Shanghai Success

Moving to shanghai

I have been pretty inactive for the last 2, nearly 3 weeks (egad, that’s nearly a whole month). After fidgeting over packing, shipping, and general life I have finally completed my move to Shanghai and gotten settled again. I’ve been continuing to draw, but that cycle has been rather disrupted. Now that internet is much less of a hurdle to upload, there will be some albums coming up.

Here’s the full album:

Link

Travel

In the meantime, I want to come back to traveling and what’s needed. It should be noted that this is what I’ve got with me for Shanghai summer which could be considerably less. Much of what I’m bringing around with me is either going to get mailed back later, or handed off to friends or family. Part of the problem of this last move was a heavy checked bag. Was rather pricey to get it moved, but easily the path of least resistance when it came to getting things from point A to B. I managed to fit everything into a back and one large checked bag.

 

Easily the thing taking up the most space for me clothes, empty bags, and a sleeping bag. I’ve sent home nearly all cold wear (hat, gloves, coat, wool blanket, etc) in the hope opening up some space. I DEFINITELY managed that, but that space was almost immediately filled by empty suitcases, and other bags that I no longer have an actual need for. These also added a lot of unnecessary weight to an otherwise light load. There are also a few things such as stuffed animals and cups that just didn’t make their way into boxes to head home, so I’ll have to pick up on that the next time I’m able.

Clothes

I figure it’s worth noting that I pretty much was wearing 5 tshirts while flying in order to fit towel, jeans and whatever else into the backpack. That’s something that really points towards trying to see what I can do with less clothes. As I mention later on, there is a little more space I could probably squeeze out of the back pack, and to be fair if I didn’t have to deal with so many other bags and things I couldn’t mail, I’d be in a pretty good spot already as far as clothes are concerned.

 

Bags

I have to say, that I was quite impressed with the amount that I was able to get into my little backpack. I would have to wager a guess that it is probably around 25 and 28 liters if I had to make a random guess. Otherwise, the problem I have with is that it made more for hiking than anything else. The shoulder straps are great, and especially if you are going to be packing heavy, having a waist buckle really, really helps. What this means is that there are straps going everywhere and can whip people on trains, or get caught on doors. They also obviously pick you at as a tourist which for some could be a problem. The body of the bag has a kind of soft hourglass to it. This is especially frustrating when you are trying to pack and are unable to open the main compartment completely flat. If you are top loading the bag, and there is a bottle neck then your stuffing abilities will similarly be bottle necked. I imagine this is to allow fitting larger, heavier items down low, but.. it just doesn’t make sense for me at all. Otherwise, I could have fit even more inside the back pack.

What I Already Don’t Need

-Sleeping Bag

I already don’t need to be traveling with sleeping things. I’m learning that it is nice to have a sleeping bag around, but is definitely not a necessary item. If you know you are going to be heading somewhere with a couch, pillow, bed, and blankets then the only reason I can suggest a sleeping bag is because it is compact (ultra light hiking type) and you’re going to be in winter with horrible insulation.

– Camera

The longer that I use my nexus as a decent swap for my actual hand held digital camera, the more age difference are cropping up. Even with the advantages of a wider, larger viewing angle of the stand alone camera, the nexus easily captures images with a higher pixel density. Right now the only thing going for old camera is that it clearly is a better low light/night camera and also has more manual settings I can play with. Having a smartphone around, and not being anything more than a casual picture person, I haven’t yet felt like I needed something more. It’s definitely nice to have a real camera about, but time is starting to catch up to the ol’ girl.

Wires

This comes with drives, and the speakers I don’t really need to be bringing around with me. I need to have some sort of back up, but right now I’m juggling 3 of them, and that doesn’t need to happen.

 

And that does it for packing for a while. I’ve gotten way to into this and it’s time to get back to other projects and getting them up. Again, I apologize for the mini break, but I’m back again.