Care Packages

Hello everyone!

This is going to be a quick post; I'm planning on writing you a delightfully long one later this afternoon, after I've actually done something exciting (although I do need to detail the events of Blues to Bop, but I'll do that later too). I've heard a bit about people wanting/planning to send me care packages. As you all know, I love, love, love getting mail; especially packages. But there are a few things you should keep in mind:

1) Size & weight: I do have to carry whatever is sent down a very steep, long hill. My box of bedding weighed about 17 pounds and was in a box I could just barely get my arms around, and I think that's really all I could manage. So let's keep the weight under 20 pounds (I'm afraid to think what might be sent that would weigh more than 20 pounds...) and the dimensions minimal, if possible. This is not to say that you should send 20 pounds of weight in eighteen different small boxes; that would be even more tiresome, trying to hold onto numerous pieces walking down the hill.

2) As it is I brought as much as I could with me in my suitcases; they were stuffed full (okay, yes, one piece was nine pounds under the maximum 75...). This means I don't have a ton of room to bring stuff back with me. And while I can mail some stuff back, it's quite a bit more expensive than mailing from the US even. (Everything is more expensive in Switzerland; that's sort of what we live by.) So nothing too enormous or purposeless. (I really don't want to sound ungrateful; I just want to make sure I'm not too bogged down traveling back home by myself.)

3) On food: I only have to provide breakfast & weekend meals for myself. The rest are already paid for through my Meal Plan, which I don't want to waste, so I don't need a ton of food sent. And I have been able to find a lot of the basic stuff here.

4) If you are not sure what to send me, here are a few ideas:

Lightweight, cheap posters/wall hangings (my walls are incredibly white and bare, it's quite unattractive)
Chocolate chip cookie ingredients: vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, & chocolate chips! (I've already found the flour, sugar, eggs, milk, etc.)
Measuring cups & measuring spoons (all my recipes are for cups/teaspoons rather than kgs/grams, and converting can get messy)
A sturdy umbrella (they seem to only sell very flimsy ones here)

And that's all I can really think of right now... If I think of anything else, I'll post it. Oh, and also, you all might want to confer with one another before you send me stuff, so I don't end up with eight bottles of vanilla and thirty-six measuring cups... Or of course you can e-mail one another, you know, Mom e-mails Anita, Oma e-mails Soraya type of deal...

And please don't get me wrong: I LOVE RECEIVING PACKAGES! It makes my day whenever I receive one! I just want to make sure that I don't end up wasting any of the time, money, or thoughtfulness you put into putting one together.

And does anyone know how to break the seal on the leather-waterproofing sponge on top of the bottle? Still can't figure it out...

Smile! Love, Ari