Not Your Typical Girl

Yes, I enjoy a good chick flick (I saw The Proposal four times in theaters this summer) and I love chocolate and shoes, but as far as being "girlie" I am sub par.  This comes in handy when I have to pack my entire life for a year in two 50 pound suitcases.  Kyle left yesterday morning for Addis but his bags were at or over the weight limit and he still had left important items behind.  His sisters are shipping me the stuff so I can get it to him when I leave on Saturday.  What I am most confused about is how Kyle, who I thought was a minimalist, practical young man, had so much stuff!  When I first found out about his predicament, I started freaking out about what I needed to bring.  I had 20lbs of books alone, plus my clothes, toiletries, shoes, electronics, and the list goes on.

Last night my dad pulled out a medium sized suitcase and told me to pack it before he decided what my second suitcase should be.  I used packing tip #1: roll your clothes (thank you Angela!).  All of my clothes fit SO easily in two layers at the bottom of my suitcase.  I then started adding in my giant Ziplock bags of medicines and toiletries.  The suitcase still had room to spare, so I carefully shut the lid and found our bathroom scale.  The suitcase with contents weighed 39lbs.  I was in disbelief.  That was almost all of my stuff.  I had also emailed Gail, co-owner of One Planet, with a list of books I wanted to bring to see if she had any of them.  It turns out she has all of them.  Woot.  That means I can just pick a couple that I really want to have my own copy of and then just borrow the rest from her or the Baha'i Center.  This whole process made me feel like I can just bring more clothes, but I don't really want to.  See, the typical girl would be like "Yay!  More space for clothes!" - not me.  However, if I definitely have more room in the second suitcase, I am going to bring my rainboots!!!  Those things are heavy, but very necessary in the rainy season and apparently it gets very muddy in the area around my apartment.  Of course, I could just be trying to justify bringing another pair of shoes.  Maybe I'm more like the typical girl than I thought...