In addition to the postcards Gulliver sends, cards occasionally come from people the Grand Pooh-Bah has exchanged cards with through http://www.postcrossing.com.  This is a worldwide community of postcard enthusiasts who share their lives and cultures through postcards.

To participate, it is free to sign up, and you are given 5 random names of people you send cards to. You can view their profile for their interests and requests.  While you send out those five cards, a random person has received your name and will be sending a card to you.  So while you may send a card to Japan, you ma receive a card  from Croatia. Be careful, this can be addicting.

Then there are variations, which are described in different forums. The Pooh-Bah favors swaps, where a person looking for a postcard of the state map, Yosemite, surfing, or something else in Gulliver’s collection is invited to swap.  Addresses are exchanged, and the postcrosser receives a requested card, and sends his/her card to the classroom of Gulliver’s choice.  One postcrosser from a Scandinavian country wrote about a custom her school had for birthdays. Each child went to all the classrooms on their birthday and received a small item – a pencil, a sticker, a postcard.  The card she sent was from one of her birthdays, and it was over 40 years old!

If there are multiple cards requested, they are sent in an envelope, and requested unwritten in return – people tend to use the address space as well as the correspondence side, and it make it hard to forward to a classroom.  Never fear, Gulliver will apply his paws to the effort and write some wonderful facts about the card.

Friends, family and strangers also provide un-written cards, and the Pooh-Bah has found thrift stores to be an inexpensive way to stock up. Donations are always welcome if you have left-over cards from trips.

Purrs,

Gulliver