 Hi everybody, welcome to today's video. If you are new to my channel, my name is Katie and I make a lot of content about like study abroad. I am living for the year in Edinburgh, Scotland, going to the University of Edinburgh. So if any of that interests you, please subscribe because I post new videos every Friday. I'm going a little crazy because I have been talking to myself now for about a half an hour. So this is gonna be an interesting video. So this video is gonna be study abroad essential. So I have already made a packing guide and I don't know if this video is going up before or after this one, but there's another video coming or already out where I did like an update on what to pack for study abroad. But these, this kind of tip video is going to be like essentials for actual traveling and sort of like miscellaneous things that really came in handy that are just sort of, I don't know, they're like a little bit more random. And these are things that you can either bring or you can buy on the ground when you are studying abroad. But these are totally my necessary items that you will need some of these. So number one is going to be a little travel backpack. So I have one and it is from Amazon. I am going to desperately, I ordered this back in August. I'm going to try to link it down below. If I can't find this exact one, getting a travel backpack that is light enough that you can carry it on your back but has like sort of compartments like a suitcase, it has come so much in handy when I went to London or when I went into the Highlands to see Isle of Skye having this backpack with all these compartments really was a lifesaver because you can sort of pack it like a suitcase but you can put it on your back and walk around with it which just makes it super easy. And especially if you're like maybe planning on going backpacking, which is like hopefully what I'm trying to do when the summer happens, we're going to see. But yeah, I think rather than just like a backpack, you want to get something that can have a little bit more like meat to it. So mine literally like unzips like a suitcase. There are other sections of it that just work like an actual backpack, but having those extra compartments in room are really going to come in handy because when you start packing just like a normal backpack, it's you can't really fit much in there and it's going to be really dense. So it's still going to be heavy but when you have like a sort of bigger backpack like this, like you can get a lot of stuff into it but like the weight is sort of dispersed in a better way. And I am very small. I am like five two. So if I can carry this backpack like you're going to be completely fine. Okay. Number three is going to be a giant suitcase. So my suitcase is comically large. However, I barely got everything in it. So if you're going for an entire year, just get a comically large suitcase and deal with it because you are going to be happy that you're all set up. And really at the end of the year, you can get everything back into the suitcase and then maybe like donate some things that you've picked up to charity shops. That's sort of my plan because like I have accumulated pillows and like my comforter like I won't be able to do anything with it but it's all like very like in good condition and pretty nice. So I will be like donating those to a charity shop or like if I have a friend who needs it or I don't even know. But just knowing that at the end of the semester that it's not like this big move out like I can just put everything back in my suitcase and take it home. That is, that's the way to do it. And honestly, like it's making me rethink like just like going to normal college like the amount of stuff that you bring is just crazy and I never use half of it. This could be even good if you're just like going to regular college. I never went to college on a plane. Like I always get, I always drive to college. So that also changes things. I don't know. But a big suitcase, that's a good one. Number four is going to be adapters. So just having like a bunch of these I probably have about three or four. No, three maybe. Yeah, three or four in my room. Like I keep one in my backpack because if I need to charge my phone while I'm out I have an adapter. I have one by my bed. I have one like for where I do like my hair. And it's just good to have like a couple of these. You can buy them when you get to Edinburgh. However, when you're in the airport it was nice to have an adapter while I was in the airport at my layover because my phone was going to die. Not going to die, but it was like, it was low because I had an accidental, I missed my flight. So I had to stay in the airport for 12 hours. I, as I said before, having that adapter was very, very nice in the airport. Number five is going to be have good walking shoes. So bring shoes that you can walk in because you will be walking literally everywhere. And I mean this for every single pair of shoes that you bring. Even if you like, I was talking about like waterproof boots make sure that you can walk in those waterproof boots. Maybe don't get like brand new boots right before you go like try and break them in a little bit or like bring like a kind of old pair that have been worn in because they're not going to sort of blister your feet because you will do so much walking and you do not want to have blisters because that's just going to be really bad. Especially in Edinburgh where I go there are so many hills and if you are not comfortable in your shoes you are going to be miserable. And yeah, that's just my tip. That's the tip. Number five, have a towel in your suitcase. You do not want to be in a situation where like this happened to a friend of mine her luggage was lost and she didn't have a towel which is just terrible. So having like things that you're going to need that night in your like actual carry-on bag to the plane and especially like a towel and your adapters and things that you need like right away like even a couple toiletries like put them in your carry-on bag because you never know what's going to happen. And that's just the unfortunate truth. Number five is going to be order the dorm pack. I don't know about other schools but in the UK in like dorms you have an option with your dorm to order like the dorm bedding pack. It is mostly trash. Like the sheets that they give you in this thing are awful. However, I arrived after like a literal, I've been up for almost 24 hours at 10 o'clock at night and having that dorm pack was the best thing in my whole entire life that first night because other than like if I didn't have that I would have been like sleeping on like a cot like with nothing on it. And that's just like that would have sent me over the edge. Even though I was like, I was very close to the edge to begin with. Yeah, so the next day I got new sheets but the comforter I have been using from the dorm pack for months and it works completely fine. And I have a pillow from the dorm pack that works great. And honestly the economic word like the opportunity cost of like like having that the first night was absolutely worth the money. I think it was like $25 for the dorm pack which like for sheets that are terrible. Yeah, that's annoying but having the bedding there when you show up was worth every penny. And that's just like my honest opinion on that. Okay, number six I think maybe, I don't know. Get it to go cup. So this has been the best thing of my whole entire life is I have like a travel to go mug that I got from like Primark and it was like maybe five pounds. And this thing I use all the time to just like get my tea from the like pantry which is like our little like kitchen area in the dorm. And I will make tea and put it in there but like sometimes they forget about my tea. So like having the lid on it is very nice cause it keeps it hot. Also if you're going somewhere there have been trips like where we had to get up at like six in the morning and like I would like some coffee like having that cup that I can just like bring with me right away and just like shove it in my bag is great. But then it also works as a mug in the dorm. It's just so useful. And then number seven is going to be have an essentials folder. Basically what you want to do is like have all the papers that you need depending on your situation going through immigration in that country in one folder. So have everything printed out and have it screen-shotted on your phone or saved in an email like just for peace of mind and having it all in one folder. Like, okay. So like I have a, most of the time you have to get a SIM card for the country. My folder like I keep literally everything in there. So when I got home I knew that my SIM card from my phone right here like was in my folder. Like I didn't move anything. My vaccine card is in my folder. My passport is in my folder. And like it is just like a catch-all for everything. So I highly recommend doing that and keeping it in an easy to reach place. So I hope this video was helpful. Thank you so much for watching. Subscribe for new videos every Friday. I talk about Study Abroad and I show blogs of my life and you know living, living there. And yeah, if you have any video suggestions please leave them down below or any questions or things that you want to add if you have experience. So yeah, thank you so much for watching. Ba-ba-da-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.