Moving Abroad part 5: Packing vs. Storing

We've started packing.

Does it seem overly eager to start packing 10 days early? Maybe for a trip. But remember, this is a move. As in, yes, we're only living there for the first half of Mike's graduate program, but our place in Bologna will be the second longest stay we have had in any apartment. Ever. We're the move-every-four-months type. I sort of hate it.

But moving abroad calls for two big questions to be answered: What will you pack? and What will you store? We hardly own any furniture anyway, so we're going to rent a completely furnished place abroad. There's no sense in shipping a desk, a dresser, and a bed frame (basically all the furniture to our name) just to buy a whole bunch of furniture abroad to furnish a place with only to ship it back a year later, right? We're also not taking hardly any kitchen ware or appliances. I'm taking an immersion blender (for baby food and all that pasta sauce I'm going to learn to make) and my flat iron, but we're going to buy a new blow dryer and iron (to avoid the whole blowing-the-circuits thing).

So much of deciding what to pack and what to store depends on:

1. The duration of your stay abroad
2. What you already own
3. If you have the time (and resources) to ship stuff over on the slow boat (it can take as long as 6 months!)

Wrapping your head around what to pack and store takes a long time. Start early. We started packing by not really limiting what we threw in the suitcases and then as real-estate in our bags (in both weight and space) became limited, we became more judicious about what we were taking and starting paring some things down.

We're trying to pack "light" (if you call 300+ pounds of luggage, plus two bikes "light").

We're checking:

• 2 bikes - if they're boxed in standard bike shipping boxes, they count as a checked bag on international flights
• 4 fifty pound bags - 1 is full of art supplies/my easel, 1 has Ada's bike seat, diapers, clothes and a few other odds and ends, 2 are primarily packed with clothes, but somewhere in these bags we'll be taking other things that will help us make our move feel less like a vacation and more like a move (i.e. a few picture frames, the bins that hold Ada's things, very few books, toys and blankets). 

We're carrying on:

• Ada's stroller (this counts as her "carry on")
• 1 bag full of 2 outfits, our toiletries (but nothing over 3 oz!!), other items that will makes us happy and comfortable if our luggage (heaven forbid!) gets lost
• Ada's porta-crib (a.k.a.: The crib she'll sleep in until our return to The States.)
• Two backpacks that contain our electronics, documents and stuff to keep us entertained/sane on the plane
• Ada's diaper bag stocked with food, diapers, and entertainment. 

We haven't completely finished the job, but here's what we know for sure: we're going to want to buy stuff over there, so we're trying to pack as much as we can take for free, and use the money we would have paid in overweight baggage fees at H&M.

 Other moving abroad posts:

Part 1: Being Over-prepared
Part 2: Documentation
Part 3: Flight Arrangements 
Part 4: Housing and Transportation 

Moving abroad Part 4: Housing and Transportation

We lucked out. Truly. When Michael got accepted to his program I immediately started panicking, "How in the world do I find an apartment!?!" Our first thought was to do what we did when we moved to DC for the summer: contact the local ward.

(For those unfamiliar, a ward is a group of LDS church members, organized geographically, who worship together, and care for and teach one another).

We looked up the local ward leadership and wrote an email to the bishop of the Bologna Ward. He responded right away and said they knew of a few places. This is one of the greatest parts of LDS Church membership: they're every where and you have an instant "in" with the locals.

We also have a great resource through Johns Hopkins who assists students in finding housing for the duration of the school year. He has maintained relationships with landlords over the years and knows of several apartments available. We also sent him a message. We feel really lucky to have such great resources at our disposal for finding housing.

When we arrive in Bologna, we'll stay in a hotel for the first few days we're over there while we look at some apartments and then decide on one that's right for us. We're looking at apartments that are furnished because of the limited duration of our stay.

It is a little nerve-wracking to me to think that we're going to pack up all of our things, fly across the ocean and move away from everything familiar without even knowing where exactly we're going to live. But that's part of the adventure, right?

Once we're all settled in, our primary mode of transportation will be bikes. We both have commuter bikes (Mikey got me a new one while we were in California) that we'll be checking and The Lou will tag along in a seat of some sort (we have yet to work out exactly what we want to purchase but we're thinking the baby seat by Topeak even though it's really ugly. . . Other suggestions?) We won't be bringing a car or renting or purchasing one there. We will, however, use public transportation as we need to. From what I understand, Bologna has a great public transit system. When we travel, we'll take trains (or maybe planes) to get to places further away. (I can't wait to take a train again!!)

Other moving abroad posts:

Being Over-prepared
Documentation
Flight Arrangements 

Moving abroad Part 3: Flight arrangements

While the prospect of living in another country is like a big, happy, bright spot in my near-future, the prospect of actually getting there on a plane with a baby is like this dark, hairy thing lurking in my happy spot.  I'm seriously afraid of it. I wouldn't be so apprehensive if my child liked to sit in one spot for more than, oh, 36 seconds. But she's a mover and a shaker and I think being in our seats for the duration of our flights just may kill both of us off.

I've done a bit of preparation for our flight already that I hope will ease the pain of an international flight with a baby.

Plan flights around sleeping schedules
One thing that gets mentioned a lot is to plan flight times during naptimes/bedtimes. In our case, our total travel time is 22 hours (see why I'm scared?) so we will pretty much hit all of Ada's naptimes and bedtime and with any luck (heaven help us) we might just get her to sleep during them.

Reserve a Sky Cot
This was a revelation to me. A Sky Cot is basically a little bassinet that hooks on/folds down from the bulk head wall and babies (usually up to 8 months) can sleep in it. Not all planes have them, but from what I understand most large "air bus" type planes do. Reserve them early when you reserve your seats. This took a lot of calling and hold music, but I think it's going to be worth it (I'll have to write an update about this). Mostly I'm just trilled that I don't have to hold Ada (as much as I love holding her ) on my lap for 12 plus hours while we fly overseas.

Consider your layovers.
Our flight itinerary has two layovers.  Some people are in the "get-there-as-expeditiously-as-you-can camp" and others are in "layovers-were-our-saving-grace camp." I think we may be in the latter. It will give Ada time to scootch around and us time to stretch our legs. (Plus when you fly out of Salt Lake, it's hard to find any sort of direct flight no matter what you pay).

Pay the lap tax in advance.
If we were more flush, I probably would have sprung for a separate ticket for Ada so she could have her own seat. Even though she can't sit, I think the extra room would be worth it. We didn't. This time. However, regardless of whether or not your baby has their own seat, you have to pay for them to get on the flight. The "lap tax" for infants is usually 10% of the cost of your ticket if you book it before hand. I read someone else's experience which involved several money transfers and pretty much giving up an arm and a leg to get their child on board at the gate. Bottom line, even though you many feel like the airlines should be paying you to keep a baby on your lap the whole time, save yourself the headache (and a wad of cash) and pay the lap tax in advance.

Do your research on baggage policies.
The nice thing about lap taxes is that by acknowledging that your child is a person and therefore needs to pay a fee to board a plane, they are counted like regular people in the baggage department. By paying the lap tax, we got two more free checked items, another carry on, and a personal item. Good thing too since we'll use one of her checked bags for her Pack'n'Play, her checked item is her stroller is her carry-on (by gate checking it) and her diaper bag is her personal item. Sheesh, kids come with a lot of extra stuff. Baggage policies were confusing to me. We're flying Iberia, but the first leg of our flight is "American Airlines operated by Iberia." Long story short, the international flight always trumps the domestic when it comes to baggage policies.

Don't forget to bring your consent form.
Like I mentioned in this post, Mikey and I had to get a little statement notarized giving our permission for our spouse to fly with Ada. It's weird since we're both her parents, but I heard a story from my Aunt about a woman who wasn't allowed to take her child with her because she didn't have this paper. (Needless to say she stayed in the airport and probably had a breakdown).

For more travel tips see:
HERE
HERE
and HERE

Moving abroad Part 2: Documents

I got my moving abroad bible (The Expert Expat) in the mail yesterday. I have yet to read all 270-something pages (and quite honestly, some of the contents are completely irrelevant to our situation so I probably won't ever ready all 270-something pages) but there are certain parts that I have already read and re-read.

There is a great list of things you should probably have in your carry-on luggage. Among the list of "items that solve practical problems" and "items that provide comfort" is a list of documents that will be essential to not only keep safe, but probably handy as well.

Of the over-twenty items on the list, here is the list of documents that I am going to be carrying with me.

1. Passports and Visas
Start early getting these documents in order. We took Ada's passport photo when she was barely one-month old. We are still in the process of securing her visa nearly 5 months later. There is a lot of run-around to deal with, so be prepared to call several consulates, post offices, advisers, banks and the like. I am also taking copies of these things. (Side note: if you change your name, renew your passport within a year of getting your name changed and you could save yourself a chunk of change. It might be worth it even if you don't have impending travel plans because you never know when your husband might decide to move your family to a foreign country).

2. Flight itinerary, plane tickets, and consent form
The itinerary and tickets are a given. But the consent form took us off guard. Basically Mike and I had to give each other consent to travel with our daughter into a foreign country. This document has to be notarized by a bank.

3. Extra passport-sized pictures for permesso di soggiorno and other host-country requirements
When we arrive we have to get permission for residency through the local police in Bologna. Having some photos on hand (the same ones we had to send with our Visa Applications and our passport applications).

4. Ada's birth certificate, our marriage license, our social security cards
Proof that we're American, married and the legal parents of our daughter. I also made copies of these documents which we'll take with us.

5. Insurance Forms
I have yet to figure all of our health insurance details out completely, but my advice is to start early. It takes a lot of phone calls. And time-zones make some calls really hard to make. We're also doing research on emergency insurance in  Italy and deciding how we want situations handled at home (in the States) if an emergency arises. (Submit your heaven-forbid-game-plan to your parents, or whomever you trust the most)

6. Drug, eyeglass and contact lens perscriptions
Even though we're going to be taking a year supply of these things (if we can get a year supply of some things...) we're bringing along signed prescriptions from our doctors, just in case.

7. Health and Vaccination records
This takes a bit of time as well. Unless you're uber-organized and have your immunization record (and your husband's and your child's) up to date and in a nifty little file. We are requesting our immunization records from the county health department and our pediatricians. Then we are taking this documentation to our family physician who will review/consolidate the records and give us the necessary boosters (ouch!) before we leave. It's also a good time to get checked out and make sure we're all healthy before we leave.

8. Address book, check book, emergency contact info

9. School documents

10. Housing documents

All of these documents are neatly filed in my beautiful new Peter Walsh accordion folder (love) and will be taken with me in my "personal item" on the flight.

Moving abroad Part 1: Overprepared = underwhelmed

The countdown to take-off has yet to officially begin, but the more focused preparation has commenced. Yesterday I was on the phone for nearly three hours with the airlines trying to figure out baggage allowances, checking bicycles, making seat reservations, going over layovers and flight itineraries etc.

(On a tangential note: I used to be afraid to call strangers. As in, I had my mom making my dentist appointments when I was in college. I had to get over that one real quick after I got married. Now I feel like making appointments and calling customer service people is my part-time job.)

I've started making a packing list. I know, it may seem a little early, but some things on the list may take a bit of time and effort to get (enter: prescriptions for a year. Hello insurance company, doctor's office, fax machine, telephone, internet . . . it's a pain. Trust me). Thinking all of these things through in advance will hopefully save me headache down the road.

To say that I've been scouring the blogosphere (and bookosphere) for tips would be an overstatement, but I have put aside time to find ways to ease the mess and hassle of not only traveling with an infant, but moving to another country. Yikes. I want the experience to more closely resemble a well executed battle plan, rather than a three ring circus.

Organizationally, I think that DesignMom had a brilliant idea with this accordion folder to store all of the papers they would need on the way over to France during their move. Now that we have our visas and other documents coming back, I think it will be important to find a good way of keeping this info safe, yet accessible.




I'll be posting more tips for traveling with babies and relocating abroad as I come across them (because I have been looking). In the mean time, you can check out my Pinboard on the subject.