Yay, this blog has been inactive for too long! The past few weeks had been awfully busy getting adjusted at work, holiday shopping for both sides of the family and keeping up with domestic duties.
I love shopping for my family but the waiting game and anxiety involving the post office in the Philippines is such a pain in the you-know-where. The cost of shipping packages to the other side of the world, holiday or not, is no joke either. There is, of course, the cost-efficient, almost hassle-free way of doing things - send cash electronically. I am, however, old-fashioned in certain things, and wrapping gifts that I've labored over finding at the mall is one of them. There is a certain excitement that comes with physically holding a gift and ripping it open.
A Korean man working at the post office told us shipping the boxes via International Express would be expeditious. "It should take 6 to10 days, but you should call the post office in the Philippines to make sure they deliver it." I have had first-hand experiences on how inefficient and untrustworthy our postal service is, but to have a "foreign observer" point it out to your face is simply humiliating. He went on to extol the diligence of Koreans and how everything seems to work in their country.
I tracked the packages almost every day, and each time it moved from one location to another in the US, USPS posted updates on its website. Interestingly, when the packages arrived in the Philippines, USPS wrote that it will post more updates with the caveat, "if information is available." That says a lot about how unrealiable our post office is.
Thankfully, my family did receive the packages about a week ago - after the post office had poked holes in the boxes and tore up the gift wrap. The upside to this ordeal? Everything is accounted for.
I received an email from USPS on Dec. 20 saying, "...we regret to inform you that we were unable to locate any delivery information in our records regarding your item..." I regret the ineptness of our post office, too.