Traveling.
Because why not pack your last month at home with driving all over America? So far this month I've supplemented time at home in New Jersey with trips to DC and Charleston, and now I'm in Massachusetts visiting my boyfriend, while later in the week we're going to his mom's house in Stowe to fit in some boarding before heading over to Saint Mike's for a final farewell.
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| South Carolina's got the prettiest trees you ever done seen. |
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| Plenty of pretty flowers, too. |
Dealing with the Healthcare System (Negotiating the Red Tape: An Unexpected Journey)
I have an esophageal disorder and a small army of allergies, so I have a lot of doctors and prescriptions. There's a million things to prepare for a 4 month trip, especially when that trip is taking you to an island with resources a bit more limited than what the average American is accustomed to. Samoa's healthcare system isn't rudimentary, but it's not exactly advanced either, so it's required a lot of planning on my part.
My number one piece of advice--if you have a chronic illness/allergies/any kind of unique medical requirements and you're going abroad, start plotting out the details for that MONTHS IN ADVANCE. I thought I could work it all out over winter break and let me tell you, it's been a giant pain in the tuckus. For the past month I've been speaking with pharmacists/doctors/insurance agents and their voicemails on the daily.
It is incredibly difficult to get four months of any prescription advanced, and to get them from multiple doctors. Especially when any single prescription requires the cooperation of the pharmacists, your insurance company AND your doctors. Plus the added hassle of getting approval from all of your doctors to go abroad and notes to bring with you so that customs agents don't stop you to question why exactly you have six inhalers on your person. As of right now, I THINK my meds are in order. I should be able to pick them all up on Wednesday if the universe decides not to plot against me, so fingers crossed.
So again, if you happen to be one of da illest people going abroad, work out all of your medical stuff waaaaay before your departure date.
Packing.
Okay, so I haven't exactly started packing in the more concrete sense of the word, but I've been planning.
Clothes have been mighty tricky. Samoa's a conservative Christian nation, so there's no above-the-knee shorts or revealing necklines, but it also happens to be incredibly hot. So what to do? Well, apparently most SIT students end up adopting the traditional lavalava, and because of the high humidity, most of the clothes I'll take over will end up molding (cute, right?) so any old t-shirts will do. And the normal swimming gear is just a t-shirt and shorts, which means there's never an excuse for not going for a dip-- you're wearing your bathing suit all the time! I'm still trying to figure out what to do for more formal wear (I'll be doing interviews during the last month for my Independent Study Project), but I'm hoping inspiration will strike me on that front sometime soon.
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| Lavalava in action. The goal is to pull it off as well as that bad boy on the right. |
For homestay presents, I'm supposed to bring gifts that represent where I'm from. Maple syrup for Vermont? Mini oil refineries for New Jersey? I'm pretty lost on this one. It's also suggested that I bring something that the families can use pragmatically, like kitchen supplies or curtains. But how do I know what families in Samoa or Fiji or American Samoa need? The answer is-- I simply do not.
But even though I'm confused for the moment on the main presents, I'm stocking up on little presents to give to kids. Bubbles, coloring books, chalk, picture books, that sort of thing. The main concern there is just that my willpower doesn't break on the 11 hour flight to Hawaii and result in me coloring in all of the coloring books.
But gift-buying aside, going to check out the Oceania exhibit in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem today. Here's hoping that I'll draw some packing inspiration from there.
-Mickey
