Pathetic Postal Service

It's been proven...postal services suck anywhere you go in the world! I thought it was just in the USA, but no...Spain has proven to be just as bad. I bought presents for my neices for their birthdays, which are all quite close together. The presents were all pretty much the same...little figurine fairies...with more or less the same weight. I put them all in the same type of envelope. Can you believe that all three had a major difference in price?

The first fairy took flight at the end of August. I was a little late in getting it to the post office so i decided to send it super urgent. The lady told me "2 Days, 2 Days!" I thought "GREAT! it'll be there in 2 days!" I was wrong. They charged me 30 euros to send a package super urgent that got there in 2 weeks...not the 2 days I was expecting. I felt like Tom Hanks on the Money Mit when the guy said "2 weeks, 2 weeks!" and it was really "6 months, 6 months!"

Needless to say, when the second fairy took flight, I was thinking about the predicament with the first fairy and said to myself, "Heck, I'm not spending 30 bucks to send a 15 euro fairy and have it get there late anyway." So I just sent her off like a normal envelope. They charged me 4.35 Euros. WooHoo! I was excited. And you know what? That sucker was in the hands of my neice Peyton in 4 days! She must have had a rocket attached to her butt to make it to the States at such great speed.

So yesterday I sent the third fairy on her way. I went to the post office with only 6 Euros in my pocket thinking...fairy number 2 only cost 4.35 Euros. I take my ticket and wait my turn. They were on number 478 when I came in...I was number 500! After about 45 minutes of waiting, listening to the electronic "BEEP", the smell of stamp glue, and the little old ladies who always try to jump their turn...it was finally my turn. I step up to the counter, she takes my envelope and says..."Ocho con setenta." That's 8.70 Euros, for you non-spanish speakers. I said, "I only have 6 Euros. Last time it was only 4.35 Euros." She explained that the price is in intervals. For example, 0-500 grams is 4.35 and 501-1000 grams is 8.70. I wanted to scream. Obviously fairy number three had eaten one twinkie too many! I was already running late for class so I ran to Jose's office which is next door and gave hime the package to mail.

That reminds of a few funny stories about the US Postal Service. The time when my friend's mom sent her a package to Spain and when it arrived at Christmas it had Chinese writing all over the box and had halloween treats inside which were stale! She saved the Chinese stamps though. The time my parents sent Jose and I our Christmas gifts and we didn't open them until ONE YEAR later...the pecans weren't that tasty after a year. And the time I received a HUGE care package at camp full of decorative pillows, curtains, candles and a trash can. My grandma really enjoyed eating all the goodies she recieved in Maryland...chocolate, beef jerky, cheese balls and jolly ranchers! But man! Cabin Norway was tastfully decorated that summer with curtains and all...Marth Stewart would have been proud!!