Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

This isn’t the most detailed packing list, but it’s just highlighting the important things I learned from my own race. 🙂

 

 

 

 

BEST things I brought on the race:

Clothing:

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(my tevas are the pink ones)

  • Jeans. One’s that don’t stretch a ton from being worn a lot without washing or from hand washing.
  • Normal clothes. Trust me- don’t go buy a whole new REI quick dry wardrobe unless you normally wear that type of clothes. Just trust me. Pack what you would normally wear! Yes, pack some clothes that you don’t care about, but you don’t have to go buy all new things.
  • 1 Sundress. (if you wear them at home).
  • Smart Wool socks. Biggest blessing ever on travel days. I get so cold on planes and buses.

Gear:

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Technology:

  • Kindle!! Number one best thing.
  • Canon point and shoot. Everyone loved my camera. It takes really good quality photos and videos and isn’t big and bulky. Unless photography is a passion or practiced hobby, don’t bring a big DSLR camera. I’m so glad I didn’t bring mine. And most friends on the race that brought them said that they wish they brought a camera like mine instead.
  • Flash drive- 16 GB or bigger.
  • Iphone/ipod/ipod/smartphone with imessage/facetime/skype/pinger (you can text anyone when you have wifi!!!) A small device like this is perfect for random times when there is free wifi.
  • Extra headphones! Extra ipod cord. 
  • Headphone splitter.
  • Conair Converter/Surge Protector set- awesome because it had the Asian outlet. Only one other person on my team had one. (http://www.conair.com/travel-smart-all-in-one-adapter-combo-unit-p-850-55_90_99.html)

Other:

  • Ear plugs and eyemask. Never used before the race- totally necessary!!
  • Sharpie pens or nice colorful pens.
  • Venus Razor with 11 (or more) razor heads. It’s unfortunate that Venus doesn’t have a travel case for razors, so maybe find something to put it in. I kept it in my travel toiletry bag.
  • Hanging toiletry bag. Best idea ever. Mine was from 31, but you can get anything. Just get a hanging one. 🙂
  • Zip lock bags. You don’t need too many extras, because you can reuse them. 
  • Memory Journal!!! And/or daily activity log. This can be digital if you want to create a word document or calendar, but I loved having a little planner and a small journal. I wrote what I did every day in the planner. It’s so fun to look back on and to keep track of the year. And in my memory journal, I kept track of highlights from each month, memories I don’t want to forget, currencies, transportation, ministries, contacts names, people I met, teammates names, places I lived/slept, lessons I learned, etc. Also- another favorite memory documenting thing I did was video or take photos of each place I lived each month. It’s so fun to look back on.
  • I’m that girl that keeps things. Sometimes, I go overboard and keep little things like receipts and business cards because I love to scrapbook. But you’ll probably want to keep some things, like notes from teammates or contacts, money from each place, plane/bus tickets, etc. So bring 11 envelopes to keep things in.

Things I wish I brought:

Clothing:

  • Leggings.
  • Cardigan. I brought a flannel, which was great, but a cardigan would have been so nice. Especially to wear over tank tops or dresses if you have to cover your shoulders. I borrowed my teammate’s cardigans a lot.
  • Packing cubes for clothes. Super wish I brought.

Gear:

  • Mess set- not necessary, but I get sick easily and sometimes it’s hard to clean things really well (if you don’t have a sink or running water) and germs will spread so easily. And in some countries, we’ve been short silverware, so it’d be nice to have your own. Just a collapsible bowl and a spork is enough so that germs and sickness don’t spread like crazy.
  • Granted a hammock couldn’t be used every month, it would have been cool to have. Especially if you really value alone time, nature and chilling. I could have used a hammock 5 out of the 11 month.
  • Luggage lock. I had one and lost it month 1. So maybe bring 2. Handy for travel days  and when you stay in hostels in a room with strangers it’s nice to lock up your stuff in your bag or the little lockers they often have.
  • Super cheap light tent! I sent mine home month 3 and used my friend Jacq’s tent that we called “Junior Scout.” It was really tiny and was from walmart. It was perfect for the ONE month that I actually used it.

Technology:

  • Bigger external hard drive. Mine was 500 GB.
  • Speaker!! ( For team movie nights, dance parties, music while painting lots of rooms, etc.)

Other:

  • A quick dry washcloth!
  • Little laundry bin that is collapsible. My teammate Abby had one and it was awesome! We all piled things into it on laundry days, it would’ve been so nice to have another one.
  • Baby powder for bed bugs! It happens.

Other tips:

  • Medicine- you don’t need as much as you think you do. You can buy things overseas. And if you need something, there is a chance a friend will have it and give it to you.
  • Don’t bring a camelbak that has the top you suck to drink out of. SO hard to clean. Mine got yucky and I threw it away. I honestly just used plastic water bottles and they work perfect to refill and they only cost like $1. Use those or a nalgene with a big opening so it’s easy to clean.
  • You seriously can buy anything overseas. In South America and Europe and Asia, there is practically everything. And South Africa has nearly everything you can buy in America. You don’t need to pack 11 months’ worth of toiletries. They really are the heaviest things in backpacks. The only things that I didn’t see overseas are: tampons (only OBs, which I totally can’t do), airborne (I stocked up when we flew through DC after month 3), Crest toothpaste (so if you really like Crest, I’d stock up, because there is only Colgate overseas), non-disposable razors or venus heads.
  • Journaling is so important! BUUUUT- you don’t have to pack three or four (like I did. Oops.) You can buy them anywhere. And it’s honestly more special to have “that one journal that you bought in Thailand.”
  • Clothes- you don’t need as much as you think. You honestly will get sick of your clothes. The free pile is always full of clothes that will be like a shopping mall, even though it’s the clothes your squad mates are sick of. You’ll trade things, buy new things and get rid of a ton. Don’t stress about it. And for this reason and the fact that clothes get ruined on the race, don’t pack all of your favorite things.

 

 

If you want to ask me any packing questions or if you’d like any other advice before you set out on this big adventure that God has for you, I’d love to help. You can e-mail me at [email protected]. 🙂