Renae

Bantay Church, The Philippines, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

Received this card from Aislinn for an organized group swap; love the architecture of this church.

Philippine Products, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

Another card from Aislinn for the organized swap; I love this one because it showcases local handiwork and gives me a flavor or sense of the country 🙂

Christmas card from The Philippines, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

This is the very nice card Aislinn sent with her cards; it is a keeper–will have a place in my postcard album as well! The back of the card tells me that it was printed in the Philippines under license from Hallmark, and that it benefits the L.I.F.E. organization: Leukemic Indigents Fund Endowment, a charitable firm dedicated to saving the lives of poor children with leukemia by way of sustained medical treatment. And this makes it all the more special. 🙂

I was interrupted yesterday in my quest to share with you some of my favorite tools for laptop travelling. But I’m back again today…with more!

1. Bill Bryson is one of my favorite writers. Check out his A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail for a really neat tale of his attempt at hiking the whole length of the more than 2,000-mile long Appalachian trail.

2. Next is Bill Bryson’s Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, and his African Diary. As with A Walk in the Woods, both of these books are funny and share with you what life is like in faraway places.

3. Lonely Planet the Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World. This awesome book is an almanac like no others! It gives you the basic facts about each country: population, major languages, etc. But it gives you so much more–large, excellent color photos, things to do to experience the culture, and even things about the country that will surprise you. At right around $20, this book is an awesome deal. We keep it out like a “coffee table book,” and so I regularly find my children reading it and looking at the photos.

Will post more blogs and whatnot as I find them.

What would we ever do without the Internet?!? 🙂

Let’s face it. Postcards are nice…penpals are nice. But they just don’t cut it for someone as addicted to the idea of global travel as me (only the idea of global travel because I haven’t travelled anywhere).

So I looked for…and am now addicted to…some heavier stuff.

Check them out!

1. Marie’s World Tour. Want to know what it’s like to travel the world alone, as a single woman? Even if I had twice the gumption, I don’t think I could do half the stuff Marie has done…even if someone was with me! Read through her travel journals for an amazing look at life as an intrepid, budget traveler set upon making it around the world without using airplanes. And when you’re done, buy her book: Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik about her adventurous travels from southern to northern Africa! (I read it in less than 24 hours; was that good!)

2. The Travellin Ts: Travel journal of a family on their trip around the world; I didn’t connect with them as much as I did with Marie, but I still enjoyed reading about their challenges and experiences!

3. Aaron in Africa: Excellent blog with lots of photos of a young man’s time in Africa with the Peace Corps. Love it!

Have more to share….but the kiddies just arrived home so it’s time to take care of some mommy business!

If you know of an excellent travel blog, journal or book, please let me know!

When I picked up my postcard collecting hobby again in July, 2006, I was so very excited to find postcrossing.com! I was even more excited to find the postcrossing forums, where gazillons of private swaps, tags, trades and robins are made on a daily basis! Later, I discovered swap-bot.com, which is more for the artistic among us but still with a decent supply of postcard swaps.
So I swapped.

And I tagged.

And I joined robins.

And I traded.

Then I found organized postcard groups at Yahoo Groups: Postcard Addicts and Friends and Postcard Paradise, to name two. When you join these groups and sign up for them, you’re included in your choice of organized swaps held each month.

Great!

Rec’d from my sister Maria, who traveled to Japan.

So I swapped and I traded some more!

But then, suddenly, it seemed like I was sending out a WHOLE LOT MORE than I was receiving. Plus, I was joining all sorts of postcrossing tags for fridge magnets and keychains and other touristy items, yet receiving either nothing at all or junk.

I have received homemade things that were falling apart…they were of such awful quality that I myself would have been ashamed to send them…and other stuff that is not what I consider to be of swapping quality: angel “ornaments” made from fuzzballs or foam, yellow-stained magnets that had obviously been sitting on the fridge for a decade or so, magnets made from bottlecaps or stuck to the back of photos of people’s cats. Receiving those items seemed even worse than receiving nothing at all.

And yes, I did get lots of nothing!

–No magnet from France
–No magnet from Hungary
–No 10 and 15-card swaps from a few places
–No candy
–No magnet from the UAE
–No tourist items
–No postcards from just about every swapping country I know
–No holiday cards from four different people

It’s horrendous.

I’m appalled.

I’m disgusted.

I’m ready to quit altogether and be one of those funky old stodgers who send ONLY after receiving myself.

Yet here’s the problem.

Note that this is not my image and I do not send these particular things!
I found the image online simply to represent stuff I have to send 🙂

I have TONS of postcards to send. And an entire drawerful of tourist-type items like magnets and keychains and booklets and brochures and stickers and yummies and other goodies just begging to be sent!

If I can send one to you…if you’d like to trade…please leave me a comment here to let me know.

I have not completely given up hope yet, but have quit trading on the postcrossing forums, have stopped using swap-bot completely, and–although I’m sorry to say it–am about to stop signing up for organized group swaps as well.

I just spent all afternoon uploading and writing posts for the last five blogs you’ll see here…actually, the last six. And now I still have ONE MORE to do….because blogger gave me such fits in the beginning, I neglected to upload 10 cards. And this is worth it, because this grouping shows you some of my favorite cards, including the best-ever card in my collection!

So…here they are! 🙂

1. Jalan Thamrin, Jakarta, Indonesia. Awesome busy city street view!

2. Guanajuato, Mexico. My first card from Mexico, from a private trade. Awesome image!

3. Punchbowl Crater, the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific in Hawaii. Architecturally striking, emotionally moving. From an organized group swap.

4. It’s Geico! This is an ad card that came in my mail after I gave Geico my name at Bele Chere in Asheville over the summer 🙂 Even though I hate the lizard’s voice and accent, I like this card. Very cute 🙂

5. MY FAVORITE CARD OF ALL TIME. From McDonald’s in China! In honor of the Olympics, of course. 🙂 This was sent to me unexpectedly by Yan as a birthday present! Which makes it even nicer! I wish you could see the back of the card. I cannot read the Chinese text, but it has the Golden Arches and “I’m Loving It” both in English and in Chinese. And it says, “Issued by the State Postal Bureau.” This is the prized card of my collection now. Thanks to Yan for his generosity!

6. Call for Coherence, the EU Presidency Project. This card is from a private trade. From what the sender tells me, Finland is the EU’s president country right now. And they have all these initiatives going on, like this one. Part of the back reads, “Policy Coherence for Development is achieved when development objectives are integrated in all EU policies, so that the policies contribute to sustainable development and poverty eradication.” I think they need a marketing writer 🙂

7. Greetings from Kenya. I love this ad card, from a private swap. The back says, “Hello! I am Sharon. I live in Meibeki, Kenya. World Vision helps my village. we have enough water now and I go to school every day. I have a kummi in Finland. His name is Juha. But some of my friends don’t have a kummi. Can you help them?” Cute 🙂

8. Anhembi, Exhibition Park, Sao Paulo, Brazil. This awesome view is from a private swap with Karla. I am amazed at the size of that city; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city so large…and I’d never even heard of Sao Paulo before I started collecting and trading postcards!

9. Pan Dragon, Tychy, Poland. Take a gander at this most unusual building! I love it! 🙂 From a private trade.

10. Call for Coherence, EU Presidency Project. This is the second EU card I received in a private trade. The back says the same thing as on the back of the last one. If you can’t read the text on the front, it says: “There is no development without security. Arms trade to conflict areas in developing countries drains resources that should be used for development, education and health care. European Union is the world’s largest donor of development aid and at the same time the third largest exporter of arms.” (So…are you saying you’re doing exactly what you say you shouldn’t be doing? You guys need some marketing help! Please e-mail me; I will be glad to clear my schedule to help you!) 🙂

Well, after wasting a good 20-30 minutes alternately cursing blogger and then uploading pictures over and over, I finally figured out how it’s working now. Now, I can upload 5 images, then upload 5 more…then nothing. Then I need to create a new post. And believe you me, it took a while to figure this out. So despite my grouch-i-ness after dealing with this lousy blogging service, I hope you enjoy the next 5 or so posts of postcards 🙂

And since I could upload five here this last time, I uploaded five, even though I only had three postcards. Just think of it as a little bonus 🙂

1. My kids during our recent visit to Cherokee, NC. Cherokee is just outside the southern/eastern entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We live about an hour-and-a-half drive away and love to get out there as often as we can. Cherokee is sad in a way, seeing Native Americans on display to capture our tourist dollars. But hey…they’re making money! 🙂 By the way, I bought lots of postcards to trade during this trip; check them out at my Yahoo album, here! If you see anything you’d like, e-mail to arrange a trade!

2. Art card from Estonia. This came from a private swap with Kadri. The colors are so lovely, the scene so peaceful…I would love this blown-up many times and hanging on my wall for everyday enjoyment 🙂

3. Polksi Folklor from a private trade. My grandparents are 100% Polish. My mom was born in Germany. So I love anything to do with my roots. I remember going to catholic school when I was a girl, a very POLISH catholic school! We marched in the Polaski Day parade wearing black velvet dresses decorated with multi-colored ribbons and beads and bows. I also remember that the horses in front of us always did their duty and stunk us out…and that one of my friends inadvertently slipped in the doo and had to leave the parade suddenly…. Ahhh…childhood memories! 🙂

4. Budapest, Hungary. This large, beautiful card is from Lili in Budapest. I would really love to travel through Europe (and other continents!) some day! 🙂

5. Entering Maggie Valley, NC from Cherokee. We vacationed twice in Maggie Valley before we moved here to North Carolina. Our cabins both times were located on the other side of those mountains you see.

1. Moscow. Building of the main Telegraph Office in Tverskaya Street. Is this too cool, or what??? All the images of Moscow I’ve ever seen have been those huge, stately buildings, which really says nothing about life there. THIS, however, does! Look at the Samsung sign on the building…the colors…the vehicles…the people…the size of the street…MOSCOW! 🙂

2. Pretty flower, from Finland. This is from a flower tag…not sure why I selected this for my blog, other than perhaps because I want to be able to take photos like this someday 🙂 (This card arrived and was set aside for blogging in early October!)

3. Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. This shows the cog railway at Mt. Washington State Park, also home of the Mt. Washington Observatory. At more than 6,000 feet, this is one of the higher peaks on the East coast of the U.S.

4. Getting her hair moosed. I got this from a swapbot unusual card swap….thought it was pretty funny 🙂

5. Chile. A very exotic location from which to have postcards. The front said, un pais de ensueno…a country of….? I don’t know. Very pretty images though!

6. Paul Klee Center, Bern, Switzerland. This, I believe, is from a private trade. I love everything about this card (except that maybe the images are too small 🙂 The shape of the building….(I’ve never seen anything like it)….the outline of the streets and the jammed-in houses on the little islet or whatever it is….and the lovely, old street with boldly sized and colored flags! Beautiful 🙂

7. The University of Tampa in Tampa, Florida. My sister is a professor here. It’s lovely…a beautiful campus (or at least what I’ve seen of it)!

8. FBI Building in Washington, DC. My sister, the college professor, sent this to me as well. She often travels to DC as an advisor to the government on many important issues. I always imagine that behind all the windows are all these spys on computers, hacking away and furiously trying to break codes and all that spy stuff 🙂

9. Map of the Metro, Washington, DC. The Metro is really an awesome way to travel around DC! Just hop on the train and wind your way around the city…stopping at locations all around! Love it!

10. Salt Lake City, Utah. This view is awesome. There’s something about airplanes that amaze me (and scare the bejeebers out of me!)…and with those buildings and mountains in the background…ahhh! What a picture!

See, blogger, this is all I really want to do. I want an easy way to share my photos and text about them with…well, whomever is interested. But you make is sooooooooo hard to do. Your way takes way too long. I can’t wait till someone else figures out how to provide what I need…it’ll be C-YA! 🙂

Now, on to the cards 🙂

1. Pictorial map of Japan, from my sister. As a professor at the University of Tampa, she took a group of students to Japan this past summer. And she brought back lots of postcards for us! This is such an interesting map; the text on the back says, in several languages: May this be a good guide for your trip. 🙂

2. Map of Maryland, also from my sister from one of her many trips to DC. Perfect for my map-card collection! 🙂

3. Maiko at Golden Pavilion. This is so beautiful! Back of the card says, “Maiko dancers on wooden clogs share a paper umbrella. Hanging down on their back are silk obi sashes with elaborate embroidery.” Thanks agin to my sister….

4. Nanzen-ji Temple, Kyoto. This shows what looks like monks — or their Japanese equivalents 🙂 The card is wrapped in its own little baggie, which also has text and a price tag. The baggie says, “A collection of beautiful picture.” It was purchased at ITO-YA for (I guess!) 158 yen? Very beautiful 🙂

5. Osaka. Back of card says, “Dontonbori in Osaka.” I assume that means downtown borough, or something like that 🙂 The card is also in a little baggie, but without the price tag and text on it. But that’s ok..the image is spectacular! I love busy street scenes, and this sure is one! Look at all the lights and signs…and the moon in the sky and the canal or river or waterway. I even see a Coca-Cola sign on one of the buildings in the foregroup on the right 🙂

6. Minato Mirai 21 with Mt. Fuji. What a spectacular view! I would love to see this with my own eyes someday. Lovely!

7. Hiroshima package 1: A-bomb Dome and River Cruise, Hiroshima. My sister was lucky enough to be able to attend a special Hiroshima anniversary celebration at which the Prime Minister of Japan spoke. And she and her group lucked into seats right up front! This card comes from a package of 4 Hiroshima cards she sent me, all pacakaged together in a lovely envelope. My husband scanned everything…but because I can only upload 10 at a time…and because moving things around here is so painful (thanks again, blogger!)…I’m not going to be able to show you them altogether. You will see two of the Hiroshima cards from that package in this post, and then the other two, PLUS the envelope, in the next post (or so I hope!). I have labeled them so you know which go with the package. As for this image, this dome is apparently all that was standing after the bomb went off in Hiroshima.

8. Japanese ad card. I have no idea what it’s for or what it says… but I like it anyway 🙂

9. Hiroshima Package 2: Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima Island. I’m not sure of the significance of this. But it is lovely.

10. Japanese ad card, “Transient Flowers.” For “Morita Bungo illustration exhibition, “Girlfriends of DOUGHNUT PLANT vol.4” Check it out on the Web, here! This is an awesome, colorful card 🙂