Postcrossing Blog

This week on the spotlight, we feature Jamie1972 (or Alex), from Switzerland. As a mother of 2 small (and really cute!) children, Alex is understandably passionate about children’s rights. Here is what she had to say:

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

My dear penfriend from Poland told me about Postcrossing and curious as I am I had to check out the page. I started slowly with just sending out few cards and had a longer break then because of a difficult pregnancy.

When I got back to Postcrossing I also discovered the Forum more and more and then it started to be real fun. Suddenly you know a bit about the person you write too – which is fun.

These days it is funny – there are weeks I only write “officials” – then are weeks I feel only writing to forum members – both are a lot of fun.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I am a mother of two little children, Billy who is 5 and Sarah who is 2 years old. So I am a bit busy.

We also have two dogs and I love to go out with them for walks. I usually take my camera with me then – wich leads to my other great passion – photography. I love to take pictures of everything and I have now two external harddiscs just to save them!

I write a lot – not only letters and postcards but sometimes also short stories or I wrote a children’s book for my children about a little pirate. During my studies I did a children’s book with illustrations together with three collegues – and we printed it too – it was such a great experience.

I love to read a lot – but usually I can only do it in bed before going to sleep – and I start to buy only paperbacks because I wake up regularly because my book has fallen on my head because I fell asleep during reading.

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

My son Billy at my favourite mailbox where I usually mail my postcards, and little Sarah signing cards at the Bielefeld meeting:

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

To choose special cards is so difficult – there are just too many! I have to say that a lot of postcrossers really try to send you something special, which is so great!

One of my favourite subjects: Jip en Janneke

here is a bunch of cards that just came in my hands flipping though my postcards and I love every single one of them!

This one is a very special card – it’s a wooden one from Poland!

This card says: “After the last night with you I am only a shadow of myself”… This card prooved me that my mailwoman is looking at my postcards – I met her before I saw what was in my mailbox – and believe me her look at me was very strange and shocked!

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

I know that some of my penfriends are postcrossers as well – I usually tell people about it when they see me writing bunches of postcards!

My son Billy started now in the kid’s round robin and he loves it. I guess in about a year or so when he is really able to write on his own he will want to have an account too.

And my little one, Sarah – she is mad about postcards and she loves to look at them. Usually she is really upset when I take them away to register them! It happens a lot that my children sign my postcards too – so if you get a postcard with strange signs of it – this is Sarah’s greetings :-)

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I love to draw addresses and read the profiles. Often I know then wich card is best to send – and usually really hit the taste of the reciever. I love to choose the “perfect” card for everyone. Something I love too is sending and getting RAS cards. Those are really big surprises!

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yes I did. When the first Swiss meeting was taking place in February 2010 I had some of the foreign postcrossers thew day befire in Lucerne and showed them around. In the evening we were at my place having Fondue and a lot of fun! The meeting itself was fun too – all the three Swiss meetings.

And I went to the big Bielefeld meeting last December – three days in a house with all those crazy postcrossers and it was a very special experience! I am always surprised how open all these people are and usually easy going. There is a great respect for everyone in the group and no one feels left out – at least this is my impression.

Christa is a member from Flensburg, a German town very near Denmark. Christina is a schoolteacher in Denmark, so she crosses the border everyday on her way to work! :) Here is what she had to say:

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

I came across Postcrossing when I was on a summertrip around South/East Europe. Together with my travel-friend Silvia I met with my good old penfriend Sibylle in Vienna after our tour. Sibylle was showing us around in Vienna and told me about Postcrossing. So when I came home again I looked at the Postcrossing page and started taking part.

I love receiving mail from all over the world. I have had penfriends since I learnt English in school, but the last years I have less time for long letters, so postcard writing is a great addition… I still can send mail out in the world and receive from close and far away.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love bike trips, most music, theatre/musicals/opera, scrapbooking, meeting friends, skiing, good movies (love pirate movies!), reading (esp. about history and other cultures), collecting stamps and souvenir magnets (besides postcards of course), writing letters, etc…

My biggest interest is traveling, I love the “adventure” of visiting other places in the world and I’m very thankful that I’m able to travel some. When friends ask me if I collect something… I usually answer: postcards, stamps, magnets… and countries :)

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

I mail my mail from both Denmark and Germany. I live in the very North of Germany and I work in Denmark as a schoolteacher. I have sent a lot of mail from Denmark so far but since April postage is “horribly ” expensive… so I have started mailing from Germany again.

And this is where we have our postshop and I get my stamps:

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

Favorite postcard I received… I could show MANY as I have so many favorites. Here are some of the cards I received lately which I like a lot:

As you can see I love landscapes. Some of my favorites are mountains… maybe because I grew up with Alpin skiing (in Austria!) and here where I live we have no mountains :( So every time I receive a mountain card. I remember the great times I had in the mountains.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

Receiving cards almost every day and meeting people from all over the world. Sending out cards from my “little world ” here where I live or places I have visited.

Have you met any other members in real life?

So far I have meet Robin67 from Austria, Gforp, Gogge1 and Dorthe from Denmark. Looking forward to meet Dorthe and Gogge1 soon again in Ålborg.

BraveJ is our spotlight feature today! Ana, from Serbia, is fond of geography, Native Americans and tango! Here’s what she had to say:

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

Some years ago I was into penpalling and one of my penfriends told me about Postcrossing. I liked the idea and I was hooked immediately!

I’ve loved postcards since I was a child. Even before I could read and write properly, I enjoyed looking at the cards that my family received from their friends and relatives. For years I loved to send cards from my holidays to my friends, and to receive them, too! But, that was until modern technology took over and most people just stopped sending real postcards. I missed that and Postcrossing seemed to be the perfect place to quench my thirst for real mail!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Just like many other postcrossers, I also collect stamps. I guess it somehow “goes with the territory” when you’re into postcards or letters. I enjoy beautiful stamps as much as postcards.

I love reading (I’ve always been a bit of a bookworm) and I enjoy wandering around bookstores. Many of them also sell postcards, so it’s a perfect combination! I often use my received postcards as bookmarks and I have this silly habit of trying to match the card to the story of the book I read.

I’ve been doing different kinds of fitness for a very long time and I love it. After many years it’s not so much about keeping fit anymore, but about the positive energy I get from exercising, from interesting choreographs and great music, and the people I meet there.

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

This is the post office closest to my home and I send most of my cards from there:

I also often use this mailbox in the city centre. This photo was taken by another Postcrossing member after our mini-meeting, look how many cards we signed!

I keep most of my cards in boxes and I love going through them from time to time. Here are two of my “treasure chests”:

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

I won’t say anything new if I say that most cards I received are special to me in some way and it would be impossible to show you all my favourites! So, for this occasion, I chose three cards. I’ve been interested in Native Americans since childhood and this card is one of the loveliest I’ve ever received:

Wolves are my favourite wild animals and wolf cards are an important part of my collection. These two wolves are among the most beloved members of my “pack”:

I love cards with tango, there is something indescribably beautiful about this dance. This is one of the very few tango cards I received, so it’s even more precious:

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I can’t say that I have a favourite part, because I enjoy everything – the anticipation of requesting a new address, picking the right card, writing a message, finding wonderful surprises in my mailbox almost every day… Postcrossing opened a whole new world to me. I like to think about it as a way of opening doors or windows to the world. I can’t afford to travel much, so I “travel” through postcards. They introduced me to many amazing places that I may never be able to visit in real life.

But for me, one of the best things about Postcrossing (beside postcards, of course) are the people behind the cards. Since I joined this project and especially since I joined the Postcrossing forum, I met so many nice and friendly people who brought a huge smile on my face with their cards and messages many times. Because of those people, I’m incredibly happy to be a part of the big Postcrossing family.

This week’s spotlight interviewee is lapoussine35, from France! Erin has 2 daughters, is a tea and chocolate addict, and loves to read in her bathtub on rainy days. :) Here is what she had to say:

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

Like many other people here, I came to Postcrossing via penpalling. A friend mentioned Postcrossing to me in a letter and several weeks later, I decided to try it out myself. I love writing and receiving mail but, with two little girls, I find it hard to write long letters anymore. Postcrossing lets me reach out to the world and other people through a wonderful mix of words and pictures.

You could also look at it as armchair travel at its best!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Traveling, science fiction and reading are definite stock answers and truths for me. In addition, I enjoying cross-stitching and making things with my hands. I recently cross-stitched an official card here to a postcrosser who mentioned liking handmade cards (/postcards/FR-144488). It’s my second one and I’m already working on another to send as a RAS.

I’ve also started running again and am dreaming of doing a half-marathon this fall. We’ll see…

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

This is our local post office, conveniently located next to the bakery! Since I started postcrossing, I go there regularly to mail my cards and buy stamps. I’m very lucky to have several great postal workers—they go out of their way to show me the latest stamps, always have a smile and even play with my girls sometimes.

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

I had the worst time trying to pick out only a couple of cards for this interview. Normally I store my cards in boxes and photo albums so that I can easily flip through them and enjoy looking at them. I decided to start pulling out potential cards to highlight here and gave up when my bed started to be completely covered (and my daughters showed up to look through too)!

Not a postcard at all but one of the “unsung” heroes of Postcrossing—a stamp! I’m not a serious stamp collector but I do love neat stamps on my cards and this is one of my all-time favorites. I even received a 3D hologram stamp on an official card from Finland once on an official card!

Postcrossing has brought smiles not only to me but to my entire family! Ticker from Australia sent this great RAS card to my daughter Laura. She wouldn’t put it down for days! (below on the left)

Another RAS but from my friend evitayueh this time. Evita knows about my fascination for Japan and sent me this great spring greeting to brighten my day; needless to say, she succeeded! (above on the right)

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I love the excitement of choosing the perfect card and stamp for people. Since I started postcrossing, I’ve gotten to know the local post office staff rather well and they are very good about showing me the neatest new stamps. I think I get as much, if not more pleasure, out of sending than receiving. I’ve gotten to know several great people here through both the Main Site and the Forum and sending RAS cards is a great way to turn a dreary day into a better one. (Receiving them is also a wonderful part of postcrossing and proof of the community we’re building here.)

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

I’m passionate about languages and living abroad. I believe that everyone should take the chance to live abroad at least once in their life. The saying goes that “travel broadens the mind” but living in a different country does so even more by forcing you to reconsider all the little assumptions that you didn’t even know you had! I’m a strong advocate of programs like ERASMUS in the European Union or US-style Junior Year Abroad programs. I was lucky enough to study in Switzerland as part of my education and I treasure that time.

Language acquisition is also a bonus and I find it fascinating how it unlocks your brain from even the earliest of ages. It’s also interesting to look at how the connotations of different words change in different languages. I often ask postcrossers to write a few words or a favourite quote in their language on my cards. The combination of a foreign language, education and living abroad is a real gift!

This week’s spotlight interview comes from marja2006, from Finland! She and her daughter are avid postcrossers, and even her son contributes to the collection! Here is what she had to say:

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

I saw a short story about Postcrossing in the newspaper – I googled to find the link to the pages. This happened in 2006. I have always loved to receive postcards. When travelling was not so easy, people used to send much more cards – now when people travel a lot, there are not so many who would send a postcard from their holiday – even if you asked them to! For a lazy traveller this is also a great way to see the world – you can see places you would probably never visit, and a postcard can show you the familiar places in a way you would never see them if you were there yourself as the weather and the lights vary a lot.

It took about a year before I had enough of courage to go to the forum and join the tags and Round Robins, but then I was hooked with tags and swaps…

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I don’t have too much time for hobbies, but taking photos is one of them. I used to play piano when I was young, just for own fun. My daughter takes me to concerts every now and then (or is it the other way around?) – and tries to keep me up with what’s popular.

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

My mail comes to postbox, which is in the postoffice next to the railway station. In this picture the postoffice is in the left, with the orange and blue colours of the Finnish Post.

Here’s a closer look at the postoffice from outside, with new postboxes for priority mail (the blue boxes) and economy mail (the orange boxes):

I also take my cards mostly to the ladies in my postoffice for cancellation. Here’s a picture of one of the lovely ladies at my postoffice taking care of my mail:

and here’s how it looks inside my postoffice:

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

There are so many postcards which are special and there are so many new lovely cards coming every week, but here are some of them:

This card I received from my forum friend mlysao from Tahiti – she had it made as a maxicard for me with the special cancellation of the solar eclipse – it really warms my heart to think it arrived from the other side of the world as a RAS:

Another RAS card which made me very happy, a card from Shanghai meet-up in 2008, sent by Linying and signed among others by Paulo and Ana, the founders of Postcrossing:

And I am not wondering at all that Paulo and Ana ended up in Slovenia when I look at this beautiful postcard, one of my all time favourites, which I received in my biggest swap ever:

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Card from Greenland with ID GL-8 was a nice surprise at the time there were not many active users and also cards from Uruguay, UY-32 and UY-45 were nice surprises – neither of them was sent by a local user! Both of them came from a user with Finnish background! :D And I felt really lucky when I received a card from Tuvalu – TV-222 – which was sent to celebrate the Earth Day.

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

Only my own daughter – she had a long break with it, but now as Finland was approaching the id FI-1000000, I got her writing some cards, too, as we read a comment of my postcrossing friend’s daughter of teamwork in Facebook.

I am also very happy of the fact that my younger son sends postcards when going on holidays – not only to me but others as well! And he also buys cards for my collection!