Brad and I are heading back to N. America for the Christmas holidays. You must be wondering why we are going back so soon after settling in here? Well, lucky for us Brad is attending a conference in Florida for a few days and defending his thesis (finally) in Vancouver. Technically, much of his time will be spent working, so it doesn’t count as a holiday. However, I will be able to spend most of my visit hanging out with my family. And as you can imagine, I’m quite excited.

Now I have the task of deciding what to pack. I don’t really want to repeat the experience we had traveling out here. I mean, we packed our suitcases to exact upper weight limit that we were allowed – 70 pounds each. Not only did we have to roll them around the airport, but we also had to lug them onto the train. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if Brad wasn’t so strong.

We almost found this out the hard way. In LA, after disembarking the cruise boat, we had to take a taxi van to the airport for our journey to Holland. Our cab driver was a big guy, but not very strong. Being that it was part of his job to handle our baggage, he insisted that he personally hoist each suitcase into his van. He struggled to lift each one. On the third one, he cracked his head on the doorway of his van – it sounded like it really hurt. By the time he loaded the fourth suitcase, he was pretty frustrated with us.

On our drive to the airport, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was going to suddenly make a wrong turn and drop us off in a shady part of town. I think he was glad to get rid of us at the airport and was certainly willing to have Brad help him unload the suitcases.

We came here with four suitcases in total not knowing what we would really need or want to have here. In general, we choose our clothing well. However, I did bring a few pairs of shoes that I will never wear - mostly because they are impractical for biking.

Since we were restricted as to how much we could bring, we left some clothing and shoes behind at my parent’s house. We assumed that we’d purchase anything else we needed here. However, clothes and shoes are very expensive here, so we’ll be bringing a lot of what we need back with us after this trip.

So I will probably not be packing too much to take home, but bringing a lot back with me. Any suggestions on how to keep extra space in your suitcase?