Postcrossing Blog

February is here… 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 to 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 feel that 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 an offline “hello!”.

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

Just in case you forgot… February 4th is Thank a Mailman Day! They’re the ladies and gentlemen who deliver all our postcards day after day, rain or shine, so they deserve our appreciation. If you’ve always wanted to do something nice for your mail carrier to thank them for all they do, next Thursday would be the perfect time to show your gratitude.

Here are some ideas of things you could do:

• Tape a colourful thank-you note on your mailbox.
• Leave some sweets or a goodie bag halfway into the mailbox slot, for them to pick up.
• If you enjoy baking, make some cookies — bonus points if the decorations are mail-themed!
• Any party is better with balloons and sparklers! :)
• If you’re at home, meet your mail carrier and say thank you in person, nothing beats voicing a heartfelt thank you.
• Use your crafty skills to make them a flag or a pin they can carry for the rest of their round!

As always, we’re actually quite curious about what you choose to do… Leave a comment with your plans, let’s plot this “conspiracy” together! :)

It was Pauline (aka PauliB) from Germany who first brought SunnyRat's unusual wall of postcards to my attention, some time ago. I confess I gasped in delight upon discovering it… have a look:

Each postcard is accompanied by a little rat, with a curious spark in his eyes! :)

There seemed to be quite a few of them, so I was curious and talked to Julia (aka SunnyRat) about her quirky wall. Julia is from Russia and works on a software company… but as it turns out, she’s also mommy to a large family of pet rats, and does some wonderful art as well! It was a pleasure to learn more about her and her pets, so I hope you enjoy this mini-interview as much as I did.

Could you introduce your rats to us? What are their names, how old are they… what do they like to do all day?

At this moment I have eight wonderful little rats. They all are male and their names are: April, Baikal, El, Sky, Krosh, January, Cheshire and Fort Erie. They have different ages, from a few months to almost 3 years old. The youngest is April, and this April he will be one year old :)

I must say that I like to give names, which are ordinary words or geographical names, because when I hear these words accidentally it always becomes sunny in my heart and I’m smiling.

Every rat is a little person with its own character traits. For example, Baikal (on the right), a rat with Siamese “point” on the nose, is a calm, tender, plush teddy bear who loves to be cuddled and stroked and is a perfect shoulder companion. April (on the left) is curious, cheerful, restless bundle of energy who adores people. He is always ready to be with you and that is why he appears on photos most often. He has curly whiskers and white unsymmetrical stripe on the face. They are best friends, and together with their brothers, we are a big united family!

They have an organized part of the room, where they live. Here it is:

This is where they play, jump, climb, runn, groom each other, do housekeeping, generate and solve problems, have dinner and communicate… I’ve made some videos with our rat’s everyday life, you can watch it if you would like, if you’re curious and have some time: video #1, video #2.

And all rats love to sleep and usually they do it in hammocks! :)

Also, they are intelligent animals and love to learn new things. So we do some trainings together and they can easily perform simple tricks. For example, here we are leaning how to do a rotation:

Sometimes we take part in rat shows, where events like tightrope walking and rat agility take place. So they do sports too.

Where did you get the idea to include them in your postcard photos?

I was inspired by SeanPatrick’s wall! I found it so uplifting, lively and enjoyable that I decided to make something personal too. And, of course, I thought about rats at once, because they usually make me smile.

Are they cooperative in the photo sessions?

It may depend on the temper of each specific rat… some cooperate very well and some are difficult to take pictures of. But they love to explore new things and love to do something together with human beings, so we simply have fun. And the more often it happens, the better we understand each other.

Something yummy doesn’t hurt too! :)

What kind of reactions do you receive from other members who notice your wall?

The reactions I usually get are warm words and well wishes to the rats. Some people talk about their own pet rats. Compliments and energetic emotions! And, if I may take this opportunity to say thank you so much for such kind of reactions! I appreciate it very much and this is a happiness for me to know that someone somewhere on the planet is smiling too, looking at these photos.

What about you, what do you do for a living, and for fun? And do you have other pets?

I work as an analyst at a company that develops solutions for computer protection. And, by the way, sometimes my rats are used for this company advertising items, such as wall and pocket calendars.

Also I enjoy almost all kinds of creative activity. Especially I love to draw. And thanks to postcrossing I can do it much more often, because to draw for somebody is always more enjoyable for me, than to do it for no particular reason. So most of my sent cards usually have little drawings.

Rats are my only pets. I am with them about ten years and have to say that since the discovery of pet rats there is always laughing at home. And the more I learn about them, the more I like them!

Thank you Julia, that was wonderful! :)

PS – Do you know of any other quirky postcard walls? Please share them in the comments!

Postal related videos have a soft spot in our mail-loving hearts… bonus points if they feature postcards and envelopes whizzing by at the speed of light! 😀

So we were happy to discover another of these videos, which Ana (aka ninocas) from Portugal shared with us. Some details are specific to the USA, but in our experience, this is how mail is processed in most countries as well. Have a look:

The video is part of Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum’s permanent exhibition Systems at Work, where you can learn how the postal service works and has evolved over the past 200 years.

If you’re not in the US, you can still “visit” this exhibition (and the whole museum in fact!) on their virtual tours — it’s super interesting!

How do you mend a broken heart? In the midst of all the sadness and sorrow, some people turn to gloomy songs that seem to sing to the tune of a broken heart… others to ice-cream, chocolate or cheesy romantic comedies.

Some people turn to literature though, to the great romances and classical couples — and of these, Romeo and Juliet are the epitome of the star-crossed lovers. If anyone could understand them, surely it would be Juliet. If only one could write to her…

Actually you can — and many people do, sending thousands of letters every year simply addressed to “Juliet, Verona, Italy”. The missives are delivered to Il Club di Giulietta (Juliet’s Club), a group of volunteers in Verona who take the time to read and reply to all the letters, by hand. They explain:

“The story of the Juliet Letters starts in the 1930’s when Ettore Solimani, the guardian of Juliet’s Tomb, began gathering the first letters people left at the grave and, moved by this phenomenon, he started replying, thus becoming the first “Juliet’s secretary”. Today this special task is taken by the Juliet Club: each letter is read, translated, answered by the ”Juliet’s secretaries" who keep a one-of-a-kind archive that contains thousands of love stories and countless words of love."

Last month, a group of Italian postcrossers visited the club’s office, where they were treated to a guided tour by Manuela Uber, one of Juliet’s secretaries. They listened to the story of the club, looked through some letters and took a lot of nice photos to share the experience!

Afterwards, they all sat down in a pizzeria to eat… and write some postcards, naturally! :)

Thank you Kinucci for telling us about this lovely meetup, and Saintursula, Antonella-, uncoiled_tiger and Jeraldine for letting us show your photos.

PS – If you’re in the mood for a cheesy romantic comedy, there’s also a movie about Il Club di Giulietta, called Letters to Juliet! 😀