Silence...

I'm sorry I didn't updated this blog for a very very long time, but I was quite busy and on vacation so there wasn't much time left. Now I'm trying to get this blog updated as soon as possible.
I received a lot of great cards the last few weeks! Although not so many as usual because I had a little break due to my vacation but I'm back in business! I almos received 100 postcards via the officials!! You will see number 100 soon! Jeej :)

Well... I have some work to do so you will see some postcards later this evening!

Update

I have updated my send map and received map. My UNESCO Collection is updated as well! Besides the Round Robins I particpate in, the tags I did last week and the lottery I won, is it very empty in my mailbox. My officials are traveling mostly very long. Last week, a few officials reached there destination and I have send now officials to 10 different countries! Denmark was the 10th country! The last official I received was on 15th may...that is almost 10 days ago!!! It is very weird that there is such a long time between some officials sometimes.. Like this:

NL-164415	16 May
NL-160683	4 May

I have traveling at least 4 officials al the time but I do not understand the system anymore ;) Sometimes I receive a lot and then 10 days nothing...

Lucky day

Today I was lucky! I have received five beautiful cards today! No officials but two Round Robins, two tags and one lottery. Thank you all!!! I'm a little bit busy with my study so I'm not sure if I have time to update this blog, the send/received maps and my UNESCO collection today...But I promise, at the end of the week I have updated everything!

Unbelievable!

It's unbelievable. A few days ago I wrote on my blog that it is a pity that I have to send many cards to Germany and Finland. Today I requested three addresses and I got Russia , Switzerland and USA !! Maybe because of the fact I have already cards traveling to Finland & Germany. I have already send officials to Switzerland, USA (different state!) and Russia (funny, again to the Moscow Region) but never received from.

My cards for my second Round Robin are on their way too! I participate in a Slavic country & the rest of the world RR and for this group I have to send cards to Brasil, Ukraïne and Slovenia . Three new countries for me, I like those RR! I'm wondering what I will receive back from these 'newbies' (I haven't receive any cards from those countries) :)

Maps - Update 7 May 2009

The last week, two of my sent cards arrived their destination! One to an 'new' country: Spain! . And I decided to send a new card to the USA and after 44 days, it is registered! I have updated my send cards map. You can find it here.

I have still three official cards travelling, to Finland, Germany and China.

I decided this week to join and try some Round Robins as well because I'm looking for some countries I do not have in my collection yet and especially world heritage sites. Besides that, I'm a little bit tired to send officials to Finland/Germany all the time. I know I said earlier that I have a new approach, not to look at the country but at the places where I have to send but at the moment, this approach wont work ;) So I will wait to send more officials, and will use my amount of six cards travelling at one time when my send/received balance is even. Today I send three cards for the Europe Round Robin. I'm participating in a special group called UNESCO. I have created a list with my UNESCO cards here. When my RR are received, I will add them to my received map with a different colour!

Balance

It is a little bit quiet in my mailbox the last days. I'm still sending postcards and hope that I will be soon the next one who will receive a card. This week, my card to Finland and Germany has reached their destinations and I requested two new adresses and quess what... to Finland and Germnay again! I discover that I have already send cards to ten different countries, so my send/received stats are in a good balance! :)

First expired? Hope not!

I'm a little bit worried about my sent card to the USA. It is travelling for 36 days now and the user is still active...I really hope that I wont be my first expired card! For the rest I got a new record. My card to Germany was arrived in three days! My card to Switzerland is arrived as well so I requested two new adresses, again to Germany and to a new country, Spain ! I'm curious when I can expect some new cards in my mailbox! I hope it will be a new country because that will be number ten!

Update

I was on vacation so I could not write an update about my postcrossing project. During my vacation, three of the five travelling cards has reached their destination! It took 28 days before my card to Russia arrived in a small village near Moscow. My cards to Germany and Finland need only 5 and 8 days before they arrived. I have still two cards traveling which I send before I went on vacation; to the USA (31 days) and China (16 days). I'm curious if they will be arrive or if they will be expire.

I already requested some new adresses, to Finland Germany and Switzerland !

Update

Since my last update, some of my sent cards has reached their destination! My cards to Finland (twice) Belgium and Germany are arrived so I requested some new addresses. This time to China, Germany and Finland. I'm a little bit afraid about my postcard to China because I hear only bad things about expired cards to China. My shortest send distance is now 123 kms!

There are two cards still traveling to Russia (20 days) and the USA (17 days). I'm really curious when they will be arrived.

Variation?

I was a little bit disappointed this week because I always see profiles of beginners with a lot of variation in the sent/received countries but when I look at mine, it is a little bit boring...it is not that I do not like the cards that I receive, I really like the different cards I found in my mailbox and the really nice messages that are written on them! :) So, thank you all for your nice postcards! But I only got cards from the same countries!

Yesterday I received again a card from China, a very nice one which I will show you later with some nice and original stamps on it! It is my second official of China. I received 3 officials from Finland, 2 officials from Portugal and 1 from Japan. I really looking forward to a 'new' country although I will be happy with all the cards I receive.

My sent list is less boring. Ok, 2 times USA and 3 times Finland but UK and Taiwan as well! And of course Belgium, which was special because I could write in my own language :) When I look at my traveling list, there is a nice country as well: Russia!

But today I requested a new address and this time again to Finland...Ok, but when I'm using my new approach I explained a week ago, it is different because this time it is a place near Oulu, and I did not have got a place in that region yet.

I know that there will be one day that my lists are more variated! And maybe that day will come soon! And I wont quit with the project but I was a little bit disappointed this week about the no variation at all.

Balance

After I posted my last blog, I received a mail that my card to Maine, USA is arrived! After 5 days of traveling 5,282 kms, it reached its destination.

I requested a new address and this time I have to send a card to Germany . Last weekend I send another card to Belgium . It was a little bit weird to write in my own language :)

New card received!

Today I received my third card but the light is to bad to make a picture of the stamp right now so tomorrow I will write more about the card!

After 15 days of travelling, finally my card to Germany has reached his destination. It was only 136 kms away so I'm still wondering why it took so look before the card arrived.

I requested a new address as well. For the third time to the USA but to a new state; Maine. I have still an other card travelling to the USA. At the moment, four cards are travelling:
- USA
- USA
- Finland
- Russia

First cards received!

Oh yeah! Finally I found some postcards in my mailbox! And not one but two! One from Japan and one from China! So I'm very happy with it! I will write more about in seperate blogs later!

Today my sent card to Taiwan is arrived as well after twelve days of travelling! Again I got a nice message back from the receiver! I'm always happy when my card is appreciated! I have a new sent distance record as well! This time 9,469 Kms! I'll send more cards later this week!

Fourth card is arrived!

Hurray! My second card to Finland arrived yesterday after four days of travelling. Pretty fast I guess. This time to a 'big' city, named Turku. The total distance between my home and the mailbox of the receiver was 1,404 kms. I got a nice thank you message back with a compliment that I have sent such an original card. Which was extremely difficult because the receiver has already received 345 cards when I used to send mine. I'm very happy that my efforts to find something orignal are appreciated!! Yeah, this thank you message really makes me smile!

I'm still wondering if my card to Germany has lost its way because it is already 10 days ago that I post it in the mailbox and in my opinion, it does not have to take for so long to reach a destination that is next to my country. But I will be patient and wait for another week in the hope that it will appear. Maybe I have made a mistake in the address but that would be stupid because I'm very precise when I write down the address. My card to Taiwan is still 9 days travelling but I'm not worried because it is a 'far away' country so I'm aware of the fact that it could take long before it will reach its destination.

I read a discussion today on the postcrossing forum about the fact that most of the cards that are send or received are to/from three countries: USA, Finland and Germany. Some people do not like it to get the same countries all the time. I understand that it is a little bit boring but I try to find a new approach for this problem. I requested today a new address and guess to which country? Finland! To be honest, I think you should always look on the bright side of life and for me, I don't look at the country anymore when I request an address and get one in USA/Finland/Germany but look at the region/state/city. Because then it is a suprise everytime to which region/state/city you have to send a card and it is nice to do some research about it! But this new approach was a little bit disappointed when I use it for the first time because the city is in the same region as Turku; Varsinais-Suomi. But it is a different city so actually I do not have anything to complain about!

Empty

My mailbox is still empty so it has been quiet here for the last days. I'm really looking forward to receive my first card and I know that everyday could be the day of receiving the first card. Tomrrow there is no mail delivery, so I think there wont be some news either.

My other cards are traveling somewhere in the world. I have requested a new adress as well. Again to the USA but this time to a village near Chicago. I don't mind that it is my second card to the USA because it such a big country, it doesn't matter!

By the way, I only send cards to woman till now. Isn't that funny?

Hopefully I can show you my first received card next week!

Longest sent distance till so far

Today is my sent card, after zeven days of traveling, to the westcoast, California, of the USA arrived! It is my third card that I have sent. It is a record as well because it is my longest sent distance till so far! The totale distance between my home and the mailbox of the receiver was 8,968 Kms! Hurray!

Today I requested a new address as well. This time to a small village near Moscow in Russia! The person wishlist contains a UNESO card and fortunatley I had one card of a UNESCO Heritage site in the Netherlands in my 'to send' collection. It is a 'new' member (for 3 months right now) so that means it was easy to pick a card because when I look at profiles of more experienced members I always see some Dutch cards I have bought as well. That is the most difficult thing, to be original because it is very hard to find original views cards for instance but we keep on trying and looking for somethng original! I'm very curious when my card to Russia will arrived because I saw that it could be very long (more than zes weeks for instance).

For now, it is the last card I will send this week because I will wait till I receive my first card and/or till my others are arrived otherwise it will be too expensive. At the moment I have still four cards traveling:
Russia
Finland
Germany
Taiwan

And I'm still wondering, why took it so long for a card to reach a destination only 136 kms away? It is still on the road for almost six days.... I really thought our mailservices were faster anyway...

Hurray again!

And my second card is arrived as well! Actually, it's my fourth card I have sent. After five days of traveling my card has reached his destination in England (to be honest it should be four because I didn't had the time to go to the mailbox at the day I request the address)The total distance between my home and the mailbox of the receiver was 364 kms! Funniest thing is that I had to send the card to London, a town that I really like! I have been there last summer on vacation and I really enjoyed! I hope I will be able to visit the town in the nearly future again because there is a lot I have not seen there, for instance Kew Gardens.

After I received the message that my first card to Finland was arrived and registered, I requested for a new adress. I have to send a card to Finland again, what a coincidence! (yeah I'm aware of the fact that postcrossing is very popular in Finland). It is another city than the first time.

My collection of postcards to send is still growing. Yesterday I went to my university and we have our own bookshop with.... postcards! Mostly in B/W but they are really cute!

Hurray!

Hurray! My first card is arrived! After zeven days of traveling my first sent card has reached his destination in Finland . The total distance between my home and the mailbox of the receiver was 1,671 kms!

This means that I can expect my first received card very soon! I'm so curious from what country it will be! (and please, if you are the sender, don't tell me you're untill the card will be arrived!)

At the moment I have still four cards traveling to:
Germany
England
Taiwan
USA

Have a little patience

The first week of a postcrossing member is very hard. You sent out cards and than you have to wait till your sent card will be arrived untill you can expect something back. And I can tell you, that feels very very long. Longer that it is in real time. I was a lucky person because my first card is traveling to Finland and not to a country far away where the mailman delivers once a week. So I think it could be there every moment.I'm happy with some other destinations as well, because the United Kingdom and Germany is not that far that it should be taken longer than four days for instance. But to be honest, I would like to send cards to further destinations and that I don't know very well so I can share some culture. So I was happy with Taiwan and USA as well but when you are a newbie and can't wait for cards, it is nice to see some 'not that far away' countries in you sent postcards list.

Fortunately all the members to whom I sent a card, are active so I don't have to be worried that they wont register my card (well...I hope so..maybe they don't like it... ;) but I really do my best to send something nice). The only thing I'm worried about is if they can read the postcard-ID. I wrote it in the right edge but I have heard that our national postservice use that edge to put some marking stamp on it so the machines can notice it during the sorting out process.

But just like the FAQ on the Postcrossing website said:
Please be patient, experienced postcrossers will quickly advise you to do the same - it works!

To be continued....

Let's the postcrossing begin!

Since last week, I participatie in Postcrossing, a project with the slogan: “send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world".

I created this blog to keep you up to date about how it is going on with my project. I'm sorry for my bad English sometimes, but I'm not a native speaker. I live in the Netherlands. Before I started with the project, I bought some nice cards and some stamps and I was ready to begin!

At the moment, there are 5 cards sent by me traveling throughout the world and the only thing I can do is sit and wait till they will be registered due to the fact my current limit is sending 5 postcards at once. If some receive one of my cards and register it, I'm the next one who is eligible to receive a postcard from another members and I get the opportunity to send a new one. From which country is always a suprise ;) and that is what I like about the project!

So I have to wait till my cards to Germany, Finland, USA, Taiwan and United Kingom are arrived and registered!