A sweet, naive friend of mine just moved from the US to Europe. It is the first time she has been out of her region, really, much less a whole new continent and country and language, but she's doing quite well adjusting so far. We were recently discussing the baggage restrictions (how I long for the heyday of three 70-pound bags. Sigh.) when I learned that she has fedexed an additional 3 suitcases here. She is only here for a year, so I politely inquired about the contents of this baggage. After traveling back and forth between University and home, and now France and home, I have learned how to pack very frugally, usually only ending up with half of what I thought I needed and making out OK with that half.

My darling friend has not yet learned this lesson, as evidenced by the contents of just *one* of her fedexed bags:
-industrial power convertor (it apparently weighs 15 pounds itself!)
-blender
-juice maker
-rice cooker

*head against wall*

She has broken one of my cardinal rules of moving and/or international shipping, which is:
Never pay more to ship an object than it would to buy it (new).
This does not apply to gifts.

I guess if she thinks she *really* *really* needs all these appliances then it is worth it. I don't know how much she paid to Fedex it (and how much will La Poste charge her to get it *back* to the States?!) but I wonder how much it would be just to buy them here...I held my tongue, only laughing as she revealed the industrial power convertor that resembles a bomb. She's lucky she didn't fly with that because I'm sure the TSA would've had some questions for her!

tags: Ah, France, shopping