Sending Package Mail Outside the U.S

I was very surprised today that I received back the mail package that I sent out 2-3 months ago during Christmas holiday to a friend in Spain.

After 20-25 days of waiting, my friend contacted me saying the gift package has not reached hes home yet, we naturally grew concern and did everything in our power to figure out why. After a long period of wait, we best assumed that the gift package either got lost/stolen/misplaced. During its travel from the U.S to Spain.

Untill this morning, my mother notify me there was a box for me. and, to my surprise it was the gift I sent many months ago!

So why didn't it ever reach my friends home? Well I read a stamp on the box saying in Spanish "insufficient address". Not enough information address for the mail man to carry it out to my friends place. Apparently my friend didn't provide enough information to hes home address, and I dont blame him because he gave me a casual address that works in "spain" but we didnt realize that the address has to be explicitly detail for the mail system to work out where the box should be heading, but instead it probably ended up being stuck in the sorting system most of its time, unable to pin point where it should go.


Lets take the time to learn from my mistake! If you ever plan on sending a gift/mail of any sort outside the U.S whether that be in Spain, china, Thailand any foreign country outside the U.S. Be sure to write down as much address information as possible, even the home phone number of where the mail is going! It will increase your guaranteed chances that the mail will reach there within reasonable time. also a good but common sense  tip, avoid shipping gifts during the holidays, your package will most likely travel at a slower pace. Send your mail items 1 month ahead if possible.

The sketch above was done today and inspired by the whole mail event that happened today.