Packing Prep! A Gritty Look at the International Packing Process

Welp, this is our task this week:

Kayla and I are prepping our suitcases for the big day, which is less than one month away (yikes)! This is the lot of it, except for our clothes that we're still wearing during the summer.

We're separating and cataloging everything in our suitcases, whittling down items to bring with us, and making a list of other things we realize we need.

Here are a few more photos, bag by bag.

Teaching supplies... Sadly, it seems that this is where we need to whittle the most down. There's a whole 'nother box that I didn't take a picture of. And by box, I mean a large plastic crate.

This is our "workstation." It's just a tad bit cluttered right now, but we hope to have this place nice a tidy real soon.

Here's my trusty Macbook Pro ripping a movie, currently Eternal Sunshine, onto my 3TB external hard drive. A good friend of ours, who also lives overseas, told us about RipIt, a nifty program that rips the entire DVD, special features and all, right on to your computer. It's awesome!

Well, Kayla is glaring at me--I should be helping her instead of fiddling with the interweb.

Remember, we're not in H-Town for much longer. If you want to hang with us, please let us know!

Much love,

Stephen

Some Helpful Traveling Tips

So here we are at exactly one month to departure. We have mixed emotions at this point--excitement about the new adventure and sadness about leaving our family and friends. As Stephen said in our last post, we have a busy few weeks ahead of us. Here is the schedule for the next (and last) five weeks:

July 9-15: Here in Houston

July 16-25: in Wisconsin to see my sister (and Mike--and all her great friends!)--pictures to come!

July 25: Stephen's birthday--by the way! ;)

July 26-30: in Ft. Worth to see Stephen's family

August 1-8: Back in Houston for last few shots, packing, dr. appointments, and HANGING OUT.

August 9: TAKE OFF! :)

So as we prepare for travel, I thought I'd share some of the great things we've come across or have been told about. Here are a list of the products and such (I'm beginning to think that I really like giving you guys lists) that we've discovered along the way:

Something I WISH I had found before I moved to Egypt is Passport Health. This is where we went for our vaccinations, but we learned so much more! The nurse that we met with told us lots of tips for moving to our specific area and they even sell some useful products for keeping you healthy and helping your body to adjust when traveling overseas. Yes, this is a pricey (and not always fun) part of the process, but WELL WORTH IT!

One of the products that they recommended (not just for overseas travelers, but for hikers and back packers as well) is the Steripen (pictured below). It's a hand held device that purifies your water (from any source) by using UV light ray instead of chemicals. It doesn't change the taste of your water either and it kills bacteria, viruses, etc.

Slingbox : this thing is pretty cool! It's a device (that you can find at Best Buy, among other places) that lets you watch your TV on your computer. This is ideal for people living overseas who want to watch American TV. We're hooking it up to my parents' TV and we get to watch their cable. I will tell you that if you change the channel on your computer, it changes the channel on their TV. So, if you can, hook it up to a TV that is not often watched by others.

As Stephen mentioned in another post, we've fallen in love with Tom Bihn products. They are handmade in the U.S.A. (which, yes, makes them a bit pricey--but worth it!) and extremely durable. We plan on taking some weekend trips and a trip to Germany for Christmas, so our Tom Bihn aeronauts (pictured below) will be the only luggage we bring! These bags are HUGE (yet are still carry on size) and have great pockets. With the use of their packing cubes, you can really pack so much in these little bags (and keep things organized as well).

Magic Jack : I haven't tried this yet, but a friend told me that for people moving overseas who have people in their lives without Skype, this is ideal. It's a very affordable phone line ($19.95 a year!). If you hook it up here in the states, then take it with you, people can call you overseas as if they were calling a local number. There are no long distance charges, and yes, you can call them too without the charges. Pretty cool, huh?

Speaking of Skype , if you don't already have this, DOWNLOAD IT NOW, for free! This is a great FREE option to talk to your friends and family anywhere in the world! I use it regularly to talk to my friend Caroline, who lives in Germany. You can use it to chat, call, or video call. It's great. Stephen and I both have skype accounts: stephen.briseno and kayla.briseno . Contact us anytime--but remember that China time is 12 hours ahead of the central time zone.

Space Bags Travel Bags : a friend who moved from England to the states recommended these to me. I am a huge fan of the bundle packing method (seriously, watch this video), but I believe that for as much as we need to pack, space bags might work a bit better. You don't need a vacuum to get these to shrink, which is great.

For those moving overseas who just have to have certain products, like myself, I completely recommend shopping on ebay to buy in bulk. I saved SO MUCH money buying this way! I think I may just make this a way of shopping because it really is so much cheaper than buying things like my shampoo or makeup one-by-one in the stores.

Ereaders are probably a no-brainer for most of you, but for book nerds like ourselves, this is a MUST. We both have kobo's, (they're connected to Borders) but we've also heard rave reviews for the Kindle. There are lots of free books and for people who like to read old, dead authors, that is GREAT!

A really great tip a friend shared with me is to buy a large (in file storage size) external hard drive (we have one with 3 terabytes), download something called ripit (free for mac users!), which allows you to rip your dvd's to your computer, and then drag your dvd's to the hard drive. You can then watch the movies on your laptop or get a cord (or apple TV for mac users) to watch them on your TV. This works for those staying at home in the states too! :) For us, this will save a considerable amount of space and weight.

Another tip we learned (for traveling in general) is to purchase a few double carabiners (pictured above) to prevent theft. You clip one end to your bag, and one end to something like the shelf you put it on, under your seat, etc. This prevents someone from quickly grabbing your bag and running off with it. Smart, huh?

Now, you might be asking yourself, "Kayla, Stephen...where did you guys get all this great information?" Well, we have been researching pretty intensely since January. We have used great sites like: www.onebag.com , www.youtube.com (seriously, the videos have helped us with things like how/what to pack, what life in China will be like, and great places to visit while we are there), and blogs from people who have lived and worked in China. We even made a few new friends this way!! Oh, and we can't forget the COUNTLESS bits of advice we've collected from friends who have done this before.

Phew, that was a long post, but I hope it was helpful!

Happy travels!! --Kayla

One Month Away

Greetings everybody,

We are one month (give or take a few days) away from our bon voyage on the 9th of August.

It's surreal because the weight of us leaving and experiencing a new country hits us stronger with each passing today. Just today we looked at the calendar and realized we only have 3 weeks left in Houston! We head out to Wisconsin on the 16th and head back on my birthday, the 25th. We leave the next day for a week in Fort Worth, then come back and have only 9 days in Houston. If you want to hang out with us before we leave, shoot us an email or contact us on Facebook.

This past Thursday we had lunch with a friend who is currently ministering/teaching in the same city we'll be moving to, but at the university level. We discussed many things, but one thing that stood out to me was the spiritual atmosphere of Shenzhen. She said that there's a weight that can be felt almost instantly. Keep us in your prayers that the Lord would give us strength and insight in our day to day dealings. We will definitely need it.

Well guys...we'll have more to say when the time gets closer.

Stephen