What Once Was Lost...

I finally managed to collect the package sent from my parents about, oh, a month and a half ago. How, you may be asking, was I so colossally dumb to miss picking up a package for a month and a half? Well, I'll tell you.

I got the notification as per the usual routes: my school "served" with with a notice that I had a parcel waiting in Chashan town. From my previous visits to the local post office, I knew exactly what I needed: both the notice they sent me, as well as my passport. A little much for a package, but hey, not entirely unreasonable. So I put off picking it up until I could return passport in-hand.

Unfortunately, somewhere between Thursday and Monday (my weekend), the notice pulled a Houdini. Poof! Gone. Lost. Without A Trace. May as well call in the Cold Case Files, because not even CSI could have found it. (Have I put in enough references to CBS weeknight programming yet?)

So there I was: SOL. Without the slip, I had nothing... and so the box sat. And sat. And sat. (I'd like to point out at this point that the Chashan mailbox is not something you take a leisurely stroll to. It takes planning to get there. Even if you know which bus will take you to the town, it's nowhere near the bus station. It's not somewhere you go unless you're sure you can get what you want.)

Eventually my predicament slipped out to my parents - the senders - and they, not without reason, made sure to make fun of me as often as they could over it. Especially once they got here. And I certainly had it coming.

But finally the post office realized that they had a box sitting in the vault that no one had claimed. And - surprisingly - instead of ransacking its contents for themselves (and it would have been a haul), they issued me a second notice! As soon as I could, then I grabbed my passport and - this time, notice tucked safely away in my wallet - made my half-hour trek in and picked up my box.

And it was well worth it! Kashi bars (minus the ones I had to toss because of peanut-paste salmonella), coffee, almond butter, and the cherry on top: the beef jerky! Straight from the local bemusingly-named Meat Shoppe in Montana. Unfortunately, some of it had... well... turned. But the stuff that was still good was delicious!

Nothing else to report at the moment.
(CS)WC Out.

paint me any face that you wanted