Receiving a package
Last Monday on the way home from running errands we tried to stop at the post office. We had received in the mail a few days prior a notice from the post office that we didn’t really understand but was addressed to Lauren Brodsky, and since we knew that my parents had sent a package with Lauren’s ice skates, we assumed it was the package that we had to pick up from the post office. We had been to the post office before (to pay for the temporary drivers licenses) so we knew where it was. The address on the the paper said “Ahuza 80” So we entered Ahuza 80 into the GPS in our car (did I mention it has Waze built into the dashboard?) and when we arrived it was clearly not the post office – it was a small judaica shop. And it was not even where we knew the post office was. So, assuming the address on the notice was wrong, or out-of-date or something, we went to the actual post office, the one we had been to before, took a number from the ATM-like take a number machine, and when it was my turn, showed the slip of paper to the lady at the window.
She said, two thirds in Hebrew and one third in English, “Ah yes, its a package. But its not here, you have to go to Ahuza 80.” I said, in about two thirds English and one third Hebrew, “but that’s not the post office.” She said, “yes but we don’t have room for all the packages here so they go out…” So we figured, OK, I guess they made deals with random shop owners to keep packages for people. A little weird, but OK, its Israel after all.
So back we go to Ahuza 80, to the Judaica shop. I walk in and in a slightly embarrassed tone, present her the slip of paper. She says, in Hebrish, “Oh. You need the post office. Its around the corner, the red one.” I thank her and walk around the corner to what appears to be a hair salon with a big red awning, thinking, OK maybe its this one – maybe the Judaica shop at 80 Ahuza stopped taking packages and started giving them to the hair salon instead. Again I walk in, show the paper, and the guy says, “Yes, you need Ahuza 80, the post office.” While I’m thinking to myself “I KNOW! I WAS AT AHUZA 80! AND ITS NOT THE POST OFFICE!” He continues, “You need the post office, its farther down, but I don’t think its open now.” And then he actually takes me outside and points at a door two doors down.
Now I see its actually got the official Israeli post office logo on it. It must be a smaller post office branch (located like a half a mile from the main post office. who puts a branch of something just a half mile from the main thing itself, anyway?) And true to form, its only open until 12:30. Which it would have been when we started, but by now its a bit after 1PM. It reopens at 3:30 until 6:30. So I guess Ahuza 80 is the entire building, which comprises all the little shops in that structure. I guess they all have the same address? Whatever, not my problem. So we go home, no package, but at least we know where to go to get it, when they’re actually open.
