preparations

passport ... check. visa ... check. grant documents ... check. other miscellaneous yet highly important life documents ... check. light, cotton, and linen clothing, including past the knee skirts and covering the upper arm shirts ... check. arabic books ... check. 3 oz liquids in tiny plastic baggie for carry-on ... check.

now: to fit this all in 2 suitcases ...

all i can say is al-hamdulillah (praise God) for the nifty invention known as the space saver bag. i've decided that i want to take only 2 (3 at the most!) of those per giant 30" pullman suitcase. it can be done, ladies and gentlemen. it seems that i have inherited the master packing skills of my father, who managed to fit a family of 6 (including 4 grown children), AND my sister's essentials for moving into the UVA dorms (which seemed a lot more than what I had when I moved in...) into one minivan. yessiree, ladies and gentlemen, it can be done ... with the help of storage items such as stow-n-go seating (man, those were filled with nicole's shoes) and my new best friends, mr. and mrs. space saver.

and al-hamdulillah nicole's already gone away to college because i've been using her former living quarters as a sort of "green room" for my impending journey. example:

(note the pink suitcase, flanked by my other close friend over the years ... mr. hans wehr and his green arabic-english dictionary!)

on the right, you will find the numerous bath and body products my mother has collected over the years, intended for use in various christmas presents. i intend to use them for gifts in oman -- for various contacts whom I've met in the past year. my former boss noted that the omanis are very fond of "scents" -- as evidenced by their use of frankincense in many aspects of their lives (more on frankincense, its trade in ancient times, its use in the daily ritual of [former] employees of the sultan qaboos cultural center in a later entry -- particularly strong ones, so i'm interested to see some reactions to the light flowery scents of victoria's secret and bath & body works.

current joy: discovering that i don't need a power converter for my macbook. weeeeee! i love you, apple.