COMPUTER FUN ~ Postcrossing ~ Cards From Around the World!

We happened upon an interesting website today called Postcrossing.  This is a site where you can register to send and receive postcards from all over the world!

At first, you can send up to five postcards at a time.  You put an identification code on the top left hand corner and mail them off to the addresses provided.  The site also lists the approximate distance between the sender and the recipient.  There is also an option to scan a picture of the card (or take a digital one) and then upload it to the site.  When the recipient receives the card, they log on and register the fact that the card has arrived in the mail.  Once this has been done, the site generates your address to someone else and the cycle continues.

We signed up as "Porter's Primary" and confirmed our email address.  The first address that was generated was in China.  The next one was from the Netherlands.  The third destination was Thailand.  The fourth was Hong Kong and the fifth and final card, for this time, was a lady in Mississippi!

Luckily we had some odd postcards lying around the house, so we quickly wrote them out and went to the post office and mailed them off on the start of their journey(s) around the world!  Unfortunately we were too late for the mail truck, so they will sit in the local post office till Monday afternoon.  It will be interesting to see how long they take to arrive at their various destinations.  I'm guessing that Mississippi will be the first to arrive at its destination but, of course, the postal service might surprise us!

In addition to the excitement of receiving mail, on a regular basis, Alisdair will be able to do some research on the places where the cards originate from.

Apparently there is also a sister website called "Bookcrossing" where people send books to one another.  That seems a little more expensive, and harder to do as people would have certain interests and many of the books might not "hit the mark," so I doubt if we will try that.

Anyway, we will post about the postcards that we eventually hope to receive!

Here are photos of the ones we sent and where they went:

Guangdong, CHINA

Santpoort-Zuid, Netherlands

Nonthaburi, Thailand

Kowloon, Hong Kong

Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA