Packing: It won’t do itself

I read a short news story today on the topic of spontaneous combustion. It seems that a large amount of goat manure had spontaneously combusted on a farm in Vermont. No injuries were reported.  How about that to fire up your morning? Well, albeit spontaneous combustion may exist in our world, there is of yet no evidence of spontaneous packing: no self-packing bags, suitcases, self-folding shirts or pants, and certainly no means of shrinking everything into carry-on size to reduce baggage charges. It is therefore the task of the traveler to pack all of her belongings by herself. This is of course easier said than done. One could argue that all I need to do is pack a shirt, some pants, undergarments, socks, shoes, and a toothbrush. That would make the packing easier, but as mentioned in my last post, I am moving to Russia. My life is transitioning with me overseas. For me personally, that requires a transition both of the mental and spiritual variety, but also of the physical kind. I am bringing clothes (warm and cold weather gear), shoes, souvenirs and mementos, gifts, teaching materials, and other miscellaneous items.

Packing is itself a very delicate exercise, one that requires exactness, planning, patience, and a good amount of pressure to shove that little package into the small space left in your backpack. With this said, the process comes with much forethought. To aid myself in packing all the above mentioned items into my baggage, I started gathering things three weeks in advance of my departure, going around the house, picking up shoes, hats, t-shirts, books – thinking of what I would want to bring with me. This process was guided by the question: “What would I like to bring with me?” The fruits of these labors were many and as such required a rather large space in which I could place them. That is where the basement came into the picture.  I commandeered part of our basement, renamed it my “Lair”, and set about organizing my belongings into separate categories. Along with this came the question: “What can I actually take with me?”

Insert evil laugh.

The categories with photographic evidence (in case you think I’m joking or that I haven’t actually organized anything yet) follow:

Clothes

While I strive for a simple lifestyle and don’t usually identify myself as a stylistic person or fashion-guru, I will be the first to admit that I love dressing nicely. Granted, this also comes with the fact that I have quite a few t-shirts and also don’t mind wearing them quite often (perhaps a bit too often, but that’s okay I think). Travelling to Russia this time, I will be the teacher as opposed to the student and thus require a “fancier” wardrobe. While I enjoy dressing nicely, I don’t have in my possession much variety in my finer clothing items. That is where the advice of the great Macklemore came in handy (if you did not catch this reference, I must take this time to introduce you to this artist. Please click here). I went to the dear old Goodwill and spent much more than Macklemore’s twenty dollars and acquired quite a few lovely shirts and some pairs of pants. Some examples are on the right.

 Being in Russia in the winter time (and moreover in southern Siberia), I will of course be in need of good cold-weather gear. Here I have my winter coat, two scarves, gloves, long underwear, and my ушанка (ushanka – winter hat) from last year. I also bought new winter boots. Will these items hold up in the Siberian cold? Well, I do hope so! I will let you know in a few months.

Gifts

One of several traditions I picked up my last time around in Russia was that of bringing gifts to people when you arrive at their home. It also extends to gifting items to friends whom you haven’t seen in a while. They don’t have to be expensive items or specifically items that you bought. What counts, is that they are from the heart and are bought or found intentionally for that person to whom you are giving the present. Here is a small sampling of the items I will be bringing with me across the ocean:

Yes, that it beer! Specifically, beer from Schell's brewery in New Ulm, Minnesota!!

Mementos/Souvenirs

For me, it is very important to build an atmosphere of “home” wherever it happens to be that I designate as “home.” This entails bringing a variety of things along with me. Perhaps another title for this category is “Decorations” as that is the function that many of these items will take.

Who doesn't need a Soviet-era champagne advertisement?

Books

If it were possible, I would bring ALL of my books with me overseas. Would I read them? Well, not certainly all of them, but I would just enjoy basking in their presence. As such, baggage fees, mobility, and practicality dictate that I shall only bring a handful of books along with me. Unlike other times when I've traveled with books, with these I took care to specifically pick out books that I would like to read and furthermore plan to read. I also have some reference books for those times when the internet just isn't doing it for me. Of course, there are also cook books to bring along – culinary adventures await with their linguistic comrades!

Teaching materials

In the midst of all the planning and packing, I have not forgotten the fact that I will be teaching. Over the summer, I've been collecting tidbits here and there to use in my lessons. A novel thing I picked up this past year was that teaching materials don’t have to come from the (oftentimes) overpriced catalogs or book stores. What appears every day and mundane to us, could in fact be a great learning tool for someone else. Teaching a foreign language is a discipline that particularly can take advantage of the “every day”. Students want to see authentic language materials, such as books, maps, brochures, advertisements, that are written for native speakers. It brings the learner into the world of that language. Hence, the assortment of items I've collected includes brochures and magazines, as well as some books.

Cooking

Russia is by no means lacking in cooking equipment, but in an effort to save some money, I am bringing along some items which I acquired over my four years of college.

Items to be shipped

Despite the fact that I have several categories of items, all of which seem quite overflowing in their own right, I do like to travel as light as possible for the given journey. Mobility in the airport and/or city is very important for me. I also will not be in need of all of these items right away. This is where the postal service makes its entrance. I’ll be making the rounds through the above listed categories, looking for items that I can ship by post to my final destination. I’m trusting a lot to luck, as the Russian post is, well how to put it….not at times the most reliable. It’ll be most exciting to guess at the estimated date of arrival of my packages. I’m always looking for the means to make ordinary travel more exciting!

As this post comes to its conclusion, I realize that once again I have avoided actually taking action to pack these items…Well, at least you got a post out of it. Now comes the question of how to pack everything and when to do it. I don’t fly out until the 2^nd of September. Theoretically, I could pack everything today and tomorrow and be ready to go by Wednesday; although that would then leave me restless and itching to go (more so than I am already!). We’ll just have to see.

I’ll send updates from the front, as we progress to the final victory of packed bags!

До скорой встречи!

Joey