A trip to the post office

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Being foreign does affect the way things work for me. Especially as a female with blondish hair. Today, for example, I was in line at the post office to mail a card. I only had one thing and obviously it's going to take less time than a package. I lined up like I was supposed to, watching the yellow footprints on the floor that everyone else was oblivious to. The sign above the desk is green and says, "Integrated Service," in yellow lettering. Whatever that means. I just know it's the line I'm supposed to be in.

I was nicely gestured out of line by a woman who worked there, who then weighed my card, told me the cost, and then took me over to a woman who was selling Lunar New Year cards and stamps so I could buy them there. I gave the woman my money. She opened a drawer, and inside was a messy pile of bills. Apparently cash drawers at the post office are all messy, because I know that's what the Integrated Service ones look like, too. She handed me 5 colorful stamps, loosely placing them on top my envelope so I could carry them without smushing them.

I then took my stamps over to the counter with the paste pots. Yes, paste pots. There are no self-adhesive stamps here. I afixed the 5 stamps on the back of the envelope (they didn't fit on the front), surveyed the sticky damage, and then walked outside to drop it in the green mail box.


In a country where time is NOT money, the fact that she saved me 10-15 mn in line was wonderful. You can bet that if I weren't foreign it wouldn't have happened.

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Comments

[Dad]

Stamps
Paste pots?? Egads. I've never had to paste-pot a postage stamp in my entire life. People in the US now get upset when the postage stamps aren't self adhering and they have to lick them. How spoiled we Americans are!

[sunketing]

pasting
Many envelopes are also require paste. And it's not a plastic wand to smear the paste, but an actual (sticky!) brush.