Raiding My Bank Account
This is a random post on goodies that may deplete my funds. In other words, this is a list of things I’d like to buy in the next few months.
1. a gayageum – Weird? Of course, but if you know me, you know that I have a thing for instruments of the stringed persuasion. You also know that I have a thing for traditional Korean stuff. String instrument + traditional Korean stuff = gayageum = full of win = I want!
2. a trip to North Korea – Yes, I can go there. If Gaesong, North Korea is anything like the DMZ, visiting that city is going to be an acutely surreal experience (amazing). It will also be a little unsettling, because if I go – I won’t be allowed to take my camera/mp3 player/phone/kindle/anything with me. :(
3. a cellphone – Finally, a normal item. I need a new phone. When it comes to this, I’ve been procrastinating, but I need to stop that and get a new phone…
4. an electronic dictionary – I don’t need this at all. I already have two. :( I hardly need another, but the one I’m using now is 2 years old. It doesn’t play mp3s, talk to me, have a radio, let me write on it, play videos, know anything about Japanese, or know anything about French … so a new one would be nice. But – I’ll probably pass on this.
5. clothes!!! I want skirts and sweaters. :)
Is there anything that you’d like to buy?
Yes, I’m still alive! woo! I realize that I haven’t been posting regularly for the last few months. I just haven’t been in the mood… If you complain about my lack of blogging, I will blog more. :)
I want new fall clothes! :P Gayageums are so awesome.
I didn’t realise you could actually travel into North Korea? I thought it was completely sequestered?
@Amanda: No, it’s not quite completely sequestered. I can go.
I have no idea what item 1 was before I clicked on the link :P
A trip to a foreign country with no camera? No fair! I wouldn’t go… I thrive on memories like that.
A dictionary which plays mp3s? Whatever happened to dictionaries which serve as … dictionaries?
Buy hmm… it depends. Right now top of my hit list is a new chair (the kind that CEOs have). Mine is extremely uncomfortable. and blouses! :D I love buying blouses, unfortunately I can’t find anything “nice” as of late. Or cheap… heh.
I didn’t know what the first item was when I clicked the link. I stared at it for a while and thought “is it something you wear like a messenger bag?”, and then I read your comment about it and learned a new thing: it’s a string instrument :D It’s a pretty cool looking one, I wonder how it sounds like. It sucks that if you go to North Korea you can’t take those items you listed! I can’t leave my house without my camera, let alone if I’m going to another country! Oh, and I so didn’t know you could get an electronic dictionary with so many features :P So that’s why those little things can get so expensive!
@Vera: If I can’t take my camera – oh well – it’s upsetting, but being able to go to North Korea is such a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing that it’ll be worth it. I’d like a comfortable new chair too.
@Lene: The gayageum sounds cool, a little whiny – but cool. :)
I have to find the website/blog of the guy who did this, but I distinctly remember reading the amazing account of an American living in South Korea going to the North with some buddies of his. He was allowed to take his camera (and even take pictures! he had pictures of the DMZ buildings and guards and everything) and even smuggled in his cell phone, which, ironically, got reception from his SK carrier in the DMZ!
A-HA! http://1stopkorea.com/index.htm?nk-trip6-dmz.htm~mainframe
The Kaesong part (next page) describes the following:
“The lunch was all done in a very traditional style with everyone sitting on the floor while dishes served by women in traditional hanbok gradually filled up the tables in front of us. The only thing that seemed out of place (other than us) was the meat. Having dined on dog meat numerous times in the South most of us agreed that we probably weren’t eating beef . . . Squeamish diners beware – nothing says you’re eating dog like having little hairs poking out of the fatty parts of the meat!”
… Please stick to vegetarian options while there, Chantelle :|