In 19 hours my wife will drop me off at Charlotte-Douglas airport, and I will begin my Study Abroad Trip. 17 hours after that I will step off the Aer Lingus flight onto Irish soil for the first time in my life. Sitting on my couch, with my dog Zoe beside me, I am filled with excitement, and slight nerves. While I travel for my job quite often, it is never longer than 10 days, and I know exactly what I am getting into on those trips. I see the same people, follow the same routines, and other than getting to the office via Uber, it might as well be a commute from home. This time is different. As a distance learning student, I have never met any of my soon-to-be classmates, and other than a single Google Hangout orientation, the same is true for my professor. In 48 hours I will be sharing a room for the first time since I was a freshman in college, almost eight years ago. While these factors have brought on some slight trepidation, they are vastly outweighed by my great excitement of jumping into the unknown. In less than two days I will be walking in an ancient city that I have only ever seen through a screen. A city that some of my favorite artists sing about, whose roads and places I feel like I know through their music. I will get the opportunity to stand where the leaders of the Easter Uprising were martyred 100 hundred years ago. I will eat, and laugh and sing at the oldest pub in Dublin. When I lay down to sleep at night, I will be in a room that predates the falling of the Byzantine Empire by a century. And during all of this, I will be gaining three credit hours, and from those three will finish my Master’s an entire semester sooner than originally planned! That alone pays for the cost of the trip, and the experiences become great bonuses for me to enjoy with my classmates.
With all of that introspection out of the way, I’m going to use the rest of the blog post to layout my trip preparation and packing. Altogether I’ll be gone for 20 days, and will have the opportunity to do laundry on three occasions. So roughly speaking, I need six days of clothing. In addition, I need to pack some business attire for our formal dinners. This gives me the following packing list:
- 5 t-shirts (plus the one I am wearing en route)
- 3 undershirts (plus the one I am wearing en route)
- 1 pair of jeans (+1 en route)
- 1 pair of slacks
- 5 pairs of socks (+1 en route), and underwear
- 1 one sport jacket
- 1 white button-down shirt
- 2 ties
- 1 belt
- 2 pairs of shoes (1 pair of slip-on shoes, 1 pair of tennis shoes)
- 1 light, waterproof jacket
- 1 Alabama hat
- Assorted toiletries (razor, toothbrush, toothpaste)
- Assorted meds (allergy, antacid, pain reliever)
- Surface Pro 3 for computer
- Headphones
- Two phone chargers (one to leave at the hotel, and one to carry with me)
- Power converter
- Two small notebooks, and 4 pens (can never go anywhere with out some writing utensils!)
- USB Mouse
- SD card and flash drive for extra file storage (+65 GB for pictures, etc)
- Water bottle
- Travel neck pillow
- Sunglasses
- Extra duffle bag (for expanding storage if I purchase souvenirs)
I’ve packed all of this into two packs. The clothing, toiletries,extra shoes and extra duffle bag are packed into my 45 liter hiking pack. To better utilize my limited space I picked up some space saver bags from REI. These bags are constructed in such way as to allow all of the extra air in the bag to be pushed out. This can decrease the size of some items by as much as 80%. My second bag is a small daypack also from REI that can fold into its own front pocket when empty. Into it, I have my computer, notepads, chargers, and anything I might need or want while chilling in the airport or on the plane. With everything loaded, I have two backpacks that are easy to carry, and provide me with accessibility to everything I might need en route.
Hiking pack with space saver bags
Day pack
Packed bags!