Oh My God, Shoes.

Something magical happened today.

The school offered a trip to the Ikea and Mega-Bangna complex for the new teachers, as a way for them to get the things that they need as they begin to set up their house.  I decided to go along, mostly out of curiosity and a desire to survey the things available at Ikea.  I'd only ever been to the Ikea in Pittsburgh, which I'm certain is a fraction of the size of this one.  It could be one of the biggest malls I've ever been in... second to the mall complexes at Siam Center in the middle of town.

The store I didn't expect to see.

So, I took the taxi to the school, got the bus, and found my way into the mall with a few of the other teachers.  We stopped for a bit of chow in the international food house.  I had some Chicken Korma, from a nice little stall with some very nice Indian men.  And then, I went off in search of the wonders of the mall.  I walked around, briefly glancing at the store names and just looking around.  I got distracted by lego sets for a moment, glanced at the price of a Jansport backpack, browsed through the pharmacy for a certain hair product, and then.... there it was...

A Payless Shoe Source.

Boat Sized Shoes Sold Here.

You may need some background to fully understand the weight of this blog.  I lived in Cambodia for four solid years, and the only shoes I bought were flimsy flip flop pieces of plastic that cost mere pennies.  It was useful, considering I lived in flip flops almost, no all the time.  And the flats that I acquired, or other fancier sandals, were all from home, usually from this store.  I have what my mother calls "canoe feet."  They are size 11. Massive.  Which, actually, is why I couldn't ever find shoes in Cambodia.

Petite Asian women don't typically have feet the size of watercraft.  

This, it turns out, is going to be an advantage for me here though.  I was looking about in this store, trying on some shoes, for the better part of twenty minutes.  The mall was packed, the store had plenty of traffic.  But this aisle?  This aisle.... was empty.  Well, there was one other girl there, but given her outfit and the things she was doing, I'm guessing she worked there.  She shot me a sideways glance when I first walked over to the far side of the store looking for that magical 11 and exclaimed in joy when I found it.

I tried on some pairs but didn't end up buying anything.  I don't need any shoes and none were too good to pass up.  I was drifting through the stores feeling much too overwhelmed at the size of the complex that I was in.  I'm also constantly reminding myself of the goals that I have in place; saving money and not accumulating unnecessary things are both key factors for my life here.

It was an interesting experience, though, to go through the Ikea and look at the various goods and how they were being perceived by the Thai folk.  I personally considered everything there to be a bit pricey, but that's coming from a few years of thrift and Craigslist shopping.

But, still, there I was... walking through the Ikea maze finding awesome house thing after awesome house thing, the solutions for problems I didn't know I had (and no solution for the one problem I'm still considering).  I acquired a few things that I enjoyed immensely back home.  A cool dish rack.  An Ikea box, bright blue.  Two magazine files, hot pink.  Two pencil cups, also hot pink.  Tupperware set.  Lint roller.  All pretty reasonable purchases, in my opinion.  Plus I found some lady products and a Thai phrase book in others stores.

I'm exhausted, though.  Shopping really does take it out of you.  It's such an overstimulating environment.

On the plus side, I Skyped with Aaron mostly successfully this morning and just finished getting a massage since my neck has been all achy.