Our package adventure!

It was a Thursday.  I'll never forget it.  We had received info that our first package from America was here!  The excitement was overwhelming, but not as much as the idea of how to pick it up.  We haven't covered asking for, or recieving directions. So on an adventurous whim, Steven and I set out to conquer this task.  I met him at 10:30 outside his language class and we headed out.  We didn't make it far down the block before we went back to the teacher and asked her how to get to the "central" post office.  She showed us on the map where it was located and we mapped out what trams/buses/bustrams we needed to take to get there.  And again we were off!  We made it to the destination the teacher had shown us, only to be turned away from every post office signed door we walked through.  Everyone who turned us away tried to correct our ere in direction, unfortunatly it was always in Bulgarian.  It was then I thought to call our team leaders wife (who is Bulgarian) and ask her where exactly this place is.  After reading her the piece of paper we had, she told us our package wasn't at the post office at all. It was at the customs office next to the train and bus station.  Ohhhhhhh.  That explains it.  SO, we checked the map, checked our time, decided we could make it, and headed for the stations.  By this time it was 11:45 so we stopped and ate a brief lunch.  Eating seemed to give us a new found energy to continue on our way, so we hopped on the next bus we needed and made it to the stations.  Once there we thought, "It's a train station.  Surely we can find someone that speaks english."  HA!  It wasn't until the fourth person we asked, that we got some kind of general direction to head in.  "Past the bus station," was all we got, so again, off we went.  We walked past the bus station, down a hill and into the customs office.  YES!!! We had made it!!!!  They were closed for lunch.  I'm so not kidding. So we sat and waited for about 20 minutes for the little window to open.  A small line(mob) formed, but we eventually made it to the front and handed over our slip of paper, only to have it thrust back at us and some bulgarian language as well.  All we could gather was that we were supposed to fill out some information on the back.  It was all in Bulgarian, how were we supposed to know that?  Steven asked if anyone spoke english, "neh" was the response.  We were not budging.  By this time, Christ could have returned and I would have asked Him to just let me get this package before going to glory.  After some interesting looks she asked for(in a disgusted tone) a passport.  Steven handed her the copy of his passport.  "This not passport." she said.  It was all the same info, but she wasn't going to take it, so Steven pulled out his drivers license as well.  She finally took it and used some of the info to fill out the back of the paper.( All the while keeping the copy of his passport)  We were then directed to another line to talk with the customs agent, who upon realizing we spoke no Bulgarian just signed and stamped the paper only to send us back to the same line.  We approached Ms. Happy again, and she looked oh so happy to see us.*sarcasm implied*  We payed the 4 leva for the packag and were handed a reciept and another piece of paper to take to another window to actually pick up the package.  Before we left Steven asked for his passport copy back.  She looked at him and wasn't going to give it back until he insisted.  Praise the Lord, another man had seen our plight and showed us where to go to pick up the package.  Finally, after 3 hours, 4 buses, 3 windows, and Ms. Happy we had our package!  Was it worth...oh yeah!  We found a much shorter route home and made it in time to pickup all the kids on time.  Plus Steven and I had a great time together.  I praise the Lord for the awesome husband I have to share in these adventures with me!