people out and about, wearing them, because, I think, on a Mongolian, a del is a really beautiful piece of clothing.  But on me, I think a del might just look like a fancy bathrobe.  So I can't replace my too big clothes with a few dels, anyway (besides, I think there's something weird about whiteys who go traveling and feel the need to 100% adopt everything about the new culture in which they are traveling/visiting, so that's the other reason I don't think I'd buy a del, even though I do think they are beautiful).  One piece of Mongolian clothing that I do want, however, are some Mongolian cowboy boots.  They are totally, completely beautiful.  Last weekend, I went to the opera, and since it was a Mongolian opera, all of the characters were wearing traditional costumes, and there were a few characters who were wearing the most beautiful cowboy boots ever, and I seriously want a pair.  I spent half of my time at the opera thinking, "I need to find out where they bought their boots!"  But even if I do get the boots, that doesn't help with the fact that my pants are too big.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to last until summer, at which point I will either go to Canada and do some shopping (even though I generally don't like the clothes that are in stores in the summer in Canada-- I think Canadian stores have the nicest clothes in the fall) or I'm thinking about maybe going back to Korea for the summer to teach a summer camp (you can make about three grand working at a summer camp in Korea) and then I could buy some smaller clothes when I'm back next summer.  We'll see...

Old women wearing dels (traditional Mongolian clothes)