Postcrossing Blog

BlackDrago (aka Natalie) hails from Sevastopol, in Ukraine. Besides being an avid postcrosser she’s also a devoted photographer and a Star Wars fan! :)

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

It was a post in my friend’s diary on journals.ru. I have always been attracted to something unusual… and what can be more extraordinary than paper postcards in the age of electronic correspondence? And then it turned out that this is a very interesting process, you can see a lot of interesting postcards, stamps, read the people who live on the other side of the planet Earth.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I’m interested in the Star Wars universe – I am the administrator on a site and forum dedicated to this world. I translate short texts and beta-read works of other authors. I like to assemble plastic models of the real and the fantastic vehicles. Photography. Cross-stitching. Sometimes I even manage to find some time for all these things… sadly there are only 24 hours in a day!

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

This is Post Office from which my postcards often hit the road:

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I think that almost all of my cards are favourites!

What makes them special? It’s the fact that someone took the time to read my profile and tried to pick up the card in accordance with the wishes, and wrote something just for me.

I have favorite authors as well, for example, French artist Severine Pineaux. She has a very beautiful dragons and cats.

And if we talk about the subject of cards, there is a series of “Darth Vader and Son” that I really like:

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yep. I participated in postcrossers meetings in Sevastopol and in Yekaterinburg (Russia, Ural), when I was there on business. This is in Sevastopol:

And here we are in Yekaterinburg:

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

Sevastopol.. I really love my city and his great history. It is really my passion and obsession. Sevastopol has always been a military city, the base of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia. I hope that he will once again be such, and not turn into just a resort.

Warships standing in bays and covered with morning fog is one of the most beautiful sights I can imagine.

We were wondering what the Little Mail Carriers had been up to lately, when we received this exciting missive all the way from Idaho! Their host lydacher did a thorough job of spoiling the little guys with splendid views and lots of fun activities! If there was any doubt that the Little Mail Carriers have all the fun…

Hello everyone! Late last year we traveled to Idaho, the U.S. state famous for its extensive wilderness areas, winter sports, and… potatoes.

When we arrived, our mail carrier, Jason, drove us in his truck to Old Town Pocatello. Then he walked us up a hill to our host’s house.

Our host Cheryl (aka lydacher) was in the midst of holiday preparations, so we jumped right in to help! The biscotti were divine – but diving in the chocolate chips was one of our favorite parts…

We were welcomed by the dollhouse family and shown to the guest room. As mail carriers, we had no trouble making friends with the family dog.

The next morning, we ventured out into the snow. We’d brought our bicycle, but the snow was too deep, so the dollhouse family loaned us their 4-wheeler.

Wheeeeeee!

Oops! Ouch… Are you ok, Little Paulo? Maybe that’s enough snow for one day…

While we dried our clothes and took a rest, our host gave us some facts about Idaho, which has only 1.5 million people living in an area of 219,887 square kilometres. Much of that area is designated wilderness, where motorized travel is prohibited. Idaho has more miles of rivers than any of the other contiguous U.S. states and several mountain ranges that include at least 9 peaks that are more than 12,000 feet (3.6576 kilometres) above sea level.

To take a break from all the snow, we warmed up in Lava Hot Springs, a short drive out of the city. These pools are fed by natural underground hot springs and are most popular during the winter, when the freezing air meets the 110° Fahrenheit (or 43° Celsius) water and creates an outdoor sauna.

The next morning, we looked through our host’s postcard collection, which she keeps in notebooks and special boxes, filed by country and theme. We learned that she has taught classes about Postcrossing through New Knowledge Adventures, a continuing education program offered by Idaho State University.

She makes children’s mobiles from some of the colorful postcards she receives, and she also made a platform for an electric train for us to ride with our Lego friends – complete with scenic postcards that reflect the views we should see from a real train. How cool is that?! :D

We helped our host select postcards to send and accompanied her to the post office. Postman Rocky sold us stamps and weighed us on his postage scale. Rocky told us that we weigh about the same as a first-class letter!

Bidding Rocky goodbye, we drove back toward the hills on the west side of the city. We’d taken our bicycle along to do some trail-biking… but instead we just sat on a split-rail fence, watching the trains in the valley below us.

The view was just breathtaking!

During the week, we also visited some museums that are uniquely Idaho. The Museum of Natural History at Idaho State University features an exhibit of prehistoric whorl-tooth shark (Helicoprion) fossils found in Idaho.

Idaho is sometimes called the “Potato State, ” owing to its popular and widely-distributed crop. The Idaho Candy Company makes an “Idaho Spud” candy bar that resembles a potato, and there’s even a Potato Museum that houses the world’s largest potato crisp!

We were invited to some holiday parties where we were welcomed by friends of all ages and got to hang out in the decorations!

And of course, we met some Idaho cats. This photo is for all those postcrossers who love cat postcards! :)

Year 2013 is over, and it’s time to bid our host goodbye… Happy New Year 2014 from Idaho!

Thank you so much lydacher for this amazing stay! On they go!

The little guys are currently looking for hosts for the next months, so if you’ve got a camera and some free time to show them around, leave a comment and we’ll get in touch! :)

Dear postcrossers,

This is Ana, your community manager speaking. I’m usually the writer behind the posts that you read on this blog… but today I’m writing this one as myself, to personally ask for your assistance.

You see, in about a month, I will be in Portugal, standing in front of an audience of several hundred people from various backgrounds, to tell them about Postcrossing and the simple pleasures of receiving mail. The problem is… I’m willing to bet that 99% of them have probably never received a postcard, or don’t remember the last time that they did. How can you empathize with something you’ve never experienced? While brainstorming a plan for making this work, I reached the inevitable conclusion: I have to show them!

So, inspired by Oprah, my idea is to surprise many of the conference attendees with an unexpected postcard written just for them, which they would receive during the talk!

I could write all the postcards myself… but I think it would be much more interesting if the postcards came from different people all around the world, with their own stories and details.
So I wanted to ask… would you mind writing a postcard, and giving me a hand? I would be really grateful, and you’d be helping all these people re-discover the magic of postcards! :)

Interested? Got a neat card that you don’t mind sharing? Then mail it to:

We’ve received sooooo many cards in just a week, that I’ve decided to remove the address, as I think they’ll be more than enough. Thank you so much! :)

What should you write on it? Whatever you like, really, but here are some ideas to get you started:

• How do you feel when you find a postcard on your mailbox at the end of the day?
• What does Postcrossing mean to you?
• What have you learnt or discovered through postcards? What would you teach this person?
• What was the most inspirational talk you’ve ever attended or listened to?
• What is special about your city or country?

Or you could just describe what you did today and what the weather is like where you are… anything goes, really! :)

That’s it! Those who know me, know that I’m a bit shy and not particularly comfortable with the spotlight… I’d like to think that, by carrying your postcards with me, I’ll have a little bit of your support on that stage.

Thank you so much in advance! :)

PS:

I thought I’d add a couple notes to clear up some of the questions that have come up in the comments:
- Please don’t put my name on the postcard – the cards are not for me, they’ll all be delivered to the attendees. The address is a PO box, it works fine without a name.
- If you want to write a salutation on the message, keep it simple and flexible with an “Hello” or “Dear attendee”
- The event takes place on March 8th… so please send your cards soon! :)

February is just around the corner… which means it’s time for another Month of Letters challenge! Are you in? :)

On September 2011, Mary Robinette Kowal decided it was time for a break. She spent the entire month offline, and asked her friends to communicate with her through letters. The results of this personal challenge were a revelation:

When I write back, I find that I slow down and write differently than I do with an email. Email is all about the now. Letters are different, because whatever I write needs to be something that will be relevant a week later to the person to whom I am writing. In some ways it forces me to think about time more because postal mail is slower. “By the time you get this…” It is relaxing. It is intimate. It is both lasting and ephemeral.

How so? I find that I will often read the letters that I receive twice. Once when I get them and again as I write back. So, that makes it more lasting. It is more ephemeral because I don’t have copies of the letters that I write and I am the only one who has copies of the letters that my correspondents write. So, more ephemeral.

I know a lot of postcrossers share these feelings – this is part of the reason why Postcrossing exists!

Mary’s decided to turn February into a Month of Letters, in which she challenges herself and everyone who decides do join to write and send at least a piece of postal mail every day. Here are the rules:

Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

We can’t help but feeling postcrossers have their work cut out for them in this challenge… :) Nevertheless, we wanted to dare you all to do it! Write postcards, letters or aerogrammes or surprise a friend with an unexpected package. Maybe even pick a Facebook/Twitter friend and send them with an offline “hello!”.

Are you up to Mary’s challenge? Grab your stationery and stamps and start writing! :)

Did you know we have a Facebook page and a Twitter account? It’s where we (and you!) share any postal goodies and snippets we stumble across throughout the day. It’s also where many members share their photos of what they’ve received that day… or what they do with the postcards afterwards! In the past few years, we’ve come to realize that many of you had very real postcard walls in your homes… so here are a few of them! :)

Danny2105 in Germany is almost running out of space on her huge blue wall…

magdziolka in Poland has an expanding burst of color in her orange wall… and a very cute dog!

AnnSmailikova in Ukraine made rows of creativity on her walls!

And lastly, Marrijam from Germany crafted this sweet display with strings and pegs. We like the fact that it’s the messages that are on display! :)

Got a postcard wall of your own? Planning to make one? Do share! :)