Thursday, January 10, 2008

Essential Knowledge

Go to the mailbox, take out an envelope from DHL, open it, read a notice about some package for you from the US having been given to Customs for processing of duty fees, with the address where you have to go to pick it up and pay whatever, without knowing what it is, and all within 3 days or you'll be charged a "storage" fee. The place is nearly an hour away, halfway between 2 S-Bahn stations, which means a hike is also involved, only open till 6:30pm and it's now 4. So you take off immediately, get there shortly before 5 to see a line a mile long, wait a half hour to be asked if you have a receipt for the order from Amazon, tell the customs agent you don't know what it is, it must be a gift. OK. You can wait in the next waiting room till they call your name, which they do after another half-hour, again ask what it is, you say open it and we'll both find out. Then you see it's a book from your wish list, was sent on December 6, is your Xmas present from your sister, and tell the guy so. A gift is good, he says, and wants to know how much it costs, cause it doesn't say on the packing slip (of course not, it says merry christmas from T), but the jacket bears a price, which you tell him would be lower at Amazon, and he says that's ok, cause the dollar amount shown amounts to less than 45 euros, the maximum amount permissible for a gift without duty on it, and you can take it and leave. And take the packaging off the counter.
It was "The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge", and picking it up also expanded my knowledge about christmas presents arriving from across the ocean. Today is almost mid-January.
HO HO HO, MERRY CHRISTMAS !
( And thanks, really, for the present, sis, it's great ! )

3 comments:

  1. And just how many people gave you Christmas gifts this year that consisted not only of the gift itself, but the adventure of obtaining said gift? Only your sister, from far across the ocean, could devise such a gift! (Ah, the power of the internet!)

    Glad you like it -- you should, seeing as you asked for it! (And mine was a very entertaining read, too!)

    Love you!

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  2. Just thought I'd point out that my gift arrived American-style: conveniently stuffed into your mailbox, no effort required. :)

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  3. This is all very true, but both of you show learn enough rudimentary German to be able to order items for my reading pleasure from Amazon's German site which provides FREE shipping for all books within Germany. (I think currency conversion fees would be cheaper than shipping fees from the US, and then no customs agent will ever be able to bother us again: another bit of essential knowledge that I have garnered from my many years of experience. And, yes, that is a Tyson attitude.)

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