Travel Tip 1: Packing Checklist

As someone who travels frequently, whether it be to visit family, present at a conference, or traveling abroad, I have come to learn the importance of making a checklist when packing. I'm not always the best at remembering to pack little things, like a hairbrush, or flip flops, etc. I have found I will always have everything I need if I make a checklist before I pack and mark items off as I put them in the suitcase. I started doing this when I was living in Florence and traveling on Ryan Air a lot, and this method has served me well. Here are a few things I consider when making my list: 1) What situations will you be facing? - When I go to a conference, I often think about how formal the event is, will there be a dinner afterwards, or will people want to explore nightlife. If I am going home to visit my parents, I think about if I will be going to the beach, or will I go out with friends. With foreign travel, I often consider if I will be visiting churches and need to have my shoulders and knees covered, or if the culture is more casual or elegant. When I think about all the different situations I could be facing, I pack accordingly. Yes, you may be tempted to pack that pair of wedges you just bought that you have been dying to wear, but will you really enter a situation where they will be necessary? Stick to packing for events that you know you will be facing. 2) What will the weather be like? - I check the weather channel and the weather app on my phone for the week leading up to a trip to make sure I know what the weather will be like. I also check online resources that give reports about the average temperature and climate pattern of the cities I will be visiting. When I am familiar with what the weather will be like, I am less likely to pack items "just in case" that can take up a lot of extra room in the suitcase. 3) What can you count on being provided? - When I travel for my research I usually know that the hotels I will be staying in will have shampoo, conditioner, or a hairdryer, and if the room does not include these things, you can ask at the front desk and they typically have items you can borrow. For example, on my honeymoon we forgot to pack toothpaste, but we called room service and they brought us a tube from the front desk. Same goes for traveling to visit family. I can always count on my sister having a hair straightener, so I never bother to pack one. If you know you are going somewhere that will provide some things you might be tempted to pack, save the room in your suitcase, unless you are really attached to the item, like a specific hair spray or curling iron. 4) What is easier to just buy when you get there? - When traveling abroad, I have learned that with minimal room in a suitcase and strict weight requirements, a lot of the time it is just easier to buy toiletries when you get there. Shampoo/conditioner/body wash are easily accessible in most European countries or tropical destinations. You may even want to try something new, like a special argan oil soap you can buy in a market in Morocco. There are some items that are a lot harder to find in different countries, like sunscreen with an spf above 4 (which is essential for someone with fair skin like me). If I know an item I really need will be difficult to find in that country, I pack it. When I feel ready to sit down and pack, I create a list of every item I could need on the trip, making sure to write amounts, like how many pairs of underwear I will need. That way I am not tempted to throw a bunch of unnecessary items in my suitcase. As I place the item in my suitcase, I check it off my list, not before, not after. That way as I am seeing the item actually go in the suitcase and I don't just think I put it in. When I am finished if my suitcase seems really heavy and I am afraid of going overweight, I revise my list and take items out accordingly. So here are my tips for packing only what you need and making sure the items actually make it in your suitcase. As I am packing for my upcoming trip to Italy I will keep everyone posted about my checklist and essential items for my trip.

What do I actually do?

So I have been in grad school for 6 years now, and I still get asked a lot about what I actually study and what I plan to do with a PhD in Italian. I thought today I would better try to explain my research and what I do as both a student and teacher. 1. No, I do not plan on being a translator/interpreter. I actually get asked this a lot. The thing is, interpreting is REALLY hard! You have to get special certification, as well as degrees to become an interpreter. It takes a lot of time and you have to feel super comfortable with the language to translate so quickly. I also have no interest in this field. I have done some document translation, which isn't as difficult as interpreting, and still pays pretty nicely, but again, not really my thing. 2. I do plan on continuing to teach college level Italian. I went into grad school in Italian because it seemed like the easiest and most cost effective way to get back to Italy, but through my coursework and having to be a Teaching Assistant for my stipend, I found that I really do enjoy teaching. I actually enjoy teaching a lot more than researching. This fall I will be teaching a lot of beginning Italian, which is fun because students are usually really excited to learn at that level. Unlike Spanish or French, which a lot of students feel forced to continue in college because they took it in high school and just want to get credits out of the way, most students who take Italian have made a conscious choice to learn the language because they either want to travel in Italy, have Italian heritage, or love Italian food/fashion/art. Students having a real interest in the subject makes my job a lot easier. Do I want to teach only Italian language, no. I am hoping as I move along in my career I will be able to teach more electives, such as film and literature courses, and I hope to maybe one day write a textbook. 3. Technically my degree is in Romance Languages and Literatures, not Italian. The majority of my coursework while in grad school has been literature based, something I also didn't really know before entering grad school. I have always enjoyed reading, but there is a lot of Italian literature I actually do not enjoy, such as Petrarch, anything from the Renaissance, and most poetry. I do not research pedagogy or teaching methods. Although I love teaching, I have to do research in literature/film to finish my PhD, as well as stay current in my field. I also plan on using the research for my dissertation to design a course in the future. 4. My dissertation is all about one man, is pretty depressing, and not what I ever thought I would write a book about. My MA thesis was about this super famous movie from 2008 called Gomorra (it's on Netflix instant play if you feel the need to watch it)that depicts the Neapolitan mafia, La Camorra. I felt drawn to write about this movie because 1) I have had an interest in Italian politics (and corruption) since I studied abroad in Perugia and took a course on the modern political history of Italy with the amazing Peter Fisher. 2) The movie had won a bunch of awards and was the Italian submission for the Oscar that year. 3) No one else had really written about it at that point. I had not planned on working with film in grad school, and now I am kind of a film specialist. I originally wanted to write about Italian prime ministers and corruption for my Dissertation, but now I am writing about one Italian Prime Minister in particular, Aldo Moro, who was kidnapped and killed by terrorists in the 1970s. So my dissertation, in a nutshell, is about every movie ever made about this man and how his image has changed in the 35 years since he was killed. Not light reading material, but Aldo and I have become good friends. So as a PhD student in Romance Languages and Literatures, I teach a lot of college students beginning/intermediate level Italian language, I work on writing a dissertation about an assassinated Prime Minister, and I hope to one day combine these two things and teach a course on Italian politics or Italian film to college students. My life and job in a nutshell.

I'm back!!!

It has been three years since I last posted in this blog. Since May of 2011 I have gotten engaged, married, adopted a puppy, and defended my prospectus for my dissertation. There have been a lot of changes in my life, but the biggest one of all is that after 6 years (on and off)of living in Chapel Hill, NC working on my PhD, Andy and I are moving back to Charleston, SC where I will begin teaching at my alma mater, College of Charleston. We are in the process of closing on our first home and trying to organize our last move hopefully for a while. I thought it was an opportune time to bring back my blog so people can keep up with what is going on in our lives, and I can tell people about my upcoming travels. In less than a month I am headed back to Italy for the first time since I left Florence in May 2011, and I am ecstatic. I received a grant from the American Association of Teachers of Italian to study at Babilonia Language School in Taormina, Sicly for two weeks, and I am also going to spend some time in Milan, Florence, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast. Most of these places I have never been, so I should have lots of stories, and hopefully some travel trips to share about these regions of Italy. So stay tuned as I post about my trip preparations, my search for a carry-on suitcase that meets the requirements for both RyanAir and EasyJet, trying to pack for three weeks in the previously mentioned carry-on, and Andy and I moving all of our belongings and decorating our new place. A presto, Kate