Trip to the Post Office

Well, I went to the post office yesterday. I needed to go to mail a couple of letters to Steve's mom and aunt. Neither has e-mail (so can't read this blog) and since our internet phone still isn't working, I wrote them letters to let them know what's going on here. Anyway, I didn't know what to expect. Of course, this experience wouldn't be disappointing.

First, I had to find the post office. My driver dropped me off and pointed to a building and said that the post office was in it. Well, after going in a grocery store and looking like an idiot...come to find out the post office was in the next building over.

Once I actually found the post office, I stood in a very short line (yes, an actual line...in China, people don't know how to stand in line and it is very common to have people cut in front of you...so because of the upcoming Olympics, the China government has designated the 11th of every month as "standing in line" day for people to practice...something that most of us learnt in kindergarten). I told the lady behind the counter that I needed to mail the two letters to America. She told me 15 rupees each (which at first I had heard as 50 rupees...I really need to work on figuring out what they are saying here), so I paid my 30 rupees and received my stamps in return.

Well, unlike the peel and stick stamps in the U.S. or the old fashioned lick stamps from a few years ago, stamps here (and also in China) have no adhesive on them. Well, then I spent a couple of minutes looking around the lobby for the "glue." In China, this is actually a glue stick or a giant glue stick wheel. Well after a couple of minutes, a gentleman took pity on me, and pointed me outside. Yes, I actually had to leave the post office to find the adhesive for the stamps. Outside the building was a little folding table with a bowl of "goop" in it. Well the same guy who pointed me outside to begin with, actually showed me how to use the goop. You have to stick your finger in it and then smear it on the stamp. Then there is a bowl of water to clean your finger afterwards. Well after the stamps are finally attached to the envelopes, I couldn't figure out where you actually drop them at. Well, you had to go outside the actual gate of the post office to find the mail drop box. So after a 3 step process, my letters were finally mailed!

We'll see if the letters actually make it to Illinois or not, and just how long this takes. When I was telling my girlfriend here about my post office experience, she told me that there is a good chance that the stamps will get stolen off of the envelopes before the letters actually make it out of India. She told me next time to request that the envelopes be metered instead of applying stamps. Ughh! Oh well, I guess it's better to find this out now on letters to my mother-in-law and aunt-in-law instead of when I'm trying to mail something more important!