the new bandanna

I cabbed all the way out to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza neighborhood on a quest for a new bandanna. I couldn't remember which store it was that I'd gone to several years ago, so I tried a few buildings before finally getting lucky the third time: it was the Migliore Plaza building (migliore = Italian for "the best" in this context*). At the second building, before I hit Migliore, I was accosted by a dude who called out my name. "Kevin?" At first, I thought he recognized me because we knew each other or something, but I quickly realized he was only reading my shirt: I was wearing my 2020 Kevin's Walk tee. He was a young, 20-something kid, and he addressed me in English, probably because he was in full-on salesman mode. I asked him where I could find the bandanna sellers, and he said, "Maybe downstairs a floor or two." As we parted, he turned serious and gave me a fist bump and a respectful nod, his informal tribute to my having walked the Four Rivers trail. I could have been a show-off and said I'd done the Four Rivers three times, the east coast once, and Jeju/Andong once as well. But my inner introvert told me it was time to move on, and that's how I ended up at Migliore, which is where my spider sense told me I should've been all along.

The new bandanna is thinner, thus less absorbent and more prone to wear and tear, but it's much bigger than my current "holey" bandanna, and it'll at least last me through the month-long walk. Here's the current bandanna, about to be retired:

current bandanna, full of holes

Each of my bandannas lasts about three years before the abuse becomes too much. Lord only knows how many gallons of my sweat have passed through the fabric of my previous two bandannas, how many times each bandanna has been washed and folded and crumpled.

As you see in the photo below, the new bandanna is printed only on one side, which is a little disappointing. On the bright side, the new bandanna is much bigger, which means tying it onto my fat head will be easier and more comfortable. If the thinner cloth of the new bandanna is less absorbent, I can use the larger size to my advantage by folding the margin of the bandanna up to form a double-thick edge that will sit across my forehead and trap escaping sweat like a 1980s-era jazzercise headband. What a feeling!

I've actually tried the bandanna on my head once already; it really does have a comfortable fit. Whatever its flaws and deficiencies, I still look forward to taking it on my trek. There's also always a second bandanna that comes along with me—a red one. But the red bandanna never goes on my head: it's for wiping my face and neck because, no matter how good a bandanna is, some sweat always escapes. (Cue ominous, twangy cowboy music and the distant call of a bird of prey.) All this new bandanna has to do is be good enough to last this upcoming trip.

__________

*In most Western European languages, "best" is accompanied by an article: good, better, the best. Gut, besser, am besten (der/die beste). Bon, meilleur, le meilleur. Buono, migliore, il migliore. Bueno, mejor, el mejor. But a store's name can probably take a bit of creative license, hence Migliore as opposed to Il Migliore. Unless the namers of the store really meant for it to say "Better," not "The Best."