Sacramento, California

James and Greg have the honor of sending the first postcard to be received in our new home! This one is a beautiful view of the Sacramento River passing through our state’s lovely capital. Although we haven’t seen Greg and James in some months, we think of them fondly and are grateful they thought of us at our new home! We’re looking forward to visiting soon.

Haere Mai!

This beautiful vintage-style postcard came from my brother-in-law Tristan in Hawai’i. Not only are the colors and illustration terrific, but I always love any use of indigenous and minority languages. This is of course Māori, the indigenous language of Aotearoa (New Zealand), a Polynesian language. Why might this be sent from Hawai’i, you might ask, which are 4600 miles/7400km apart (or roughly the distance from Moscow to Hong Kong)? Māori and Hawai’ian are both Polynesian languages, which means that the indigenous inhabitants of these islands share a common ancestral homeland of Formosa, better known today as Taiwan. All of the indigenous languages, and many more in the Pacific, are closely related. If you want to read more about Polynesians’ amazing spread across the planet (before the “Age of Exploration” they were the most widely spread ethnicity in human history), check out Christina Thompson’s eminently readable “Sea People: the Puzzle of Polynesia.”

Gâteau breton

Dominique strikes again, sending a fantastic recipe postcard! This is the 42nd postcard he’s sent and I’m so grateful, especially for the opportunity to try a new recipe. For the non-French-speakers here, my translation of the recipe is:

Breton Cake (Great Recipes from Brittany)

1. Put the flour and the sugar in a large bowl; make a well and mix in five egg yolks.

2. Work the mixture with a wooden spoon and then rub it between your palms to make a sandy texture.

3. Add the butter, cut into small pieces, and knead.

4. Butter a baking dish; tip in the dough and make a crisscross pattern with a fork. Brush with the last egg yolk.

5. Bake in the oven at 190C (375F) and let it bake for about an hour. Serve with apple cider.

Ingredients: 350g flour, 175g sugar, 6 egg yolks, 190g butter

Equipment: a bowl, a baking dish

Happy Chinese New Year!

This terrific postcard comes courtesy of my long-time friends Kay and Pei who challenged me to determine which character was depicted here. I was lucky — although my knowledge of 漢字 (hànzì) or “Chinese characters” is quite limited — because this one was easy for me to identify: 春 (chūn) or “spring”! Indeed, this card comes with wishes for a prosperous and happy Year of the Ox, which I also wish to you all!

新年快樂! (Happy New Year!)

Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park

This postcard comes from a new penpal in Florida, Dean. Not only does he include terrific, vintage stamps, but he sends postcards from the many travels he’s taken in the past. Clearly, he’s a big fan of national parks, as am I! I have indeed visited Tuolumne Meadows on one of my visits to Yosemite. I think I’ve been three times. It is a truly magnificent park and it’s no surprise that many consider it to be the crown jewel of America’s National Park System.

Burle Marx Gardens in Brasilia, Brazil

Here is another Postcrossing arrival, this time from Brasília, Brazil. This is the first postcard I’ve received from Brazil (through Postcrossing) in eleven years! Many people falsely think that either Rio de Janeiro or São Paolo is the capital of Brazil, but in fact the country created almost a whole city out of wilderness not that long ago to serve as the national capital. This verdant garden was designed by famed Brazilian landscape architect Robert Burle Marx. I love the wedding of green plants, concrete and glass architecture, and flowing sculpture.

Greetings from Portland, Oregon

This postcard comes from my dear friend and former co-worker Linda in Portland, Oregon. She always sends such thoughtful postcards, and this one is no exception. I love the artist, LouPaper, and in fact discovered her through Linda, who surprised me for my birthday with a bundle of her greatest hits. I went on to order several dozen more and they’ve been among my most popular postcards sent. It’s easy to see why, with this gorgeous art. Thanks, as always, to Linda for her constant friendship, her correspondence, and for introducing me to one of my favorite postcard artists.

The Constellations (from Russia)

This postcard comes from Postcrossing after 121 days of travel! Mail between the US and Russia is notoriously slow, but four months seems extreme even given the long transit times. In fact, I was the first recipient of this sender’s Postcrossing experience, which is a great honor for me. I hope she has many years of happiness and delight with Postcrossing, as I have.

sundial at Mont Sainte-Odile, Alsace

This postcard comes from the ever constant Dominique, who writes in English this time! I always thought he didn’t speak much English, but I must have misinterpreted that from our early correspondence. It’s a beautiful sundial here—and a new vocabulary word for me in French! I can’t say that I ever had the need to learn how to say “sundial” before, but know you know: un cadran solaire. This postcard depicts the famous Mont Sainte-Odile, a peak in Alsace, France with an abbey there (also known as the Hohenburg Abbey) founded in 690! What a beautiful place; I hope to visit it on my next trip to France!

Shee (“Peace” in Manx)

More fantastic news from the language revitalization corner of my social networks! This postcard was sent by my friend and former cohort-mate Lauren who’s learning Manx as a heritage learner. She even wrote some beautiful Manx for me to read, which I’m copying here for you, too:

Laa mie, Kristopher! Kys t’ou? Ta mee goll as gaccan, agh mie dy liooar. Gow kiarail, as hee’n oo dy gerrid!"

I hope I didn’t misspell anything in the original Manx, which translates to '“Good day! How are you doing? I’m ‘going and grumbling’ but well enough. Take care and see you soon!” I hope I can see Lauren soon, either here in SF, there in Pittsburgh, or somewhere else! Thanks again!

Pride from Åland

This is the first postcard I’ve received from Åland, which as its own country-code on Postcrossing! If you’re not familiar with the island territory, it’s an autonomous area of Finland situated between Turku, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden and Finland’s only monolingual Swedish-speaking area. Finland itself is officially bilingual (Finnish and Swedish), and also recognizes other regional languages. I love that Åland has its own postage stamps as well!

On my Postcrossing profile, I invite senders to tell me about LGBTQ life where they live, which I think explains why this person sent me the Pride flag! What a great gift in my mailbox!

Natural postcard from Lijiang, Yunnan, China

I’m not sure the scan here will do it any justice, but this postcard is actually a real leaf (I wonder what kind?). It was sent to me by two of my most memorable private students from their recent visit to 中国 云南省 丽江. I was so thrilled to receive this card, and I think back fondly on the time I spent with them in Hangzhou just over a year ago when they spent the day giving me a tour of their college town, introducing me to delicious restaurants, and dedicating their hard-earned time off to welcoming me with open arms. I hope I can return to China again some time soon, and that they can travel to the US again. Until then, I’ll be sending them a thank-you postcard. But where to find a postcard of comparable beauty and uniqueness?!

Taganskaya Metro Station

Here’s another fantastic Postcrossing postcard, this one from a Russian postcrosser. Russia is not just a very populous country, but it also has a high proportion of participants in Postcrossing, so it’s very common to both send and receive postcards to and from Russia. This one is particularly lovely since it highlights one of the aspects of architecture that I associate closely with Russia: ornate, high-contrast designs. This subways station is in Moscow. I hope I can visit it someday!

From the back (English only): Taganskaya Metro Station (Circle Line) Opened on January 1, 1950.

Happy New Year (in Japanese)!

Once in a while, I get handmade postcards and they always make my day! This one comes from a good friend and former classmate of mine who now lives in Pennsylvania (again). They spent quite some time in Japan and they’re my go-to person when I have questions about a whole host of things, not just Japanese. As many of you may know, this upcoming lunar new year will mark the beginning of the year of the Ox, hence the bovine drawing here. This leads me to two questions:

1. What’s your Eastern zodiac sign? I’m a Dog!

2. How do you prefer to translate this upcoming year’s animal? Ox? Bull? Cow?

Philadelphia LOVE

This postcard arrived via Postcrossing just a few weeks ago. But in fact the sender had emailed me over a month prior to tell me they’d forgotten to write the postcard ID and to send it via email so I could register it. I was surprised that a domestic postcard had taken so long to arrive, but with the holidays and the elections, I think the USPS was just a bit overwhelmed! Well, arrive it did and with such clear and beautiful handwriting on the back. I was very grateful because I usually have a hard time reading handwritten Chinese. Sometimes I take a photo of the message and ask my friend to transcribe it for me so I can work out any words I don’t know! This time, there was no need as I could make out all of the words quite clearly.

This is the famous LOVE sculpture.

From the back of the postcard: Perhaps the most familiar of Philadelphia’s many artworks that embellish public spaces is the painted aluminum LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana. It was erected in 1976 as part of the nation’s Bicentennial celebration. Photographer - Catherine Gehm.

En Périgord Nord

Cette carte postale vient de mon ami de lettres depuis assez longtemps en France. Celle-ci réprésente la Place de la Liberté à Sarlat en Dordogne, France. En fait, elle est la quarantième carte postale que j’ai reçue de lui! Ce que j’adore de cette carte est le beffroi courbe dans le centre de l’image. Il me rappelle un peu le beffroi que j’ai passé chaque jour en allant à mon travail comme assistant de langue anglaise à Avesnes-sur-Helpe. Je reçois une carte postale de lui, je dirais, chaque mois au moins, peut-être plus fréquemment.

George Washington Masonic National Memorial

In early January, I received this postcard from a new penpal that I met through Postcrossing. This card depicts the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. I particularly love the scalloped edges, which is something you don’t see very often in contemporary postcards. Judging from the paper and overall state, this is definitely a vintage postcard. I also enjoy the stamps that were affixed: a 13-cent Clara Maass stamp and a 22-cent stamp depicting part of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution!

Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan

我一個學生給我發到這張明信片。我真的很喜歡！我都每一個字看不懂，可是他用英文別便幫助我看得懂。我很久沒去台灣所以呢張照片就讓我很開心啊！謝謝！

Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy

This beautiful postcard comes from my equally beautiful friend Linda who never fails to send excellent postcards at every turn. She writes that her home of Portland has been as foggy and rainy as this postcard depicts: "the Italian ambiance!"

Tipsoo Lake, Mt. Rainier, Washington

I have a new penpal who reached out to me via Postcrossing and this was the first postcard he sent, even though he lives in Florida. The beauty of our national parks is unsurpassed and underappreciated. What a great way to get out and enjoy our nation's bounty during the pandemic. Which national parks have you visited recently?