Adaptation

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was one of those people who thought cell phones were pointless.  Of course, that was before I lived in a city where you spend more time in your car than you do in your home.  Now, many moons later, if I accidentally leave the phone at home I am liable to have a panic attack.  In planning this trip, the main concern my travel companions had was about the quantity and quality of wi-fi, and part of me agrees.  Yes, I'm a total workaholic, yes, it will be good for me to separate myself from the gadgets for awhile.  However, like the emergency supply contents of my handbag, I feel safer knowing that if I need to connect, there's a way to do so.  Besides, this is a working trip anyway - part research, part vacation, but there will be lots of typing regardless.

What to bring?  The cell phone is a given - European number, linked to a credit card.  My own cell phone will stay off.  The question of computing was trickier, but I've settled on some sort of tablet - portable and capable of solid word processing, which is really all I need.  My iPod for the long journey portions of the trip.  Cameras.  Plural, which is kind of funny.  There's a camera on my cell phone, a camera on the tablet, my old point-and-shoot Nikon which I'll toss in the bottom of the suitcase in case the good camera fails me.  The good camera.

And a whole mess of cables and batteries and adapters to go with them.  I'm terrible when it comes to packing, but I'm hoping to adapt to traveling relatively lightly and condense some of these wires to a less ludicrous number. Luckily, half of them are Apple-based, which will make things easier.

Three weeks to go!  Ah, technology.