It’s a little bit painful to pay 3.01 euro for a mere 14 sticks of gum, but I’ve been doing it on a regular basis since around the end of my first month in Nantes. I’ve been able to reduce my consumption to three sticks of gum per day — but not without some difficulty. What’s sadder is that they don’t sell Trident gum (my favorite brand) here, but the alternative I’ve found tastes pretty good. It had better, considering the price! But every time I chew one of those cherished minty rectangles, or buy some new ones, I chastise myself for not having brought along more gum in my suitcase. And then I got to thinking about the mistakes I made packing all the way back in August…

First, I packed too much. I knew I would, I did, oh well. But if I were to redo it, even if I couldn’t prevent myself from overpacking, I would have at least overpacked with different items, or more or less of a certain type of item. Certainly, I would have packed more gum. At least one more large, multi-pack container from Sam’s Club.

Additionally, I would have packed more artificial sweetener, which I prefer to sugar. I did think ahead to pack a lot of Truvia packets, but they are so light that I really could have brought more. Truvia is sold in France, but the price is nightmare-inducing. What’s worse is that I wanted to do a little bit of baking while here, and I generally buy a large bag of Splenda to use, cup for cup, in place of sugar. Alas, no Splenda here, and I have found no real equivalent. I did end up making a very tasty bread putting with Truvia, but I used about half of the tiny container that, if I remember correctly, cost upward of 6 euro.

I also shouldn’t have packed so many clothing items. My host mother has kindly lent me some sweaters and even a very nice black coat with deep pockets that goes down to my thighs. I have worn it almost every day for the past month; I haven’t even once worn the coat that I actually packed with me, and that thing took up a bit of space in my suitcase! Even though there might have been no real way of knowing that my host mom would share clothing items with me, I definitely could have looked into Nantes before coming. I’ve been to one, and I bought a really cheap hoodie there (under 5 euro). They also sold coats at a reasonable price.

I also regret packing a raincoat. Sure, it’s gray in Nantes a lot, and there can be rain — but I’ve always managed with an umbrella and a regular jacket or coat in the past, so I’m not sure why I thought going to France would suddenly necessitate purchasing an article of clothing I hadn’t worn for years.

As for tech stuff, I made a few mistakes there as well. I asked to take my dad’s camera along, but I’ve never used it. My iPhone takes decent enough photos, and I honestly don’t believe there would be a tremendous difference in photo quality. It’s just one more thing I need to be careful about not losing or breaking when I go back to the U.S. in December. My dad also let me take his Skyroam Hotspot, which I haven’t used either.

All that said, some items I packed proved to be more useful than I thought they would be: a medium-sized black purse with multiple pockets, two pairs of exercise leggings (leggings are more popular at the school rec center than shorts), a high-quality travel vest with many hidden pockets, two pairs of tennis shoes (the rec center recently put up signs asking students to bring an extra pair of shoes to change into so as not to track mud all over the place), plastic bags.

Ultimately, despite some mistakes, I think I did a decent job packing. I haven’t used everything I brought along, but many items are ones I use every single day. It was definitely tricky predicting what I would need in France, but the hardest part of filling my suitcases is yet to come — deciding what to bring back home!