postcards

it is said that sending postcards is a dying art. living in the digital age, when people find sending e-mails more convenient than walking over to the nearest post office, i am inclined to agree. coz whenever i travel, my friends would receive long, and i mean looooooong emails from me telling them all about my latest escapades. and then when i started blogging, there was no looking back. those of you who have been following my blog would know how long some of my posts are. all that i've written would not fit one half of a postcard. but i also believe that sending postcards or letters by snail mail gives a more personal touch from the sender.

so call me old-fashioned, but even before i took writing emails and blogging seriously, i loved sending postcards to friends whenever i go out of town. when i was staying with my uncle and his family in new jersey seven years ago, i even went to new york city just to mail some friends new york postcards. this is so that they would have that "authentic feel" of new york city. ya know, with the new york stamp and all. i felt that if i mailed them from new jersey it would feel fake. hehe. but that's just me. btw, my uncle's family lived in that part of nj just across manhattan, so it was easy to get to nyc.

i also love receiving postcards and letters in the mail, so another time, i ordered... err, requested some friends to send me some snail mail when i was away for quite some time. considering the length of time mail goes out from the philippines, i made sure that they sent me the cards one month at most before i had to go back home. am i demanding or am i demanding? lol! but really, receiving something in the mail is such a nice suprise. that feeling of anticipation when i open the mailbox, and then i see something from a close friend with my name on it. now what a nice surprise that would be! however, love letters from companies that bill me so do NOT count. ;-P

a part of my postcard collection i unearthed one day while spring cleaning

one time i was thinking to myself that while my friends are receiving postcards from me, why not i, too? it would be something really different. so i made it a point from then on to send postcards to myself as well from my out of town trips instead of just buying them to send to friends or add to my collection. at present, i have a grand total of 3 postcards i sent to myself. heheh. here's one that i sent in 2007.

i'm just greeting myself here :D

now it may seem strange for someone to send postcards to oneself. i dunno, but personally aside from that exciting feeling of receiving something in the mail, it is also my way of getting a souvenir from my travels without having to collect tickets (bus, museum, plane, train), brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, etc. Not that i don't have those, i do, but they only accumulate a lot of dust and take up so much space. and i simply cannot find the time to do a scrapbook of my travels so i end up throwing them away (not without keeping them for years first). and so, collecting postcards is the way to go. getting the stamp with the postcard is an added bonus as well.

dyou have a postcard/snail mail story? feel free to share :)

happy weekend, everyone!