Hola from Peru!!
We have actually remained in Peru for 4 days now and we have actually already fallen in love with this nation and the people. Your prayers are felt and God has already offered in fantastic methods. We will be in Lima for the next couple of days, then we head to Cusco where we will be living with a Peruvian household for a month while we attend language school. At language school I, Devyn, will be continuing to learn Spanish, while Julian will find out Quechua, the indigenous language.
Anyways, as we were preparing to transfer to Peru and talking with individuals about relocating to another country, we found that almost everybody wondered to understand precisely HOW we were going to pack for our move. So before we dove into how things are going here in Peru, we thought we 'd show y' all 10 hacks that we found in packing to move overseas ... Take pleasure in!
1. Start Packing EARLY & Do it in Stages.
Packing is overwhelming (I will be stating that a lot in this blog haha) and if you resemble most of us, you have a lot of things, so leaving it all for the eleventh hour will stress you out more. You might forget things or perhaps take excessive. Julian and I began about 3 months beforehand by eliminating clothing and things we didn't require occasionally (so many journeys to Goodwill). And we likewise began buying trunks early since they can get pretty pricey so spreading that out assists. I also started publishing ads early on Facebook to offer our furniture and from that we had buddies purchase a lot of our things in advance to choose it up when we were ready to move. Also making a list of everything that is in each trunk is something Julian and I forgot to do however is available in handy when dealing with customs.
2. Take Pictures of Your House
This is actually for the memories. The apartment we left was our first home together and it suggested a lot to us. So the images are simply for us to bear in mind and perhaps show our future family one day, to know where everything started.
3. Loading Cubes!!
I have actually been an advocate for loading cubes considering that my journey to El Salvador a year ago. On that journey, I could only take a continue with me and had the ability to fit 2 weeks worth of clothes and toiletries!!! Needless to say we bought as much of them as we might and were able to get most of my clothes into one luggage. I won't lie, though loading cubes are fantastic, packing all my clothes and trying to make them all fit and not review the 50-lb limitation was EXCEPTIONALLY STRESSFUL and caused me lots of breakdowns haha (just being truthful).
4. Find Someone Who Lives/Has Lived Where You Are Going & Inquire ANY & ALL Questions.
This is something a great deal of other people where informing us to do and truthfully we didn't think it was that essential ... in the beginning. But a few months before leaving and ending up being overwhelmed by not knowing what to load we reached out to another doctor named Ari, who is really presently residing in the home we will be moving into. She has really been a God-send. I emailed Ari a minimum of 3 times a week till we moved here. I asked her anything to everything: from the size of the kitchen shelves to whether we required to bring rain boots.
5. Toss a Packaging Celebration!
Invite somebody over who is a master at Tetris, who has no problem telling you "you don't require that", and who can handle you being stressed. Our friend Sandra was another God-send for us !! She came over (ON HER Day Of Rest) and invested the whole day, going through our things, making the calls we could not make on what we ought to bring, donate, or store. She assisted us pack whatever in our trunks and helped make it all fit without being over 50 pounds. THANK YOU SANDRA!!!
6. Learn to Let Go ...
At the end of the day you are moving overseas and can not take whatever with you and will have to let go of a lot ... A LOT of your things. For me it was shoes, for Julian ... he had this crazy feature of keeping EVERY pen he owned because college. Hahha. Why idk, but with Sandra's aid Julian is now devoid of his pen dependency. Hahah!
7. Bless Others with Your Things!
This was most likely my favorite part about moving. Like I stated earlier, we took many trips to Goodwill, however we also allowed our good friends to go through all of our things and let them take whatever they desired. It was actually cool to know that our things were going into the houses of individuals we enjoy!!
8. Bring Things that You Will Miss!
In talking with Ari and other individuals that have actually done what we are doing like Julian's moms and dads, everyone stated the same thing, BRING THE THINGS THAT YOU WILL MISS. For us, excellent bed linen was very essential, likewise great knives, a few framed images of our loved ones, and PEANUT BUTTER (obviously peanut butter is not a thing in other countries)! So that's what we made sure to load!
9. Chill Out and Take A 2nd ... Numerous Seconds ... to Laugh at Your Circumstance!!
As I have actually discussed, packing is overwhelming. At any caliber it can honestly make or break you. Don't let it break you. Take a second to scream, recognize the chaos around you, and then simply laugh due to the fact that it is nuts. What you are attempting to do is insane: your house has actually never looked even worse, you are sleeping on a flooring, and taking a shower without a shower curtain while trying not to get too much water on the floor, eating out of the very same bowl for every single meal, and just have one good shirt given that all the rest of your clothing are loaded. You're not living your normal life and its frustrating, however if you look at a range, its also funny, so LAUGH! hahhaha! Also leave your house, go explore the city you are leaving, meet buddies, and enjoy yourself, that actually helped us when packaging was dragging us down!
10. File the experience!
Its really fun to recall now on how much Julian and I did in such little time. Here are some pictures of our last few months in Houston!