Packing 101

Personally, I found that two things freaked me out the most about studying abroad. One was customs (what happens if they don't let me into the country?!????), the second was packing.

Luckily now we have this magical thing called Pinterest where I was able to search my heart away for "London study abroad spring packing" and I found a lot of packing lists for spending 30 days in Europe which was kind of helpful but I couldn't find anything for spending 5 months. Because of this I had to take the 30 day lists and times by 5 which was overwhelming (what part of a study abroad process isn't apparently?)

Clothes I packed:

• 2 skirts
• 4 shorts (this might be a lot especially if you are planning on staying in London but I have plans to travel to warmer countries so I thought I might need this many)
• 5 pants (2 pairs of jeans, 3 other kinds)
• 4 jackets (winter jacket, rain jacket, columbia and fall/spring jacket)
• 5 dresses (also might be a lot but I am in a class where we see a theatre show every week so I didn't know the proper attire for that)
• 5 cardigans (I like cardigans idk about you)
• 3 flannels (I also like flannels sue me)
• 31 tops (this includes nice shirts, sweaters, and t-shirts) (maybe went overboard in that department)
• 2 pairs of sweatpants 
• 2 pairs of leggings
• 7 pairs of shoes (I chose to bring rain boots even though apparently you are shunned if you wear them here, whatever)
• Various accessories (2 scarves, a couple necklaces, different earrings, hats, etc.)

Things I wish I would have brought:

1. Silverware!!!!

Ugh, a knife, a fork, and a spoon. So simple and easy to pack. If you have a flat style dorm with your own kitchen this is something you'll need and silverware is really annoying to have to buy because no one except me wants just 1 knife, 1 fork and 1 spoon so I had to go buy a set of 4 which sucked. Although now that I think about it I could have stole some from the dining hall (not suggesting you do that but it's another option)

2. A notebook

It's just kind of annoying to buy here because you have orientation which takes up a lot of time so spending extra time looking for a notebook that you could have pretty easily brought from home is something to think about.

3. Foreign currency

I brought this but I think it's something that's easily forgotten. Don't forget to get some of the country you're going to's currency because it's easy and that way you don't have to worry about credit cards right away.

Well, that's all I have for packing advice (I've only been here for a couple days so I'm sure I'll figure out more that I forgot to pack) but keep coming back, I'm currently in the middle of writing about my first week here! Aren't you proud of me for keeping this up?