HUG A STAMP VENDING MACHINE TODAY

We have been spending a lot of quality time at the post office lately mailing things and anticipating the arrival of a package from home. Derek and I decided that the advertising slogan of the Sucre post office should be “Guaranteed to arrive by this time next year…maybe.” (ha,ha!) I guess always thought of waiting in line at the USPS as kind of tedious or something, but now I’ve decided that in comparison, the USPS is a well-oiled machine. For example, instead of “sticker stamps” like we have now in the States or even the older “lick ‘em and stick ‘em” kind, the stamps here are just paper rectangles; the glue process is totally separate. The first time I tried to mail something, I enjoyed the novelty of watching the postal employee use a vat of Elmer’s glue and a wooden popsicle stick to splob the back of each individual paper stamp and push them onto the letter, the stamps all overlapping at different angles and glue squirting out from the edges. However, the novelty wears off over time, international mail requires multiple stamps, and now it’s just kinda annoying to stand there waiting. We’re trying really hard to be patient with cultural differences, but we’re really missing the efficiency of the USPS! Thank your mail carrier today on our behalf. And Mom, if our Christmas packages don’t make it to your house in time, well, maybe at least by Christmas 2009. J