Bring Deodorant

You may laugh at the title of this entry, but I've been warned twice today to bring deodorant. Did I forget to shower? This morning I met up with my friends Connie and Kyrsten at Central High to go over economics resources for next year. As I'm an "experienced" econ teacher in the department, we met so that I could share the things that I've done in the past, and I lent a whole stack of resource books to Connie to peruse over the summer. Anyway, Connie is a pretty experienced Asian traveller, having spent time in Japan. Aside from asking me to buy fresh water pearls for her, the one major piece of advice that she gave me a couple of times was "bring deodorant." I'm thinking, do I bring enough for just me, or should I bring trial sizes to pass out to all of those who may be around me in the crowded city of 8 million people? Then once I got home, I finally received the next information packet from the China Institute, which included a list of Ten "Must-Haves." Item #3? You guessed it, deodorant. I get the hint; I'll pack deodorant.

Looking over the information I received today, there's nothing that's overly surprising about what I should bring. The list includes items such as hand sanitizer (already loving supplied by my mother on one of her numerous Bath and Body Works visits), OTC meds, prescription meds, sunscreen, camera, Tide stain sticks, etc. The toughest part will be the weight of the bag. As we are flying within China, Chinese domestic air regulations apply. This means the one checked bag (you heard me right) that we are allowed can only weigh 20 kilos or 44 pounds. The standard in the US and internationally is typically 23 kilos or 50 pounds. So it's going to be a challenge to pack all the supplies I need and be under the weight limit. Fortunately, this trip is in the summer, so lots of light clothing! As far as clothing is concerned, I'm going light on the amount as well. I'm thinking a couple pairs of shorts, a pair of khaki pants and a pair of jeans, ten tops, and enough underwear to get me through a week. So I'll be wearing the same things all the time. Oh well! As long as I can wash things once a week, who cares if I wear the same thing all five Mondays of the trip? I do like the warning that we were given. "Avoid and T-shirts or clothing bearing political or offensive messages...i.e., no 'Free Tibet' T-shirts!" We were also advised to bring several small gifts to give to people that we meet while there. In many Asian cultures, gift giving is quite an art and is expected. I already know what I'm going to buy. The museum sells packs of postcards with historic photos of the shipping industry in Bay City. They're small, compact and light! So now I need to make a list, start buying the things I need, and if I'm lucky, William will pack for me again. When I went to Australia, he had everything packed for me with printouts of everything telling me exactly where I could find it in my luggage. I think he should rent out his services!