Supersize Me

As expected, all the Americans in my group have had to go up several sizes in clothing here. When we were being fitted for our volunteer uniforms, people in our group tried on every available size--I think the uniforms went up to 4XL--and then had to estimate a size about that if the largest size didn't fit. I think we have some 6XL guys, who would probably only be an XL or XXL in the US. Somehow, their uniforms will magically appear in the "jumbo sizes"--they're probably being sewn right now!

The volunteer pants were the biggest challenge of the uniform. Since the uniform fitting day, I've been to the flagship Adidas store in Beijing, and most of the clothing says right on the tag, "Asian Sizing." Well, our pants definitely run by Asian sizing, which means no hips and no rear end. As I've been trying on clothes around Beijing, I've found it usually also means "high waisted," or "you'll never see your belly button again." So for pants to fit, we all had to go up in size and have a snug fit around the hips and lots of extra fabric floating above the hips up to the high waist, which is large in proportion to our hips. The most unfortunate part is that our volunteer shirts aren't quite long enough to cover the fabric spare tire that we're getting above the hips.

But I am not complaining--the uniform shirts are very cute, as well as the messenger bag, Olympics Adidas tennis shoes, jacket, etc. And they are not stingy--we get three shirts and two pairs of pants. Hallelujah, we will not be doing laundry in the sink each night or fighting over the finicky washing machines (that frequently take the day off from working)to have a clean uniform each morning!

What I really like about the shopping here are the stylish dresses! It's like a fashion show every time I watch people walking down the street. Beijing is a pretty casual city, so there are lots of people in T-shirts ans shorts or pants, but there are also lots of women and girls in summer dresses and skirts. Very cute dresses and skirts!

I found a shop by our university that has a bunch of these cute dresses and started shopping. In Chinese sizing, I am a medium (they call it "middle" here) or large. I don't really mind what the tag says, although it is cute to be called "middle" while in the Middle Kingdom. Trying on dresses here was a major breakthrough--the style of the skirt is not slim, but fuller and flowier--so there is plenty of room for a Western sized hienie. And the silhouettes of all these dresses are cut for someone about 5'1"-5'2" tall...basically me! No need to find a petite section here; the whole shopping world (minus pants) is my oyster.

And there has been some luck for the taller and larger half of my group. A Chinese sportswear company called Peak donated these wonderful jersey polo shirts that have Chinese characters and the English translation: "I am volunteer." They anticipated the fact that Americans are bigger and donated shirts from mens sizes L to 4XL, with the largest quantity of 3XL. I was swimming even in the L!

Here's some images of the volunteer uniforms--the short sleeve blue shirts.