student
When I went to Paris for my 3 months summer internship, I SEVERELY Overpacked. In terms of food and clothes. When I went to London in August, I slightly overpacked - One too many pairs of pants. I also shipped some of my “damage” from Paris over to London, so obviously, I had too many things and not enough room.
Taking advice from me might seem ridiculous, but, I definitely know how much is needed and how much isn’t. So technically, I can be your bench mark :)
Prior to going for exchange, I googled loads of different packing list wondering what I should bring and what I should not. My seniors who went to the United States gave us a list of stuff to bring that included something like 4 tops, 2 jeans etc. When I saw the list I went “NO WAY. I wouldn’t survive 1 week on that. Am I suppose to wear the same outfit 2x each week and do my laundry twice a week?!” Then i realised they were going to UC Berkeley for exchange - The U.S. is home for BLACK FRIDAY, DISCOUNTS, SALES, CHEAP CLOTHES.
Unfortunately, those who will be going to other parts of the world for exchange, namely Europe, you don’t get the same luxury.
No - you will not be able to survive on Primark clothes and it is not as cheap as what you can get in the U.S. when they have sales.
For people who study long term and complete their education overseas, they have more reason to invest in winter clothes, after all its 4 winters they’ll be going through. But for us exchange/year abroad students that come from tropical or equatorial countries (countries with no snow), there is not reason to stock up on winter clothes and shoes, when will you next wear them?
I’m not going to give you a packing list because everyone is a little different. Some of my classmates only had 27 KG and a whole lot of food took up that 27, whilst I’m pretty sure i brought 27 kg of clothes - hence I have a luggage of clothes still in a vacuum pack under my bed.
I’ve survived cold winter temperatures (AND SNOW!) , and I have a sufficient amount of clothes to have 2 weeks of different outfits.
In order to not overpack, heres some guidelines for you, so you don’t end up with a bunch of unworn clothes (something I really wonder what i’m going to do now).
*P.S. I coerced Jerald into helping me for this article, and we had a discussion about it on a train ride to Venice. You can trust Jerald. He is one super organised, mildly OCD, intense person when it comes to packing things.
