Hi,
Well finally I am settled at my new house in USA- Urbana Champaign, I thought, why not start blogging. This is my first shot at writing a blog and I will make sure that the things I write are really helpful to all the people who read this.
Let me first give an introduction...
Me and my husband landed in US on 1st of August 2014 at Chicago O'Hare Airport. He is currently a PhD Student at UIUC-CS. While he is away attending his lectures and working in his office, I find new ways to pass my time :) . This is one of them.
Let me tell you about the things that you should take from your Home Country when you travel to USA. I Being an Indian, might be some things will be specific to Indians.
Before you start packing the things in "the list", what you need to do is get a weighing scale. (For us the weight limit was 46 kg each, that means 2 bags of 23kg each per person)
THE LIST
Important Electronics :
1. Ethernet cable.Its costly in US, doesn't weigh much
3. Universal plug (Very costly in US, doesn't weigh much, because here its two flat pin plug)
4. Data cables (Costly is US, doesn't weigh much)
5. Mobile phone (If you are planning to buy a mobile phone, do not buy in India, come here and then buy one, its cheaper here.)
6. Laptop (If you are planning to buy a laptop, donot buy in India, come here and then buy one, because its cheaper here. If you are a student , you may even get a laptop from the university, just confirm once)
7. Your hard disk. (If you need one. Make sure it does not have any pirated data)
8. Camera.(Get yourself clicked at the beautiful US locations :P, no one forgets this, this is just to make the list complete)
Kitchen Items:
1. Pressure Cooker - Flat base. (You won't get a pressure cooker in USA, I bot a Hawkins heavy base 3.5 L cooker)
2. Pressure cooker : 1 ring, 2valve, and 1 instrument to change the valve.(Mostly you will have electric gas stove)
3. 2 utensils which can be placed one upon the other and can fit inside the cooker. (Cook daal and rice at once and you can save on electricity and in turn money, electricity here doesn't come cheap)
4. 1 Flat pan to cook rotis. (All utensils that you get should have flat base)
5. 1 Belan to make rotis
6. 2 wooden spatula (to turn the rotis or stir the vegetable curry ,for girls or boys like me, who are scared of turning the hot rotis :( )
7. 2 Flat base Kadhai (medim and small size to cook vegetables or maggie, etc)
8. 2 steel salad bowls (medium sized to make salad or may be to store anything, little thick based, so that you can even use them to cook little things)
9. 5 air tight containers (to store extra roti dough , to store remaining food, or may be you can pack some thing and take it to college or office. If you have microwave in your future house in USA, its better if the container are microwave safe, so that you can use them to heat food.)
10. 6 spoons.
11. 2 forks
12. 3 serving spoons (1 for daal, 1 for rice, 1 for vegetable) (light weight)
14. 1 glass to drink water (only if you donot directly use the water bottle to drink water)
15. 1 water bottle to store water. (water bottles are costly here, doesn't weigh much)
16. 2 bowls (for you lunch and dinner plates, better if microwave safe)
17. 2 plates (better if microwave safe, they are also light weight that steel ones)
18. 30 Air tight Clips. (To close the maggie packet or rice packet or any other kind of packets. This is required since you wont have that may utensils to empty those packets into)
19. 1 Chai ki channi/gaalni/filter. (Very costly here)
20. 3 air tight containers (tea, sugar, salt , may be cofee)
21. 1 Spices container
Eatables/Beverages:
1. Tea/ Coffee (Tea is really costly)
2. Masalas (You get everything here, but its costly, so bring some)
3. 10 Ready to eat/cook packets (idli, dosa, upma, yellow dal ready to eat, chana masala ready to eat etc. you can eat this with whole wheat bread for sometime till you are settling)
4. I bot lot of khakra and chakli and bakarwadi, etc , they are really extremely ready to eat and we feel happy that we have them. :) you will realize once you land here.
5. Rest you can decide on the availability of space and weight. You get most things here in USA. Save the space for more important things.
6. Do not get pickles I would suggest, worst case - they may ruin your entire stuff if the packing goes bad.
Essential clothing:
1. Undergarments (that are sufficient for 15 days. Every house may not have a washer and dryer, you make have to go some where to get your laundry done, so its important to have spares.And washer and dryer take up electricity, hence money :( , so even if its there in house, you may use it just once a week)
2. 7 napkins
3. Cap (saves you from sun)
4. 2 Sweaters, 2 Jackets
5. 2 pairs of Hand gloves
6. 10 pairs of Socks (you may even have to wear 2 pairs of socks at the same time :( )
7. Winter Cap which covers your ears and not just any fashion cap.
8. Long coat. (you can even come here and buy one).
9. My friends told that the secret of surviving winter lies in layered clothing.
10. 10 t- shirts
11. 3 jeans
12. 7 stay in house clothes.
13. 2 towels
14. 2 pair of good formal wear.
15. 1 pair of formal shoes.
16. Extra pair of footwear.
17. Heels (for girls, its really costly here)
18. If space / weight permits get some more food and not clothes. :)
19. You may have to buy winter boots here.
20. An Umbrella
Beauty essentials:
1. Sunscreen (The sun is really bad, and you get a bad tan)
2. Lip gaurd
3. Moisturizer
4. The above things are not just for Girls, guys you need them too, winter is too harsh here.
5. 1 soap for bathing.
6. 2 tooth brush (costly here)
7. 1 toothpaste
8. tounge cleaner
9. would suggest you to buy hair oil here.
Bedding:
1. 2 bedsheets
2. 2 pillow covers
3. 1 rug/ rajai.
That's the list for now. :) I will keep updating the list as soon as I realize that "the thing" should be included in the list.
Happy Packing !!! :D :D
