no return to sender here

so, today we are going to continue with the series of what life is like here even in the day to day happenings. i happened to be getting some stuff ready online for my email update and my roommate came in and said that i had a notice to pick up a package at the main post office! i was really excited as it came quite sooner than i had expected. i had been to the main post office downtown with my friend before, so i had an idea of what to expect. i immediately got my things together as the lunch hours (yes, hours:) were quickly approaching and i wouldn't be able to go by there that afternoon. as you can see above, my nice golden ticket and my passport in hand on the way to the post office. these are necessary to acquire a package. you can also see how excited i was enroute to the post office--i looked like a little kid on Christmas morning!

so, i got to the room/office where one picks up imported packages. it was quite busy, so i gave my ticket (yes, the golden ticket!) to the man my friend likes to call Santa Claus (cause he's the man with our packages). he said it would be a little while. there were probably six or seven people still waiting for their packages to come out from the back. so, i stood around for a while, then took a seat to wait for my package to arrive on the counter. i was unable to take a photo inside as that is illegal. so, i whipped up this quick artwork to illustrate what it was like. i knew ahead of time that the poste workers can and will open packages. it is interesting--sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. also the poste folks can even charge one to actually get their package (like if you have a lot of expensive things in there, they may charge a percentage). so, i realized that since there were so many people and they were opening everyone's boxes, that mine would most likely get opened as well. finally my box came out, along with several others and was opened. they briefly looked through it, but then wrote up something on my ticket and i just had to show my passport and sign off that i received the package and i was on my merry way! above you can see the illustration of the boxes sitting and open. this process alone took about an hour. i got back to my place and reopened (they are so nice and retape up your box for you) my first package! my mom did an incredible job of cramming as many goodies in the box as possible. i am really thankful and have been sharing some of the goodies i got. i am also enjoying my world map and fun little games. yeah mom!!
well, hope you enjoyed another look into the day to day excitement here:)