The tally of things.

When I left Torino, I took with me a lone suitcase stocked a little more than halfway full. By the time I left Dubai, I had two suitcases stuffed to the point of explosion as both were overweight by a kilo while my carry-on (bless that large leather bag from Korea) bulged from the addition of handmade Thai pottery and heavy Arabian trinkets. I carried a bamboo umbrella slung across my back and managed, with every leftover ounce of effort, to lug it all from the south of France to the north of Italy - three train rides and eight hours away. Regardless, it was a homecoming I was eager to experience. Suddenly I was surrounded with a foreign language that I could partially comprehend, signs I could read and a general culture I felt at ease in. For all intensive purposes, Italy was home.

I spent the following days catching up on sleep and designating homes to the numerous new additions of my apartment. In total, I have purchased seven new dresses, three Thai purses, (1 suitcase), four cotton blouses, six skirts, seven paperbacks, one apron, one coat and ten pairs of shoes. This does not include four handmade boxes, a Turkish candle holder, a silk fan, one pink umbrella, a pair of reading glasses, a pound of postcards, two Arabic pillowcases, a solid bronze camel lamp and those nine long decorative sticks from the wooden market in Chiang Mai (I don't know what they are, but aren't they decadent?!)



Well, it seems that if there is one thing I excel at, it would most definitely be in the art of accumulation. Granted, I won't start complaining until I have to bring it all back to Hawaii.