A few months ago I posted about one of my new hobbies: Postcrossings. This is a website for sending and receiving postcards around the world. I love to get and send mail, so this seemed like it was made for me and I enthusiastically dove in.
I just wanted to report that it has turned out to be all the fun that it promised. So far I have sent 20 postcards, received 17 and presently have 7 "traveling"...that means that I've mailed them but they haven't been received yet. Some countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, seem to take forever to arrive. It has made me realize how the internet has really changed the world! Before email sending communication to some countries took quite awhile. Now an email travels in a fraction of the time that snail mail does. It has truly made the world smaller in that respect.
But....as with any progress, there is a price. Just as you absorb more culture when traveling to another city than you do by looking at pictures of the place; you learn more about a country's culture through a written postcard than you do from an email correspondence. Everything from the stamps to the handwriting to the embellishments (stickers, etc) to the card chosen communicate something about both the sender and his location.
Here are a few of the ones that I've received:
I just wanted to report that it has turned out to be all the fun that it promised. So far I have sent 20 postcards, received 17 and presently have 7 "traveling"...that means that I've mailed them but they haven't been received yet. Some countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, seem to take forever to arrive. It has made me realize how the internet has really changed the world! Before email sending communication to some countries took quite awhile. Now an email travels in a fraction of the time that snail mail does. It has truly made the world smaller in that respect.
But....as with any progress, there is a price. Just as you absorb more culture when traveling to another city than you do by looking at pictures of the place; you learn more about a country's culture through a written postcard than you do from an email correspondence. Everything from the stamps to the handwriting to the embellishments (stickers, etc) to the card chosen communicate something about both the sender and his location.
Here are a few of the ones that I've received:
It's been great fun and I hope to keep this up for awhile. The only disappointment is that occasionally a postcard seems to not arrive. They "time out" after 60 days. I have one that I sent to Belarus that will time out at the end of the week and mysteriously, one to Texas that has been "traveling" for 34 days! But, maybe now that the Christmas rush is over it will be found in some forgotten mail bag and make it's way to Texas.
So, for snail mail fans.....Postcrossings is definitely worth a try!
It must be fun to receive postcards, especially if the pictures are interesting, quite different from those holiday postcards we send. We've found that postcards are treated as third class mail and take much longer to arrive than letters.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're having fun with this. Yes, electronic mail is fast and accurate but who doesn't love to get a surprise drop on your doorstep?
ReplyDeleteI used to actively collect postcards when I was a child and teen. I haven't looked at them for years but these cards make me reconsider. It really sounds like fun. (But I'm not sure I can add anything else just at the moment.) Thanks for sharing and continue to enjoy!
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