Operation: For the love of peanut butter...

As we know Amy is missing her peanut butter something terrible...and I too have to admit that peanut butter is a really great snack! It just goes with everything so well. Entonces (so), our mothers were kind enough to send us a package. The package was supposed to contain only peanut butter, but my mom of course wanted to add some extras. So she added some DVDs, magazines and some travel games-- all items greatly appreciated! Thanks to Mom & Cyn (the world's two greatest mamas)!
Sometime last week we received the Correo Argentino slip under our door which directed us to the international pick up place located in Retiro, a two subte train trek away. We had heard rumors that this place was a nightmare, but we were hopeful that these were simply rumors and/or exaggerations. Well, it turns out that people were actually being kind when they described the International Correo Argentino...
Since we were in Bariloche from Thursday afternoon until Tuesday morning, our first real opportunity to pick up the package was yesterday (Wednesday). So after class yesterday we embarked on our mission, operation: for the love of peanut butter (attempts 1 and 2). We walked into the Correo Argentino around 3pm and selected a number as if we were in a busy bakery, then we figured out that we had to wait for our number to appear on the counter on the wall. Well our number was 495 and the counter said that they were currently serving customer 280! So Amy and I looked around in disbelief because this could not possibly be the case, we must have looked royally confused because this very kind women took pity on us and called us over. In Spanish she explained to us that 1. she had been there for two hours and her number was 360-something 2. after your number was called in room one you then had to go to room two and wait for another number to be called and 3. at five o'clock they locked the doors but the people inside the post office could remain there until they received this package (thank you to my teacher, Sonia for reviewing the verb to remain = quedarse earlier in the day). Well, since Amy had a five o'clock skype date with Aunt Lo and Grandma Marcia and we had intercambio at 6:30pm, we decided to leave and come back the next day, especially since they had only called 3 numbers in the past 25 minutes. It was abundantly clear that we would be remaining there until 7:30pm. We said muchisimo gracias to the woman and I handed my 495 to the next sorry sack to walk through the door. Attempt 1 in operation for the love of peanut butter was simply an information gathering session.
Today we walked into the Correo Argentino at around 3:10pm with a little more confidence than yesterday. We selected our number: 151 and we're feeling that this is a much better number than 495. We look up at the counter and it read 35, dread rushed over us. We thought we were going to be there for 1000 years, so Amy got up the courage to ask the kind woman if the number 35 actually meant 135. In Amy's perfect (I use this term loosely) Spanish, she asked if the number was really 135 not 35. The woman in perfect (I use this term literally) English responded "I speak English". She and the kind gentleman with number 149 assured us that they were serving customer 35 not 135. Well, the employees today were working faster than yesterday and the numbers were being called quite rapidly. An hour later, Amy and I were called to the counter. I handed over our package slip and showed her my ID. She said something I didn't catch, but I realized she wanted me to move to the next window; fortunately, Amy did catch what she said and in perfect Spanglish said to me "I have ocho pesos!" So we moved to window number 2 and paid our 8 pesos. I said to the man "esta bien?" and he thankfully gave me the universal A-Ok sign. We were proud to successfully complete the room 1 process.
We moved on to room two. Room two was a large room where 6 digit numbers were being called over a shoddy loudspeaker- it literally sounded like Charlie Brown's mother. So we sat in this room and listened with all our might in hopes of catching our number: 669190. Well an hour or so went by and they started to call a slew of numbers that started with 669 and finally they called our number. We both jumped up at the same time as if we had won the lottery! However, Amy thought that she heard that the number ended in uno not cero. So we sat back down and discussed whether or not it was a 1 or 0. We both really had no clue, but we saw people that we were waiting with in room 1 going to get packages so I figured I would go check to see if the number was called. So I went into the backroom where you retrieve your packages and handed the man my ticket. He took the ticket and started to look for it and then I saw the most beautiful sight I have ever seen: our package!!! I literally took the package and started to jog out of the backroom because I could not wait to share the good news with Amy. Two and a half hours later we received our package. We successfully completed our mission!
Moral of this story: please do not send us anything unless it is under 2 kilos (all items over 2 kilos get sent to the dreaded International Correo Argentino). And since no person from the US knows what a kilo is, it's probably just best to stick to writing us long letters letting us know how much you miss us!