The preparation for a trip that requires an airplane ride is a mixture of excitement and dread. The longer the trip is, the more intense the frustration and the more stressful. It’s not about the fabulous destination that awaits me at the other end or about the reunion with beloved relatives or people I have not seen in a long time, or the discovery of new, beautiful, and exciting places I have never seen before or perhaps enchanted places to be revisited, it is the dread of selecting and compacting days of living into one suitcase. It is freedom to be able to choose enough to suffice for the duration of the trip and, at the same time, a reality check of how much we really need to survive.
What things can I do without and what things are necessities that cannot be ignored or discounted? What do I pick for sixteen days when I am only allowed so much weight, I am taking one suitcase and a carry-on, and only so much can be fit inside? How do I choose? And will I have drugs for any potential minor emergencies that would shorten my distress and misery and prevent a trip to a foreign hospital which, no matter how modern, will fall short of the best hospitals in the U.S.? Can I trust people who drive and park on sidewalks and consider safe driving rules a mere suggestion? Can I put up with people who balk at making change for a certain banknote or so impatient and “overwhelmed” that they frown when asked more than one question?
