mail time.

The events that took place today (now, yesterday) are hard to believe. Sometimes, when I think about it, my days seem pretty normal to me, but then other times, I think about my life in America and laugh. I laugh because what I do day in and day out here is sometimes so far from my life in America that all I can do is laugh.

Today was one of those days.

I rode a becak to school, just like every other day. I went out to lunch at one of my favorite places with some awesome friends, and then we went over to D’s house to prepare for the afternoon. Oh, to preface all of this story, my sweet parents sent me a package on November 2. Said package arrived in country on November 10 and was yet to be seen. Notice the “yet” in the sentence, because today was a great day friends. Normally, packages come to the English center within a couple weeks – not the case this time.  We took matters into our own hands!

We go by taxi over to the main post office, in this really huge, really old building. We have the tracking number, so we go in to customer service. She says the package is here (please know that our local friend was helping me out with the language, haha there’s no way I could’ve done it without her!!!). It’s here! What beautiful words, but we basically had no idea what we were in for.

We walk back through a few hallways and corridors, into a part of the post office that I am sure I would never be allowed into in America. We pass by platforms with names of different cities, lots of people sorting out the packages accordingly. We walk back into an area where, well…I don’t really know what it was. We give him the form. He looks some stuff up. They talk in my new language, and they laugh and are (for some reason) impressed that I know the little bit of language that I do. He says it is here also.

He gives me a chair to sit in….that last about five seconds, because the room where the package was looked like this (I had to sneak these photos so there would be no hurt feelings, haha):

The hunt was on. I walk over to help him look and I see the customs form with my Mom’s handwriting all over it. I start crying. Mom’s in Southeast Asia! He looks at me like I’m crazy, and in broken language I tell him why. He understands, and now is helping even more!

Haha, my friend and I go searching through the packages. The “mail man” finds one! Oh, it’s for my friend who is waiting in the taxi! Haha, but there’s some hope! Oh, he finds two more! Oh, they are for my roommate…what in the world? Where is my stinkin’ package?! By this point, I’m a little bummed but resolve that it’s okay. It’s here. Right? I just keep saying “Di sini! Di sini! Itu di sini!” (Here. Here. It’s here!).

I go out and get the girls out of the taxi so they can sign for their packages (and help me hunt). We go back to one of the first piles the mail man thought it was in. Now, there is a new mail man and he’s not helping. He is pointing and telling us where to look. Really, pak? Oh, Southeast Asia. We’re searching, and Rachel finds it! We all rejoice! Haha, and then we talk some more and sign some things, and without too much trouble we're on our way!

We walk out and I’m saying “Selamat Natal (Merry Christmas!)” to everyone. Haha, they respond with “Hadiah Natal (Christmas presents)!” Wow, I am sure that they laugh at me all the time. Can you tell there was a lot of laughing today? And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT! They ask me where I’m from, are shocked when I say America (like its not obvious), are curious when I say my parents sent me presents, the whole shebang. In the midst of all of this, they are saying that we got our presents, and my sweet local friend chimes in, “yeah, but we had to find them by our self!” Haha, so true…but you know, at least I have no more doubts about ever getting a package, I might just have to find it first! It was actually a lot of fun!

Just one more way that my life is far from what I know as normal, but the “long walk part of gift” saying has never been more true. How sweet it is to get some happiness from home!