Around the World in 240 Days
Last July, when I began packing my stuff in preparation to leave Japan, I found that I had way more stuff than would fit in my allotted two suitcases. I packed two cardboard boxes of extra stuff. Box #1 was desstined for home, but I also had the clever idea of not taking my winter clothes home but instead, packing them in box #2 to be shipped to the UK directly. After all, I wouldn't be needing a thick wool coat or my fluffy turtleneck sweaters in SoCal in August. What a great idea. Or so I thought.Box #1 arrived in California only a month behind me, way ahead of schedule. The box was a bit smooshed, but the contents were intact and the whole experience was relatively painless. I then asked my friend Satomi to send box #2 over to my UK address in mid-September, anticipating an equally smooth sailing transaction. No such luck.
I waited and waited and waited. Summer turned to fall and I wasn't too worried yet. I'd heard that British customs is strict and they feel the need to violate every large semi-unidentifiable box that arrives in its ports with x-rays and strip searches. Besides, a bunch of other Americans that I spoke with said that their packages were taking forever as well. Nothing out of the ordinary. Fall turned to winter and I started to get a little nervous. Not to mention kind of annoyed. It was COLD and I wanted my sweaters and fleeces! I tried looking online for what port it might have come to or if the post office was the one that would deliver it or what, but I couldn't really find anything. I had to give in and finally buy a cheap ass coat just to get me through the next couple of weeks until my box finally arrived (this is the coat that later got lost in a coatcheck at a club, but that's a different story). Winter turned to spring. I still had not given up hope. If the British shipping/postal beauracracy was anything like that of the U.S., I guessed that my box was just sitting in some warehouse somewhere. My only fear now is that I wouldn't recieve my box before I left. I was hoping that it would at least arrive before my parents did so that they could take my now unnecessary winter garb home with them at the end of their visit to the UK. Again, no such luck. Spring turned into "summer" and I'd pretty much given up hope. I was gonna make a last ditch effort to recover my wayward box and make some angry angry phone calls, but then today, I got this email from Satomi:
I got your box back today. It says that it was sent back from UK.
Son of a bitch... Well, at least I know where my box is now.
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