What I carried in my day bag/backpack during the courses
I had 2 bags with me that I brought to campus every day from my homestays, my day backpack and a reusable shopping bag.
In my backpack I carried:
- My reusable water bottle
- My notebook for class
- A few pens
- My wallet
- Bug spray
- Sunscreen and lip balm
- My first aid kit-as well as Advil/ Ibuprofen, allergy pills, and afterbite
- My raincoat-if I wasn’t wearing it already
- My phone
- Headphones
- A few zip lock bags and plastic bags-in case I needed to waterproof anything, or my clothes got wet
- Granola bars — I brought about 3 boxes of granola bars with me on the trip (2 courses). They were useful for long drives and for snacks on hikes.
- A hat
- Extra hair ties or headbands
In my reusable shopping bag, I carried:
- A spare change of clothes & a towel — *HIGHLY recommend you do this. If you get wet or dirty during the day you have to stay in those clothes for the day, so it’s good to have dry socks or pants just in case. Personally, I slipped in mud all the time and fell in the river once and got soaked, so I needed the spare clothes. There was also one hike that my class decided to wade through the river to get to the other side of it to explore, so spare clothes were great in that situation!
- Lunch — your homestays will make and pack it for you. You won’t have to carry this all day, you leave it in the kitchen or fridge on campus
- Flip flops/sandals