I will see you in far off places

Oh I love reading The New Yorker.
Just for those lovely bits of stories by people like Nora Ephron, writing about her love for her NY apartment. And her falling out of love for it when the rent rocketed.
She talks about moving:
"It was as if we had died but got to sort through our things; it was as if we'd been reborn and were now able to start accumulating things all over again".

I know I'm moving for only a year (well at the moment, it's only a year and then a 'see-how' after that) but the thought of filling my suitcase with things I'd need for a year freaks me out. I don't know where to start. I don't know where to begin. I make lists, I write them down, I recite them in my head. What to bring? What to leave behind? How to start?

Forgive me. It is my first move. I know a lot of y'all have made your jaunts overseas, staying for several years at a time. But this is my first.

It's not that I've started packing - that would be a bit early at the moment. But I'm just trying to figure out what I need. What I can't get there. What I can. What I can get in the US instead. I guess I'm afraid I'll be falling asleep on the flight, high above the ocean and I jump up from my seat (or at least I try to, given the limited leg room) and shout: "FCUK. I forgot.....!"

Yeah I know I can easily buy things anywhere. But some things have do have their sentimental value. And I'm a sucker for that kind of thing lah.

And then there's the books... after all I'll be in the US for nearly two months doing erm, absolutely nothing.
I suppose I could bring a suitcase full of the books that languish on my shelves and buy everything else there. But i have a feeling that would be a tad bit overboard.
I will have to be extremely picky and just take those I know will be a fantastic read. And maybe throw in one I already know is a fantastic read, having read them time and time again.

I shall mull over this..