Ye Olde Hovel

Today is officially "Talk Like a Pirate Day". I'm not really good at accents though, so I will probably just write normally. I think my title is about the extent of my knowledge of Pirate Speak. Oh and, "aye matey" and "arrrrr". FACT: My local library has a language program and you can learn to talk like a pirate, this month only.

**Q-What's a pirate's favorite letter? A- Arrrrrr**

**Q-Where do pirates go for a drink? A- The bARRRRR**

(okay, that's all the bad jokes I have for today)

_____________________________________________

If you know me, or have been reading for a while, you may already know that I pretty much live in a hotel. If you don't know me, let me quickly explain a little. I work a job that takes me to different places in the US, usually for a few months at a time. So, once we figure out where we will be, we move in to "our new home", whatever hotel is available in the city (or tiny town) that we will be working in. Usually this is anywhere from 90 - 350 days a year. 

Sounds great, right? Vacation, 350 days a year, you say? Where do I sign up? 

It is great sometimes. I don't have to pay for cable TV (although I rarely watch TV anyway), electricity or heat. I have a gym, a pool and sometimes a hot tub at my disposal. I don't have to wash my own sheets or clean my own toilet. These things can be good. Sometimes you get to stay in Five Star Hotels.

However, Hotel Living is not all it's cracked up to be. For example, sometimes you don't have a kitchen. When this happens, you end up cooking a lot of things in your coffee pot or microwave (which usually is not very healthy). Sometimes living in one room all the time kind of gets to you. You have people over, where do they hang out? On your bed. That can be kind of weird. 

Also, moving around a lot means you work with different people and live in different cities every 90 days or so. It is hard to make connections with people in 90 days. It is hard to establish a routine, to join a soccer team or a running club or even a gym. It is hard to eat healthy. Things are all done in "single servings", like Brad Pitt says in Fight Club. Single serving coffee, single serving shampoo, single serving friends. Just when you finally start to get to know your boss and how he operates, your coworkers and your surroundings, you move once again to somewhere else, to another hotel, where you have a different boss, new coworkers and have to figure out once again where the nearest grocery store is. 

I don't have much stuff. One suitcase. What fits in one suitcase? One pair of running shoes, flip flops and one nice pair of shoes. One dress. Two pairs of jeans and some shirts and sweaters. Each time I move, they move with me. I am a turtle, with my house clothes on my back.

Even though I don't have much stuff, it seems like a lot when you have to pack it all up. I work out of my room, so any time I want to go out of town for the weekend, I have to pack up my "office" as well as my suitcase, and leave it at the front desk or a co-worker's room while I am away. This makes weekend trips a little harder. 

This time I have a kitchenette, which makes it nice as far as eating healthy. But I also have to pack up food etc when I leave. So each time I am going to go somewhere, I try to "eat myself out of house and home", so to speak. I try not to buy anything new, only to use what I have. This makes for interesting meals. I think I mentioned before that I sometimes eat chili every day because I am cleaning out the fridge. Sometimes, even the backup food (ie non perishables) finally gets eaten. 

I also have to leave myself notes. I have had to buy at least three razors, since I tend to forget them in the shower. If I am leaving early in the morning, I get my coffee ready and then pack it away.

Oh, the joys of hotel living.

What do you do to prepare when you are going to be away for a while? Do you stay in hotels a lot? Do you like it? What's your favorite part of hotel living?

The Whole Pack-age

Source

When traveling, you sometimes go through many different climates, especially when you travel from Northern to Southern hemisphere in a short period. So how do you pack for this? I mean, you get to Europe in the summer time, then you go south and VOILA, it is winter in South Africa. A month later you are hiking in the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. Different countries in the same region have completely different temperatures too. Sometimes it’s as if you go from Massachusetts in the winter to Florida in the summer, all in one week (or day sometimes!) This is especially hard when you are going to be on the road for a long period of time.

I am a light packer. I have learned this the hard way. On my first trip abroad, when I went to France for the summer (to do a work exchange), I had no idea what to pack. I didn’t know if the job I would have would require dressing up; I had no idea if the Frenchies would look at me funny if I wore my favorite pair of track pants; I wasn’t sure if they were more formal than us; I didn’t know if the apartment I was subletting would have an alarm clock; I didn’t know if they would have books in English!

So I brought everything.  I brought two, not one but TWO suitcases. Big ones. Back in the day, when I went to France, I was not blessed with a rolling suitcase. One had a little tiny strap, like you would have on a clutch handbag, and four tiny wheels. You wheeled it sideways (on the long side) and to do so you had to hunch way over and slouch backwards, causing you to be old before your time. Often, it would tip over, causing your whole production to come to a stop. My other suitcase did not even have the luxury of wheels, tiny or otherwise. I had to carry it. Have you ever seen Spaceballs? That is what I looked like; I had my industrial strength hair dryer, and I COULD have lived without it.

Now I am smarter. I have realized a few things which make life much, much easier.

- You are not going to the moon. They may not have Target, but you can probably find a store, even in the Heart of Darkness, that sells shampoo. Buy it on the road once you figure out how much you will need.

- Layers, layers, layers! A few tank tops, a couple of long sleeves and one heavier sweater will get you very far.

- Also black is always a good idea. If you have a black long sleeve and black pants, you can go from beach to restaurant in a snap. I have the most awesome pair of black dress pants that I got at Express that kind of look like Yoga pants. They can be used for running or for going clubbing (not that I do that!)

- A thin rainproof jacket (I got one at REI for about 40 dollars) that can fit into a really small package when you are not using it is a key ingredient to your featherweight pack.

- A sarong can be used as a towel, or a beach cover up, or a head wrap, or a skirt.

- Zip-off pants, although not attractive, are great for hiking or other activities, are lightweight so you can wash them in the sink and hang them to dry for the next day and they also double as an extra pair of shorts (or your only pair). Get these in black and you may have just killed two birds with one stone. A word to the wise, the more pockets the better. If you can avoid carrying a purse and instead stuff your pockets with your camera and wallet, you have one less thing to worry about.

- Unless you are doing some REALLY serious hiking, running shoes work for almost everything.

Do you have any travel packing tips? Are you a two suitcases kind of person or a throw a backpack on and go kind of person?