It took from 9:30 to about 2:45 to mail two boxes of stuff home! First, we went to the neighborhood post office and LITERALLY waited in line for over one and one-half hours — just to be told that we had to go to the main post office downtown! So, Laird was really cranky, I was trying to jolly him along by saying, “oh, it’ll be an adventure. . .” Just to be sure we’d have enough money, we changed some more, walked to the tram to go downtown. Once there, we actually got off right near the PO. Luckily, Galina had mentioned that international mail was in the back, and also luckily, Laird asked someone where it was when we got around to the side. We were pretty much near where we had to be, went in, Laird got forms from a helpful woman (in Russian) and then had to figure out what was wanted. His frustration level kept rising, but he did a great job, really, getting it figured out. BUT, there’s always a BUT, when we went back to the woman, it was almost time for her break. She DID let us leave the boxes with her, thank god, and we went off to find a restaurant. By this time, both of us were hurting pretty badly — backs and feet do NOT like it when we stand around on them doing nothing but waiting, waiting, waiting and then having to travel somewhere else to wait, wait, wait. The only thing we saw was a burger king. Yikes. Yep, we ate at burger king and while I was sitting waiting for our order, I noticed, across the street, the Fork and Spoon (in Russian), a restaurant that we’ve eaten at several times in our neighborhood. Oh well. BUT BURGER KING HAS CLEAN RESTROOMS THAT ACTUALLY HAVE TOILET PAPER! SOAP! A WAY TO DRY YOUR HANDS! I was gobsmacked! I was thrilled! I was not having paranoid fantasies about diseases and bacteria and viruses, or having to wipe footprints off the toilet. Claudia, you cannot travel to Russia — you’d never make it — particularly the footprints. Remember, many people in the Urals and Siberia are used to Eastern-style squat toilets, so. . . . After that wonderful end to lunchtime we went back to the PO and our lovely lady had taped up our boxes and had everything ready to go, just had to pay her — 4,740 rubles, less than shipping the other direction. Back to tram, back to apartment, exhausted. Dealing with any post office, anywhere will do that to you. Laird went on a packing frenzy, got his stuff all done. Off to our very last class, where we were presented with several “testimonials” of how much the students enjoyed having us here — these today are the fourth years — and how they hope we will come back. We hope so too. Now we’re sitting here at 7:00 p.m., all packed and ready to go (well, last minute stuff in a.m.). Amazing, underweight, room for Istanbul souvenirs — or so I hope. I NEED more Evil Eyes.
Readily yours, jm — or maybe more appropriate, postally yours, jm & lg
lairdandjonelle 
When you said in your email that you were going to the PO, I said “Uh-oh!” I don’t know about the whole world, but POs are a pain in every country I’ve ever visited! “Going postal” should have an international meaning. Glad you got it done, though, & glad your students enjoyed you. Have fun in Istanbul–s