Living in the USA is really similar to living in Australia. You know, there are schools, public transport, etc. But some things, little things, can make it seem really freaky. And that’s really fun.
For example, the mail. In Australia you have a home letterbox where mail is delivered to monday to friday. If you want to send snail mail, you go to the post office. Rarely do you get stamps anywhere else. There are postboxes in the streets, etc, and when you’ve stamped your letter (it’s 50 cents to anywhere in Australia for standard mail) then it’s good to go. It takes about a day or two to get wherever you send it to. Unless you’ve put money in it, then it might never arrive.
In Boulder you can buy stamps at the supermarket, and heaps of other places. There are nowhere near the plethora of post offices, but there are quite a number of shipping places that specialise in packages.
The really great part is that when you have a standard letter to post, you simply put it in your own letterbox and the mail carrier (the US version of the mail man) picks it up when they drop off your mail. All you need to do is raise the little red flag next to your letterbox.
Super cool. I’m pretty convinced this is why NetFlix, the movie rental service that works by sending the movies out to you via mail, has taken off in a big way here. It’s all so simple.
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This is the blog of Jo White, aka Mediamum - it's Aussie for mom. I'm an Aussie mum of four living in Colorado working on a startup, and I'm the 60 Weeks Program Director at Boulder Digital Works. I do graduate research in social media at CU. I miss Weetbix and Vegemite, but love to ski.
These are my stories.
That sounds cool! And you have been gone too long- postage is now 55¢ a letter!