March, 2014 - Lili on the Loose

22 03, 2014

Souvenir Saturday: Daily Reminder

By Lili|March 22nd, 2014|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2004, Asia, daily, exchange program, Japan, kimono, prank, shower, silk, Sister Cities, Sister Cities Japan 2004, souvenir|0 Comments

When purchasing a souvenir an important part of the buying process is what you are going to do with it once you get it back home. Is it just for your collection? A gift for someone else? Are you going to display it? Or is it something you plan on using day to day? In 2004 when I purchased an expensive silk kimono I planned on using it as a display piece, probably hang it on a wall. But I was a poor college student and couldn’t afford to frame it yet, so it sat in a box in my

17 03, 2014

Travel Missteps: Left Over Right

By Lili|March 17th, 2014|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2004, 7/11, Asia, exchange program, Japan, kimono, left, local culture, naked, prank, right, shopping, silk, Sister Cities, Sister Cities Japan 2004, souvenir, spirits, Tokyo, translation, yukata|0 Comments

In 2004, I was spending a few weeks in Japan as a cultural ambassador with my town's Sister Cities delegation of two chaperones and 9 other students. Beyond experiencing the sites of Tokyo for a few days, we all wanted to get some souvenir shopping done before we headed to the smaller, non-touristy town which was our sister city. I had read in a guide book that a store in Tokyo called "Oriental Bazaar" had a great selection of many typical Japanese souvenirs at cheaper prices. So I guided the group there. It was perfect, they had so many great

8 03, 2014

Souvenir Saturday: Its Smaller on the Outside

By Lili|March 8th, 2014|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2009, at the heart of it Ireland 2009, castle, CIE, Coat of Arms, coins, collectable, collection, contrade, contrade of Siena, Doctor Who, Dublin, euro, Europe, exchange money, flag, group, Ireland, large, memento, memories, shopping, Siena, souvenir, tour, tour group, travel|0 Comments

I was on my last afternoon in Ireland, and had a lot of euro coins left over. Knowing that my bank won't exchange coins, was buying random souvenirs as gifts. One of the last items I bought was a small county flag of Dublin, Ireland. I had seen them around while traveling and they reminded me of the flags of the different contrade of Siena. But when I returned home and open the package, I found that this 7 euro flag, was not a small flag. But it was actually the size of a traditional flag (about the size of a

3 03, 2014

Travel Missteps: Celebrity Interruption

By Lili|March 3rd, 2014|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2012, celebrity, coffee, crowds, North America, North Pacific Coast 2012, Pike Place Market, Seattle, The Campaign, USA, Washington, Will Ferrell, work, Zach Galifianakis|0 Comments

Sometimes your travel plans are foiled by crowds. And sometimes your travel plans are foiled by…Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. On a nice July day in 2012 I was in Seattle for a business trip. After my coworker and I settled into our hotel we decided to do a little site-seeing while we got lunch before our first meeting. We headed down to Pike Place Market. After we had lunch, we noticed there were a lot of people…and more people streaming in. It became hard to shop and move about the market, and the sellers at first had no idea