Today in the United States, there is no work or school in honor of Labor Day.
Obviously, that is not the case here in Russia. School has just started. Stores are open. The streets are full. The buses and metro packed. Labor marches on.
So Andrea and I went to the Russian Post Office today.
I have been saying for quite some time now how the U.S. Postal Service is so undeserving of the scorn so many people heap on it. It's a good value in many regards for the service rendered.
That was brought home full force today.
We spent two hours at the main post office here in SPB sending back some souvenirs and Andrea's un-needed clothing, but mostly books Andrea purchased here.
First, we had to figure out to which window to go. Andrea discerned from a patient clerk that books must be sent separately from the few clothes she was sending back and the souvenirs we had. So we withdrew from that window and packed up those items separately.
Then we had to go to another window and get the books packed up. That is done by a second clerk. The first window is only to pick up forms and boxes!
Andrea had misunderstood the book-wrapping clerk with an attitude: books are to be separated into groups of 4.8 kg, not 48 kg. After we re-weighed and divvied up the books, the clerk then wrapped and packaged them for us (that part was nice).
We then had to fill out the forms and address the packages.
A nice, English-speaking Russian gent told us we must get a number from an electronic kiosk for the specific shipping service we needed. Then we then had to wait for the ticket number to appear on a screen. We waited about 20 minutes for our number to be called.
From scouting the post office last week, I had thought credit cards were accepted. I was wrong, and after the third clerk told us the price, Andrea had to run to the ATM for cash.
I certainly oould not have performed this task on my own - as I easily did at the Italian post office in Florence. The process was inefficient and confusing, to say the least.
Even with its problems, give me the U.S. Postal Service. Hail and long live the USPS!
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