Packing List

Here’s a packing list of things that you might not have thought of. I didn't included things like "pants" because I’m assuming you've already got those under control. Many of these things can also be shipped if you're short on space or make great care package stuffers…

-Highly recommend Smart-wool socks and anything by Under Armour – they’re breathable, warm, (or cool when it’s hot), sturdy, and easy to clean and dry
-2 pair of long johns – it will be cold in the winter, and many buildings are not warm inside like you find in America
-You will dress in business casual most of the time, so pack accordingly
-Sunshower – some of us have running water and some of us don’t. If you fall into the latter category, this will be a great way to take a shower. Find them at any camping store
-A gift from America for your host-family: chocolates, a calendar, bottle of wine or liquor, blow up globe, scarves, cologne or perfume or aftershave, matchbox cars, vegetable peelers or other good quality cooking gadgets, Uno decks, or anything with “America” or your state printed on it – t-shirts, mugs, keychains, etc.
-Small flashlight
-A good overnight bag – you’ll frequently go on 1-3 night trips for trainings or to see other PCVs over the weekend and you won’t want your huge suitcase or framepack for this
-Batteries – the quality isn’t so good over here. I’d recommend rechargeables
-Flash drive (also called a jump drive, thumb drive, or USB drive) – You’ll probably want to transport files between computers in the PC office, computers at your site, and various personal computers. A flash drive is the easiest way.
-Musical instrument – If you’re on the fence about bringing a guitar or other instrument, I’d suggest bringing it. It’s a great ice-breaker, and though you may need to pay $150 for a third piece of checked luggage, it will be worth it over the course of two years. Or if someone else is only checking one bag, maybe they’ll help you out. You can probably purchase one of whatever you play here, but might not be as good in quality.
-DVDs to swap
-Start a blog before you leave – might be easier than sending email updates to friends and family. Several free services exist – Blogger, MSN Spaces, Xanga, Travelpod
-Some exercise bands – they’re compact, light, and a good way to stay in shape
-Pack some necessities in your carry-on in case one of your checked-bags is delayed for a day or two. This usually happens to one person in every group.
-Laptop – not absolutely necessary, but very helpful for work, email, and watching DVDs; If you do bring a laptop, try to set up a POP email account on it before you get here (gmail has a great tutorial on how to do this on your laptop). A POP account means you can download copies of your emails from whatever email system you’re using onto your laptop in about 20 seconds and read them offline. You can also compose new messages offline and likewise send them in a few seconds. This drastically cuts down on the amount of time you’re tying up the phone line – and greatly reduces your phone bill. And speaking of phone bills, if you're bringing a laptop try to bring a microphone (if not already included in the computer) and a pair of headphones. We just got Internet cables that you can plug into your laptop and so calling home over the Internet through Skype from the office is easy and cheap (or free).
-Your frequent flyer number(s) – many of the airlines share FF programs with each other. When you check-in at the airport, give your FF# and get credit for the trans-Atlantic flight.
-Granola / energy bars – great nutritious snacks
-Pictures of your life and family in America. Your host family will love them, and you’ll probably like them too.
-Spices – or ship them. E.g. BBQ sauce, soy sauce, olive oil (it’s very expensive here), chili powder, cayenne pepper, taco or fajita or chili spice packets, cinnamon, brown sugar, etc.
-Slippers – or buy them here. Everyone wears slippers inside
-Shoes without laces – not necessary, but you will be taking your shoes off and on a lot when you enter and leave a home
-Very good condition US bills – nothing smaller than 20s. Smaller bills are only sometimes accepted for deposit and those with marks on them will not be or they’ll charge you a fee for accepting them. PC will help you open 2 bank accounts: one for the Moldovan currency (lei) and one for dollars. It’s pretty easy to get money out of both from banks in the capital or big cities when you need it.
-Duct tape – it fixes everything. An easy way to carry it is to just wind some around a Nalgene bottle. Wherever you bring your water bottle (everywhere), there’s your duct tape.
-Leatherman – fixes what duct tape cannot
-Maps – of the world, America, and your state. They’re free at any AAA if you have a membership and make great gifts, wall-hangings, teaching tools, and conversation pieces. Also very helpful when planning out your vacations
-Coffee – I'm not a coffee drinker, but if you want something other than Nescafe instant, you may want to bring your own java
-Canned goods for Thanksgiving! We have a pretty spectacular Thanksgiving celebration for PCVs in Moldova, but it’s only possible because each incoming group of PCVs brings a certain canned good that you’ll get an email about before you leave.

And here's some things not to bring to Moldova...
-Vitamins, condoms, Aspirin or Ibuprofen, Pepto-Bismol, band-aids, sun block, floss, cough drops, etc. PC will supply you with a pretty comprehensive med-kit and free refills. Toothbrushes and toothpaste are your own responsibility, though. [Since I’m not a woman, I’m not 100% certain about how the tampon-issue or birth control works. I believe PC will supply you with two choices of birth control pills and you are responsible for tampons or pads. I think there’s a fairly decent selection of brands in the capital and big cities.]
-Lots of white clothing – gets dirty very easily
-Cell Phone – almost all PCVs purchase phones here, either new for $60-150 or used from departing PCVs. If you need to cancel a plan in the States, you should be able to get out of an early-termination fee under the “Soldiers and Civil Servants Act.” You’ll probably need a letter from PC to be mailed/faxed to your provider as proof that you’re serving overseas. Talk to your customer service rep to find out exactly how it works. Once your plan is cancelled, phones can be donated at most libraries or sold pretty easily online through craigslist.com, ebay, or several other sites.
-A whole lot of books – there’s a pretty extensive library at the PC Office and PCVs are always trading books. You can also send books fairly cheaply at the US Post Office by requesting they be sent in an "M-bag." Good idea to send them when you leave the US or shortly thereafter and they’ll probably arrive about the time training is over, when you’ll actually have time to read.
-A Russian/Romanian to English dictionary – you’ll be given one. Though, I would recommend you find yourself a small pocket dictionary because the one you receive is pretty huge. If you really want, you can probably find a better English to Russian or Romanian dictionary in the US.
-Candy – you’ll be given plenty of it and you can buy it everywhere, though none of it is very high quality
-Envelopes – they’re included with the purchase of stamps at the local post offices
-A suit – guys, you will be fine with black pants and a sports coat, which is a bit more flexible than a suit
-If you’re short on space, you can just bring some extra money and buy a winter coat over here. You can get warm ones here.


Here's a great article by David Pogue of the NYTimes regarding how to use your current (American) cell phone abroad...
As a T-Mobile subscriber, Ken Grunski, a businessman in San Diego, knew that his cellphone would work during a trip to Tanzania. What he did not expect was the bill: $800 for 10 days’ use.

“I didn’t think I was going to use my phone that much,” Mr. Grunski said. “But two to three 10-minute calls a day, and it adds up.”

What a shame that Mr. Grunski did not heed his own company’s advice. If he had, he would have saved himself a bundle.

Mr. Grunski owns Telestial, a company that sells SIM cards, small chips that replace those in cellphones sold by T-Mobile and Cingular and lower the costs of calls when overseas.

While his American phone worked abroad without one, Mr. Grunski was paying sky-high rates because he was roaming in a foreign country. T-Mobile charged him $5 a minute to roam in Tanzania.

If Mr. Grunski had used one of the SIM cards he sells, he would have paid $1.15 a minute to call the United States and his calls — averaging 16 minutes a day — would have cost him $184, rather than $800.

While Americans have embraced the convenience of using cellphones, trying to dial from overseas often brings surprises. Even if the phone works, voice mail may not. Depending on the handset, coverage can be spotty. Make the wrong choices, and you may find a huge bill.

The right tactics to avoid those headaches depend on which carrier you use, the length of your trip and your destination.

GSM vs. CDMA

A majority of the world’s cellphone subscribers — 82 percent — use the GSM technology standard, according to the GSM Association. In the United States, the major carriers use two systems. Cingular (now AT&T) and T-Mobile use GSM, while Sprint and Verizon use CDMA, an incompatible technology.

CDMA technology is found in North America, as well as some Asian countries, but it is basically nonexistent in Europe, Australia and South Africa. As a result, Sprint and Verizon customers can use their phones in just 26 countries. (AT&T and T-Mobile customers can potentially use theirs in over a hundred.)

When traveling in non-CDMA countries, Sprint and Verizon customers can rent or purchase GSM phones from those providers. Sprint rents a Motorola Razr for $58 for the first week, and $70 for two weeks, plus $1.29 to $4.99 a minute of airtime. Verizon charges $3.99 a day to rent, plus $1.49 to $4.99 a minute. Verizon also sells three combo CDMA-GSM models, priced from $150 to $600 with a two-year contract.

Cingular and T-Mobile customers have more options — if their existing phones can pick up multiple frequencies. To complicate matters, the American GSM standard operates on 850 and 1,900 megahertz, while the rest of the GSM world uses 900 and 1,800 megahertz.

To use an American GSM cellphone in a foreign country, the handset you own must be tri-band or quad-band and able to operate on one or both of the frequencies used outside the United States. The Cingular and T-Mobile Web sites, as well as Telestial’s and others, list the predominant frequencies used in each country, and show if your phone can operate on one or both overseas bands.

To protect against fraud, American cellphones are typically blocked from making calls when used abroad. Before traveling, call your provider and ask to have that restriction removed.

A Temporary SIM Card

GSM phones use SIM cards (subscriber identity modules), tiny electronic chips that hold a cellphone’s “brains,” including the subscriber’s contact numbers and phone number. (CDMA phones store such information directly in the hardware.)

GSM customers can avoid sky-high roaming charges by replacing their American SIM cards with ones from other countries. For example, travelers to Britain can pick up a SIM card from the British carrier Vodafone; once inserted, it gives the phone a temporary British phone number. Calls within Britain and to the United States would be much cheaper.

For example, T-Mobile charges its customers $1.99 a minute for using their phones in Britain, whether calling a pub in London or your home in New Jersey.

Insert a prepaid British SIM card instead, and local calls drop to 26 cents a minute, while calls back to the United States cost 9 to 14 cents a minute.

Another benefit when using overseas SIM cards is that incoming calls are typically free in most countries.

Overseas SIM cards can be purchased before you travel from companies like Cellular Abroad (www.cellularabroad.com) and Telestial (www.telestial.com) or at local shops in foreign countries.

Unlocking the Phone

Even if you have a GSM phone that operates on both overseas frequencies, domestic cellphone providers do not want you to use your phone with another company’s SIM card, because they do not make any money when you do. To prevent your doing so, cellphones bought through Cingular and T-Mobile are electronically locked — they accept only their own company’s SIM cards.

Before you throw your phone off the Eiffel Tower in frustration, know that there are several ways to unlock your phone and avoid those high overseas roaming rates.

Cingular and T-Mobile will unlock their customers’ phones under certain conditions. Cingular will provide unlock codes to customers whose contracts have expired, who have canceled their service and paid an early termination fee, or who have paid a full rather than subsidized price for their phones, according to Rich Blasi, a Cingular Wireless spokesman.

T-Mobile has more lenient policies. It will provide the unlock code to any customer after 90 days of service, but no more than one unlock code will be provided every 90 days, said Graham Crow, a T-Mobile spokesman.

If you do not meet these requirements, you can still get your phone unlocked from a private company. For a few dollars, the Travel Insider (www.thetravelinsider.com) and UnlockTelecom (www.unlocktelecom.co.uk) will provide your phone’s specific unlocking code.

Other GSM Phones

Cellphone customers with dual-band GSM phones that cannot be used overseas can always purchase unlocked quad-band phones from third-party providers. These phones can be used solely when traveling outside the United States. Since they are unlocked, they can also be used instead of your current phone on your American network.

Because the phone is not subsidized by a carrier, the price is higher. For example, an unlocked quad-band Motorola Razr V3 can be bought for $140 from Cellular Blowout (www.cellular-blowout.com). Cellular Abroad and Telestial also sell unlocked phones.

A Few More Tips

When entering numbers in your phone, always add the plus (+) sign and the country code; that way, the number can be dialed automatically no matter from what country you are calling.

Store your GSM phone’s numbers in the phone itself, rather than the SIM card. Then the numbers will still be available to you when you use an overseas SIM card. To transfer them to a new phone easily, store them on a device like Backup-Pal (www.backup-pal.com), an external U.S.B. memory unit.

While you will not pay any charges for incoming calls when you use a foreign SIM card, tell your American callers to get an overseas calling plan from their phone company before you ask them to ring you. If they do not, they could be paying the same sky-high rates that you just avoided.

And if you take your American phone overseas, make sure that its battery charger is dual voltage; without one, all the effort to get your phone to work in other countries may go up in smoke the first time you plug it in.