If I'm on vacation, the last thing I want to be doing is spending half my time in a mall, buying useless trinkets for people. For one thing.....vacations usually aren't really all that long. You need to make the most of your time while you're there. Cooped up in a store.....that ain't making the most of your time. For another thing......aren't trips expensive enough already? I don't get it. Why buy stuff for the sake of buying it? Sure, if you're in an Nepalese flea market and see something that would be just the perfect thing for your friend Mr. X, well sure, buy it and send it back. But come on. You should do the same thing in a Vancouver flea market.

Getting souvenirs.......well, I don't want to appear ungrateful. I'm delighted whenever I get souvenirs. Especially practical ones. But.....for the most part, souvenirs are totally unpractical. You put it on your bookshelf in your room or something, and it just sits there collecting dust. Maybe a spoon with a nice engraving on it, a plate with a picture on it, little plastic figurines, little porcelain figurines, little rubber figurines, shot glasses, the list really does go on and on and on and on. What are you supposed to do with this stuff? I go out of my way not to buy these things, because I consider them a waste of money, and really, quite useless. What to do when somebody gives you it? "Thanks ever so much, I haven't lived until I put a Moose Jaw, Alberta plate on my bookshelf." It's just a waste of money and time for the giver, a waste of storage space for the receiver. A bad deal all the way around. In fact, it's almost like the giver is rubbing in that the receiver did not get to go on this trip. It's like, haha, I had the experience of a lifetime....you can have a painted plate of my experience of a lifetime. Gee thanks really? You're so magananimous, I'm lucky to have you as a friend. Sheesh!