Cozmopolitan Sunkyoung

One of the things I wanted to buy with my first full paycheque was a new purse. I’d been using the purse on the left since 1999. As seen in the photo, a decade had turned many parts of the purse worn-out, torn and fallen. A couple of friends even said how a lady could carry that kinda looking purse.

I had my own reasons to want to keep it with me for that long time. First, if I ever change my purse, I wanted it to be given from my boyfriend. Unlike my wish, however, when my purse was starting to get significantly worn out, I didn’t have a boyfriend, or even when I had one or two, the situation was like either the relationship was not long enough to commit themselves to buying a purse for me, or they were just indifferent to girls’ stuff.

The other reason was I couldn’t simply throw away the purse because it had been always with me even after two incidents where I was almost about to lose it. Probably in 2000, I left my purse on my seat of the bus from Seoul to Suwon, and a girl sitting next to me was so kind that she picked it up when she took off the bus and returned it to me the next day. Later in 2004, I left my purse on the locker in the library, and somebody found it and passed it to the security staff.

However, I started to change my mind in late 2008 as the bottom part of the purse where contains coins was already more than half a way torn. I thought I couldn’t wait longer until I have a new boyfriend. Also, I wanted to be a little bit more independent. It is me who makes money for myself so why not buy me a basic container of the money? So, finally I bought a nice purse at the airport duty free shop in Bangkok when I first went there earlier this month. I had wanted my new purse to be men’s as it’s much slimer than women’s.

Another story about a purse: when I met my friend, Junsu, back in September 2008, I noticed his new purse. And he said his lack of knowledge about brands was almost to make his girlfriend mad. She bought this purse for him at a Salvatore Ferragamo shop when she had an overseas flight. But, when he first saw the purse, he thought she’d got it as a freebie from Nonghyup (banking service of National Agricultural Cooperative Federation in Korea) as its logo seemed to him similar to Salvatore Ferragamo’s.

There are a couple of things I have had with me for more than 10 years and another thing is a nail clipper that my dad bought for me when I went to university in 1997. Since then, it has travelled with me to many different places in the world. Unless the cutting part becomes dull, I think I’ll keep it for another decade.

When Mitchy was visiting Singapore, he brought his iPod Touch with him and, especially when he captured some places on Google map application, where we wanted to go and find, I found it extremely convenient. Recalling those days in Brussels when I drew numerous road maps on small pieces of paper to get to friends’ homes and new places, I thought it would have been really handy if I had an iPod Touch at that time.

Still having an iPod Classic, however, I wasn’t yet fully certain about buying an iPod Touch. Then, a while later, I found a reason I needed it.

In order to find my colleague’s place where she was throwing a home party, as a kind of substitute to iPod Touch, I took a photo of Google map displayed on my netbook screen with my digital camera. But, when I arrived in the street of my colleague’s, I realised what I missed – I didn’t write down the number of her place.

Well, if I opened a description box by clicking the spot on Google map, the captured image would have contained my colleague’s detailed address too. But, with Google map application in iPod Touch, you can view a certain spot and its address at the same time only by one-click.

In addition, the more I travelled, the more convinced I became how convenient it is to have an iPod Touch. As well as a map service, I’m frequently using mail-check, currency rate, language study and tracking expenses – it was supper efficient typing all the things I bought at the supermarket while waiting for the bus to get home.