I returned home yesterday to my squalid apartment to find a slip of paper wedged in the door. It didn’t look like a bill – didn’t have any amount on it – but I couldn’t work out what it was for. There was only Chinese on it. I decided to take it to the evening marking session at the Hope Hotel to see if someone there could help me. It turned out to be a note to say that I had a package at the post office waiting to be collected. How exciting.
I had made a special journey down HuaiHai Zhong Lu at the back end of last week to collect another package which had been returned having failed to be delivered to an old lady in Nanjing whom I had sent it to. On that occasion the walk was about 20 minutes along the busy road to collect it.
This time, the post office I had to go to was another one slightly closer but in the other direction. I was quite excited. Who on earth could have sent me a package – especially when all family send to the school rather than my house. I was intrigued. I rushed there after work before the office closed and duly handed in my slip of paper with my passport and they quickly came back and handed me a small envelope – not a package at all. I was slightly disappointed of course.
I thought I might as well open the envelope there and then rather than waiting until I got home. However when I opened it all I found was another note all in Chinese which when I asked the staff, apparently told me to go to the other post office on Huaihai Zhong Lu to pick up a package.
So basically it was a slip of paper to get me to go to the post office to pick up a slip of paper which I should take to another post office to collect the parcel which I had already collected last week.
Don’t you just love China.