After you have decided which school to attend, there are the usual administrative needs to be taken care of. The one thing that is uncertain when you decide to pack your stuff is the estimation of what you would actually require. Here, the answer is simple – since you would be going to study in either the US or UK or Australia, some everyday-things that you may have forgotten can be obtained without great sweat, whichever city you may be headed for. This answer begs another question – do I get these things cheap there? Some things are cheap whereas others are expensive. What are the things that I can avoid carrying there and which are those that are absolutely unavoidable or critical?
It is essential to begin with a checklist. You segregate the critical aspects – the documents, for instance. The passport with the visa in it, the I-20 form, financial documents (they might ask for it at your port of entry), the airline ticket, admission letter, copies of your academic certificates and marksheets, tax documentation, credit cards, relevant college addresses, housing documentation (keep it ready if you have to hit the housing administration office upon reaching there), medical documentation, copy of birth certificate etc. Keep all the documents aside, safe and complete. In case of medical documentation, make sure you are aware of the rules in the country or state, as the case may be. It is always better to take the vaccination in India. It saves you valuable money. MMR vaccination in New York State, for instance would cost you over US$100. Your personal physician can guide you to take it for free! Carry the proof of any such vaccination the form that is prescribed. Check with the college if there is any doubt whether you require any vaccination. Some countries may ask you to take the TB vaccine too. So check this aspect in advance.
Next, try and get a list of books that you will need. Take as many books as you can from India. Be sure that you are buying the latest editions as each semester, revisions to courses might happen. Take a lot of stationery as it helps to start with a reasonable reserve and not expend extra money on this later. Make sure you have all the relevant telephone numbers in place – both of the college you are going to attend, your friends/relatives in the UK/US/Australia you may want to contact, your numbers back home and elsewhere.
What are the things that you may avoid? You may carry only a few essential items of heavy clothing as you will get most of the stuff there. So take the essentials and the look for deals after you are there. These places have wonderful deals, especially on clothes. Also you need to check out which time of the year you are joining school. If you are beginning in winter, it is better to carry some clothing to carry you through the season. Then, there are electrical appliances have different voltage in different countries. You may need to ensure you have the electrical adaptor to suit your needs.
Verify the cash you may need to carry. Work out the expenses that you may have there – through an internet search of the daily expenses in that city. Avoid traveler’s cheques – try and carry limited cash and rest in drafts. Upon reaching there, open an account, deposit most of your cash in the bank and then ask your relative/sponsor/contact in India to wire you the money. There is a procedure for wiring the money, which all banks are aware of. You should contact the student affairs office or the office in your college that deals with the wire transfer of money for fees and students expenses. Every university in the UK, US and Australia is aware of the formalities and requirements of such a medium of fund transfer.
Get your stuff organized. Make sure you are traveling with a pressure cooker and a non-stick frying pan. Carry your masalas, pickles, some ready to eat stuff, some cutlery, crockery and the basics. Take some medicines that you may need. Remember, medicines are expensive abroad. Make sure you have sealed bottles and physician’s prescriptions where necessary. Carry some pictures of your family, home, friends and carry some items that showcase India and the customs and culture here. After all, you may need to network with people there.
Make sure that the bags you take have rollers/wheels and handles that enable you to pull it. In most of these countries, you will find places where you may just need to pull the bags as the airports and streets are designed to help you move without having to lift your bags. When you have packed your stuff in the bags, check the weight. What weight does the airlines allow? Are you going through Europe? If so, are you halting there and changing flights? If yes, make sure that they will permit you to enter that particular European country with heavy bags. Such heavy bags are allowed for US bound flights but some European countries may not permit that. Check with your travel agent beforehand.
After you have done everything with respect to packing the stuff that you need, it is time to plan for the airplane journey. Most of us travel abroad for the first time at some time or the other. Therefore never hesitate to ask what procedures are followed at airports, inside planes, at immigration etc. It would be better though if you are well prepared and know what to expect. To begin with, arrive at the airport well before the reporting time. Many of you will have relatives seeing you off at home and the airport. So, make sure that you keep ahead of time.
After you have checked in your baggage, retain you hand baggage and laptop (if you carrying one) with yourself. The point to note here is that you must keep all your documents and some clothing in the hand/cabin baggage that you retain with yourself. The reason is this – there are few direct connections to the US, Canada and Australia., which means you are likely to change flights, unless you are proceeding to UK or southeast Asia. When your baggage is directly checked in, you receive it only at your port of final destination. You will not have means to know whether your baggage has been transferred from one aircraft to the other when you changed airplanes in transit. The chances of misplacing baggage are high. You will ultimately get it back, but avoid keeping your documents – passport, important currency, admit letters etc in your check-in bags.
Before boarding the aircraft and after the security check, you will go through immigration. You will be asked the purpose of your visit etc. You will be answering routine questions. Keep your documents ready if they need to be produced.
The flight would usually be long and tiring. Remember to have liquids regularly. Catch up on sleep and movies. Towards the end of the flight you will be given two slips of paper. Read it carefully and ask the crew if you have any questions. You may need to fill up one of those and produce it to the immigration authorities at your destination. Do fill it up before you land, as you may not have the time thereafter. Speak to the crew in case of any difficulty in filling up the form.
While in transit, you need to go through immigration. You will be directed to proceed to an area for such transit passengers. The airports abroad are huge. There are helpdesks and airport agents everywhere to help you find the right place. Don’t panic! Ask the officials in case of difficulty.
When you have traveled the distance and arrived at the destination, go through immigration. Keep all your documents ready as they will asked for at the immigration. Answer the questions confidently – these are routine procedures. After that, head for the baggage carousel…you must be missing your bags by now. Regarding the bags, remember to put your initials or some form of identification before you board the flight. There are hundreds of bags at the carousel and sometimes…and funnily so, identifying one’s own bag is one of the toughest thing to do. There are funny instances of people jumping at some else’s bags as if they identified their own, only to realize after they have taken the bags off that the owner got a coolie for free!
You would have organized your arrival at the destination. If someone has come to receive you and host you, make sure you have brought him/her a gift from India. At some places there are charges for the baggage trolley. At New York, for instance you need US$3 for a trolley! That’s your first surprise. Most places though will not have such a system. However, keep you change ready. If you are going by cab, remember to tip the driver.
By now, you have exhausted yourself. Find yourself a good bed to crawl into and let the jetlag subside. Don’t push yourself too hard. The jetlag takes its toll. Remember that you have traveled long and far – and you need to be at your refreshing best when the grind begins.
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