Week 3: Stinky Sweaty Me

So, it's hot here. I mean HOT. The weather is about 34 degrees Celsius daily, which is about 93 degrees Fahrenheit. That doesn't seem too bad, but then you add the relentless humidity hovering between 50 and 90 percent. It's absolutely dreadful. I really wish I could stop complaining about this, but the whining is constant. I whine to myself, to my coworkers, to strangers. I feel a great suffering, because I am naturally a very, very red and sweaty person. This weather has taken a toll on my personal comfort and emotional welfare. As I've shared with some of you, there is a deeper underlying reason for the emotional trauma. It goes back to childhood... as all things do (shoutout to Freud!).

In high school, I had first period PE. Yes, first period PE. Isn't that awful! I would get real red and real sweaty on running days. It was unavoidable. When I would walk into second period (I believe it was math), the kids would shout out, "It's a running day! Leann is red!" This planted a seed of embarrassment around my sweaty red face. I had many more experiences in my adolescence and adulthood that reinforced this negative relationship with my sweat. Such as the time I went to hot yoga, and a sorority sister asked me if I went swimming. Or the time I went on a run, and a little girl loudly asked her mom, "Why is that lady sooooo red." When I workout, I get red and sweaty. This took me years to accept, and I just recently overcame this very vain embarrassment. With that being said, I have not accepted being red and sweaty for no good reason. Me + Seoul + August = Sweat Machine. I stand, and I sweat. I sit, and I sweat. I just exist, and I sweat. This is very bothersome indeed. Seoul's terrible August weather has aggravated an old emotional wound, and has forced me into a torturous form of intense immersion therapy.

Sweat Immersion Therapy:
1. Sweat through your dress shirt two days in a row. Realize that the salt from your sweat leaves giant marks on dress shirts. Wash shirts in sink and let air dry. Pray that undershirt tank-tops won't get you pulled aside to have a "dress code talk."
2. Coworker asks if you're "okay" because you look "really sweaty."
3. Force coworkers to move mid-meal to another table, because it's closer to air conditioning.
4. Buy 10 handkerchiefs to use as sweat rags. Realize you should pack two - one is not enough.
5. Ask your awesome parents to send you light weight dresses that don't show sweat. Realize everything shows sweat if you sweat enough.
6. Realize that cutting your hair in a cute bob with bangs was an idiotic idea. Bangs are a sweat tent for your forehead, and it's hard to put your hair in a ponytail.
7. Wonder if you smell, constantly.
8. Stain your leather bag's cross strap with sweat.
9. Go on a date. Look soooo good the first 10 minutes. Look drenched the following 2 hours. No second date.
10. Write a online confessional for everyone to read.

I cannot stop sweating. Cannot stop. And, to make matters worse, not everyone sweats. No joke. I look around, and I have a giant sweat stain on the front of my shirt, and some people look so dry and fresh. How do they do this? I did a little sweat research, and here is what I've found:

Sweat 101 Video
Why People Sweat Different Amounts
Another Complainer - Blog Post About Sweating in Seoul

Sorry, no photos. I promise I'm doing everyone a favor. :)