One of the essential steps to studying abroad, or
going outside the house in general is packing your bag. Which considering I'm
leaving for a little more than three months is a tall order.
The best advice I received about packing is this...
-Only pack what you can carry upstairs and down streets by yourself.-Lay out everything you want to bring and get rid of half of it.
-Find your comfort level, if you are comfortable only bringing a few articles of clothing and buying everything on the road then do it. Or if you’re like me and cringe at spending excessive amounts of money on clothes that I already have at home then bring what you need. Travel is stressful enough and worrying about having too much or too little isn't something you want to be sitting on your shoulders.
-While there are essentials like underwear and the correct foot wear there are also things that fall into I-would-die if-I-left-it-at-home and I-need-this-but-I-know-I-won't-wear-it categories. Leave the second at home and take the things that make you feel comfortable and feel like yourself.
These are my policies anyway. We'll see if they
actually work out when I get there.
One thing I do know is that factoring in the
weather is essential, and for England that means cold, damp and rainy. So the
flip flops and shorts are definitely a leave at home item. I don't know much
about England in general so I fell back on a well-known method of research...
the internet.
Searching packing lists for study abroad in your country is a
great way to get started. My school has a packing list but definitely not as in
depth as I feel is needed. However there are tons of other schools that also do
study abroad with packing lists that can be compared and contrasted until I
found a happy medium. I highly recommend making your own packing list because
you are the only one who knows you and what you are comfortable with doing and
what you aren’t.
Another great search option is Pintrest, especially
for the more visually inclined people. Pintrest is great for finding pictures
of what people in England are wearing and what other students brought with them
on their trip.
The next post will be a comprehensive packing list
on what I decide to bring and what I leave at home. It won't be final until the
very last minute so I'm going to wait so I only publish one post on the list
instead of dozens while I waffle back and forth. I'll also keep everyone updated
on what worked and what really didn't.
“What are you doing with all those books anyway?" Ron asked.
"Just trying to decide which ones to take with us," said Hermione. When we're looking for the Horcruxes."
"Oh, of course," said Ron, clapping a hand to his forehead. "I forgot we'll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
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