Packing!

Today, on the eve of my departure, I have finally finished all of my packing!

I have been slowly getting my things together over the past week, and when I set out to finish today, this is what I was looking to finish up:

Not the prettiest, or most encouraging site....

But after a wonderful Bon Voyage dinner with my amazing family that my wonderful mom put together, I was energized and rejuvenated to finish the job.

As you can see in the photo above, the only clothes I'm bringing are in one half of the larger suitcase. On the other side of the suitcase I have only shoes and 3 pairs of jeans.

In the smaller suitcase I was able to pack all the toiletries I could ever need next semester, two towels, and a set of sheets. I was happy with this scenario, because the toiletries I will use up while I'm over there, will free up valuable space in my suitcase for my return home. 

In my blue carry-on bag I have my handbag that contains my laptop, my wallet, my travel documents, my iPad mini (thanks, Mom!), my journal, my iPhone, and my European cell phone. In the rest of that bag I have my winter jacket on the bottom, and a pair of jeans and a T-shirt (in case my luggage gets delayed). I also have all my chargers for my various electronics. 

And of course, I couldn't forget my mandolin. 

Once I finally got every last thing into each suitcase, my final product looked like this:

Voila! Now that looks much more put together. And incredibly, each suitcase is under 50 lbs! Or should I say 23 kg...

My flight leaves Boston tomorrow January 13th at 8:30 pm. I have a one-hour layover in Iceland, and then from Iceland I fly directly into Paris at noon on January 14th (6 am EST). From there, a shuttle service will be taking me and all this luggage on a five hour car ride to Dijon. 

So, throw up a prayer for safe and easy traveling for me tomorrow -- I think I'm going to need it! : )