Vyrvina Maria | 25 May 2018
The 21st century is the time of technology, innovation and communication on the Internet. Residents of Russia have been communicating via the Internet for over 10 years, and even more via SMS. But where did the good old paper letters go? Does anyone write them now? I, as a person who was fond of postcrossing, will tell you about everything in order.
First, let's deal with this incomprehensible word "postcrossing". If you know even a little English, you can look into word formation. "Post" - mail, "crossing" - transition, moving. Together we get a mail move. Indeed, postcrossing is the exchange of postcards, letters, magnets and other things by mail to receive things from all over the world.
Initially, the project was created only for postcards. By sending each other images of their cities, people also shared stamps from different countries, and philately is a very common hobby. Now people write letters to their interlocutors, put delicious tea and their drawings in envelopes. But where can you find a person who will gladly accept your letter and answer it.
The biggest source of contacts is social networks and the Internet. After that, there are already friends who have moved to a new city, which is far from the old one. Postcrossing.com is the official postcrossing resource. Here you get a randomly selected person to send him a postcard. You, at least, have to exchange two cards, and then it's up to you to decide. The disadvantage of this system is that you do not know anything about a person at all except for his place of residence.
Personally, I was looking for friends for correspondence there, looking at the photos in my profile, I wrote messages and asked for the address. I have never been refused. So postcrossers are very friendly people.
I'll tell you one story. Once I wrote to one girl in direct, offered to exchange letters. She gave her address, I wrote her a letter, and very soon I received an answer. Her name was Dasha, she lived in Kamchatka. It was interesting to receive news from the end of the earth. It was very joyful and pleasant for me to write to her every time, to learn about the news of her life and to read fascinating stories about life in Kamchatka. Unfortunately, the connection with her was interrupted. She entered the university, left for Krasnodar, and we lost contact with each other. Student life dragged on her, the man gave up his hobby.
The correspondence with her gave me another goal for the future - to visit Kamchatka. Enjoy the beauty of this peninsula personally. Dasha also always advised interesting films to watch in her letters. We had similar tastes in the film industry and music.
After such wonderful acquaintances, I want to exchange paper letters... But unfortunately, now I am not sending letters to anyone. I had to stop correspondence due to frequent travel. I have not been home for two months.
What are the advantages of such an unusual hobby?
1. Communication with interesting creative people
2. Development of creativity
3. Acquiring the skill of expressing your thoughts on paper
4. Improving handwriting
5. Pleasant emotions when you are in the mailbox of a letter
Isn't that enough? What else do I need to tell you so that you would replace the rare correspondence with people from distant parts of the Earth on the Internet with paper letters? This is also good way keep in touch with friends with whom you met in vacation spots, child care centers or at festivals.
Postcrossing as a project uniting millions of people from different countries emerged in 2005. Its essence is in the exchange of postcards between the participants. The official website of this interesting movement is www.postcrossing.com. After registering on it and waiting for confirmation of receipt of the first postcard you sent, you can expect dozens of beautiful cards from various countries. At the same time, of course, do not forget to send interesting postcards telling about your city, its sights, famous people and about the country in general. Each message is accompanied by several lines of wishes, a story about yourself or interesting fact... At the end of the message, the usually familiar wish of all fans of this movement Happy postcrossing!
The official website of the project is in English, but there is nothing difficult in registration. It is also better to sign postcards themselves in a poem, after all, it is the language of international communication. When the system issues a list of a wide variety of addresses, it is advisable not to rush to the post office right away, sending a primitive monotonous text, albeit on a beautiful card, to everyone in a row. It is better to "get to know" your addressee by examining his profile. Often they write there wishes, what images they would like to receive, a story about their hobbies and passions. Based on this information, you can please a person not only by the very fact of receiving a new copy for his collection, but also by the text written personally for him. Often, friendships are established in this way, albeit only by correspondence. To do this, on the postcard, people write their contact information, most often, the address Email.
A text or famous quote in your own language is also acceptable in a postcard, but it is better to attribute below the translation of the message. After all, it is interesting to receive inscriptions in Japanese or another unknown language, knowing the translation of what was written.
For many, postcrossing is a virtual travel opportunity. Letters from countries that sometimes people don't even know exist broaden their horizons. Some begin to study the history of countries, individual cities or biographies of great people because of one single postcard with the image of some historical object. Others love to get pictures of nature, which sometimes works wonders. A famous waterfall, volcano, lake or mountain will be of great interest to travelers who can change the route of a planned vacation if they are eager to see the miracle of nature depicted on the card with their eyes.
The possibility of direct exchange between users on the site allows a person to receive news from a country that he has always dreamed of visiting or which has left him impressed in the past.
Choosing postcards to send is a whole story. Large greeting cards are not for postcrossing. The people participating in the project exchange one-sided postcards. Traditional options are usually presented at the post office, although new interesting collections appear due to the scale and popularity of the project. There are also online stores or small shops where you can buy unique postcards. The most popular for exchange are images of landmarks, ancient buildings, famous monuments, etc. Someone indicates in the profile that they want to get an image of kittens, hedgehogs or foxes from different parts of the world. Others are interested in famous historical figures. Still others are interested in national holidays. Sometimes you can even get a postcard from the collection of the past and even the century before last. Anything is possible in postcrossing.
I, like many of you, consider myself a cosmopolitan - I love traveling, I love new acquaintances from many countries, I love souvenirs. And I really love to receive postcards from different countries - with handwritten greetings, unusual stamps and other cool stuff. Today I'm going to tell you about Postcrossing, a postcard exchange service.
The hardest part about exchanging postcards is getting the address of someone who really needs your postcard and who is willing to send you it back. Previously, forums were used for such purposes and even special books were published, now everything is much simpler.
You just need to register on the Postcrossing website. After registration, you will have to write a few words about yourself and indicate your mailing address - you will receive postcards to it. Immediately after registration, you will receive five addresses randomly selected from the project database - five of the most diverse addresses from any country in the world. You will need to send postcards to these addresses. As you might guess, someone from the project users will get your address. Of course, the service is completely free.
Each address is accompanied by a postcrossing code, which looks like this, for example: RU-727145(where RU is Russia and 727145 is a special code). When your recipient finds a postcard in their mailbox, they enter the code on the website and confirm receipt. You will be able to find out how long your postcard took and what path it took, as well as send another one (at the initial stage, there can be no more than five postcards on the way).
If the postcard does not arrive for a long time, then it goes into the Expired status and will soon be "removed from the balance", so you will not suffer from a decrease in the number of postcards received and sent.
It is best to send postcards without an envelope, but simply by sticking a sufficient number of stamps on it (for Russia it is 22 rubles) and dropping it into a box - many people value postage stamps very much. You can write whatever you want on a postcard, the main thing is not to forget the code.
Despite the fact that this whole venture seems rather mediocre, postcrossing is an incredibly fun way to communicate with interesting people from all over the world. Often, simple "postcard" contacts develop into real friendships. Well, in general, postcards are real way understand that we live in the real world, and not in the Matrix.
You can look at the postcards that I received this year.
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