The Southern Hemisphere

Finally, my first card from below the Equator, and it's a beautiful view of the docks in Brazil! Sent by a gentleman named Tarcisio, he lives not far from the city of Sao Paulo (the city), capital of Sao Paulo (the state). It's got a great big clear blue sky, deep-blue waters, locals working, verdant green trees, mountains miles away, kids playing in the water in the far background... it's very lovely and tranquil scene, I quite like it. Thank you Tarcisio!

P.S. Tarcisio is such an awesome name :)

Have You Seen My Cow?!

This is absolutely one of my most favorite cards thus far! Sent from L'viv, Ukraine, it comes from Christie, whose boyfriend is into graphic design. Together, they picked this card which is designed by a fellow graphic artist named Grycja. It's fantastic, completely original, and wholly unexpected! Thanks for the great card, Christie!

Multiple Multi-Views

After about 15 or 20 postcards sent out, you begin to notice some trends on Postcrossing. Two of the biggest trends? A lot of people LOVE lighthouses. And a lot of people HATE multi-view cards. I don't really belong to either of those camps.

I received two multi-view cards today, the first from Victoria in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. It's interesting that this is only the second card I've received of these unique dimensions (unique to me, anyway), and only a week after receiving the first one. It's larger and longer than the typical cards I've been receiving, and that size difference doesn't really show in the way they're presented on this blog. The pictures on the card show beautiful snow covered hills on the grounds of the Radziwil Castle and of the city of Nesvizh. Thanks, Victoria!

The second one comes from Katrin, and it shows her beautiful city of Frankfurt, Germany. It's a much more traditionally sized card first of all, but it also shows a great variety in the views and architecture seen around the city. Thanks for the card, Katrin!

Trees & Beans & Doors, Oh My!

Three cards as once :D

The first card comes from Yiyang, China, from a guy named Liuyang, though he prefers to go by Jack Furns. The image is of a beautiful scenic vista overlooking the Wulingyuan Mountains in the West Hunan Province. It's a beautiful card to begin with, but on top of that... this is silly... the card looks like the 'hometree' from AVATAR. Thanks for the great card, Jack!

The next card comes from Sveta in Moscow, Russia. She sent me this rockin' card of coffee beans shaped liked a coffee mug, a perfect example of graphic design put to excellent use! Now, regarding what the last sentence says, I have no idea--it's in Russian! Well thanks for the card, Sveta! I'm going to try to get it translated at the UWF International Student Center, but that's nothing compared to the work ahead of me for the NEXT card...

So, Cecilia from Taipei City, Taiwan sent me this great card from the Penghu Islands. The card itself is much larger than the scan can really shows it to be, quite striking actually. Anywho, the entire card is in written in either Mandarin or maybe Taiwanese, I'm not sure yet. I'll be taking this one up to UWF also, lol. Thanks for the card, Cecilia!

Maria in Ireland

Kids in New Zealand?

Strangely enough, today Nathaniel received his second card from a kid residing in Gisborne, New Zealand. He's only received 5 cards(!), so it seems particularly coincidental.

In any case, Zeb (age 6) sends us this card showing the junction the Waimata and Taruheru Rivers as they flow together and become the Turanganui River, the shortest river in the Southern Hemisphere. For 6 years old, Zeb has some decent handwriting, too. He likes aeroplans, Cars, dragons, Ben 10, and Buzz Lightyear. Thanks for the great card, Zeb!

Braille on a Stamp

This card comes from Päivi in Hyvinkää, Finland. Pictured is the Cathedral of Tampere, a place Päivi worked when she was in college. Now, it doesn't really show up in the scan above, but on the stamp, I noticed a series of aligned bumps that raised (no pun intended) a bit of curiosity in me. So I messaged Päivi and she replied, stating "Yes, you are right. There is braille on the stamp. There are some Finnish stamps with tactile characters for the blind." That is something new and interesting that I didn't know, and having never had any real experience with braille except on the keypad at drive-through ATMs (lol), I thought it cool enough to share. Thanks for the great card of the beautiful cathedral, Päivi!

What Country is ID?

Today's card comes from The Netherlands, but you wouldn't know it from the Postcrossing ID! Beau from Leiden in South Holland sent me this great multi-view card with images from all over her beautiful city. The only thing... she didn't put the country abbreviation in the ID code! Not to fear--with a helpful hint from Marianne (lover of Toy Story from a few cards down), I was able to get the card registered. Thanks for the card, Beau!

A Long Time Coming

So there was a bit of a humorous coincidence that happened with the next card...

I started thinking there was a problem when I hadn't received a card in over a week. Out of the blue, on Thursday night, I receive a message from the Colonel: "Greetings from India. Dear Adam, did you receive my card IN-15192? Col. Akhil." I replied, told him no, and now I'm thinking "Oh no! My postcards are getting lost in the mail, this poor guy has been waiting ages for me to get his card!" The very next day, his card shows up, and I realize that he didn't write the register code on the card. So now I'm thinking "Oh, THAT'S why he messaged me, to give me the code!" So I register it only to see that it has indeed been travelling for 60 DAYS, right on the verge of expiring! This very patient man (from Bangalore) must think that I've just been sitting on this card with no code, and what a coincidence that he messages me the day before it arrives, and it arrives on the very last day before it expires.

As for the card itself, it's a pushkarni, or a temple tank--ancient architecture from the Vijayanagara Empire located in Hampi, a World Heritage Site. Thanks for this awesome architecture card, Colonel!

"Friends are like stars. You cannot always see them, but you always know they are there!"

This card arrived on the same day, and not only is it a perfectly composed shot by a photographer named Rainer Jordan, it's also a very modern piece of architecture, and a unique juxtaposition to the architecture photographed in the card above it. It comes from Helie who lives in Berlin, Germany. She even went that extra mile by giving me a quote to translate, which I did! with the help of one of my old roommate's German speaking grandmother. Thanks for the card and the quote, Helie!

That reminds me... I still have to try and translate the quote from the card from Lindsay in China!