Packing For Your Travels

I recently came across this blog for expats living in Argentina which has been fun to follow. Today's post was one that hit home, not because I'm an expat, but because there is always a list of things I wish I had brought with me once I arrive in a new country. Even as Canadians living in the US there are things we miss: Roots clothing, Coffee Crisp, Smarties, Swiss Chalet, effective over-the-counter allergy medication... but for the most part we've been able to make do without them or stock up when we return.

When you enter a completely new culture, its tough to know where to go for the things you need, and often you'll find that they aren't available anywhere. A big one for me is reading material. Its always nice to read more about the culture you are visiting while you are there, but more often than not (especially in Latin America), you are limited to only a handful of stores that carry English books. For whatever reason, those stores tend to carry a few trashy novels and the entire Penguin Classics collection, but never have any interesting English books on their own cultures (see my earlier post on this topic).

Another good one is tampons (sorry guys... you can skip ahead to the next paragraph). It took me three days to find a store that sold them in Guatemala.

How about the proper electronics? Now that we are traveling with iPODs, laptops, cell phones and PDAs, we also need to get the proper converters or chargers that fit with the countries we are visiting. I once traipsed around Mendoza for an afternoon trying to find a store that had a cell phone charger that would plug into my Ericsson phone.

It's always fun to discover your treats from home when you are in a foreign country (like when we come across the British store that carries Coffee Crisp and Smarties) but its definitely a burden if you have to find something and don't have a clue where to start looking. Throughout the OTR site we have included tips on where to find those hard-to-come-by items. If you have others to share please feel free to forward them on to us!
 

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Comments

[Jen]

Oh.. sorry about that. The website is www.movingtoargentina.typepad.com Enjoy!

[Laurent]

That's great. But can't we have the url of the argentinan blog ? I can't find anything but the trackback. It's frustrating.
Very good blog, indeed.

L.

I can relate to this - one of my biggest challenges spending a semester in school in Beijing 10 years ago was the infrequent access to good coffee. We had one coffee shop that had been opened by a Canadian for which you had to go a fair walk to get a cup of washed-down brown liquid at a hefty price, and the school cafeteria catered to the 'waiguoren' ('gringos' in Chinese) by serving small cups of instant coffee in the mornings. I bought my own instant coffee to bring along when we went on trips as the drink was impossible to find on trains and small towns back then.

I remember sitting around a proper mug of coffee with a couple of my friends in our residence. An Italian friend had brought some coffee beans and a coffee press from back home. We all took a sip and passed around the precious drink. I realize how weird and obsessive this sounds as I write this but I guess finding common traditions with foreigners in faraway places makes you bond in your appreciation of something you had taken for granted before. We all felt our experience of being in a totally different culture was enhanced in noticing the things we didn't have, so deep down we enjoyed our small ‘sacrifice’.

I suppose I could have done as the Chinese do and just had tea along the way but my one-cup-a-day addiction is so rewarding that why would I have ruined a wonderful experience going through withdrawals!