The Postcard Project Chicago: UPDATE

As of May 11, 2024, I am nearly two-thirds of the way through writing the postcards. I have sent 50 out and have only 27 left to go.

Here are the names of the towns / countries that I have sent them to so far, listed in no particular order:

Jaipur, India	Killorglin, Ireland
Antrim, Northern Ireland	Dalkey, Ireland
London, England	Edinburgh, Scotland
Dumfries, Scotland	Bristol, England
Cambridge, England	Québec, Canada
Vancouver, Canada	Winnipeg, Canada
Montréal, Canada	München, Germany
Köln, Germany	Den Haag, Netherlands
Amsterdam, Netherlands	Zürich, Switzerland
Basel, Switzerland	Lysaker, Norway
Durban, South Africa	Johannesburg, South Africa
Komiža, Croatia	Dubrovnik, Croatia
Stari Grad, Croatia	Grenoble, France
Cagnes-sur-Mer, France	Adelaide, Australia
Gapuwijak, Australia	Meekatharra, Australia
Neutral Bay, Australia	Surfers Paradise, Australia
Douglas, Isle of Man	Wellington, New Zealand
Singapore	Christchurch, New Zealand
Penzance, UK	Bexhill-on-Sea, UK
Ludlow, UK	Killarney, Ireland

You will notice that I have tried to limit myself to sending the postcards to English-speaking countries; however, I did include a couple of other countries (France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc.) in which I thought there would be a good likelihood that people would know some English. I will also confess to sending some postcards to Croatia only because it's one of the most beautiful places in the world, in my opinion (disclaimer: I am half Croatian).

You might ask, How did you find addresses for these random individuals? Great question, and I would love to be able to tell you that it was a highly scientific and randomized process that I went through to locate the addresses, but this simply wasn't the case. What I did was open up Google maps on my laptop, enter the name of a country (New Zealand, for example), and then zoom in and in until the screen ended up looking something like this:

Then I would randomly click on the number of one of the buildings, make sure it was a home rather than an apartment building or commercial business, for example, and then scribble down the address. Doing things in this way limited me to focusing on larger cities because I began to notice that the buildings in smaller towns, and in some countries entirely, were not numbered at all and you couldn't find an address. I am not knowledgeable enough about Google maps to know why this is the case, but if you do, please let me know!

At this very moment, the postcards are making their way via airplane, van, or mail truck to multiple points around the globe, which is very exciting to think about! I like to envision the paths of their journeys across countries and seas as strings of connection that are linking people and places together. It is my sincere hope that they will land in a person's hands--hopefully, a person who could use a little pick-me-up--and let them know that someone across the world is wishing them well.

We shall see . . . :o)

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A MORE RECENT UPDATE

As of today, May 16, 2024, I have sent out a total of 70 postcards; HOWEVER, I just realized that I may have completely sabotaged this experiment before it even got out of the starting gate. I put a Forever postcard stamp on all of the postcards that I mailed; it never even crossed my mind that I might need to use a global postage stamp, instead! Aaaargh--I am SUCH the absentminded professor! I can't tell you how many times I've made stupid mistakes like this one!

Now, if no one writes back to let me know that they received the postcard, I won't know whether they didn't write back because (a) they never received the postcard (due to my postal fee oversight), (b) they thought it was creepy to get a postcard from a stranger in a strange land, or (c) some other reason.

If any post office workers are reading this, would you please let me know what my chances are that the postcards will be delivered, even if they don't have the right postage? I mean, does the postal worker handling the postcards immediately go, Nope, not enough postage! and then dump them into the bin? Or are some allowances made for postcards attempting to bring connection and positivity into the world?

Man, what a bummer! I may need to start again from scratch.

Do I have it in me to write 70 postcards again? ;o)