So, it turns out that packing a medium-sized backpack for a 24-day trip is a little trickier than I expected.
I made a pretty detailed list a few weeks back of things that I a) needed and b) can carry, though I’m throwing that whole “backpacks should only weigh 15% of your body weight” rule to the wind. Since, you know, I think the backpack by itself weighs about 10 pounds.
Even though I’m a girl, picking out clothes and shoes was not difficult. I’m bringing a few polo shirts in various boring colors, two pairs of pants and a long skirt, a sweater, and a nice shirt. Three pairs of shoes: sneakers that are nice-looking, good sandals and flip-flops, because athlete’s foot is not my friend.
The hard part, really, is the other stuff. Like: Do I really want to bring my iPod, knowing that it could be stolen and my life would end I don’t have $300 to buy a new one? What about that great guidebook that weighs approximately 3897523 pounds?
Or–worst of all–what about my laptop?
Even though it’s an evil betrayer that likes to delete 20-page papers during finals week, it’s still very dear to me. It’s also really heavy and requires all kinds of miscellaneous junk. It’s a liability, basically.
Then again, it’s me. Can I really be without a computer for 3 1/2 weeks? And am I actually willing to pay to use a computer in order to blog and upload photos every couple of days?
I think the answer is “yes”–which is to say, I’m more willing to blow precious Euros in internet cafes than I am to lug my ten-pound brick around western Europe.
So with one problem solved, we come to the next: Books.
I read a lot, and I read fast, and we will be spending an exorbitant amount of time on planes, trains, and automobiles buses. One book just wouldn’t cut it. Ten books might not cut it, but again, it’s a small backpack.
Which is why I brought Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace.
…
No, I’m totally kidding. Don’t worry. I have no intention of reading that book until someone holds my eyelids open and forces me to.
That said, I did pick up a book of his short stories, because I figured that as leader of the free world of the Claremont Colleges literary magazine, and as an English major, I should probably read something by our most (in)famous professor.
So I suppose I will be starting out the trip by reading Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and then Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, since so many people have told me to read it, and also because it should be kind of like fluff. Plus it’s 850 pages long.
–Amanda