Category: postcards

chu entry time (postcard café)

someone on the postcrossing forum mentioned there was “postcard café” in taipei, so of course we had to go and check it out! :)

the fun starts outside, even before you get in, because the menu is all written in illustrated postcards! you pick the cards featuring the food or drinks you’d like to have, and then take them to your waiter inside. they’ll be gifted to you when the food comes, which is a nice touch.

the special thing about chu entry time is that you can mail postcards to someone in the future! basically, you write, address and stamp your postcards, pay the fee and then put them on the box of the week you want it to be mailed. and they’ll mail it for you when the time comes! so in theory, you can pre-send all your friend’s birthday cards for the whole year, or even a few years in advance.

it’s not the first time we hear of something like this, but it was the first time we saw one in real life, which was pretty cool. while we were waiting, the boy was browsing some magazines they had there, and stumbled on one that mentioned postcrossing, eheh :)

there was also a really nice selection of illustrated postcards and other crafts that you could buy, and a table with rubberstamps for anyone to just use. it was lovely, and i wish there were more of these around.

nice café food and drinks + postcards = perfection!

Post author By ana
Post date April 20, 2023
2 Comments on chu entry time (postcard café)

in taiwan postcards postcrossing

taiwan mailboxes

for us, looking for mailboxes is just something we do instinctively, everywhere we go. the most common ones in taiwan are a pair of green (normal mail) and red (priority) cuboids, sometimes condensed into a single divided mailbox. if feels like they’re in every street, and they’re so iconic that they even have their own postcards!

but there are others as well — we’ve spotted a couple of themed ones, dressed up to celebrate taiwan’s indigenous people:

the most famous mailboxes we’ve seen though were a set that was struck by typhoon soudelor in 2015. they’re bent sideways, as if swept by the wind, and have become a bit of a symbol of resilience.

the plaque says:

On august 8th, 2015, Typhoon Soudelor struck Taiwan. We were hit in the heads by a signboard as a result and couldn’t help but lean over from the pain. It was so painful in fact, we can’t stand up straigth anymore. But we persevered. We didn’t fall over after all. We have to take life as it is comes and in a way, I think we look more artsy and sophisticated this way! Did we inspire you? Take a picture with us to remind yourselves that we are all survivors and can persevere no matter what.

awww…

postcards

first postcards

other than images and videos, things have been a bit quiet around here. chinese studying took an intensive turn in the past few months, and i feels like there’s only space for one thing at a time in my head. still, life never stops moving forward, and in 2020, i want to make a bigger effort to document our challenges, discoveries, or the things that brought us joy.

high up on that list of things that brought me joy is this recent moment, in which i helped cousin francisco write the first postcard of his life.

he wrote it to his parents, while staying at my parents in porto. he’s in first grade and hasn’t learnt the whole alphabet yet, so every word had to be carefully chosen and practiced before being written down in his curly cursive. he glued the stamp carefully and went to mail it himself… and then a few days later called my parents, super excited to tell them it had arrived! his surprise and happiness were the delight of the whole family. :)

bonus: a few days later he called my parents again, this time extremely upset. he was crying and demanding to know whether isabel was really written with an i, when eduardo and emília were both written with e’s… his dad insisted it was with an i, but he just couldn’t believe it and no one would explain him why! poor child, suffering the joys of learning portuguese! :D

in thailand postcards pretty things

a mailbox methaphor

there’s something fascinating about old mailboxes., their sturdiness and detail lending them a regal air that newer models seem to lack. you can tell that they were made with care, and to last a long time.

they’re almost like a metaphor: if only we could put this kind of effort and resources into all the things we do, to make sure they’re well done, perhaps they, too, would last longer.

postcards

happy holidays!

our silly postcard for the year. i’ve started to think of them as our own version of yves saint laurent’s love cards, and i hope we’ll keep up this tradition as long as he did his.

have a happy holiday season!