Welcome to meet you

Today I intentionally planned the worst day possible: I decided to change my address AND close my bank account, hoping it would turn into eight heinous hours of missing documents, complicated forms, rude customer service and long lines, and by the end of the day I would be screaming "Good riddance, France!" and I wouldn't be sad at all when I leave on Thursday.

But somehow, it only took a half hour? I still can't believe it.

And twenty minutes of that half hour was spent chatting with the woman who worked at the post office  - who showed me a collectible stamp set with her eight favorite places in France, and told me about all the places I hadn't been to. After I bought them she followed me over to the table where I was sticking them on postcards, and helped me decide who should get each one. Then she said "You know, I thought of a couple more things I want to tell you about Alsace," and after that she started explaining how the French postal system works (everything goes in a box, then they send it to people), and  showing off English phrases she knew (including the title of this post), and she told me that everyone in Marseille was going to miss me and that she loved Americans and that I was so great.

The people in line behind me had the kind of day I was expecting to have.



Then at the bank I handed in my forms and the man at the counter said "impeccable." and wished me a safe trip back to the US. That was it - nothing missing, no extra things to make copies of. No stories about Alsace or the postal system either, but I had met my daily quota so that's fine. I think I've finally mastered French paperwork, after eight months here. Just in time to leave. I've also started crying in a bank while my account was being closed. Check that off the bucket list. I don't know what's wrong with me.

And the best part of the day - the woman at the post office asked where I was from and when I said the US she replied "Oh, but I thought your post cards were written in English, where did you learn to write in English so well?"

Come to the US with me, Post Office Woman, and I will show you my eight favorite places in America. They are all ice cream shops and animal shelters. I'm not sure if there's a collectible stamp set available.