Postcrossing Blog

Earlier this year, the Little Mail Carrier’s cousin was invited to attend some Postcrossing meetings in Indonesia. He begged us to go, so we packed him on a comfy envelope and off he went, towards the Java sea! Yanita (aka YanitaDC) kindly hosted the little man and showed him around her home country. Here’s his report of the trip:

Halo, Apa Kabar?

I just visited Indonesia, the biggest archipelago country in the Equator. I came here to attend the Postcrossing meetup In Jakarta, capital city of Indonesia… and stayed a bit longer with my host Yanita, to see the sights.

But first things first! The meetup was held in early March in Jakarta, at the Kantor Filateli Jakarta (Jakarta Philatelic Office), where a postcard exhibition of member’s collections was also taking place.

People came from all over Indonesia for this meeting, so I got to meet lots of new friends… I felt like a movie star having a fans meeting! They thought of everything and even made special postcards for everyone to sign!

That was really exciting! Can you believe how many people were there? There was even a news report made about the Indonesian Postcrossing community at this meetup, which was later played on the bigger post offices of Indonesia for a month! Have a look:

In a word… awesome! :D

Next on my tour of Indonesia, I visited Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (which means 'Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park’). It was brilliant! I could see as much of Indonesia as I wanted… all in one place!

Aaaah, so many things to see… Indonesia is huge! After so much sightseeing, I was feeling a bit hungry, so Yanita gave me some kerak telor. It’s a sort of spicy omelet with sticky rice inside, topped with fried shredded coconut, fried shallots and dried shrimp. That was amazing and really hit the spot!

While I was in Jakarta, another meetup was being planned, this time in Yogyakarta, about 500km west from Indonesia’s capital. The organizing committee kindly invited me to join them, so I eagerly hopped on my envelope and took the plane over!

Stay tuned for my next update – there’s a lot more I want to show you from this lovely country scattered in the sea! :)

Shinta (from Indonesia) has an interesting job: she works as a translator/editor of children books – something that many of us would love to do. She’s very keen on fridge magnets and has a quite respectable collection – here’s what she has shared with us.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

In 2008 I was searching for any fridge magnet sites when I came across Postcrossing. At first I had no idea what Postcrossing was about. As I continued my search, this name kept appearing on the search results. I decided to join for the first time, made mistakes here and there for I didn’t quite understand how it worked. I was a total mess! But I learned fast and not long after it I found myself fell in love with postcards too.

What (or rather who) got me hooked was all the amazing, kind and friendly forum members who had sent me beautiful items/postcards including RAS. I hope we can continue this friendship. My sincere gratitute and deepest appreciation to you all!

When my magnets were too many to handle, I had to say enough to myself and only did a couple of swaps in a month. I’m still active in postcard collecting, both in official and in the forum. I withdraw myself from other magnet/postcard trading groups and stayed home at Postcrossing, simply because my heart belongs here.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Besides postcard and magnet collecting, my other hobby is reading. Ok, it’s not that interesting ;) I read anything, lovestories, biographies, inspirational stories like Chicken Soups, detective/suspense, history, sciencefiction, children books, literatures, you name it. My job in editing/translating department requires me to read more books, which I don’t mind at all :).

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

This is where I send my postcards:

This is the post office where I sent bigger packages / registered items and bought lots of phillatelic stamps:

I keep my “for trade” cards in these little drawers of my living room table, and stack the albums (my collection) on top of it, so anybody can enjoy them. Friends and relatives always ask about Postcrossing and I answer those questions with pleasure.

Some of my postcards collection:

Me and my magnets:

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I have so many favorites that it’s not possible for me to pick one or two cards only.

What are you passionate about?

In 2009–2010 I took a part time job as a kindergarten teacher and my passion is to encourage my little students (age 4–6) to love to read by doing a lot of storytelling. I showed every postcards that I received and told one piece of the world to them. Their favorites are auroras, cartoons (Moomins, Hello Kitties, the Simpsons, Disneys, etc), wild flowers, Lali Riddles, and other colorful cards. In 2010 for a very sad reason I had to let go this job that I love very much…