Last week I was waiting for a relative at the San Francisco International airport and a plane for The Philippines had just arrived. \u00a0I was mesmerized by the huge cardboard boxes the filipino passengers brought with them, I guess these were checked in with their usual suitcases. \u00a0Each box was massive and some people had two of them….I was desperate to know what was in those boxes. \u00a0My cousin Marga explains in here:<\/p>\n
The Filipinos call the boxes Balikbayan or Alis Bayan boxes. Balik bayan means returning to ones country and Alis Bayan means leaving ones country. As long as the box conforms to the airline weight allowance, one can pack bulky things into it. Usually they contain food and presents for everyone in the land of their birth and the opposite when going back to their \u201cadopted\u201d home. We can also ship Balikbayan boxes without weight limit from the U.S. or any country that has a large Filipino community to almost any point in the Philippines, for a very reasonable fixed rate, depending on the size of the box, door-to-door! \u00a0Best deal ever!<\/em><\/p>\n My mother used to do the same when she went to the USA \u00a0from Spain to visit her siblings every year. \u00a0 We lived in Andalucia from 1963 onwards and there were many things that she missed from America. We lived in a very rural area with no cities near us, and also, the items my mother missed were only introduced to Spain in the past few years .<\/p>\n Thin fast-drying bath towels, pretty stainless steel flatware, cake mixes, self-rising flower, ice tea mix, MiracleGro powder fertilizer for her garden, pancake mix, plastic labels for the plants, plastic-coated\u00a0wire\u00a0for securing the plants,\u00a0a waffle maker, maple syrup, canned cake icing, an ice cream maker, drip-dry (non iron) \u00a0fabrics for making napkins in every hue of green or blue, a huge transformer for the American appliances. My mother decided to ship these items every year in\u00a0big boxes from the post office in Jackson Tennessee. \u00a0They would take months to get to Southern Spain but when they arrived we were so happy! Not so much for the towels and MiracleGro \u00a0but very happy for the angel food cake mixes and ice cream maker.<\/p>\n A few months ago I wrote a post about what I bring from Europe to California when I travel . \u00a0I usually end up staying for a couple of months so I like to bring a few favorite essentials, like my mom but at a small scale. \u00a0 You can read about it here<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n And below is what I usually bring from California to Europe, for myself and for my friends who beg me to bring them back specific items that I have turned them on to.<\/p>\n Here is my packing list:<\/p>\n