Hanni asked to see a breakdown of how things were packed and what the final size of the bags were. Here are some more comprehensive pictures than the last one. First, everything I’m taking including clothes and a few additions:
From the top left:
- One navy jacket, three dress shirts — purple, orange plaid, pink/green plaid. (Hanging in back.)
- 8 pairs underwear.
- 8 pairs socks.
- DIR-855 wifi router.
- Withings wifi scale.
- Dress shoes, with two ties on top.
- Dress belt.
- Tumi watch travel case, with three watches inside.
- Vonage router.
- Four books that aren’t on the Kindle, that I’d like to read:
- The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco.
- Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character), Richard P. Feynman.
- The Fruit, the Tree, the Serpent: Why We See So Well, Lynne A. Isbell.
- Jazzocracy: Jazz, Democracy, and the Creation of a New American Mythology, Kabir Sehgal.
- D3S camera charger, with retractable power cord.
- Beard trimmer.
- Extra Rembrandt no-SLS (canker sore) toothpaste, because it’s hard to find.
- Travel toiletries.
- Laptop stand, keyboard, mouse. (Basically this with a better mouse.) All on Logitech’s new Unify radio.
- Two jeans, shorts, bathing suit.
- Nikon D3S.
- Extra laptop charger.
- Fun sneakers.
- Flip-flops.
- Two short-sleeve button downs, four long-sleeve button downs, one polo shirt.
Here is what was left over after I packed the first bag:
So I started a second bag. The hardest thing to pack was the scale, which is too big. I also decided to wear the sneakers and pack some small boots instead, since the sneakers are easier to slip on and off in the airport. Here are the two bags fully packed: (Do they look familiar?)
The only things pictured that isn’t in those two are the dress shirts and jackets, which I’m going to send separately because thy’re not urgent and didn’t want to stuff them in. All in all, including what I’m wearing, I’ll have all the tech essentials from home, about nine days worth of regular clothes with about thirty permutations, a few dress things for a wedding I’m attending (Anthony’s!) and the nicer evenings out with six permutations, three pairs of shoes: dress, leather boots, and crazy sneakers. With the jacket I’ll wear on the plane will be comfortable into the low sixties and can dress down up to the nineties. There is probably something I’ll run into that I forgot, but can always go shopping there if there’s something urgent. (But probably won’t be.)
If I had to cut, would take out the scale, wifi router, dead tree books, and Vonage. If I had no formal events could take out all the formal wear, shoes, ties, and belt.
The one thing I’m anticipating is at least one more pair of sneakers, to vary more. I’m also going to need a way to print while there, but there’ll probably be a business center or Kinko’s nearby.
My tech backpack is way more interesting and optimized, but that’s a topic for a different post. 🙂
Matt on Not-WordPress, mostly photos 
Reminds me of this NYT article 🙂
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And more specifically, the slide-show.
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3 watches? one daily, one dress, what’s the third?
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Maybe one that you wouldn’t mind losing if you got mugged? 🙂 Or a sports watch (which could serve the same purpose).
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Chance of getting mugged in Montreal: approaching 0%.
S
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It’s not that practical, it’s just an indulgence. I have one sports/diving watch (a Panerai) that’s pretty indestructible, the three in the roll could all be called dress watches, they’re just different styles and colors and I wear them out normally.
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Assume you know about: http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/default-en.aspx
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Oh yeah — that’s the main reason I’m here!
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Nice watches can be practical! I practically have Sarah convinced that I need a real nice GMT watch so I don’t miss WordPress meetings. 😀
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I like that line of thinking! 🙂
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Interesting to see the Withings scale in the mix there.
Not something I would expect someone to travel with – although I now know how addictive they are after getting one recently.
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I would usually never travel with that, but because I’ll be there so long and I don’t want to lose the data of my daily weigh-ins. In hindsight, I probably should have just mailed it.
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That’s pretty lightweight for a 1.5-2 month trip 🙂
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I packed that much just for my 1 week trip to LA for E3!
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The Name of the Rose and Surely You’re Joking are both really great reads.
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I am headed to Montreal for the summer as well! I will be in Montreal from July 7th through the end of August with my roommate. We are just subletting a place and I am working remotely. I need a small break from Omaha.
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Sounds like a fair amount of overlap. Hopefully we can do some epic WP meetups.
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Chance of actually *needing* to speak French in [most of] Montreal: approaching 0%.
S
(-:
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Not sure how, but I clicked on the wrong “reply.” Snarky comment meant for elsewhere (and joke ruined) (-:
S
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I’ve often wondered how you packed 🙂 Cool post!
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Pretty simple gear set. there’s nothing that you can’t get on St Catherine, St Denis and St Laurent to be quite honest.
How about a french phrase book?
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That would probably annoy everyone involved. 🙂
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You totally cheated. If you can’t carry it, don’t bring it!
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All that for a month and a half to two months? I would be taking my house LOL.
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Hey Matt!
Montreal is the most secure place is the world :P. I’m a Montrealer, and it is the best period to be here. Plenty of festivals, people, food, and activities. You’ll have a blast. What do you like to do?
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I like to work during the day and then at night will check out the jazz festival, restaurants, visit friends.
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Umberto Eco. *thumbs up*
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Matt, I thought you did the Tim Ferriss, World Warrior (TM) thing and bought undies and other basics on site?
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I’m pretty sure he travels with underwear too. 🙂 I think the idea is if you forget anything you can buy it on site. Or don’t try to pack for every contingency because you can always get stuff there. But you generally need underwear every time. It’d be a waste of time to do that for every single item you could travel with.
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tabernak, calice, ostie: some swear words to use to feel part of Quebec culture. especially useful during a montreal canadiens game and at the bar.
by the way, a cool bar that i went to last time i was there for a friends wedding: dominion sq tavern at 1234 metcalfe below st. catherine. it’s very cool old ‘style’ pub with GREAT food and good old-school cocktails. trust me, you’ll like it.
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You’re an excellent packer!
The Name of the Rose is an excellent book. I loved it. Umberto Eco’s other books, though, I found too philosophically dense.
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A little late, but this made me chuckle. My version of packing: passport, medicare card (yey universal healthcare), driver’s license. Done and done. 😀 The rest is just a luxury.
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