2 ladies from the US, Betsy and Aline, answered my call to exchange cups in the mail. As you remember, we will each attempt to send an unwrapped cup in the mail. All postage and address details will be written or glued to the cup itself.
Here are the requirements of the swap as published on Swap-bot:
“Pick a cup and decorate it. Put a stamp, and don’t forget to leave a place for the address. You do not, I repeat, DO NOT wrap it. You stick what ever postage needed straight on the cup (or maybe in it), and write the address on it. Document the final project and the process of sending the cup. The documentation is for in case the cup will not arrive, as this is a risky swap. If you do not get your cup, contact your partner and they will send you the documentation. We will not give rating of 1 on this swap, as too much hang on the post people. Be ready to the option that you will not get a cup, and might end with just the pictures sent be Email.
You may wrap your cup only in the event that the post office clerk will not agree to accept it, and I would suggest you try sending it from another branch first. Try to document this as well.”
I started by going to the post office to find out what size of stickers will be used, to make sure I leave enough space for the stickers, and how much space do I have left empty for the address and any decorating I want to make.
Then I decided a tall cup will be the best choice. Here it is with all the stickers that I got from the post office:
After writing the address and putting the stickers on, there was a very small space left. I draw on it this small mailman bringing a cup:
Fabian, the nice guy at my local post shop charged me $13.5 to send the cup, and while I was taking a picture his supervisor went by to tell me I cannot send it like this, as it might brake and hurt someone, or damage other mail items. My payment was refunded, and I took the cup and tried my luck in a second post shop, just to get the same answer.
And as I was taking a picture of the post shop entrance for the documentation, a security guard approached me and asked me not to take any photos within the mall. However, she had a look at the one I took and said it is fine, and that I do not need to delete it.
After that I bought a yummy cake, and decided that instead of giving up and wrapping my cup, I will start again, but this time with a plastic cup.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted (no pun intended) on my progress.
D.