More adventures at the post office:

I had to go to the post office again to get a stamp for a postcard I’m sending (to someone who knows who he is) and said as much to the guy behind the counter, who was sitting at a desk littered with different types of stamps, and he took my postcard, but looked terrified, and held it in a shaking hand as he made several false starts. First he reached for a small filing cabinet. Then he rattled off a list of questions to his friend at the next desk. Then he squinted at the postcard and mouthed the letters ‘U... S... A...’. Then he picked up some stamps, and put them down again. He slapped the postcard down and picked it up. He turned to his friend again and giggled nervously. Then he held the postcard back out to me and whispered ‘Harus pakai stamp.’ (You must use a stamp.)

I gestured to the stamps littering his desk. ‘Seperti itu? Saya mau bayar satu untuk kartu pos.’ (Like those? I want to pay for one for my postcard. [probably in terrible Indonesian])

He looked confused and gestured to the office next door. ‘Tutup.’ (Closed.)

‘Apa tutup?’ (What’s closed?)

‘Something unintelligible.’

Okay.

So now I have the invaluable information that if I go to buy a stamp for a postcard, I must use a stamp, and it’s closed right now, despite all the stamps in stacks and rows in front of me. I’m pretty grateful for that knowledge, I’ve got to say.