Why Make Things Easy...

...when there is an alternative that is so much harder?

I found my boxes. I actually found two that were the perfect size. I had tape, and I was looking forward to the ease of sending all my things home and not having to worry about smashing everything into my suitcases. Yay for easy travel!

Or not.

After hauling my filled suitcase to lab this morning to transfer everything into said boxes, Zhuo and I proceeded to the campus post office in the afternoon. We arrived at the counter, only to find out that for each box 3-5 day airmail would be about $4200NT. That's about $130. And then multiply that by 2.

Okay, no problem, I thought. How much is the two-week option?

They didn't have a two-week option. The only other possibilities were 3-week shipments at $3500NT/parcel, and 4-6 weeks at around $2700. Neither of those was a possibility because I needed my stuff in San Diego which is in less than three weeks, and the fees are bloody expensive anyway.

So now I must find alternatives. I might just end up buying another suitcase and paying an extra checked baggage fee, if possible, because that would be cheaper. What would really be lovely is if I could manage to squeeze all my things into one carry-on and therefore avoid any extra baggage fee. I know an extra bag costs $85 on United domestic flights. I'm sort of scared to ask what it would be for international. Ugh.

So much for plan A. I'm working on plans B and C, and trying to come up D and E if necessary. Hopefully I'll have a solution before reaching J or so.