Day Seven:: Packing Hints from the Self-Proclaimed Expert, Me

Today I mainly rested and did more homework after going to church (note my first day of church outfit above), and thereby the day have not provided me with much to talk about, so I came up with an alternative topic, packing.  

Packing for this trip was a massive guessing game, and a week into the program I have figured out some good things that I did while attempting to pack and maybe someone who is studying abroad of even just doing on vacation can find something about this helpful.

• There is no going home do do your laundry, and it costs about $7.40 to wash and dry a load.  If studying abroad pack as much underwear as you can to reduce the amount of money you have to spend on laundry.
• Lush shampoo bars.  These are the best things that have happened to me.  They cost just over $10 and they last you 90 washes I kid you not, that's three months if you are washing your hair everyday.  So the price alone is fantastic, but so is the size.  To be able to have those 3 months of shampoo fit in your pocket is pretty great I would say.
• When being gone for this long, pack items that you will use up while on location, there by allowing you to have more room to bring things home, such as toiletries (plus buying things in England is super expensive, so the less you have to buy of those things the better if you find yourself coming to this fine location) or laundry soap that you will be using on the expensive loads of laundry!
• When assembling your suitcase out the highest priority items in first, then work to the items that are the lowest on the priority list gradually so you make sure you get the most important things is the case first.
• If taking a carry on and a checked bag, put some of the heaviest things in the carry on bag, so you can shove more into your checked bag and not go over the weight limit.
• Use a bunch of make-up bags to organize little things, and then they can be storage when you arrive at your location. (I brought a few plastic cups to organize my make-up as I was morally obligated to bring as much as I did, and I am super glad that I did.  The cups are another thing that I would be okay with not bringing back with me.)

Now there might be one person that any of that helps, but I figured some of it was worth sharing!

xoxo,

Kelsie