Weighing in With My Opinion

This is a scale from my school. The population of students is roughly four girls to one boy. All of the girls have some sort of body image issue. There are nose jobs, hair extentions, and stuffed bras abound! Ahh, to be sixteen again. I just find it curious that these scales are situated in three places around the school. This one is right before you get on the elevator, another is right before you get to the cafeteria and the last is right as you get on school grounds. Perfect places where there's bound to be some heavy foot traffic. I personally think it's the last thing the young women here need.

For one baht, you can see how much you weight in kilos! Before I filmed this today, I tried this once before and got 77 kilos. But one of my students caught me, she blabbed to nearly the entire school that I was fat. Sigh.

I know I'm not fat. For a woman my height, I'm right where I ought to be. When I'm not lazy, I might do sit ups or dance around in the evenings. That obviously constitutes a tough work-out. So what's the issue? Thailand, of course, since I've been here, all the foreign women I've come into contact with have complained about shopping for clothes or being referred to the "fat corner,"

And I am a chief complainer. Ever since I first came out here and went to the local Tesco to buy some work clothes, I noticed something was terribly wrong. According to the Thai, I'm morbidly obese. Okay, maybe not so much. And keep in mind, Asians are generally small people. So to find out that a size medium shirt you'd wear in the states is actually a size extra extra large here, is a little frustrating. And let me tell you, there are limited XXLs to go around.

And don't get me started about shoes.

Or long enough pants with enough room in the butt and hips.

Or about bras.

Or about fitting inside tuk tuks and most buses.

I'm a giant in so many ways. If I throw in the afro as well, I'll bet I'm an overwhelming sight for little children. They love to stare and I just wish I knew what they were thinking. I think they might be afraid. Well that's okay, kids are allowed some awe-inspiring sights every once in awhile. Hey! Maybe one of these days, I can get mistaken for WNBA superstar Lisa Leslie and get asked for an autograph! : )