Camping at the post office.

The best part about living, well, anywhere is receiving packages in the mail, and we got the news on Tuesday that the packages Brent´s parents sent us had arrived.

Since there were three packages, we waited until I was done with school on Wednesday so Brent and I could go together and pick them up. In and out job, right? Pick up packages! Easy! We should have known better.

We walked to the post office and were surprised to see a dozen people standing outside the entrance to the international section. Bummer, we´ll have to wait a little bit. Then we walked inside -- where a couple hundred people were waiting.

We took a number. 86, and they were on 40-something. Okay.

Until 86 was called, and we realized we had the ticket 86A. They were on 86E.

It´s not as bad as it could have been -- E was as far as they went with letters, so we were excited to have only 100 people left to go before we were called again.

When 86A came around, Brent handed in the three notices that we received at our apartment. They were accepted and stamped and we were given -- you betcha -- some more numbers. These numbers corresponded to the numbers assigned to our packages, and we had to wait for them to be called, which happened in random rather than chronological order.

Some hours later, the numbers were called. Rejoicing, we walked through a door into a warehouse-like customs area. Even though the tracking information on the packages said they had cleared customs on September 23 or something, a customs official opened one of the boxes and went through it a bit, asked us how long we were staying here, and whether the things were used or new. After he approved the transaction, we took the boxes past another man, where Brent signed for them, confirming that we had indeed spent four hours at the post office to pick them up.

Two things: #1, if you want to send us a package, ask yourself if the contents are worth spending four or more hours in a post office for. #2, these definitely were worth it. Thank you, thank you, Jody and Larry.