Keys to Happiness

5. Aliah

When I woke up Saturday morning, I found myself in a great mood. For the first time in weeks, I would have the whole day to myself. In between teaching and volunteering at the language center near my apartment, I'd barely had a moment to breathe. Back in the states, the amount of homework I'd give my college kids wasn't even half of what my high school kids now received, which meant that my own work was doubled.

Free time was a luxury I now had too little of. I found myself spending hours each night just grading papers only to go to bed right after, too exhausted to do much else.
Today would be a day to pamper myself, and I had the whole thing planned out. First on my list? Yoga. In America, I had taken dance classes at the YMCA to keep myself in shape, but until I found the Korean equivalent of Zumba, I was stuck stretching on the floor of my apartment. It didn't take long to push both my table and couch to the far wall of my living room, giving me enough space to spread out my yoga mat.

I reflected that it had been a few months since my last yoga practice when I'd first thought of the idea, but as soon as I started my first pose, the pain definitely reminded me. I'd had no idea how tense I was and how bunched my muscles had become because of stress. As I went through the more difficult positions, I cursed lightly as I felt my muscles stretch and pull painfully. I promised myself that I would wake up earlier every morning to get in at least 15 minutes of stretching, otherwise all my hard-won flexibility would be lost.

When I had finished my workout, I put everything back in its original place and went to take a quick shower. When I had come to Korea, I had checked and double-checked to make sure my place would have a shower, it had been at the top of my list of needs. I was adamantly against baths; something was so gross about sitting in your own dead skin; just the thought of it made goosebumps rise up on my arms.

As I walked out of the bath and into my room, I glared at my wardrobe slash closet with barely suppressed hate. I flung it open carelessly and muttered in annoyance at the lack of choices; thing was mostly empty and I disliked it passionately. It wasn't that I was against wardrobes in general, just the fact that mine didn't have the clothes that I wanted in it. In fact, back in America, I'd had a walk-in closet that had practically begged me to fill it and back then I had done so with glee.

However, I hadn't even been able to take half of it with me when I moved to Korea, so I was more saddened that I was limited in my fashion choices. So today, I would begin the journey to fill this one. Since I was planning on doing lots of walking and exploring throughout Seoul and its many restaurants, I decided to go casual today. Most of my everyday clothing had to do with anime and Disney characters, with whom I had a minor obsession. I picked out a sublimation tank top featuring the movie Kiki's Delivery Service that I had gotten from Hot Topic, dark blue skinny jeans, and finally a pair of all black converses.

After I had finished changing, I went to the bathroom mirror and took down my hair from the Bantu knots I had tied my hair in since the night before. My locks were noticeably shorter, and I liked the style because the curls always managed to frame my face well. I skipped wearing makeup since I usually didn't have the patience to apply it, and finally grabbed a small book bag that I used instead of a purse and walked out the door. The bus stop I needed was a short distance from my house, so I had only walked for a few minutes before I arrived at the covered seating area.

Getting off the bus 15 minutes later, I looked around the bustling Hongdae area. I was astonished at once by how foreign everything was but how it all managed to look so familiar. It was just like any other city I had ever lived in or been to before, except everything and everyone was Korean. There were very few foreigners out and about even though this was a hotspot and of the ones that I saw, all of them were Caucasian. Even though I was curious, I didn't stop to talk; I was on a mission. HyoWon had given me directions to an underground shopping district, and I was only a few feet away. The steps to get to clothing mall literally went down as if I was going into a subway station. When I saw the first stall, bursting with fabrics and dress patterns, it felt like I had reached Nirvana. For the next few hours, I was determined to lose myself in shirts, pants, and accessories!

"Ahjumma, joesongiyo...kunde nan moriguesso..." I stuttered out slowly in front of the seamstress manning the stall.

"Ah shit, how do you say bust line in Korean," I mumbled to myself. The older women was looking at me as if she was astonished to meet a foreigner and a half crazy one at that, when I next tried to use charades to help her understand what I meant, animatedly pointing to first my chest and then the dress I wanted, then trying to illustrate pulling stitches. After a few tries, I realized the futility of it and started cussing at my phone.

"This wouldn't be a problem if I had a connection; then I could just use the translator. And that phone guy said I'd have reception everywhere. This is such crap..." I huffed as I shook the small device violently in my hands.

"Hey, can I help you?" I heard a man's voice behind me, his accent barely noticeable, even though his voice was a little strange.

"Oh my God, you speak English? Yeah, I need help. Could you please tell her..."? I started, feeling relief spread through me. I cut myself off as I turned around to face the voice and saw the person standing there. Shock hit me hard as recognition went through me in an instant; it was the guy from the airport!

His outfit today consisted of a black and white striped t-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans that were held up by suspenders. He had on black slip-ons, ones that looked like some expensive Italian brand. He wore a light tan jacket and wire thin frames on his face that completed his sexy nerd look to a T. His hair was pushed back and I could see that both sides were shaved in a buzz cut close to his scalp. The glasses enlarged his eyes and I could see the blue of them clearly. Even though they were just contacts, I thought they looked great on him. Overall, he looked good enough to eat and I found myself speechless once again in front of him.

As I looked him up and down, I realized that he was smiling and the sight of it made my heart race and an uneasy smile formed on my lips. As if from a distance, I heard him speaking and realized with a start that he must be talking to me. Oh my God, a hot guy was talking to me and I was totally spacing out!

"Uh, um sorry. What did you say?" I asked quickly to hide my embarrassment.

His smile widened as he repeated his question again, "What did you want me to ask the lady?"

"Ah! Right, the dress. Um, I just wanted to adjust the bust, it was too small," I finished lamely.

A hot flush came to my face and as the man turned around to talk to the ahjumma, I let out a huge sigh. Jesus, what was he doing here?