Snow, and water, & things close-by: Sent to China, England, Poland, & Russia

A lot going out, all in one day…

Do you have a favorite?

Olaf x 3 is on his way to Derby, England, for a swap-bot Disney postcard trade.  This is the first card I’ve pulled out of a newly-acquired boxed set “Art of Disney” cards.  We were to write a Disney-related message on the card, & I kept mine Olaf related: how for me he is the best part of “Frozen,” and how I saw him inside Disneyland, resting atop a building & greeting people standing in line to meet the princesses.

That concludes today’s swap-bot segment; the rest of the cards are Postcrossing draws.  The card at top right, depicting California’s Marine Mammal Center, is on its way to Vladivostok, Russia, where I assume it will be handed off to this Postcrosser’s wife, as he says she is the one who likes “cute animals.”  Unless she doesn’t find pinnipeds cute, in which case I have no use for her.

The tiger card is on its way to Chongqing, China.  This is actually a resend, replacing a (different) card I sent over 60 days ago, and which is therefore now “expired.” The intended recipient accepted my offer of a resend, but also told me this:

“The postcard is usual travelling for one and half month in China. But sometimes it takes longer. I had received a card travelled for 123 days. Amazing!”

So, perhaps she will receive this new card, and also the original!  She tells me she is sending me a card to thank me for the resend.

The lighthouse, I hope, will find its way to Szczecin, Poland.  The recipient expresses interest in all sorts of water-based athletics & sport, but the closest thing I have to offer is water.

The beautiful harbor seals are supposed to end up in Zhejiang, China, with a Postcrosser who describes herself as “a 25 years Chinese girl,” and says almost nothing else about herself, but does go on at some length about what type of cards she hopes to receive. Mine fits under the “animals live in the ocean” category.  I was, of course, careful to steer clear of her NO list:

“NO Handmade cards/ad cards/wierd cards…and no postcards in envelope.”

I don’t have a clue what she meant by wierd/weird cards, but I think mine is in the clear.

There’s a difference: Sent to Taiwan & Thailand

From my local big city paper, the San Jose Mercury News:

Nooo!  Who edits these things?  And apparently, the person who writes the headlines not only does not also read the photo captions; s/he does not even read–nor skim–them!  Many ignorant people will stumble into a Taiwanese restaurant & order a Thai ice tea & pad thai, but this is just way beyond.

Ah, well, on to the postcards.  I have a card going out today to each of these beautiful countries, which, I will throw in, are about 1,500 miles from one another, and each have their own very distinct languages, cuisines, & cultures.

The little post office goes to Bangkok, Thailand, in a Postcrossing Forum “Far East to America” tag.  The recipient writes:

“I like to travel a lot, just want to see the world as much as I can and remember it with my cameras. So sending and receiving postcards is another way to discover the world. That’s why I love them too !”

The view of Big Sur is on its way to Taipei, Taiwan, part of a Postcrossing Forum “Taiwan Meets the World” tag. This Postcrosser shares a couple of interests with the other one, you will see:

“I like travelling and photograph…I would like to received any postcard !  These are my favorites: postcard of your country attractions or historical sites…Sea,beach,lake,river…Landscape picture (I will be very happy!)”

They may both even like Thai iced tea.  I wouldn’t know.

Wax Coating nearly spoils the day: Sent to Australia, Ireland, & Malaysia

The frozen food packaging is headed for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in a Postcrossing Forum tag for postcards made of food packaging.  I’d tagged this user before, & sent her a panel of a Chex cereal knock-off, so I reached for something a little different this time.  Are you a samosa lover?  They are actually pretty easy to make from scratch, dough & all, but this product can be good, too–also a quick way to achieve the Burmese salad samusa thote. I learned, as I started to write on the card, that there was a bit of a wax coating on the inside of the box.  Fortunately, I was able to scrounge up a felt-tipped pen to save the day (and the postcard, onto which I’d already affixed six stamps)!

The other two cards are regular Postcrossing draws.  Kitty is waving goodbye as it heads off for Canberra, Australia, to a Postcrosser who says she has a house full of teenagers & cats.

The ship has left for Dublin, Ireland, to someone who says he would like a postcard with a ship.  That’s the one I have!  Uh, had!  I purchased it a month or two ago in case of just such an emergency.

How I Worked for Peanuts: Sent to Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Russia, & Taiwan

I finally found some Peanuts postcards!  I’ve groused a time or three about how they are nearly impossible to find in the U.S., the only ones I’d previously found online being meant for teachers or doctors to send to their charges.  I bought a small set earlier this year at the Charlie Brown Cafe in Bangkok, Thailand, and have used them in Postcrossing Forum’s “Peanuts/Snoopy” tag trade, knowing my days were numbered.  Well, I finally decided to comb the online store at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California, a city about two hours north of me, but not within my usual stomping grounds.  SUCCESS!  They had a few different designs, & I bought several of each (and then of course had to throw down for postage).  The bundle arrived yesterday, & now I am happy to be back in the Peanuts game!

This first card is already on its way to Chiayi City, Taiwan–not in the Snoopy trade, but in a “Taiwan Meets the World” trade, in which this recipient wrote in her list of card wishes, “SNOOPY!”  Pleased to be in a position to help.

The rest of the cards are going out on regular Postcrossing draws.  The “Printing” postcard–one of the few left in my big box ‘o book cover postcards I had to rely on back when I joined Postcrossing & swap-bot a year ago–is heading to Konnevesi, Finland.  The person set to receive this card thinks it is important that we know “there are no polarbears in Finland.”  Looking over the images of her favorite cards, I just decided that this seemed to be the closest I had in my stash to something which might strike her fancy.

Pismo Beach is heading for Netherlands!  Krommenie, specifically.  The Postcrosser there said he would enjoy “cards that give an good view of your country.” I think the California coastline is gorgeous, and this card offers a great view of a small part of it.

The Monterey multi-views go to Simferopol, Ukraine.  Or is it Russia?  I sent this one nearly a week ago, and in going back to post this I started by looking at a shot that I took of the card, which has a Postcrossing address label to Simferopol, Russia.  But in trying to find it on the Postcrossing site under my traveling or sent cards, I had no outgoing cards to Russia in the time frame!  I finally found the card number assigned to a member listed as living in Ukraine.  Sigh.  Blame Pootie-Poot. Anyhoo, this member’s profile shot depicts her wearing traditional German-style garb, and she tells the reader, “I am interested in Germany and I really love this country!  My favorite place is in Munich and it is Starbucks Cafe”  Wha’?

Finally, and speaking of Germany, that beautiful sea otter is going to Nürnberg, Germany to a teacher who enjoys receiving cards depicting oceans & sealife.

Food & Clothing: Received from Australia, China, & Russia

An interesting day at the mail box!

The table of food came from a Postcrosser in Sosnovyy Bor, Russia, who writes (in part): “Do you like Russian cuisine?  Have you tasted ‘pelmeni?’ It’s very delicious Russian food…Good luck and Bon Appetit!!” The card includes a recipe–in Russian.  I looked up this dish, which looks like tortellini, and here’s what I found out about these dumplings:

The dough is made from flour and water, sometimes adding a small portion of eggs. The filling can be minced meat (pork, lamb, beef, or any other kind of meat), fish, or mushrooms. The mixing together of different kinds of meat is also popular. Thetraditional Udmurt recipe requires a mixture of 45% beef, 35% mutton, and 20% pork. Pelmeni in Perm (west of the Ural Mountains) are often filled with mushrooms, onions, and turnips instead of meat.Various spices, such as black pepper and onions, are mixed into the filling. –Wikipedia

A Postcrosser in Zhangzhou, China sent me the gotochi card depicting “China traditional costumes.” I know it is a gotochi card, because that’s what the sender told me!  It’s my first, I believe, & I think it’s very cool.  It is very large, and die-cut. The sender tells me she bought it from the Forbidden City in Beijing.

A swap-bot member someplace in Australia sent me a laminated section of a cookie box! This is yet another bit of recycling received through a “chunk of cardboard” trade, and I just thought it was so funny & cool to receive a laminated card.  The sender tells me:

“In Australia, cookies don’t typically come in boxes, and also the ‘street art’ visual style is unique–cookies here don’t typically try to be ”cool.’ The actual cookies aren’t amazing, but hey at least the packaging is neat.”

In rating the swap, I shared my enthusiasm over the surprise of receiving a laminated card.  The sender responded:

“I had another swap postcard arrive laminated, and it was just perfect because it was a rainy day! So I thought that was a brilliant idea, and the cardboardy postcards needed a bit of extra support.”

Stamps, stickers, postmarks & stuff:

Big, and mysterious: Received from Taiwan & the United States

First, the night shot.  I love that I’ve been getting so many Postcrossing cards from Taiwan lately.  The sender of this postcard tells me:

“There are lots of delicious food.  I love night markets, because I can eat many kinds of food and also play some games.  Xiaolongbao and beef noodle are my favorite food.”

I can’t really tell what’s going on in that lower card.  Some kind of oil/snow-globe? It came in a swap-bot “free card” trade, & the sender is from Seattle, Washington.  She writes:

“My employer put us up at this hotel (in Tacoma) while we worked at our annual convention a couple weeks ago & my friends gave me the cards.  I picked this one for you because it made me think of the beach.”

One more swap-bot card, this a “chunk of cardboard” from Arizona, and it is HUGE–nearly 7.5″ x 10″.  A card this size, rightfully, contains a long message.  Here’s just a tiny bit:

“I’ve rescued some other cardboard chunks recently from cereal boxes, a candy box and a beer carton.  Always on the lookout.”

I understand!  Sometimes I have to force myself to immediately dispose of cardboard, rather than turning it all into postcards.

Stamps!

A Pair of Ciphers: Sent to Poland, Russia, & Turkey

3 New Postcrossing draws:

Pinocchio is going to a Postcrosser in Belgorodskaya, Russia, whose long list of likes includes Disney movie posters. She wanted a quote, so I gave her a favorite of mine from Groucho Marx:

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

That was the pleasurable part of this draw; in the case of the next two Postcrossers, I would go so far as to call them ciphers.  There are more words in one of my postcards than there are in both of their profiles combined!

The person in Kozieglowy, Poland, gets the Coplu cartoon because she mentioned “drawing,” and the member in Corlu, Turkey gets the manatees because she mentioned “animals.”  There we go!  Okay, I’ll say this in their defense: both are brand-new Postcrossers, and are about 16 years of age.  It’s to be hoped that as they go along & participate more & read more profiles, they will add more information to help others select a postcard for them, & even more importantly, learn about their lives & cultures.

Recycling & whatnot: Sent to England & the United States

Four cards sent out today, in two swap-bot trades:

The dragon card was originally sent to me with some other cards in an envelope for another swap-bot trade.  Now it is going out to Auburn, California in a “free postcard” trade.  Since it has been years since I have stumbled into any of those racks of free ad postcards, I am grateful to have anything at all to send out in a trade such as this.

The remaining cards are going out in one of my favorite ongoing swap-bot trades, the “chunk o cardboard.”  As the name implies, all that is required is that one mail out a chunk of cardboard…

…for the swap’s host in Saint Paul, Minnesota, though, I try to send something special.  I created sea life postcards in sextuplicate a couple of months or so ago; I think this may be the third of the batch I am mailing out.  The others I have sent are posted on this blog, too.  I’m always happy for a chance to be paired with this member, & thank her for creating a cool swap.

The ginger ale is going to another swapper with whom I’ve been paired more than once in the past; she’s in Immingham, England, and though I am sure she’s encountered ginger ale, I have no idea if it would have been Canada Dry.  All of a sudden, I have a great thirst for Schweppes.

And its famous Schweppervescence.

Back to the U.S., the dog treat panel is on its way to a swapper in Goleta, California. I tell her I wasn’t sure if my dog would go for this new product, as she doesn’t usually like snacks with what I’d call a “plastic-y” texture.  Well, I needn’t have worried.