Category: Mail

This is from Astrid and I was thrilled to receive it because it’s the first postcard I’ve gotten with a quote on it. Astrid translates Kafka’s words as “ways arised because someone goes there” and then says, “I hope you understand, I cannot translate it correct.”  I did a bit of googling and found that it’s most often translated in English as “Paths are made by walking.”  Interesting, eh?

This is from Sonia who is a senior in high school and hopes I can come to Taiwan.  She also hopes I like the postcard.  I do!    It reminds me of the movie Hannah.  But in a good way.
 

This postcard is from Jule, who lives by the Black Sea in Germany.  She translates the front as “Life is an adventure—dare it.”
 

There seem to be a goodly number of Germans who do Postcrossing.  This was from Olaf, who told me he would drive to Sweden tomorrow, to relax.  

I think this is just about the cheeriest thing I’ve seen all winter.  Meulikki writes that she is having the flu.  I’m glad she found time to write me this postcard.

A self-identified “17-year-old man” sent me this fun photo.  He says Hong Kong is a beautiful city and wished me good luck.

This one had a bible verse on the back of it.  I should have seen that coming when I requested quotes.

This card made me wonder what Princeton, New Jersey really looks like.  I don’t doubt that this bucolic view exists, but it can’t all look like this, right?

Anastasia reports that she really enjoyed visiting Disneyland last year.  She also recommended the song Pipe Cauldron Tus Recuerdos Son mi dios.

Guess which post card is from which country.

Did you guess that this is from Japan?  I love the red, it’s even more vibrant in real life.  Plus, on the back side, the woman put decorative tape and stickers along with her message.  It was very pretty all around.
 

Isn’t this nice?  The quote on the back was from Nietzsche:  “That which does not kills us makes us stronger.”
 

My second postcard has arrived.  It included a great quote by Oscar Wilde: “Never fear shadows, for shadows only mean there is a light shining somewhere near by.”

I plugged the Polish statement into Google Translate and it said, “not embrace.”  I am further translating that as “no hugs.”

I had planned to write an essay about why postcrossing.com is so incredibly cool.  Then I would post this essay before I got my first postcard.  But life intervened and my first postcard has arrived.  So here is the short version of why postcrossing.com is so incredibly cool.

You go to postcrossing.com and you register by picking a username, giving the site your address and perhaps uploading a picture.  Then you tell the site that you want to send a postcard. The site kicks out an address from somewhere in the world and also gives you a code to put on your postcard.  You read the profile, pick out a postcard you think the person would like, write, address, stamp and add the code.  Then you mail it and wait.  Because the waiting is the hardest part, Postcrossing lets you send up to five postcards at a time.  When the person receives your postcard, they will upload your code and add a quick message to you via the site.  This will be delivered by a cheery email that says “Hurray!  Your postcard has been received.” Then, the site puts you next on the list to receive a postcard from a random person somewhere on the globe.

It’s the best combination of  postal service mail and email/website I’ve ever seen.

Here’s my first card, from the Black Forest region of Germany.

The best part was getting it.  The second best part was that Matt read it aloud to me in German-accented English.

Should you want to participate in this wonderful invention, just go to postcrossing.com.  And then eagerly await as your mail becomes so much more exiting.