Travel to USA
This is the first of a series of posts about living on your own. I guess this post would be more useful to a student in the US, but really, anybody could adapt the guidelines that I give to their own needs.
First and foremost, when you are coming to the USA, I have seen people, myself included, pack a whole lot of clothes, foodstuff, cooking utensils, etc., thereby increasing their luggage weight and running the risk of getting charged for overweight luggage.
Let me list the essential stuff required.
- Formal clothes - From what I have seen, formal wear is relatively costly here in the US. So when you come here, do bring a suit and a good pair of formal leather shoes. Don’t forget a matching leather belt, ties, etc.
- Casual wear - As a student, I find myself wearing T-shirts and jeans 99% of the time. And that’s what you’ll find other folks - read Americans - wearing also. Even my advisor can be seen in nothing more than a T-shirt and shorts. The point of this is that you can pick up casual wear here pretty cheaply, and good quality stuff too, at rates somewhere of around 50% or even less of what you might find in India. So cut down on the number of T-shirts that you bring.
- Cooking Utensils - I’m still wondering why I brought enough to stock a restaurant here. Apart from the pressure cooker, you can get almost anything else that you need at a WalMart store.
- Other Utensils - You can again pick them up here for a song.
- Foodstuff - Don’t bother even thinking about bringing 20 kg of rice or dal or whatever. My recommendation is to get spices - although you can also get those here at Indian stores. The only thing that I find missing is the curry leaves (karuveppalai/karipattha). I haven’t found them here yet, although I have heard that they are pretty expensive. If you are new to cooking and don’t know the different types of dals, get some small samples in sealed plastic pouches. You don’t need more than a few grams per sample. You can’t bring any perishables into the USA, and you can pretty much get what you need in any grocery store. Regardless of what you are bringing, make sure it is doubly sealed, to prevent any leaks from ruining your good clothes.
- Electronic Stuff - The problem is that the US decides to do everything different from how India does it. Rather than me trying to explain something in technical terms, I’ll leave that job to this website.
- Mobile Phones - This is yet another problem. You might want to consider buying a phone in the US itself. The problem is that the US has primarily CDMA providers, versus a few GSM providers (GSM is the dominant mobile technology in the Indian market). I have no clue about CDMA phones now, but if I get some information, I will update this page. GSM phones are a different story altogether, and warrant a whole new blog post.
I guess that covers my list for now. If I get any further information, I will update this post.