The Traveler, the Cook, and the Sailor: Received from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, & the U.S.

This time:

• Snoopy!
• Disney!
• “Word lovers” with nothing to say!
• Falling apart in the post!

 

Let’s start with a great pair of cards I actually got to choose, thanks to Postcrossing Forum offer tags.  This Peanuts postcard, with Patty scratching Snoopy’s chin, came from Japan, and the sender wrote, “I hope you will enjoy this card!”  Well, yes… I did ask for it…

The sender in Hong Kong tells me about her local Disneyland:

“(It’s) the smallest one in the world, but it’s still popular, especially with Chinese tourists.  Every day the park is crowded with tourists.  😦 and I am not interested in it.”

Ha, when I spent a mere 3 nights in HK a few years back (not nearly enough time to properly see the city), I tried like crazy to avoid Disneyland–but everywhere I turned, there was another image or large advertising display for the place.  I finally gave in, & made a whirlwind early-morning trip, before meeting a friend for a dim sum lunch.  Fortunately, my mid-week, early-morning trip yielded a very uncrowded park, with no memorable waits for any of the rides I chose.  I had a great time!

Speaking of tourist zones, look at this cool 3-D card my pen pal in Tokyo, Japan sent to me when she visited Tokyo Tower!  The fact that they had a special mailbox & postmark tells me that Japan is very much more of a postcard-writing-and-treasuring culture than is the U.S.  Now I did, on a recent road trip, see a general store in a little community that had its own postcards, which it would mail for you for free, should you fill one out to someone & drop it in their basket.  I didn’t take advantage of the offer, as I don’t carry an address book on me.  Guess I could have looked up addresses on my phone email app–but I don’t know how many Gs I was getting in that remote area!

The soup comes via a Postcrossing Forum food tag from a sender in Yokohama, Japan, who tells me about the photo on her card:

“This picture of Japanese local cuisine ‘Sanpei-jiru.’  It’s Japanese sake less soup with chopped salmon and vegetables.  It’s very good.”

A flying whale from Albany, New York, thanks for a Postcrossing Forum “marine life & sea creature” tag.  I see I made a note on the card quoting a line from this Postcrosser’s profile: “I love words.”  Now, why did I want to remember that?  Oh, I see now: the card was mostly blank space on the back, with the only message being “hope you like this card!  I thought it was pretty cool. :)”

So, that happened.

The rug-looking card seems to be a piece of cardboard covered in gift wrap.  I’d have guessed contact paper, but this thing arrived in my mailbox flapping apart, attached only at one end.  This has been a bit of a theme recently. This one came to me from Blitar, Indonesia, thanks to Postcrossing.  The sender tells me I am her first match–she just joined the night before!  She also wrote:

“I am 23 years old, living in a small city in East Java province, called Blitar.  I love reading too!  My favourite is about self development, business/marketing and also recipe book because I’m a chef… I am a food consultant here, my clients are spread in Palembang, Jakarta, Surabaya, etc… so I live nomaden sometimes… Hahaha.  I love traveling too!  My fave Asia destinations are Thailand and Hong Kong!  The food is superb!  I hope someday I can go to USA!!!  That’s my dream destination.”

Finally, there’s the St. Petersburg card, another Postcrossing draw, this time from a 16-year-old girl in Checkhov, Russia, who wrote that she’d just returned from Camp Artek, where she was in the sea squad, and had a great time learning knots, semaphore, and much more.

Okay, enough for now!  Here come the stamps, stickers, & stuff.  See anything you like?

Sharing the Hate: Sent to China, Germany, Singapore, & the U.S.

Mmm, Thai food–from Thailand!  You know, no Southeast Asian person I know willingly goes to American Thai restaurants.  Oh, they love great Thai food–they just don’t believe it exists in restaurants here! In fact, a Thai cook I know told a group of people who asked about the best Thai restaurant, that she’s never been to a good one.  This is before she taught us all to cook the stuff ourselves.  This postcard came from Thailand, and it’s going to Clarksville, Tennessee, in a swap-bot trade of food postcards.

The train card is going to a train enthusiast in Shanghai, China, in a Postcrossing Forum trade.  I’ve never traveled in a sleeper train here in the U.S., but I have overseas.  Returning from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, Thailand by overnight train allowed me to see some beautiful scenery (before dark took over), and it wasn’t only a cheap way to travel: it also save me from a night’s hotel fee!

I HATE that “Seein’ things at night” card.  It came to me as a part of The Disappointassortment, of course; now it leaves me for a swap-bot “I HATE This Postcard” trade.  Yea! Off to Troy, New York, with that rubbish.

The black & white New York image goes off in another swap-bot trade, called “I don’t live here.” It goes to a swapper in Singapore, and I told her I would not want to live in NY.  To list one main reason: snow.  No, thanks.  It snows in California, but not where I live.  And if it did, well, it wouldn’t be living where I live.

Finally, a regular Postcrossing draw.  The Fairyland post office (no longer a post office) goes to someone in Norderstedt, Germany with an interest in post-related post.

Stamps, stamps, stickers, & washi tape:

 

“Real Stamps:” Received from Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, & the U.S.

So many nice postcards this time–but first, let me get to something I forgot about in an earlier post.

It was in the profile of a German Postcrosser I was assigned.  She asked for “real stamps,” by which I thought she meant, you know, real stamps.  Not metered mail, and perhaps not those internet-printed things where you are able to choose whatever image you want.  Real stamps.  But that’s not quite what she meant:

“real stamps, no self-adhesive stamps. It`s difficult to move them from the paper and mostly they are ruined.”

Oh.  Welllll…I can’t even remember the last time I have licked a stamp.  Fellow U.S.-dwellers, can you tell me if licky-stamps are even still produced in our country? I felt like I should explain that to her., but then I realized I didn’t need to do that at all.  If her proportion of Postcrossing cards received from the U.S is anything like the proportion of mine from Germany–well, she already knows all about our stamps, just from sheer overexposure.

Okay, let’s get to the current round of cards.  Linus & Sally came to me from Poughkeepsie, New York, thanks to the Postcrossing Forum Snoopy/Peanuts tag thread. Yes, she repurposed a dental office’s reminder card.  When I was tagged by someone from the U.S., I did wonder what the heck she would send, as Peanuts cards are just not available here! Greeting cards are everywhere, sure, but postcards?  The sender of this dental card writes:

“You’ll be hard pressed to find this being sold in a store!  I love Snoopy postcards but it’s hard to find them!”

That’s what I was just saying!  I get mine from the Charles M. Schulz Museum–2 hours away on a good commute, and not a lot else in the area, so that’s quite a postcard commitment to make the journey.

The next card comes from Taipei, Taiwan, and it makes me wish I were there.  The sender, who tagged me in a “Taiwan meets the world” Postcrossing Forum tag, wrote a bit about what is known as tapioca (or bubble, or pearl) tea:

“I love Taiwan’s drinks; we have lots of kinds of tea with many different fillings.  You can order whatever you want.  They all taste good, but too much will get you fat!”

That lovely tree view is from a postcard pal in Bekasi Utara, Indonesia.  She says that is palm fruit, and she took the photo in front of her mother’s house.

Finally, ther’s the image from Howl’s Moving Castle.  It came to me from Suzuka, Japan, thanks to a forum Studio Ghibli tag trade.  Scroll down & look at the awesome washi tape from the movie–and also the Snoopy stamp!  The sender tells me she was planning on going to a Sailor Moon exhibition & buying lots of postcards.

E R N I E ! ! –and some other stuff: Received from Germany, Scotland, and the United States

Ernie in my mailbox!  Love seeing any of my Sesame Street friends popping by.

E R N I E ! ! !

In this case, I should say Sesamstrasse, as the card came to me from a Postcrosser in Würzburg, Germany.

The “Aloha Hawaii” card came from a swap-bot member in Burdett, New York, who says she has a cousin living in Hawaii, but that cousin is moving back to his home state of Ohio.  Oh, excuse me, I glanced at the message again: Oklahoma. My brain was so clouded feeling the loss of having to leave Hawaii…

The section of what I think is a beer box came from Palm Coast, Florida, part of the swap-bot “chunk-o-cardboard” trade I seem to enjoy so much.

That huuuuge card is from a Postcrosser in Galloway, Scotland. The image depicts the “Gateshead Angel of the North,” which the sender tells me is “a large sculpture over the border in the North East of England.  I visited it recently and was very impressed.”

Stamps, a sticker, & stuff:

On–and off–water: Received from Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, & the United States

Catching up on logging in…

Tigger & Piglet are from a Postcrossing Forum Disney tag trade, and they were sent to me from someone in Berlin, Germany who writes, “I like Disney since my childhood.”

The dandelion seeds blew over, via Postcrossing, from Apeldoorn, Netherlands. The sender tells me:

“For a short while I lived near the sea…and I loved it!! I really wish I could go back!  Here in the Netherlands if you blow away the fluff of a dandelion you can do a wish. And mine is to live near the sea one day again. Preferably a sea that is warm enough to swim in the whole year round. 🙂 Don’t like the cold water much. But a cold sea is even better than none and a river or lake is better than nothing! :)”

I agree with her on all points! Speaking of water, the unidentified coastal scene was sent to me from a Postcrosser in Bielefeld, Germany, but this water is no place near the card’s sender!  She writes:

“I also like walking on the beach, the sea, the salt in the air…but it’s so far away from here.  I haven’t any water around Bielefeld, no lake, no river, nothing. But you can live here.”

Well, now I feel depressed.

The Bulgaria postcard is from Bulgaria.  It was received via a swap-bot “Zazzle Me” trade in which we were to send cards we have had professionally printed.  The sender tells me:

“The colors of the Bulgarian flag stand for: –White: peace; –Green: hope & joy; –Red: strength & valour.”

From New York comes the Rockerfeller Center card, for a swap-bot “R” postcard swap.  If you scroll back in my blog, I think you’ll find what I mailed out was a Jetoy (“R”-is-for) Renaissance-style cat!  This swapper tells me:

“I see you enjoy traveling. I do, too.  We are going to Tokyo in Oct.  Really looking forward to it!”

Finally, from Rome, Italy, come all of those nighttime views.  It’s another Postcrossing card, from a sender who identifies herself as a “tattoo artist and student of architecture.” She goes on to write:

“I love alt, reading, watching movies, draw, and go to the beach.”

Stamps, stickers & postmarks:

Face it, Tiger: You’re Surrounded by Mail Art! Sent to Finland and the United States

It’s a swap-botty kind of day…

The three collaged cards are part of a “chunk ‘o’ cardboard” exchange, in which we need to do no more than mail out a simple scrap of cardboard cut to postcard proportions.  Sometimes I use these for my silly version of mail art, which may not be to others’ standards, either in artistic perspective or skill.

The top left card started life as a Kleenex box, onto which I slapped a bit of coffee label, and then characters from the packaging of pharmaceuticals, Kinder toys, and taro chips.  This lovely, layered piece of art goes to the swap’s host in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The set of two are cardboard scraps covered with a nighttime scene from a coffee canister, and then populated with Richard Scarry characters rescued from a worn-out, discarded library book.  They go to two cities in New York: New York City, and Liverpool.

The tiger is headed for Kokkola, Finland, part of a “Zazzle” swap in which we are to mail out cards we have had professionally printed (by whatever company) from our own images.  This, surely, will be one of the best cards ever sent out in that trade!

Sent to Germany, Taiwan, and the United States

Busy with four cards, for three trades.

The stamp collage is one I made for a swap-bot “stampcard” trade.  It’s going to a recipient in Liverpool, New York.  All the postcards coming through my mailbox, it was nice to have a way to put some part of them to use!  Many of the stamps came from my incoming swap-bot/Postcrossing cards, while a few were far older ones I’d had laying around.  This is only half of the stamp collage I made; the piece was two-postcards tall, so I guess the other half will be showing up here at some point.

Two more swap-bot cards, both for an “all creatures great & small” trade.  The birds go to Westminster, Colorado, to a swap-botter who wants no cat cards.  This is why the cat card card is headed for Hessen, Germany. These animal cards are the 2nd and 3rd I have sent from my recently-purchased box of 100 animal cards.  The cat, like the elephant I sent out 1st, is one of my very favorite cards in the whole box.

Finally, the lobster. I went back on to the Postcrossing Forum, and found a “Marine Life and Sea Creatures” tag, and am sending this to the previous person to sign onto the tag, a Postcrosser in New Taiwan City, Taiwan.  In case you were wondering about this creature, the caption on the card says, “BULLSEYE LOBSTER (Enoplometopus holthuisi), rare, but wide-spread reef animal found from Hawaii to Australia.”

Received from Belarus, Canada, & the United States

Three new ones in, via Postcrossing & swap-bot:

The Long Beach comes to me from Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada.  Knowing from my Postcrossing profile that I enjoy being near the ocean, the sender tells me, “if no one has mentioned it to you before, let me tell you that you should check out this beautiful corner of the earth if you ever get a chance!”

The old-timey gas-station scene came to me thanks to a swap-bot recycled postcard swap, and it was sent by a user in Brooklyn, New York, who says she loves the vintage billboards in the background. Now, as far as I can tell–and yes, I dissected the thing–this was not a recycled postcard (we are supposed to slap a new back on a card we’ve previously received through the mail), but some people do actually keep every card they receive!

The last card bears an image of Rio de Jainero, but was torn out of a Lufthansa magazine by a Postcrosser in Belarus, who happened to be traveling to Great Britain!

Cool stamps…

Sent to Belgium, India, Netherlands, & the United States

Four going out, all in swap-bot trades.  This set of destinations pleases me in that it is much more international than I’ve become used to in being a part of swap-bot.

The Paddington card goes to Zwijndrecht, Netherlands, in a “children’s book illustration” swap.  Why, that is exactly what my big box ‘o’ old book cover postcards was MADE for!

The rest of the cards are for a “chunk o cardboard” swap. These are one of my favorites in which to participate, because depending upon my available supply of time & creativity when the swap comes along, I can either send out an unadorned slice of packaging, or I can collage it up to my heart’s content.

The horsey card above came together from an L&L Drive-In calendar and a bit from a Disney travel ad.  It is heading for Zaventem, Belgium.

The fishy card is going to Liverpool, New York.  I put it together using the cover of a junk mail magazine, and a couple of divers from a travel ad.

Finally comes the cartoon-stampy card.  The images were printed off the internet, and slapped onto my chunk-o-cardboard.  Off it goes to Kanpur, India.

Received from: New Zealand, NY, North Dakota, Hawaii, Washington, and Virginia!

WOW! A lot of swap-bot mail greeting me–too overwhelming to scan & post individually! Some really cool cards here.

Whoa! A fun day to check the mailbox!

Wonderful stamps on the card from New Zealand, I love that lenticular space one.

One advantage of swap-bot is that if you like a river of postcards coming in, you can make that happen.  I truly didn’t imagine something like this!  Pretty quick results for a–what is it now?–3-week-newbie.