Tuesday, July 21, 2015

My Poland Relocation: Clothing & Electronics

Thanks to the cost-of-living website numbeo.com, one can see that certain items are more expensive abroad than they are in the US. This includes clothing and electronics. So I figure best to buy those before I leave, though what I buy has to go further, since I want to travel as light as possible - preferably only two checked bags, a carry-on, and a laptop backpack.

Clothing:
After reading the book, "Details Men's Style Manual" ( http://www.amazon.com/Details-Mens-Style...159240328X ) (not a plug, let's just say nobody has to pay for it), I've rebuilt my wardrobe to be as interchangeable as fashionably and practically possible. Some key items (note that these aren't all of them):

- Two pairs of no-pleat regular cut grey slacks, with about a week's worth of matching grey socks. The book calls grey slacks "the Swiss Army knife of pants", and indeed, I've worn them dressed-up AND dressed-down.

- Four short-sleeved collared shirts of varying colors. Worn alone in the summer and under one of two grey collarless sweaters in the winter.

- One pair of no-pleat regular cut khaki shorts. I generally don't like wearing shorts unless it's quite hot and/or humid, and I don't expect to wear them that often in Poland.

- Bogs chuka boots. I basically destroyed a pair of loafers in a previous winter trip to EE because it was too damp for them. These chukas are supposedly waterproof, but leather, so it won't look like I'm wearing women's rain boots or men's fly-fishing boots.

Electronics:
For $190 I got a factory-unlocked dual-sim Moto G (2nd gen). I have a CDMA carrier (Verizon or Sprint) here in the States, so my current phone won't work abroad (I used an all-expenses paid GSM phone from work in my previous travels). No 4G LTE on the Moto G, but 4G LTE bands vary by country - likely as a way by carriers to keep prices different between different countries.

More expensive phones such as the iPhone 6 are near-universal in 4G LTE band support, but quite frankly, the only reason I have 4G LTE here in the States is because I tether off of a $55/mo grandfathered unlimited data plan (so I can't remember the last time I dealt with the likes of a Comcast for Internet or TV). In Poland I expect to get a local SIM (and thus a local number) and pay per GB of mobile data, so most of my Internet use will be over WiFi. The extra sim slot may be useful for further travels.

The laptop I'm typing this on is pretty old, but since my most intense usage is merely YouTube, I have no plans to upgrade. Reformatting it recently has reversed the steady decline in performance. It also already has an HDMI out, so I'm actually typing this on my 40" LCD from my couch using my bluetooth keyboard and mouse (which use rechargeable AA batteries). The nice speakers I have are too bulky to come with me, but they will be replaced with my small portable bluetooth speaker (which actually sounds great, but obviously not as good). The laptop will also be used to keylog girls (see 20Nation's post as to why you should do this: http://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-29794.html ).

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