Package Hunt

Seeing as the mail slots in our apartment are only large enough to, at most, slip a manila envelope through, we must be present at the apartment to receive packages. Unfortunately, one is never informed of when one will be receiving a visit from the package person. (And, even more unfortunately, one occasionally does have class, -cough- Patricia, -cough- Cynthia.) Therefore, over the past week, both Elizabeth and Jaime received slips informing us that we have gotten packages.


Love of our lives
On Thursday morning, we attended our final two hours of class, took part in giving our final 10-minute group presentations, said goodbye to our professor, and thereby successfully completed (at least, we hope) our first Psychology class. Upon leaving, we caught the bus downtown to the tourist office, where we needed to request directions. Though Jaime's package was simply being held at the downtown Posti, aka post office, Elizabeth's package, for some reason, had been detained by Customs, and sent to a location that not even Laura knew.

Once in the tourist office, we spoke to a couple of Finnish ladies who were very friendly but a bit oblivious of time. When we first entered the office it was around 2:10, and they pointed to us that we could take the 2:30 bus, but they happened to chat in Finnish through the half hour, so we had to take the 3:00 instead. This wouldn't have been of concern to us, except, in line with most crazy Finnish business hours, Customs closed at 3:30.

So finally, we caught the 25K, a bus we haven't taken yet, to the northeastern side of town. We should mention here that we live in the southwestern part of town, so this was about as far away from our apartment in Jyväskylä as we could get.
It was already around 3, and though the ladies at the tourist office said we had to walk 2 blocks down, 1 block left, and then 2 blocks up, we figured we would try to cut through. As pointed out by one of the girls in our Cultural Psychology class, Finnish people tend to see rules as things that one simply follows for the good of everyone. However, we are rebellious Americans, so we decided to slip behind a large grocery store.

After walking all the way through a long parking lot, weaving our way around huge delivery trucks, and picking our way down a somewhat-icy hill, we were finally confronted with a 7-foot chain link fence. At this point, it was 3:15, and we knew that Customs, while only meters away, was on the second floor of a yet-to-be-identified building. We would never make it there walking on time, especially given Elizabeth's foot, and after 2 bus rides, a discussion with the bus driver, half an hour in the tourist office, and one very long and fast-paced trek, there was no way we were giving up. And suddenly, there it was: opportunity in the form of a particularly high pile of snow and an extra diagonal beam running up to the corner of the fence.

Elizabeth slipped her student ID and package slip over to Jaime, who tightened her backpack straps, pulled on her hat and scarf, and prepared herself to vault over 7 feet of wire fence. Jaime fought her way up the snow pile, and attempted to chuck her backpack over the fence, though Elizabeth quickly called out that it might be a good idea to make sure Jaime herself could make it over first before sacrificing all her worldly belongings to a large snow drift. Jaime grabbed the wire links and pulled herself up and over, a clumsy affair with no less than 5 layers of clothing, 3-pound snow boots, and a great sense of urgency. Feeling a moment of ecstasy upon having made it to the top, Jaime paused for just a second, and then made her way down the other side. She hadn't realized yet that anything was wrong...

Elizabeth picked up Jaime's backpack, watching as she began climbing the chain links up to the top. Suspended momentarily, face triumphant, Jaime swung her leg over, only to have the material of her pants leg catch the rough metal link ends at the upper edge of the fence. Momentum carrying her over, Jaime slid down the fence, grasping for handholds, as the fabric of her cloth pants stretched further and further, finally tearing as she neared the ground, and leaving a little 2-inch flag of black cloth still attached to the top of the fence.

Realizing that she was now firmly on the ground, Jaime recognized that she'd heard a ripping sound, and looked around to see what was wrong... which was when she noticed the tear in her pants and Elizabeth laughing. We were both dying of laughter and Jaime was rather thankful that she had two layers of pants on, but there was no time to waste. Elizabeth threw Jaime's backpack to her, and, seeing the street only a few meters away, Jaime took off at a run.

Sadly, despite our best efforts, we were unable to find Customs in time. As a matter of fact, despite asking multiple Finns (who were very eager to help but kept directing us back to the Posti), we were unable to find Customs, period. We have now spent a half-hour session on Google Maps, and feel slightly more confident. Also, we plan to give ourselves plenty of time to find Customs on our next journey.

Still, you can't say that we didn't try.

PS - Don't let this post deter you from sending us packages! TOTALLY WORTH IT. :)