News Flash: Still Alive

[brigdh]

I finished my comps! I survived! Hopefully I passed, but since it will be at least two weeks until they're graded, I am currently not thinking about that! Yay!

Now I'm frantically working on preparing to leave for the UK, which I do on the 23rd (AHHH SO SOON). I am unprepared to pack for a three month trip! It's not that I've never traveled for three months, it's just that when I have, it was for the field, in which you wear the same five outfits over and over again until they literally begin to fall apart, but everyone else is in the same situation so it doesn't matter. Now I have to deal with people who have their full wardrobes with them! And look professional and stuff! It is traumatizing. Also, googling for packing tips is not helpful. The internet's advice is apparently geared entirely toward backpackers ("you can wear your underwear four times as long if you turn them inside out and backwards! Less laundry!") or rich people ("don't worry about packing, just buy clothes when you get there!") neither of which seems helpful. Also, someone told me Good luck with the exposure of you geniocity. Move to Europe and learn things, not in books. Like "the humanity." I don't even know what that means!

So that is what is going on with me.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

Wait, what, who, HUH?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

RIGHT?!

[rm.livejournal.com]

When/how did this happen?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

On Thorn Tree, which is the Lonely Planet's series forum.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh man. I just... whut? I don't even. And you! Who has been to all sorts of places that most Westerners never experience. Oi!

Also, remember if you find you need more/different stuff when you pack, I can bring you things when I hit Europe (or mail you stuff before)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

(1) Decide how often you can re-wear a garment without grossing out yourself or anyone else.

(2) Decide the minimum number of days you're willing to let elapse between trips to the laundromat.

(3) Somewhere between those two things lies a number, which is the number of days until you have to do laundry. Bring enough clothing for that number of days plus one (because you have to wear something while doing the laundry!)

(4) Pack more underwear and socks than that.

In Japan, I brought five outfits, foolishly assuming that I'd be able to wear things more than once. Mistake! It was HOT and HUMID and I was SOAKED IN SWEAT and therefore could not re-wear anything, so we ended up doing laundry every four days, which was annoying as hell.

For the UK trip this October, I should be able to re-wear things, so five outfits (plus a judicious application of Febreze here and there) should be fine.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but my problem is more that I will feel awkward re-wearing the same five outfits for three months straight while everyone else has normal-sized wardrobes than how often I can do laundry. I guess what I really should be looking at is fashion books, for how to recombine things in many ways!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Turn it into a fashion statement! You could do the Neil Gaiman thing and only wear black shirts and jeans, so that you could wear the same thing over and over and nobody could know. :)

More realistically, tops and bottoms that mix and match, adding a couple of jacket/cardigan/sweaters to mix it up, and different accessories (scarf, necklace, hat, etc.), if you're an accessory type of person.

As I recall, when I went to Wales for a semester, I brought two suitcases full of clothing. Didn't buy anything else but a coat and a big fuzzy throw, but man, hauling those two suitcases around the UK for two weeks afterward was horrible.

[weirdquark]

You can totally wash socks and underwear in the sink, which will cut down on the amount of laundry you'll need to do. If you do this every day, you don't need to worry about whether your underwear will dry overnight or not -- even if some of it takes a few days, you'll have a rotation of underwear in various stages of dryness. Thin socks will probably dry overnight. If you get camping socks, some of those are designed to dry really fast, and they're not all really heavy. You won't be able to wear them with women's dress shoes, but they'll work with boots or sneakers.

Does "looking professional" involve wearing suits or things that are like suits? My roommate (who has traveled in Europe both as a grad student and as a new professor) tends to bring nice pants, nice shirts, and jackets, where she can mix and match and get more outfits out of fewer pieces. So I recommend jackets that go with more than one pair of pants and pants that go with more than one jacket. She is not a dress wearing sort of person, so I have no advice there other than fabric which does not wrinkle is your friend if you don't know whether you'll have access to an iron.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

But I will have a washer and a dryer! Laundry is not my problem. But you have proved my point that all advice on the internet about packing seems to revolve around the issue of laundry. ;)

Professional is more suit-like things that actual suits. The tip on packing things that can combine with as many other things as possible is a good one!

[weirdquark]

But you have proved my point that all advice on the internet about packing seems to revolve around the issue of laundry. ;)

Heh. I just remember my roommate having sporadic access to laundry, so I thought it was worth mentioning. When I visited her we had access to a washing machine once in three weeks, but we were also traveling a lot.

But mix-and-match is definitely the way to go -- I know she has the ability to bend space and time*, but she's managed to fit a month and half worth of clothing on her last trip in a suitcase the size of a large backpack. (Though it was a research trip during the summer, so she probably didn't need as many jackets, etc. as you will for the fall.)

*We will come home to full bookshelves with ten or twenty volumes of manga. She will rearrange things, put it all away, and the shelves look no more full than before.

geniocity.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Is this a word?

Re: geniocity.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Not that I know of! And I can't even think of what it might be a typo for.

Re: geniocity.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Me neither. And I thought I left you weird comments...

You're Doing Science And You'reStill Alive!

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

You don't find out if they think you're an ineducable idiot until you're in Cardiff learning to do Smart People stuff? Awkward...

At least you don't have to pack reading matter. English language books will be cheap and abundant. Fancy!

It is important to look smart, but it is more important to act smart. Always remember that you grew up in a State capital, and conduct yourself accordingly. Then just be awesome!(Be yourself.)

Here endeth the unsolicited advice.

[pierreuse.livejournal.com]

Jesus. Good luck!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Heh, thanks!

[graene.livejournal.com]

Mix and match basics. One or two signature pieces. Roll clothes to get more in the suitcase. Do try to keep some money aside for buying a few items there, either to fit local style, deal with weather realities or just to take advantage of stuff you can't find here and fall in love with. Figure out the equivalent to jeans and pack two or three pairs of that so you can focus on layering items for on top that mix and match well also. Since you'll be there through turn of the season, maybe leave a packed bag of heavier sweaters for rm to bring you during her visit and plan to send lighter stuff back with her that trip. Aim for ten to fifteen planned outfits - if you've got at least a week or ten days between repeating outfits, neither you nor those around you will notice that's as much as you've got - at least not until the last week or two, based on watching pregnant women try to deal with similar constraints on budget and maternity clothes in office situations.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

That's excellent advice! Thank you very much.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

Congrats on surviving, and I hope you have a smooth journey to and wonderful time in Cardiff! Also, I second graene's excellent advice.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

graene beat me to the clothes-rolling advice.

One thing that helps me when I travel is to pack more shirts. Jeans and plain-ish trousers can be re-worn without being noticed as much.

Also, if you can budget for one or two new garments maybe at the end/middle of each month, that'll help you expand a tiny bit while you're there.