Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Packing for Georgia

Packing to go to a new place is always so difficult.. hard to guess how the weather will be, hard to guess what will stick out like a sore thumb amongst the locals... I have been in e-mail contact with someone who lived there for a while and asked what I needed to bring. Of course, she said it all depended on where you are living, mountain vs. valley, city vs. country..... too bad you don't know where you'll be placed until you get there. Kind of like SMOE but on on a countrywide scale. it doesn't bother me too much not knowing. I'll only be there for less than 3 months... whatever it is, I think I can deal with it for 3 months... I hope. But, I would like to know what I should pack!

So, this is what I've packed so far:

Clothes:
3 sweatshirts
1 winter coat (not too thick, but with a hood and waterproof)
1 wool coat for fall
3 pairs of jeans (I'll wear one more on the plane, so I'll have 4 total)
2 pairs of dress pants (for work)
6 t-shirts/three quarter sleeved shirts (for fall)
8-9 shirts/sweaters (for winter)
1 set of long underwear (for unheated houses/classrooms in winter... lessons learned from Chile)
14 pairs of underwear
12 pairs of socks
1 pair of fuzzy socks (for cold houses)

Shoes:
One pair of dress shoes
One pair of flip flops

Toiletries:
toothpaste
toothbrush
1 stick of deodorant
nail clippers
tweezers
small bottle of lotion
1 bar of shampoo
1 small bar of soap

1 towel
4 facecloths (many people told me to bring baby wipes or wet naps to wash when I can't take a shower, but that seems very wasteful to me. I'm sure facecloths will be sufficient, and they are reusable)

And... a whole box of school supplies, mostly from my house which were left over from high school/college, plus some that the neighbors gave me that they picked up for dirt cheap when school supplies go on sale. From the sounds of it, the kids there will probably need them, if not the other teachers in my school.

Am I forgetting anything? I've still got 2 more days, I leave on Thursday!! :-)



3 comments:

  1. I've traveled and moved to different places, and the best thing for me is to buy local clothes and products. When I went to Israel, my school made it sound like I can't buy shampoo there. Well, people take showers in Jerusalem like anywhere else.

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  2. Well, I've found that it all depends on where you are and your personal tastes. For example, in Korea, normal deodorants aren't sold in a typical grocery store. You can buy them in foreign markets and things, but tend to be twice the price of home. Also, in Korea, while they do have "normal" toothpaste like what we're used to, but they also have salt flavored and green tea flavored. If you don't want to stress out at the supermarket trying to figure out which one has the flavor you want, it can be easier to just buy your own. Especially since I'm only going for 3 months to Georgia, it's just easier to bring my own supplies and supplement things if I need to when I get there.

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  3. That makes so much more sense that I just realized that you're talking about Georgia in Europe. I knew it before, but for some reason I thought you were talking about the state of Georgia.

    FYI, why you can't find deodorant in Korea:

    "East Asians (those of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese descent) have the type of sweat glands that even after hitting puberty still don't produce the chemicals found in the perspiration of other ancestral groups. East Asians evidently have a greater chance of having the 'dry' earwax type and reduced axial sweating and odor. This may be due to adaptation to colder climates."

    -"body odor" entry on Wikipedia.

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