I dislike FedEx

What if Run Lola Run and Cast Away had an illegitimate love child?

It would be my day yesterday.

Back up. So my license expires on May 10th, nine days before I get home. I'll only be in Chicago for one day, a Sunday, so I can't renew my license. I can't get a license in LA until I'm a legal resident of CA, which happens after 30 days of residence. I need to drive. So mom discovered that the IL Sec of State will issue temporary licenses for situations like this, they just have to mail me some papers to fill out and send back, and then they'll send me the license, but they have to send it here, to the Czech Republic, because the whole point is I'm not in Illinois to renew it.

So these papers are in Prague, at the FedEx office, and for the past two days a delivery guy has come here and left without leaving the package, claiming there was no one home, when Tomas has been here both times (and I've been here one of them). It became clear that this package was just not going to get delivered. So last night, I decided it would be a good idea to go to the FedEx office, halfway to the airport, and get the damn thing myself. I had one hour before they closed to get to the outskirts of Prague, figure out how to get to FedEx, and get the package.

When I got to the metro stop, I had about 20 minutes to find the place. Plenty of time right? Needless to say (let's remember one of the ongoing themes of the past few months) I got slightly turned around and was afforded the opportunity to use my Czech skills with just about anyone on the street who looked nice. I wound my way around an intricate Soviet housing project, asked random people walking for directions, stopped in a bar for some more, and every time I was told something completely different. After I walked in a complete circle, I called up the place, and they told me to go back to the metro station (a 5 minute walk) and then take a bus to get to them, and they assured me that someone would be waiting for me despite their closing in two minutes.

So I got back to the metro station and went to the bus stop she had said. Unfortunately, there were about five buses that came to this stop, and I had no clue which one to get on. I tried to call the office again. Their automated phone system automatically routes calls to a recording after closing hours. I had a feeling for one bus -- but the last one had left literally one minute earlier.

Time to give up. Or is it? The greatest thing about the times I've been lost previously is how they all seem to turn out well for me, somehow. I was all the way out here, I might as well just try something to make this work too. So I asked these two guys if they knew where to go. They had an idea. But were unsure. And one of them was kinda swaying back and forth while he tried to talk to me.

I started to laugh while he was talking to me. Yep, I got directions from a drunk guy.

As the bus they told me to take turned back onto the street I had just walked while retracing my steps back from the housing project to the metro station, I knew I had tried hard enough. I came back home for some dinner.

Epilogue: I decided to skip my Czech class this morning to wait for the package to be delivered. I woke up at 9 to sit outside and wait for the truck, but figured it would probably be a good idea to check out the tracking info online first. Oh, not to worry, it wasn't coming! After I had tried to pick it up at their offices they left it there and didn't put it on the truck this morning! So I guess it's going to be delivered tonight, when I'm on a bus to Berlin.

Czech this morning was as glorious as always (really, this class is worth getting up for even though I went to bed at 5am last night). More bingo, more memorable quotes, more laughs. And in an hour, I leave for a fantastic weekend in Berlin (from Na Florenci street - don't worry, I'm leaving in about five minutes to get there this time). As the days wind down here, I'm reminded of just how much of an adventure it is to just be.