Mailing a letter

I finally made it to the post office today.  I had some directions from one of the students, who had gotten directions from a Chinese student, with limited English skills.  I talked to Yao, our hotel manager, who had given me directions, but I was not sure he actually knew where the local post office was.  As I was walking out to get on the bus I ran in to Damion, one of the faculty that has been here for 7 years.  He told me to take the bus to the Bell Tower and mail your letters.  No one mails any international postage at the local post office because they don't know what to do. Save yourself some frustration and take the 40 minute bus to the main post office in the heart of the tourist center.  So I took his advice.  When I got on, the bus was almost empty, so I could sit down.  About the fourth stop and group of 5 older women got on and there goes my seat..  As we got real close to the Bell Tower a young girl was going to get off the bus and she made sure I sat down.  I guess I look older than I think.  One good thing about going to the post office, it is right across the street from the Starbuck's.  I did have a cup of coffee.  Three cups of real coffee in four days.  Great.

 This is what I look like before I have had a cup of real coffee and that is probably why the young girls insisted that I sit down on the bus.  Once I have had a some coffee though, I become a new man.  I also bought some ground coffee at Starbuck's, to give to the rugby coach.  He was nice enough to make us some coffee so why not return the favor.  The strange thing about this place is how fast you get use to the prices.  The coffee was 95 yuan which is around 15 US dollars.  That is about what you would pay for the coffee in the USA.  But after being here a while it is like, "Jeepers, that's expensive."  I could eat for 5 days on that much money.
At least the physics test is over now.  I had to stay in my room for 80 minutes while a student took the test and then it took over 2 weeks to figure out how to get the test results back to the USA. The scanner and the computer did not work.  Besides the information is all in Chinese.  Every time a student would try something the computer would work differently than it did before.  It was easier to just get on a bus, ride for 40 minutes, mail the letters, have a coffee, and then ride back.  I got a little frustrated when I got my stamps because when I went to put them on I was not sure what stamps I need to put where.  But after I just relaxed and thought about it everything was fine.  I think sometimes travelers get frustrated because they have trouble with communication.  It was not any ones fault that I could not speak good enough to communicate.  That is my problem not the postal clerk's.  She did her job and did it fine.  I am so glad I did not get upset at her because I could not electronically send a test to the USA.  Things do take longer to do here.  The physics test was 80 minutes and in the USA I could have sent it to the professor and been done ten minutes after the test was over but here it took two weeks, and a 40 minute bus ride to do a simple task.  That is the way things go.  If you want to complain about it just stop and ask yourself if everything is perfect in the world you live in.  My wife can not log on to her email account at ICC but I can check my email from here, no problem.  Then again, my wife can have fresh coffee in the morning.

After a couple of sips of coffee I look and feel 30 years younger.  I just wonder what my hair will look like on Friday afternoon.  It will not look like it does in this picture, that I can guarantee.