Shipping

We've come down to the final few weeks of our contract and we're starting to pack and get ready for the adventure ahead of us. I had starting packing a few boxes full of clothes, books, Korean gifts that I wanted to send home. Craig and I made the trip down to the post office with two boxes ready to send home via boat. The post office ladies didn't know English and we barely know Korean, so we were a little confused and when they said "No Canada ship" as they gave us the cost of what it would be to send one 14kg box home airmail: $108 US. It would cost us half a month's paycheck to send home our stuff if we had to send it airmail.

Craig and I went home (hauling back the 2 boxes, mind you) ready to investigate why we couldn't boat it home. We looked on the internet and saw that a 14kg box should only cost $36US to boat home. We told the Korean teachers what happened. Julie phoned the post office inquiring why - we quickly learned there is a truckers strike in Vancouver that stopped the trucking of cargo from Vancouver ports to the rest of the country. The 5 week strike has ended, but there is supposedly 6 week worth of goods being stored at the Vancouver port that needs to clear out before anymore goods is shipped in from various countries. Here's an article written during the strike.

What are we going to do? I don't know - but at least we have some time left to figure it out.

Update: Thanks to a very helpful aunt and uncle on Grand Island, I will be able to ship boxes home via boat to the US. Thanks all for the advice - and thank you, Uncle Alfie and Aunt Dorothy, this is a huge help.