Friday, June 24, 2011

College-Style

College-Style

Study Abroad: How to Pack Effectively

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 07:56 AM PDT

By: Brittany, UGA Alum. Follow me @brittanyareed.
If you thought choosing your study abroad program was daunting… take a deep
breath, because now you need to tackle packing. I'm not exaggerating when I say that
the success of your semester abroad greatly depends on your packing technique. In my last post, I outlined what to pack and now, I’m going to help you learn how to pack your items.

First Things First: Organization

I think it's fair to say I'm a well-seasoned traveler. I have yet to make it to South America, Asia or Antarctica, but I've been on every other continent. If there's one thing my travels have taught me: it's the vital importance of organization. Basically, you have your Checked Bag, Carry-On, and Personal Item. Utilize all of these to their highest efficiency.

Here's a picture of the luggage I used- its nice to have an easily recognizable and unique set b/c its identified quickly.

Personal Item: The purse/backpack you carry as a personal item is your lifeline and without it, you cannot survive. Love it, cherish it, do not abuse it because your personal item holds the most important items you've packed:  your passport, visas, money, cellphone and calling cards. If every other item you're carrying is stolen, it will be okay because your heart beats on while your passport is safe. Other items that should be included in this bag would be your iPod, laptop, camera, sunglasses, valuable jewelry, other travel documents and your Kindle (or other reading material). A pair of socks, sweater, toothbrush and travel toothpaste (due to 3-3-3 rule… which I have found to be quite lenient — shhhh….) would be a good idea to include as well, so you can keep your toesies warm on the plane and brush your teeth before landing. If you've never traveled abroad before, you've never experienced airplane morning breath. It's more potent than Brian Fantana's Sex Panther cologne.
Carry-On: The first thing to pack in your carry-on is a spare change of clothes and
underwear. You'll be grateful for these if your checked bag doesn't make it to your final
destination or if you feel you just need to freshen up once you land. I like to pack my
make-up and toiletries in this bag too, because there's a lower probability of shampoo
explosion in the pressurized cabin as opposed to below the plane.
Checked Bag: Your checked bag includes the bulk of your trip including clothes, shoes,
accessories and whatever else you're taking. When you start packing, you want to
organize by the object's value: your checked bag carries everything of least importance.
Photo Credit It's your "overflow" bag!

Thoughts?

Hope this packing tips help! Let me know if I left anything out!

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)