In addition to handling our taxes, filing our mail and fielding overdue water bills, Bryan's dad and step-mom were kind enough to receive and stockpile packages sent to us, by us, from various spots around the globe. The anticipation of opening these eight well-traveled packages was high as we arrived in Littleton, MA last Friday. Counting the boxes, we confirmed that two arrived from Australia; two from South Africa; one from Thailand; one from Malaysia; one from New Zealand; and one from Germany. Only one had been opened "for security purposes" by the U.S. Postal Service.While we knew, of course, that much of the boxes' contents would be boring stuff we'd sent home for weight reduction, Bryan and I were most excited to reunite with the carefully selected souvenirs purchased over nine months of travel. We knew we hadn't bought too much because a) we had a strict daily budget, and b) we're trying to get a head-start on minimalist decor in our TBD house/apartment. Nonetheless we'd both talked up the fantasy of an overflowing, multinational pyramid of fabulously traveled packages containing a wealth of forgotten goodies from the farthest reaches of the planet.
Needless to say, the actual stash was a bit anticlimactic.
My favorite item at the moment is probably our oft-discussed monkey balls. In looking at the group photo, you might notice a few frogs -- something Bryan and I semi-collect after making our first joint purchase a "frog clock" in Northampton, MA back in 1993. This particular frog is a source of some amusement, as we picked it up in Vietnam for about $1 and then subsequently saw it for sale in almost every other country we visited, including Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and even many throughout Europe.
It makes a grrrribit noise when you run the dowel over the scales. ..........
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home