Graspers & Gawkers: Buying a Hanbok (Guest blog by Elisabeth)

There was a sale on hanboks (traditional Korean clothing) at Joyful Church's thrift shop, and I had been asking for one for a long time. So my mom and I decided to go and get one. When we arrived at the store, it was almost completely empty, except for a few shoppers (hint: a few shoppers). So my mom and I were looking at some hanboks, and found a few to try on that were the right color for someone my age. So we went to the front of the store to the ‘fitting room’. It was not, however, a room: merely a curtain that went up to my neck held up by a wire base. So I awkwardly ducked down while trying to figure out how to actually put a hanbok on. Finally, we thought we got it right, and stepped out to look in the mirror. As we were walking out, a group of ajeemas were walking by the store. They decided to take a look at this weird American girl trying on traditional Korean clothing. Apparently, my mom and I had the whole Hanbok on wrong. The ajeemas all had different ideas on how a Hanbok should fit perfectly. So while I just stood there, keeping my mouth shut while my "girls" were being fussed over by the ajeemas, who were only about up to my neck, wealthy, wearing heavy makeup, in their 50s, and no gray hair.  My mom, had been counting the swarm: about 9, in a space of about an elevator.

Koreans only wear a hanbok about 1 or 2 times a year. So, while being man-handled by others, a woman was figuring out how to tie the knot on the top. Finally, we were done! Nope; we were wrong. So very wrong. The top was apparently not the perfect size for me (not sure if it was too big or small, looked fine to me) so they picked out a different size, and had me try that on. Now start the man-handling again.  One of the ajeemas then told us in her broken English “No brah”. WOW! Do you know how airy the top is? If I bent over to pick something off the floor in a hanbok, then that would be, well, bad. Then one woman showed my mom how to do the traditional hairstyle. NOW we were done! I took the hanbok off, we paid for it (just $30!!  Much better than the normal $200+), and thanked all the ajeemas for giving demonstrations (on me….) of how a hanbok should be fitted
perfectly. On the drive home, my mom and I just laughed and said “No brah!” over and over. This was quite an unexpected experience, even for Korea!