PACKING UP AND ONE UNHAPPY SIAMESE

well, today is the day! our last day here, and i have been packing all day! however, i must admit, i'm pretty sweet when it comes to packing. i don't know if it's because i've played a lot of tetris, or what, but i'm super good at it haha...which comes in handy when trying to pack for 3 weeks in another country! and we get to use our new luggage!

pink & brown ribbons tied onto each piece so we can find them easily at the baggage claim

the stocking stuffers we got this past xmas from my parents for our trip!

kahlua saw us bring out the luggage and he was instantly upset...he knows what that means...

in case you didn't know, rolling your clothes is the absolute BEST way of packing. you can fit SO much more in your luggage! first, you lay out your shirts like this...

mine

kahlua got in the way for when i started to lay out erik's shirts...he has some intense determination to try and stop us from leaving haha

erik's

then you just roll them all up like a burrito! then i shoved them in this vacuum bag that we bought :)

we had never used these before, but they were pretty cool (in theory) but the zipper thingie at the top ripped holes in them in two spots. i patched them up with tape because i was too stubborn to take everything out and put it in a new bag, but here is a before and after:

before...

and after!

the results would be more exciting had i not rolled the clothes (because it would shrink everything down way more), but since rolling the clothes gives you so much more room in the first place, i stuck with it. 

fits perfectly! and yes, that is a suitcase inside of another suitcase because we want to bring as many as we can to japan so that on the way back we can bring home more souvineers! but for the way there, we dont want to check that many bags to save on money ;)

anyways, that's pretty much it! we're excited to go but kahlua is devastated.

poor bubba. we will miss you, kahluuuu!

our first of 3 flights is tomorrow morning at 6:05am. yikes. we plan on staying up all night tonight, and then sleeping on the flights. cleveland to chicago, chicago to toronto, and toronto to japan. that last one is 12 hours. another yikes. but it will be worth it! we'll update again during our first night in shinjuku (in tokyo) on the 24th!

sayonara!!!