Guess which one I want?

I took this photo while in Insa-dong on Saturday.  I’m especially fond of the yellow doll.  (Maybe because I’m yellow myself??)  It just seems to be smiling up at me, saying, “Please buy me.  You know you want to.”  With the head decorations, they remind me of tribal Laotians up in the hills of the motherland.  I don’t know why I didn’t buy it (2000 won), but next time, for sure.

Yesterday, Ras and I went to Namdaeumun to go lens shopping for my Canon 400D (Rebel XTi).  I picked up this bad boy.  Now I feel like I’m entering the realm of the big boys, but not truly knowing what I’m doing yet.

I’m excited to use it on my travels this winter, even though I’m not sure where that will be yet.  Brandon has also used this lens, and I hope my photos turn out half as good as the ones he’s taken in Indonesia.

By the way, if anyone’s looking for Halloween gear, you can find plenty here.  [Click picture for a larger version.]

Tomorrow I’m going to a high school friend’s birthday party.  I haven’t seen her since we graduated - over ten years ago.  For the first time since being back in the States, I went to the mall (in search of a present).  I happened upon the grand opening of a Sephora inside the JC Penny.  Starbucks coffee and pastries were served,

as well as Miss Oregon Teen USA handing out roses.  She gave me her last rose.  I wonder how old she is.  17?  18?

I went a little consumer crazy and bought too much stuff today.  This included a Philosophy coconut shampoo, several products from Urban Decay, a MAC blush, Tweezerman slant tweezers, two Sephora make-up brushes, Dolce & Gabbana perfume (Light Blue), 6 shirts, two body butters in Satsuma and Pink Grapefruit, a hot dog pretzel with cheese sauce from Auntie Annes, a medium Orange Julius, and $2.00 worth of chocolate covered gummy bears from Sweet Factory.  Whew!!

I know I shouldn’t have bought so much, but I do what others in denial do… I reasoned with myself:

1. I’m worth it!
2. I just came out of a 3 hour root canal procedure, I should treat myself.
3. All the name brand stuff I bought is much cheaper here than in Korea.  For example, Estee Lauder’s Idealist, which costs $73 retail costs $130 in Korea.  (Although this wasn’t part of my purchase today.)
4. I’m the kind of person that might buy on impulse, but once I get it home and try it on again, I have no problem with returning some or all of it.
5. I spend like this once every one or two years.  I hardly buy any clothes in Korea.

To help me decide on my purchases, I ask myself:  Do I really need it?  Does it make me look and feel fabulous?
Ok, I don’t really need all the shirts, body lotions, or junk food.  I will say this though… the makeup makes me feel effin fabulous!  Just like one of my favorite Molly Ringwald movie, they’re “For Keeps.”

Philosophy’s delicious lotions and bath products.  (The top left is Margarita.)

After my first class today, Ras met me near campus for lunch. I wanted to try out a nearby “pho” place on Broadway and College Street - Pho Thanh-Long. I wondered how it would compare to Pho Van, which is a favorite for my family. We used to drive all the way out to 82nd in Portland, but we’re now lucky enough to have one close by. Upon opening the menu at Phot T-L, my response was a disappointed “oh” when I saw that they served chicken, as well as shrimp pho. I’ve never had chicken in my pho before. It’s called “beef noodle soup” for a reason, isn’t it? Plus, there wasn’t any option for tripe or tendon! Come one, if you can’t have the option of having thinly sliced pieces of cow stomach in your soup, can you really call it “pho”? I actually don’t order pho with tripe because it has no taste, but I do like me some tendon, and fatty beef brisket on top of that. After the dissapointment, I didn’t even look to see if they had my obligatory avocado shake that I usually order with my #1 large pho.

We then took a nice stroll towards the heart of downtown. Passing a travel agency, I suggested checking on prices to Korea because we’ll both be doing a winter camp. A one-way ticket to Korea in the first week of December was only $400! That’s a steal. I remember buying a round-trip ticket last year for $1100.

Passing Pioneer Courthouse Square, the “Holiday” tree was in the process of being erected.

We then went to Pioneer Square (a shopping mall) to get Ras’ new iPod shuffle.

Thanksgiving isn’t even here yet, but Christmas decorations are up all over town. The retailers are trying to milk the holidays for all it’s worth.

I hadn’t seen the iPod shuffle before, and was amazed at how small the thing was. Seriously, the thing is tiny! Ras thought about getting the iPod Nano because he’s got the Nike shoes where you can put a microchip in the sole and it will send information to the Nano about how far you’ve walked, calories burned, etc. He’ll only be using it while commuting on the MAX and working out with it, so I voted for the shuffle.

While I’m going to school, I’m not working and living off my money from Korea.  Lately, the cash flow has been dwindling FAST.  I have an RSS feed to FatWallet.com, and every day, there are new feeds of all the deals and sales happening around the stores in the U.S.  Here’s what I’ve bought so far:

 

This arrives today!  $800 for the kit, after a $100 off sale. 

 

For the camera, of course.  $147 after $40 mail-in-rebate.

Epson RX700 All-In-One printer, scanner, copier.  80% of the time, I’ll be using this to scan old photographs from our family albums and negatives from 35mm film.  I’m trying to get everything digitalized, because it IS 2006.  Where are the flying cars???  $230 after $170 mail-in-rebate.

I’ll be using this to put music on my PDA.  That way, I canl listen The Killers latest album, and play sudoku while commuting to classes on public transportation.  $17 after mail-in-rebate!

This is a Samsung YP-F1V 256MB MP3 player with FM radio.  It’s for my mom to listen to at work.  She still uses a CD player, and (gasp!) tape cassette.  I know it doesn’t fit a lot of songs, but there’s always the radio.  For $18.71 and free shipping, it’s worth it.

I’m now reconsidering whether I should be working part-time or not while going to school.  It probably wouldn’t work out anyway because I’m too picky about what I want to do, and for how long.  Ideally, I wouldn’t mind working at an art supply store like Art Media, a stationary store, or at a printing press.  I’d only want to work 10-15 hours a week, not have to travel far to get there, make at least $10 an hour, and have them work around MY schedule.  So… I’ve come to the conclusion that I probably won’t be working this term.