You guys probably remember me talking about my friend from work (Michael, BTW) quitting to go work for Halliburton in Baghdad. If not, it’s not really important to the contents of this story.
He emailed me last week, asking if I could run by CompUSA and pick up an external USB hard drive and ship it to him, since they wouldn’t ship directly to an address that was not on file with Bank of America as his billing address. Seemed simple enough, sure I’ll do it for ya man.
So a few days later, I run by CompUSA with two of the other guys I work with, and pick out a good deal on an external drive. We get back to work, I find a box and even some of those air-filled plastic things they pack stuff in, and head back to our mail room to try and mail it. The lady in the mail room tries UPS, but they don’t do APOs (which really makes sense if you think about it. I mean, why would they?). Next up is the US Postal Service. We trod over to the scale to figure out the pricing, and as luck would have it, it’s about a pound too heavy for regular shipping. Welp, looks like I’m off to the Post Office to have them do it. Needless to say, this isn’t looking to be a promising experience.
So I drive over to the post office, which is really only about 2 blocks away from work (hey, they’re big blocks…). I trudge inside, and there are only about 2 people in line in front of me. I’m quickly called to the front, where I show the guy the box I want to ship and point to the address on the front. He sees the APO and gives me a customs declaration form to fill out and tells me there should be a pen at the end of the counter I can use. I go fill out the form, which is a little difficult, since he doesn’t tell me how to classify the APO information (is APO the city??), and go get back at the end of the line. He finishes up with his current person, and calls me back up, since I was already in line. I happily skip back up to him, glancing at all the losers still stuck in line.
It was one of those odd moments in life, where you feel like you’re better than everyone else all of a sudden. You have been chosen, and from the back of the line no less. All other normal losers are still standing there, wondering what happened and why you’re special enough to skip ahead of them.
Oh, sorry, back to the story… So I go back up to the desk, hand him the form and tell him I hope I filled everything out correctly, that I didn’t know how to fill in the APO address. He looks at it and says that’ll be fine and starts fixing up the package. Tape on the copy of the customs declaration, followed by asking me what type of shipping and insurance I needed, and the printing of the actual mailing label. The entire process took about 10 minutes, and the final cost was just over $10. Not only that, but the entire experience at the Post Office was almost downright enjoyable. The teller was incredibly nice and helpful, and the wait was virtually nonexistent. I would definitely recommend them to a friend… As if there were an alternative…
Not that I’m interested in Moving to Iraq - but I’m curious - how much does more does it pay to work in Iraq?
I too have to wonder how much better you’d be getting paid! Not to mention the threat of IED’s going off where you don’t expect them to! And much violence in the city overall!