Mailing in USA
Posts are handled in US by United States Postal Service. Every address in the US belongs to a specific zip-code district, and each zip code has five digits. Some addresses include a second sequence of four numbers following the first five numbers, but although this speeds mail delivery for large organizations, it is not necessary to use it. Each zip-code district has at least one post office, where you can buy stamps and aero grams, send parcels, or conduct other postal business. Occasionally you may find small stamp-dispensing machines in airports, train stations, bus terminals, large office buildings, hotel lobbies, drugstores or grocery stores, but don't count on it. Most Americans go to the post office to buy their stamps and the line can be long. Mailboxes are either the stout, royal blue steel bins on city sidewalks or mail chutes on the walls of post offices or in large office buildings. A schedule posted on mailboxes and mail slots should indicate when the mail is picked up.
Post hours in the US vary from 24 hours a day in central, big-city branches to the 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM schedule, normal in smaller cities and towns. On Saturdays, post offices only open half a day, if they open at all. Postal services only are performed here: for telegraph facilities, you could go to the nearest office of Western Union, an organization which specializes in telegraphic communications worldwide. One service helpful to foreign visitors is General Delivery. If you do not know where you will be staying in any particular town, simply have your mail addressed to your name, c/o General Delivery, at the main post office there. You must pick up such mail personally. Red, white and blue mail boxes are prominent on city streets. Sample current postage rates:
* Airmail letters to India: 84 cents (1 oz), $1.65 (2 oz)
* Postcards to India: 75 cents
* Letters within the USA: 39 cents (1 oz or fraction and 24 cents for each additional ounce)
* Airmail post cards within the USA: 24 cents.
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