The contents of my bag included:

 An MP3 Player

A video camera

digital camera

4 AAA batteries

A Syringe

Headphones

Opened package of a digital camera memory stick.

An unusable cell phone

A worthless checkbook

Camera chargers

    Part of me believes that the contents of our handbags exposes our shared identity but I’m not completely sold on the idea. Though some of the items in my bag could explain different facets of my identity, I would not base the image of my identity through the contents of my bag. My main example is the fact that I had 3 electronic devices in my bag, along with headphones, batteries and battery chargers. One might think that I was trying to make myself out to be a strong being who does not approve of showing any type of weakness. Or, it could be that I went out and about around South Kensington before class like a tourist taking pictures and video…or maybe I hadn’t cleaned out my bag since I arrived in London. I enjoyed the exercise but I’m still not sold on the principles of the exercise.

In my bag:

A notebook recycled from last semester
A 1/8 to 1/8 audio cable that I used to hook up my iPod to  a rental car
2 paper towels
“On the Road” by Jack Kerouac
A Peanut Butter Power Bar
A nametag from a summer program in 2005
An honorable mention certificate for the Archeological essay contest in 9th grade
A business card I got this summer that says  Life one way, and you can turn it upside down and it says Death
My checkbook which is useless over here
Pens and Pencils
A Hat
Glasses
My iPod
An airline converter for headphones that I don’t actually need
An advertisement for LoveSacs (http://www.lovesac.com/)
A pin that says “abortion kills”
A set of Allen wrenchs
Two AA batteries
Empty memory card case
Super Mario World for Gameboy
Southwest Airlines claim tag with my information on it
Memory card converter for my cell phone
Some FIE information I needed to fly in

That’s everything in my bag.  I don’t know what kind of identity it projects, probably mostly a pack rat, even though I don’t think I am one.  Some things are weird, like the pro life pin, because I don’t even really agree with that point of view; that’s probably six years old.  I obviously don’t clean my bag regularly, and I use it for a lot of different purposes, which is why it sort of amasses different odds and ends.  With my bag I can usually be prepared for a lot of different things, and I would guess it projects are person who is on the go a lot.  Some things in my bag, well I frankly have no clue why they’re there, but I put them back nonetheless when the exercise was done.

The contents of my bag included:
-one notebook for class notes
-one click pen from Texaco Express Lube
-my digital camera, which I have used extensively throughout the trip thus far
-a notebook with humorous quotes said by fellow Temple University study-abroaders
-a receipt for the duty-free liquor Becky Bordo and I bought at the JFK airport
-a neon pink bandana, for keeping my bangs in place on bad hair days
-a thin black Sharpie pen
-the wrapper of a tropical flavored piece of Trident gum
-three used batteries
-one long black nail filer
-a guide to day-excursions in London
-the tourist guide to the V&A museum
-feminine products<br>-$4
-mint waxed floss
-an 1/8″ to 1/4″ adapter for my headphones
-one starburst candy wrapper, which I ate on the airplane

As we discussed, it seems a few people felt these items projected an image of someone who is prepared. Floss, the guide-book, batteries, the adapter (with nothing to adapt), and nail filer contribute to this image, I imagine. Brian even went so far as to say I’m probably very “logical”, which I feel is quite accurate. In addition, a few classmates pointed out that I’m probably sentimental and that memories seem important to me, as hinted at by my “quote book” and camera. These were all great observations.

A bag, exposed

Originally uploaded by nnlondon.
I uploaded this photo automatically using flickr…

I feel rather cheeky that I never let you look inside my bag, so I have emptied it on the floor:

• Mini London A to Z with slightly crumpled corners and a yellow 3M post-it standard flag on page 98. I only know it is called a post-it standard flag because I have just looked on the 3M website. They have a plethora of seemingly useful flag type stuff: http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/products/prod_ft.html The post-it picture paper must have some use for Neighborhood Narratives… paper and photo stuck on sites all around London? I have no idea why it marks page 98.
• 2 crumpled plastic carrier bags: a purple one from m&s and a white and blue one from Pet Pavilion. Hmmm… can you tell where I shop. Purpose? Think dog.
• A wrigley’s extra peppermint megapak gifted to me by my boyfriend. Inside are two sticks of unchewed gum. The flap is open (tsk, tsk, so remiss of me not to close it), so in the bottom of my bag were scattered 4 more unchewed sticks (the corner of one is very squashed, I think it got dripped on during yesterday’s insane wind-rainstorm) and two crumpled wrappers and two bits of tinfoil.
• 18 hour protective hand cream, sally hansen, very orange-y (i really mean this, if you hate the smell of oranges it will make you vomit) but very, very good
• Garmin nuvi: it works well walking from knightsbridge to trafalgar square to picadilly to green park but not so well yesterday when I tried to locate satellites at Oxford Circus.
• One black bic pen (no lid), one blue bic pen with lid. I hate bic pens. They seem too simple and they are hexagonal and bug my fingers, but now as I type this I think maybe I do like something about them. In contrast, I love my MUJI pen.
• A niceday notebook. I have run out of nice notebooks so I’ve had to make do over the last and a random selection of papers needed for meetings for all my consultancies.
• One U.S. penny
• One 5p coin

How revealing! I wonder if you see what I do…