A Round-About Route

We will take a momentary pause from my present travels in Mexico to discuss the United States Postal Service.  As you may recall, each year I create an original calendar with pictures that I have taken.  These are given as Christmas gifts, and I send a number of them to my cousins in Europe.  On October 1st I sent six calendars... four to Switzerland, one to Norway and one to England.  I have been tracking their progress... or lack of progress... on the U.S.P.S. website.

The calendar for my cousin in England arrived in a relatively timely manner, less than two weeks.  The last notification that I had on the calendar going to Norway was that it left O'Hare International Airport on October 8th.    One of the calendars to Switzerland arrived in Zurich on October 7th, another arrived on October 10th.  But I have no further information on where they are now.

Two of the calendars took a route that is unbelievably ridiculous..

October 1 - sent from my hometown of Olmsted Falls, Ohio

October 2 - arrived at the Akron, Ohio, Distribution Center

October 3 - arrived at the Cleveland, Ohio, Distribution Center  (why south to Akron, then north to Cleveland which is closer to Olmsted Falls?)

October 3 - arrived at the Chicago, Illinois, International Distribution Center

October 7 - departed from Newark, New Jersey

October 8 - arrived in Zurich, Switzerland

October 15 - arrived in Chicago, Illinois (why was it sent back to Chicago after sitting in Zurich for a week?!)

October 17 - arrived in Warsaw, Poland  (WHAT??????)

October 17 - arrived in Zurich, Switzerland

Yesterday I received an email from the wife of my cousin Walter telling me that the package had arrived at their home in Aarau, Switzerland.  I don't know if it was one of the calendars that took the circuitous route back to Chicago and then through Poland, or if it is one of the calendars that have been sitting in Zurich.  None of my other cousins in Switzerland have notified me that their package arrived.

On a more positive note, at the end of September and at the beginning of October I sent  postcards from Ohio to Alejandro's nephew Ezra here in Mexico City.  Yesterday just before Alejandro was going to take me to my apartment, both postcards arrived in the mail.  Less than a month... relatively speedy for mail sent to Mexico.