I was at the post office earlier today.
"Hi. I'd like to get postage for this [package] to the United Kingdom." I give the lady the package along with my filled out customs declaration slip.
She looks over the package and weighs it. She then fills out the remaining information on the customs slip and slaps it on. She then tells me what I owe and I hand her a Lincoln. She gives me my change and I am about to say, "Thank you," and walk out.
"By the way," she says, "The next time you mail something out of the country you need to put the country on the last line."
You see, on the last line I wrote, "SCOTLAND UNITED KINGDOM."
Mainly because of her attitude, I put on my poli-sci hat. "Umm, Scotland is a country."
"No it's not." She is entirely confident that it isn't.
"Well, I'll be sure to keep that to myself should I ever run into a Scotsman."
UPDATE 31 January 2007:
I shit you not. Guess what I ran into today? This is what the kind Scotsman said:
"It's not. England's a country. Scotland's a byproduct."
Didn't quite follow what he was saying but.... okay....
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I'll file that one right up there along with the conversation that happened while I was at the University of Delaware: One of the guys I was working with was trying to get a supplier to mail something to us via the University, and the (US-based, not located in a call-center overseas) person down the other end of the phone asked what state the University's address was in...
That needs to go in the paper, an editorial or something--a postal worker not knowing her countries. I honestly think it should be brought up. It's a shame.
@John P.: Isn't Delaware in New Jersey or something? :-P
@John: I get what she was driving at. The person that I sent the package to uses that particular format and I copied it. When I give people my address, I give it to them in the format that is used by the USPS. But whatever... I'll put the UK alone on the bottom next time. I wouldn't want her to go postal. (Yeah, stupid joke, I know.)
You're too kind. I would have asked to speak to her supervisor and then made him explain to her that Scotland is in fact a country and then laughed as tears of shame washed down her red face.
But I'm on kind of a mean streak lately.
If I sent a package to "Vancouver, USA" do you think it would get there?
In case it doesn't, I'll give it a return address: Wales, London.
People who work in post offices are generally sods.
We're told that there are four constituent countries in the UK which is itself a country. If we're confused, I'm sure the colonials are, too.
We're wasting time, make up your mind and get into the groove!
Shameless self promotion alert!
Please take part in Window On Your World.
Reminds me of a story from a friend of a friend who lived in New Mexico. He was in New York state and got pulled over by a cop for speeding. The cop looked at his NM driver's license and said, "So what brings you to the U.S?"
@Brian: I thought what I said was pretty mean but damn...
@Kapitano: You can go ahead and try. It would probably end up at the USPS's undeliverable mail facility... wherever that may be.
@Minge: Most people use "country," "nation," and "State" interchangeably. Although the definitions are more complex, I tend to view it this way:
Country--think borders
Nation--think people
State--think control of people inside borders.
And I will try my best to participate in "Window On Your World"
@Cherry: My Dad told me about this one time the post office worker tried looking up the international postage rate for New Mexico. Time to rename the state?
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