srah blah blah

People say that the French are rude...

People say that the French are rude, but in the French post office, they were nothing but helpful and nice. In the United States, on the other hand...

I went to the post office to mail Denis and Sophie's presents to France. In order to save time, I used one of the Bentley's Priority Mail boxes, which Bill very nicely let me have for free. I was going to send it Priority Mail anyway, so that was handy. Then when Amy, my mom and I went out to lunch, I popped over to the post office while they were waiting for the table to be ready.

The post office was surprisingly empty. I figure now that everyone must have known about Ugly Suspenders Man and gone to another branch, but I didn't. I got in line, then I was called and I walked up to the counter.

I put my box down on the counter and said "I'd like to send this to France." The clerk, who will now be known as Ugly Suspenders Man (because he was ugly and had suspenders, not because his suspenders were ugly) looked at the box and looked at me. He said nothing, but stared at me as if to say "Why do you exist?" After a while I got sick of being stared at and said, "Can I send this like this?"

"No," he replied quite simply.

"Is it the box?" I asked.

"It says here [once, very small where the postage is supposed to go - I hadn't seen it but that's no excuse for him to be rude] that this is for the United States and U.S. possessions. Last time I checked, France didn't fit that."

Isn't that a rude and nasty way of putting it? Maybe it's just me. He suggested that I come back and try again later, as in "Leave my post office and come back when I'm not working." I asked if it would be possible to send it if I changed the box, and did they have any boxes I could use? Could he possibly suggest one, or be in some way helpful?" USM replied that there was "one of those left over there, but you'll have to pay for it and you'll have to repack it and go to the end of the line." I loved how he added the end of the line bit, as though I were going to push up to the front of the line just to see him again sooner.

The worst part of it is that I felt like he was abusing me just because I look young... and that made me want to go crying to my mommy.

srah - Wednesday, 19 December 2001 - 3:13 PM
Tags: stories

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