Final Moments

We leave for Prague tomorrow....

We leave for Prague tomorrow...

Maybe if I say it enough times it will sink in.

It's been a surreal month visiting family, and getting ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. The farthest away from Kansas I've been was Boston on a school trip, so it's hard to believe that I will literally be 5,215 miles away from my hometown. (Yes, I Czeched.... haha get it? Classic pun.)

One of the hardest things was packing for 5 months abroad, with little to no travel experience. I've read just about every blog/article/wikianswer page on packing for study abroad and I hope we've got it covered.

So here's what we get to take:
One checked bag at 51 lbs, one carry-on bag, and one "purse-onal" item (haha get it? keeping it classy with the jokes here.) Is there some sort of disorder for people who think you can pack your life into that little space? Because they probably need medicated. But anywho, here's a rough packing list:

5 shirts
4 pants
3 stretchy pants (contrary to popular belief among my college peers, leggings are NOT pants)
scarf and gloves
23432423 pairs of underwear and socks
batteries
camera
laptop
nook (so we don't have to pack books)
charging cords
voltage converter
toiletries (the less we have to buy the better)
tennis shoes
flip flops (for showering)
sandals
flats (for dress up)
some old school supplies (logic here: we don't have to buy them there, and they're old so we can just throw them away or donate them when  we're ready to come back, and free up some room for presents and souvenirs)

And after all of the stress, time, and cramming, this is what we came up with:

I deserve a medal.... or at the very least a cookie.

When we're ready to leave we'll buy some snacks to put in our lunch boxes, because it's a 16 hour flight, and I'm guessing there are so many jokes about airline food for a reason. (If you have time this is a pretty cool article about why food tastes so poor on flights: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/one-reason-airline-food-so-bad-your-own-tastebuds-6C10823522) So we'll save ourselves some money and have our food with us--we left room in our personal items so we could stick our lunch boxes in there.

Time for a totally different, slightly embarrassing story. "The tale of the fanny pack." I feel pretty lame even owning one, but I suppose I'm practicing for the future humiliation I will put my kids through. The fact is I've read too many horror stories about pick pockets not to have a fanny pack. I'll keep all of my precious items right in front of me and not have to worry about theft too much. So don't mock the fanny pack!

We leave on Saturday, so any prayers sent our way for a safe flight would be greatly appreciated! Also if anyone reading this has any thoughts, PLEASE leave a comment! I would love to see it, and it might be able to help other study abroad students.

Thanks for reading! :)