Postal Service Wonders

International postal mail, wow, what an inscrutable, enigmatic little business. Why do some pieces of mail arrive in impeccable condition, in record-breaking time? Why are other accurately labeled items lost forever, or arrive half a year later? 

There was the year we welcomed your Christmas cards in April.

Once this winter we received a package 10 (TEN!) days after it was posted.

Another package came all the way to Changsha, failed to deliver, and was returned to St. Paul, MN.

Then I was completely baffled when this little letter showed up, with no street address or anything, it found its way to our door. How? That's like writing Andrew Addington, Chicago, IL, USA, and it made it folks. See? Mysterious.

True, the above examples are certainly outliers. Generally speaking, it takes about four weeks for letters and packages to arrive. To our knowledge, 99% of all mail has made it.

If you would like to write us, we would love to hear from you. Tell us all about you, your work, your mood, your summer plans, your family, the weather, what you're learning, etc. As you can imagine, it takes great effort to stay in touch with you in the US while also being entirely focused on our immediate community. Help us remain connected by saying hello. Email is fantastic too: drew.addington@gmail.com.

Here is our address. Inclusion of the Chinese characters is essential, so please print and paste.

Just for fun, here's a bird's eye map of our area that I snagged off the university website. Man, our apartment is in such a prime location, right at the center of campus and near to all the places we frequent. It's a miracle we found this place, did you read the unbelievable story?