Sometimes the Postage System is a Pain

I received notification of a box arriving for me on Thursday afternoon.  I was very excited, hopeful that this meant my birthday present from DW had arrived!  It had already been really fun to receive birthday mail from Steve, my grandma, and Jill, and I wanted that box!

Tuesday afternoon I went to the post office and the box I was given was very beaten up and I did not recognize the hand writing, so I was a little confused.  I got home and saw that it was from Faith Baptist Church.  This package was very very long awaited.  My home church is very kind and choses to send college kids a care box every spring.  I believe this one was first sent out around Valentine's Day but went to the wrong location.  It was returned to the states and then sent out again.  Inside were a lot of goodies: some envelopes, candy, popcorn, pencils, and some other goodies.  It was very fun to see the items people send around the world for me.

Now I was curious about DW's box.  The mail came and I had a letter stating something about my package.  It was in Finnish and even google translate has some limitations - especially because I do not know how to type an a with the double dots, a very common character in the Finnish language.  I walked to the nearest post office and they told me my box was in Finland, but in Vantaa (the city/region just north of Helsinki).  For the life of me I do not know why it did not come to Helsinki.  Both because it was a beautiful day and because I wanted my box, I continued my trek to the main railway station where I knew they had a customs center.  They also said my package was in Vantaa and that that office was closed.

She gave me a phone number to dial.  Calling those numbered yeilded no result so I found a different number online.  As an interesting twist, I could not find the location of this post office on google maps or the Helsinki Journey Planner so was more and more convinced my goal was to get them to send my box to the main rail station.

Long phone call short, I got an e-mail address which allowed me to request the box come to Helsinki.  One week after my birthday (I realized just today that I can now legally rent a car), I got my box.  I opened it an found a few cards (birthday, birthday in Finnish, and Easter), a bag of Easter M&Ms, and a new watch!  Too much fun!

A couple hours after opening my present I had the opportunity for a phone interview with HGA Architects in Minneapolis.  The woman was very nice and the program sounds excellent.  So we will see if I hear back from her in the next couple weeks and have to option of Minnesota or Montana for the summer!