The story of a box.

by Candice Oliver (Taiwan)

A leap into the unknown Lithuania

The ups and down of expat life – The story of a box. Before I left Australia I sent a box ahead of myself to Lithuania. Happily and blissfully unaware that it would spend the next month in customs. Thinking that it would get there before me. Now, it did come with a caveat which I really should have read a little bit more carefully. That the company had no control as to what would happen at the other end on arrival. Just that eventually, it should get to me. What happened next was something I was not expecting. An email from a customs brokerage agency advising that I had to pay 45% in customs and value added tax to my package mostly filled with clothing, fish oil tablets, a few sentimental trinkets, a pair of the only heels I own, a hair straightener about 8 years old and a very used nail maintenance kit. 45% may not sound like a lot. However, this all came to a whopping 220Euros. Considering the hundreds of dollars I already paid to send the box, the cost of my ticket and setting up home this was the last thing I needed. Somehow this company had decided that the value of the package was equal to someone trying to import goods to sell. Without listening to a word I said along with numerous phone calls made to customs by one staff member everyone we spoke to insisted that I had to pay this amount of money to get my personal belongings returned to me. Not willing to back down from a fight I did some research. Eventually some very informed people on Reddit whom knew the company I was dealing with knew exactly the dodgy deals custom makes with brokerage companies as it seems like they get a “cut” of the tax. The more we pay – the more they get. Welcome to ex-Soviet Union countries everyone! Corruption is so not dead even if you are a part of the EU. I was fortunate to be given a web link that gets me off scott-free from paying any tax at all – a loophole in their laws that advises if I can prove that I intend to stay for at least 12 months and become a part of their community I was exempt. You’d think this would be the end of the story right? No. I’m afraid not. I thought about getting the items out myself and throwing a tantrum at the airport to try and get my belongings. Then I also thought how bad Australia’s reputation already is as tourists that I gave that idea up in a hurry. It turns out that to get your own things out you basically have to register yourself as a customs broker yourself – UGH. It took another set of phone calls made by different workmate – whom unfortunately got hung up on the 3rd time she tried to stand up for me. After insisting that they needed my work contract, my phone plan AND my apartment contract, email correspondence with the immigration lawyer and a curt letter from the director of my school they finally agreed to release my package. A part of me did think – it’s just old clothes – who cares? Then another part of me, whom spent a lot of time being comfortable in these clothes cried on the inside at the thought of parting which such beautiful things that I know brought a lot of joy to me and my students. There’s nothing like a few quirky, colorful pieces to bring a smile to people’s faces. And in the upcoming months of grey, dreary cold winter weather I really did feel like I needed at least the memories these pieces bring to mind while I am so far away from home and all those that I love and hold dear. Receiving it felt like Christmas day. It smelt like incense and had some of my cat's fur. It made me feel just that little bit whole again knowing that a piece of my past has come to greet me a few weeks into my foray into this new strange place.