My New Hobby

Some people say the postal service is being killed by the internet, but thanks to the internet, I joined a fanatical group of people keeping snail mail carriers, stamp makers, and postcard creators in business.

Two months ago, I signed up for Postcrossing, on the advice of an English student at the school where David works.

Postcrossing operates like this:
1. Sign up.
2. Request an address.
3. Get an address for someone in Australia (for example).
4. Send him/her a postcard.
5. Receive a postcard from the United States (again, as an example).
6. Request another address.
7. This time get an address in Ukraine (or ... Russia or Thailand, or ... or... or...).
8. Send that postcard.
9. Receive one from China (or somewhere. You get the idea).

And so on and so forth.

My collection is still small compared to others on the website - some have been Postcrossing for several years. Yet, I have sent postcards to Australia, Russia, China, Ukraine, Germany, Hungary, and the U.S. I have received postcards from the U.S., Netherlands, Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic, China, and Australia.

And that’s just the official Postcrossing ones. I have the option to do direct swaps with other users, so I have additional postcards from China, Germany, and Thailand that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

It is very exciting to open the mailbox and find mail with a stamp, but the best part if this is picking out just the right card to send to the recipient. Thankfully,  everyone has different likes and dislikes: some people collect ladybugs or art or Disney characters or castles. It is great fun to try to match the right card for the person. If postcards were all about a great tourist attraction in Tokushima, I would be out of luck.

I love my new hobby - who doesn’t love receiving and sending mail?
If it sounds like your cup of tea, check it out:
http://www.postcrossing.com/