by: Courtney Remacle
Whether you’re gearing up for your CELL trip (lucky you!) a traveler, doing other study abroad, or just going where the wind takes you, getting ready to leave the good ol’ US of A for an extended period of time can be exciting, challenging, stressful, daunting, and exhilarating! As someone who has spent the better part of 2 months getting ready to go to South Africa on a Peace Corps assignment and a CELL alum, I have compiled some handy tips for anyone getting ready to go on the trip of a lifetime!
1) Be sure to wake up and Google things frantically at 2AM at least 2-3 times per week.
Trust me, your best questions will come to you while waking up in a panic! There is no better time to find out how to dial 9-1-1 in a foreign country then in the middle of the night, I assure you. You can’t put these types of things off! Everyone knows that your mental capacities work best when you’ve just woken up, so be sure to do your Googling ASAP!
2) Pack and re-pack a minimum of 10 times.
Did you bring a hand mirror? Extra-strength DEET bug spray? Zombie repellent? That extra pair of wool socks? Pack as though you are the last person in civilization preparing to journey across a barren landscape filled with angry predators, Cormac-McCarthy’s-The-Road-meets-The-Walking-Dead style. Act as though you will have access to absolutely nothing available to you wherever you are going. This will be sure to eat up plenty of your time, as well as ensuring that 10% of what you bring will get lost in the bottom of your bag.
3) Think of thousands of mundane, monotonous tasks that absolutely need to get done before you go.
Have you cleaned between the keys of your keyboard lately? How about behind your refrigerator? Started a serious flossing regimen? Alphabetized your DVD collection? You will obviously not be able to do these things abroad, or ever again for that matter, so you must make sure that everything in your life is in absolutely perfect order before you leave, otherwise you fail. At life. Make sure that these things are numerous and time-consuming enough that you feel like you aren’t having any fun or doing anything important.
4) Bring a towel.
As Douglas Adams wisely said,
A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
Now that you’ve been properly convinced of the merits of bringing a towel, spend at least a few days musing on what kind of towel to bring. Do you get a luxurious, fluffy one to remind you of the comforts of home? Or the more practical, packable, quick-dry version? And what about color? Size? Debate the merits of the different varieties of towels over dinner with your family. This is one decision where you don’t want to be lead astray.
5) Take a deep breath.
Seriously. It’s easy to get lost in the overwhelming shuffle of packing, tying up loose ends, saying goodbyes, arranging ways to stay in touch, planning visits to special sites, etc., but when it comes down to it I assure you: None of it really matters. Your experience will be wonderful not because of what you pack or because of how much time you spent planning and preparing before you go, but of what you put into it and how present you allow yourself to be to the whole experience. Embrace the chaos, spend time doing the things you love, and get your patient pants on-not everything will go as planned but what great adventure ever started as a plan? Dive in, heart first, and have fun!