Well, there are numerous blogs about this subject but it's been suggested to me that as a survivor of the trip (cue ominous music "dah dah dah dummmm!") I should go ahead and list how I did it. I'll give the best found blog at the end. Many of her items are incorporated here.
First, your supplies for this adventure in the world of organization and avoidance of panic attacks. If you are as anal retentive and as afraid of forgetting something as I and you will want the following;
1-2 packs of clear page protectors designed to go into a 3 ring binder, the kind where you put the paper in the top so you can still see it.
1 pack of page dividers, I would suggest 8 to 10 dividers.
A small plastic pencil holder of the type that looks like a ziplock bag, and make sure you have a pencil, 2 pens 1 black 1 blue, and a couple of highlighters. I would definitely suggest that the pens be newish because I discovered after using mine for 5 minutes that it was old and it ran out of ink. Luckily I always expect the worst and had another pen in my pocket.
Can you see where I'm going with this
Finally, buy a large size 3 ring binder (& punch). This will become your holy bible. Choose a favorite color because you will be carrying this sucker around.
1 of the first things you will get is a welcoming packet that also includes your visa application and instructions. Follow this sucker to a T! No fooling around. Once you have all of the items together and prepared, copy it, keep it in the exact same order as the original that you sent, three hole punch this entire monster and put it into your binder at the top, all of the other items to be clipped in the back.
We will start with their first item after that. I should warn you that you are about to become Kinkos or Staples favorite customer. You are going to be making two to three copies of everything. Why? Because once you have given a copy to the government you can pretty much guarantee that somewhere along the way somebody else will want a copy as well. And you want to make sure that you have 1 for yourself. I like to have 2 extra copies, that sort of lets me lose 1 and not freak out.
You're going to get to know the number 2 very well. 2 of this, 2 of that, 2 2 2...
You will also be asked by the governments to send them copies of numerous documents including your marriage license, your diploma, color copies of your passport, excetera. Remember the 2 extra copy rule I told you about? Yep, you got it, go back to Kinkos and attach yourself to your favorite copy machine. Make sure your copy card is well loaded, I can guaranteBring along a cup of coffee and maybe a little snack Your extrae copies of everything go into the p this before you even moved away from the machine. Take no chances on misplacing or accidentally throwing it away. In order to save time and key strokes let me simply put it this way. If you have to fill it out, sign it, or initial it make those important 2 extra copies.
Do not assume your job ends here. Check with each country you are flying through, even if only changing planes, as to what immigration and customs papers they will need. Everybody is different. Even if you are only scooting from one plane to another. This includes papers for your pet. Got a furry or fuzzy child? Antigua springs a surprise on you by asking you to arrange a local vet on the island to meet you at the airport when you change planes. That is not easy to do. Be alert and overly educated. There are a number of documents that you will need ready for your pet. Remember what I said about the to copy rule? Well it applies again. And can't be sure to keep your receipts because you actually can apply for reimbursement for your moving costs and write them off for taxes! Keep that extra copy! It is far better than traveling a fool. (Yes even for a plane cash) so have cash ready. About $50.
Now wave goodbye to the cheerful Kinkos or Staples employee who has been watching you for the last 2 hours thinking that you have lost your mind.
Now on to the welcome packet. This has information on just about everything possible. But this is your survival manual to get to Dominica, all the rest can be read and tagged at your leisure. You will also receive a list of things very easy to find in Dominica and items that are hard to find. I punched it and filed it with shopping information. I have found almost everything can be gotten here but it is more expensive, and often out of stock so you will want to bring your own if you are on a budget. Pricing is what my husband and I called Disney pricing. A can of Monster is $4.46,
PACKING TIME!
Most airlines allow you to check 2 bags, but you have to pay for the 2nd. I cannot stress enough, PAY FOR IT!! Pay for extra weight!!
You will also have your carry on. 1 large suitcase I would suggest you use to pack your daily items such as socks, underwear, clothing, shoes etcetera. The second I consider "other stuff",
1 of the first things that was suggested to me & I will suggest to you if you love coffee a small french press & a good amount of coffee. Tuck this into the second suitcase. I set mine in the center my suitcase and then packed soft items around it to protect it.
In suitcase #2 (hereby known as "stuff") 2 bags for groceries, they have plastic bags but they're not always happy to give them. Tote bags are and are handy for many things.. Assorted popcorn, granola bars, peanut butter, crackers etcetera are good idea to have for emergency food. As it was suggested to me, so I will suggest to you, if you want a good night's sleep bring your own pillow! This is where that vacuum seal bag that you suck the air out with a vacuum cleaner comes in handy. Owning a down pillow I got to smoosh mine really small. This also goes into the second suitcase, this is where you will put general stuff including numerous rolls of soft toilet paper, your bath towel and favorite soap. I highly suggest two large bottles at least of saline solution, it's a bitch to find down here. A few other things to throw in the "stuff" suitcase. A handheld water bottle that includes a filter, Brita has one, and be sure to pack extra filters like 5 or 6. An umbrella is a requirement.
Back to suitcase #1 (known henceforth as "personal"), mosquito repellent because the little buggers carry disease here. And I cannot stress enough, being a complete idiot who forgot, sunscreen. Lots and lots. This is the equator. Playing lobster is not fun, not to mention embarrassing when people look at you and clearly are thinking “Look at the idiot who forgot sunscreen”.
Stuff suitcase time. Tuck an alarm clock into this, battery powered, so if your phone goes dead in the night your alarm clock will still go off. A couple tubes of super glue are not necessarily a bad idea. Girls - hair brush, ponytail ties, and PLEASE remember shampoo and conditioner. There's usually only one kind and it's not always in stock.
Got any pets? Grab that cat litter and cat food. Do you have snorkeling gear? That is the big sport here, multiple clubs go out every single week.
Now, my personal addition to this list, and quite frankly I think it's important. Go out to Costco, Wal-Mart or wherever and get the following, the biggest friggin bottles you can find of Tylenol, Advil, Tums, and your best friend IMODIUM!!!!. All four of them. Also be sure to grab fair amounts of Nyquil, Benadryl, and girls get your personal lady stuff supplies here in the USA! Customs does not question this even if they do look. Just tell em your moving. And of course bandaids, though liquid bandage is an absolutely fantastic alternative. It has an antibiotic in it goes on clear, stays on very similar to nail polish but you remove it with polish remover if you wish. I adore this because bandaids falling off fingers grossed me out. Especially when near food. These are things that I would not have thought to get the biggest bottles possible, I would have only carried a little one. Someone pointed out these are another hard to find item oddly enough and do you want to be able to trust the distributor. These going in your personal suitcase. Tuck these suckers in with personal stuff.
Make sure that you pack your summer clothing, but also a pair of long pants and a long sleeved shirt or sweatshirt. It can get chilly in the evenings. Seriously, a shawl ain't gonna cut it. A dress nice enough that you consider it ok to go to dinner with a faculty member but not dressy enough to require high heels., Grab your beach sandals and your flip flops which will probably become part of your body once you're down here for more than 3 days. Sunglasses! And if you forget your swimsuit you will be beating your head against the wall. You cannot just go out and get these things. (By the way, I will not be discussing children because I do not have any so I have no experience with the little suckers. For that you are on your own. Read your welcome book.)
CUSTOMS!!!!
This is in regards to your container, boxes or barrells.
Ok this was fun....... "not!" Any new items especially electronics you are going to pay high duty on, you want to make sure that you have an inventory of everything that goes into your container. Do this as you pack. You DON'T want to write down the REPLACEMENT value of these items! As I was told by an employee working with customs agents, this campus related agency is known as Supply Chain, write down yard sale prices. Also I would highly highly suggest you get the make model and serial number of just about every device you're bringing that has one, put this in the holy binder! To avoid things looking new I've known many people who done things like scratched up the box, drop kids toys in there, or cat food. One delightful couple in had a large amount of DVD 's and to keep them from looking through and counting them they opened a box of tampons and poured them in there. No man in Dominica will stick his hand in that. Sneaky, not necessarily legitimate but you never know. And the mental picture it provides when the agent opened the box is hysterical. If you're bringing that new computer laptop this might be a way to write it off as last year's model. Read all the material on custom they send you, read it carefully wait a few days and read it again. Did I mention read it?
Okay let's talk about what goes in page protectors. When I mentioned them I am talking about copies, never never never the original.
- Your airline tickets, not necessarily a bad thing to have a
copy of
- Your birth certificate.
- Marriage license.
- Divorce decree (in case the previously mentioned marriage
went down the tubes,)
- Copy of the power of attorney you have for anyone and
anything
- Your home mortgage. They mention this. But I don't think they
are aware of the amount of paperwork actually involved in a
mortgage.
To move all the large amounts of our important paperwork we bought a small fireproof safe, stuffed everything in it, shut the handle & locked it and took the combination with us in this pretty plastic pocket, And now we have a safe on the island for personal documents and important stuff.
On the first page the first line says "Island life runs at a slower pace, you cannot change this, it is part of the culture". Run the brightest highlighter you have over this line. After only 2 weeks I had to remind myself of this repeatedly. It was that or beat my head against a wall because I come from a very fast paced city. This slow down almost drove me insane.
Your table of contents is extensive even though there are only 40 pages. Much of it involves things that apply after you get down here.
This little goody I am penning is focusing on how to get down here so we will only be putting page markers in those relevant (I think) areas.
Put in that first page divider. We begin with a section on travel, here's the focus, we want to know where this section is.
Put in page protector number 2. Housing. If you don't have something already then this is important. Like pets if you got the for a little fellas utility information if you are renting it is not included, things are very different here so you're going to want to know this stuff.
Put in page protector number 3. Utilities would not necessarily be a bad thing to mark
No need for additional visual markers under utilities, we all know what they are so we'll all know where that section ends, when they stop taking about water, electric and cable.
Put in page protector number 4. Packaging, Shipping, Courier and Moving services. This needs to be updated, I've been trying to find the right ones and it seems like they come and go regularly. So take a few minutes and check the websites for all of them and make sure they are active so you can cross of the ones that are not. Ask around when you get here for ones students use most.
Put in page protector number 5. The Health Clinic. Of course we want to know where this is and all about it. If I may make a strong suggestion about the health clinic, arrange an appointment for initial consultation and give them your full medical history so that when you are conked on the head by a falling coconut and have to be dragged bodily back to them they will have something on the records about you and understand the weird tattoo on your butt. Yeah yeah you're medical students, but I never make assumptions that everyone is a genius. OK, maybe Doogie Howser.. if you don't know who he is... just shut up, you're making me feel old.
The rest of it is things like shopping, hiking, things to do, places to go. Breeze through this it your leisure on the plane where you will likely be sitting next to somebody with bad breath or a screaming child beside you for the next 12 hours. What? You expected me to make it all rainbows and puppirs? (If you can name the reference, cheesecake on me at The Tomato when you get here) and that all of my pages with all sorts of little doodads will in came in handy like nobody's business for all sorts of reasons? This is not a sure thing. This is a guide, nothing more.
Oh, if you are using a travel agent, make a printout of everything he sends you (into the happy plastic protectors we go!!).
STORY TIME!!
We had a very serious issue on the Sunday afternoon before we were to leave at 3:00 am the next day that almost cost us our pets but there was a cc on the bottom of one of our travel agents pages for a name that ended up saving our lives. A travel organizer for Ross Students coming through Antigua. This man found us a vet on a Sunday afternoon who was willing to go to the airport on Monday... we have a new hero.
So just keep your page protectors and keep every receipt you get, from that candy bar at the airport shop to the incredibly expensive fee you had to pay to get your extra suitcase onto the plans. If these are not reimbursement allowed , they sure as hell are a tax write off (both actually). Your overweight and extra suitcases are going to cost you money. Plain and simple, and reimburseable. But even the purchase of a suitcase is a write off.
However because you are going to be living out of them for at least the next 30 days or more while you wait for your container, you need everything in those cases. I paid for extra suitcase and I paid for extra heavy suitcases well. And I'm still thrilled that I did. Containers can take at LEAST 60 days. A famous story on campus is one doctor who's container took 4 months. It had been sent to the Dominican Republic and sat on the dock all that time. So settle back and enjoy.
Now I want to prepare to you to leave for your flight, which will likely be leaving at what my husband called o'dark:30 and I call "jesus-christ-what-am-I-doing-up" o'clock. The minute your feet touch the lobby this binder immediately becomes an extension of your body, do not walk away from it, even after saying "would you please watch this for me" If you sit down hold it in your lap, not on the floor under the seat. Why am I being so insane about this be coming some sort of mutant part of your body? It's easy, you can have your purse stolen, your luggage lost, and even your id but if you have this folder you will get where you're going. One extra little notation, once I pulled my passport out of the lockbox where I keep them, I put them into one of those page protectors after making all copies necessary and then stapled that page protector shut so that they ended up at the airport with me safe and sound in my magic mutant extra arm. Holy bible. Travel book. Whatever you want to call it.
This trip will be about 12 hours if you're lucky. You will likely arrive sleep deprived and looking half dead with a serious case of dog breath. So... even if you slept on the place, when you get to your room GO TO SLEEP!
Once you get to Dominica I should warn you that the immigration line moves more slowly than any thing I have ever seen in my life. Seriously I'm not kidding. Worse than the T-Mobile store in the mall. If there are more than 2 people, bring a book, you'll be in line about 45 minutes or more. And absolutely no cell phones allowed. I don't care how fast you want to send your last text, DO NOT PUSH YOUR DAMNED LUCK! Now if for any reason they decided in the previous airport to look inside one of your suitcase is there is a good chance it missed the plane if you are flying Liat (Liat = Late, or Luggage is already there or Luggage is arriving late....etc.). Don't freak, this happens all the time. It's a regular part of life. You simply fill out the claim form before you leave the airport and the drivers go back the next day and pick up your bag when it shows up. See? And again this is why you carried your folder, not inside a suitcase. I would suggest that your luggage have extremely bright obnoxious large luggage tags. Everybody has a black or grey suit case and it will be easy for someone to snag your bag and go. But if you have that is great big scarlet red Mickey Mouse luggage tags like I do (yes I do) it's making it much easier for people to see that bag.
You will take the van or shuttle off to the university. Have you ever gone on the ride in Disney World called the Haunted House? You were put in little cars that go up and down, back and forth and will suddenly spin left or right to show you something. So will everything on the road in Dominica. If you are prone to car sickness be ready to have the driver stop the car and throw up. If you have never been car sick in your life be ready to have the doctor stop the car and throw up. The drivers are used to this and have told me all sorts of stories and it happens all the time, do not be embarrassed or try to tough it out (it can result in embarrassing stories for a long time as well as van mates hating you for the remaining 30 minute drive). Perhaps taking Advil before you go on your trip simply avoids any headache as it does me. The switch backs and drops are terrifying on these drives so you have to keep saying "Disney ride Disney ride Disney ride." Personally I am not just a lifelong member but I'm also president of the travel barf of the month club. Ask anybody who knows me, they all had to pull over. But on this trip oddly enough I never got even a headache. I think it's because I was a complete tourist fool rubbernecking and gawking left, right and going "Look at the goat!. Look at the house! Look at the chicken crossing the read! Holy crap we're driving on a cliff!" That's the only thing I can think of.
I simply cannot stress enough sunblock! Sunblock! Sunblock! Period. Being an Aryan idiot without any, I tried to find some here and the only thing they have on the shelf is mosquito block, and tanning oil to make you darker. Not good for a Nordic complexion. Get your sun block in bulk. You can even sell off the excess here on campus. (But I never told you that.)
If you find me referencing Disney a lot it is because we travelled there 1 week before our trip and I have a very good reference as a result of this. I should make note about something we found highly beneficial in the middle of attempting to pack and move our entire life into storage, boxes or charity. We both began to lose it completely. By happenstance, 3 months before he was offered the job I had prepaid for a trip to Disney World that could not be refunded. It fell right in the middle of our moving. So right in the middle of insanity we packed up an overnight bag, got on the plane and spend 3 days in Disney World. We completely forgot we were moving and relaxed. We got back refreshed and ready to go. If you have a large move going on, in the middle I want you to walk away. Absolutely leave and go somewhere away from your home and forget all about the move for 2 or 3 days, no planning, no list, no nothing. This will save your sanity more than a tub of Lithium!
Now if you want a fantastic site to help you move that covers all the little things that I've forgotten about, then check out the blog "From Louisiana to Dominica". This girl really has her act together. Above all I truly wish I had read this in detail before leaving. It might have saved my sanity as upon my arrival I seem to be missing a large portion of it.
