HOW TO PACK YOUR SUITCASE FOR ERASMUS

Hello, hello!

How are you?

Its already September and it seems like it has come around so fast! Only a few days ago we were on the beach, and now, after a blink of an eye the daily grind has arrived once more for most people... Except for those very fortunate human beings called Erasmus students! I remember perfectly this time last year, with adrenaline rushing through my veins at the thought of going to England in a couple of days on my new Erasmus adventure. Nervous, packing, saying goodbye... So many emotions in such a short amount of time. I guess that that is what a lot of you guys much be experiencing right this second! I hope that you have a great time and I am almost 100% sure you will, wherever you are going. I am going to give you a couple of tips about how to pack your suitcase for your year abroad. Packing my own, I learnt about a few things that I would've liked to have packed - lets go!

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How to pack your suitcase for Erasmus

Vacuum pack bags

One of the main problems of packing your suitcase for Erasmus is that you simply do not have enough room for all of your stuff. Most of us will want to pack absolutely everything in our suitcases - we would pack our entire bedroom in there if we could. My first piece of advice would be to get yourself some vacuum pack bags.

Why? So that you can fit everything in them - you can imagine the amount of space you are going to save with these. You can buy them in Ikea, Primark or bizarre corner shops. I bought mine at a thrift shop, they are like this:

I would advise you to buy more than one to fit in a large suitcase (generally us Erasmus students have suitcases with enough space for two people). I bought three. One extra large one at 50x50cm, which was 1. 70 euro, as well as two other small ones that cost me a little less, like 80 cents. A great price for the amount of use you will get out of them!

How do you use them? Well, these bags have a circular tab (you'll see in the photo) that is designed to attach to your hoover at home. The process is like this: open the bag, pack all of the things that you want, or pack until you run out of space, then close the bag and open the suction tab. Attach the hoover here and take out all of the air that is inside. The difference inside the bag is incredible - with and without air the change is enormous. The space left over is crazy, I have attached some photos so that you can appreciate it for yourselves.

Things not to pack

I am the queen of packing unnecessary things in my suitcase. What would you say if I told you that I packed an entire quilt and took it with me? It didn't seem like a bad idea before I left! Then, I realised that I was wrong. The effort I put into packing that quilt came from known that I had rented a house that did not have a duvet for me, and September in England is a lot colder than Spain at the end of October, but I probably could've managed sleeping for a couple of nights without one until I bought one over there. After this, I saw them in Primark for 19 pounds, 23 euros, which is quite a decent price for a double bed duvet. So my advice is that if your house doesn't have one, you should buy it there. Other things I do not recommend you bring with you are things like papers and decorations, all the little things to put in your bedroom to make it look pretty - they are all really cheap in Primark and things like folders and stationary you can find in a shop called Poundland where everything costs 1 pound and they have everything like folders, pens, paper etc..

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Things to pack

One thing that is definitely necessary in your suitcase is an adaptor plug. It is necessary from the get-go and you will need it in your home without a doubt. Imagine that you have gone on a long journey and you arrive at your house and after hours and hours you don't have wifi available. Your phone has little battery and you need to connect it as soon as possible to let everyone know that you're still alive. So, I definitely recommend that you pack at least a couple of universal adaptor plug before anything else. Universal ones because they are not that much more expensive that ones just for the UK only, so its worth it to invest in them to take on all of your future journeys as well.

The next thing I recommend that you back in your suitcase no matter what is an extension cable. One that has at least 4 plugs in it - it is key. Why? Because since you have a pair of adaptors, the best way I think to use them is to put them in two sockets in your room and do not move them. But for that you have to have a Spanish socket strip and this way you will have a lot of Spanish plugs for all your devices that I suppose most of you have will be Spanish (hair dryer, chargers... ). I think it is worth putting one of these in your suitcase. This way you save yourself having to change adaptors when you are in a hurry and also you save money because you will have to buy less.

And lastly... Ham. Yes, guys... Ham, or whatever other tasty Spanish snack you want. It will become an authentic luxury item in your Erasmus fridge. And in this case we continue to vacuum-pack. I didn't know that ham could last so many weeks vacuum-packed or that in most butcher's shops you can have whatever you want vacuum-packed. My butcher recommended to take individually packaged pieces because this way if I opened one bad bag the rest was preserved perfect. And wow, it works. I had ham for quite some time. And even though it may seem insignificant, it makes you feel a little more at home (I'm a food lover, I don't know if you've noticed). You may be wondering, can't I buy it over there? Well, the truth is that yes, but the quality is not even close to Spain, the prices are not cheap and finding a wide variety of sausages is not something common in any UK supermarket.

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Using deliveries for things

Continuing with the topic of food or whatever else that you need, some things just weigh too much to bring with you in your suitcase, and so I recommend the use of post. It is not expensive at all. In my case I used packlink, and it is not for advertising but it is a comparison page for parcel services and your shipments end up being very cheap. I didn't know that this method was so worthwhile until I used it. To give you an idea, at the beginning of my Erasmus, they sent me a box from Spain with a lot of tasty things that I couldn't find in the UK and it was a little bigger than the size of a handbag and it weighed around 15kg. The shipping price was about 28 euros. Value that for yourselves. So, if you have forgotten anything you always have the affordable option of having it sent to you by post.

Also, if you're interested in finding out how to navigate the Erasmus grant system, take a look at this guide!

I hope this has been helpful for you to share my experience with preparing to go on Erasmus.

See you next time, living la vida Erasmus!

Elena.

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