Packing Is Pretty Much Complete

Whether or not I could pack more stuff in some overlooked luggage crevice, I'm now at the point where it's time to just let the matter go. I think I probably repacked my luggage between 4-6 times to get the weight limit set and still have what seemed like essential stuff fit. Military and backpacking types would probably laugh and shake their heads, but that's okay. It's amazing the brainpower it takes to make that many little decisions along the way. By 10 pm last night, the decision making portion of my mind had stopped working, and I was grateful for my sister, brother, and brother-in-law to give me some input. Example: I really don't need 2 rain jackets and 2 swimsuits, especially when moving to Korea during winter. And if I find friends who want to play the Nintendo Wii, we'll either have to take turns or they'll have to bring their own controllers. :)

I ended up bringing about 10 or 12 real, actual, non-digital books. I wasn't thrilled about taking out my 7-in-1 Chronicles of Narnia volume, but it made way for a box of highly recommended ESL conversation starter cards. Since I'll be teaching conversational English, it seemed like more of a priority. A few minutes ago, I was fiddling with my iPod Touch to get some more books from Project Gutenberg, a free and expansive source of public domain books, so that helps me in the book realm a little bit.

My small victory was getting a pair of Merrell walking shoes back into my luggage. They're really sort of heavy, but they're a slightly nicer looking walking shoe than my Nike pair, and warmer for winter walking than Chacos. I was pretty well on track, but I forgot I wanted to bring a gift for my principal and co-teacher as is culturally expected. The candy and liquor ended up weighing quite a bit, and they took a lot of space. Posters were tricky to pack, but I wanted to have at least a few from home to decorate my walls. They ended up in a cardboard tube.

So that's 4 containers of belongings coming with me for this initial trip: 1 footlocker (measuring less than 62 inches in all 3 dimensions) that weighed in at about 49 lbs if our luggage scale is correct, 1 rolling suitcase (about 45" combined L/W/D) weighing around 40 lbs, a carry-on tote bag with similar dimensions to the rolling one but weighing about 20 lbs, and a purse/laptop bag which I didn't bother measuring.

Now the trick (with luggage) will be seeing if the weights were accurate and then whether I can actually carry all of this from baggage claim through customs to the van driver who's supposed to pick me up at the airport. I just hope I packed the stuff needing inspection near enough to the top...! It's awful having to rearrange in the airport.

Currently, I'm sitting back with my family in my parents' family room. We're sitting companionably around, no particular plan in mind for the evening, and enjoying each other's company. It's sort of nice after all the rushing and stress. Reality has yet to sink in for me, but just a few more hours until we head to the airport!