Why TLC Gives Me Such a Headache

There are three kinds of people in America: those who aren’t interested in traveling, those who ARE interested in traveling, and those who want to see the world. What is the difference between the latter two? Allow me to explain myself.

One can travel for the sake of saying they’ve been somewhere. One can travel to a particular place with a tourist group to add the location to their Facebook albums upon returning, to buy souvenirs, eat the food, and maybe walk through a few museums with an ‘ooh/aah’ reaction.

But I want to see the world. Not just the landmarks, the food, the people, and the places. I was to SEE LIFE around the world. I want to get to know everything I can about the everyday plight of the citizens of wherever I go. Why? Because there are thousands of ways to live the same life, and I want to learn about how different people approach living. I want to go beyond the stereotypes and the touristy side of each place I see. I want to know the ‘why’ as well as the ‘what.’

Traveling as a hobby these days is getting such a bad reputation because all anyone ever thinks about is how awesome they are, visiting foreign places and flaunting the fact that they’re Americans, etc. I totally blame TLC for a lot of this, because of their reality shows. Every notice how every ‘oddball’ family that has a show on that channel always has ‘special’ episodes where they travel to foreign places and totally end up embarrassing their home country with their cluelessness? Duggars, I’m looking at you in particular.

None of these families are going abroad to experience. They are going to show the cameras that they can, and then end up eating at Mai Dan Lau (Mandarin for McDonald’s) instead of from a local restaurant. It’s essentially modern-day American Imperialism. And it is a disgrace. “The Learning Channel,” indeed.

Because really, what is the point of spending time exploring a foreign country if you aren’t going to immerse yourself fully in it? Why buy a hamburger in France if you can buy one down the street from your office? Because you don’t want to try the escargot? Have you ever actually tasted escargot? It’s actually tasty (and I’ve never been to France!). But even if it wasn’t, I’d want to sample it and any other dish France could offer me.

For the most part, Americans have gotten so rude and close-minded that it’s no wonder a lot of other countries hate us. We’re like that jerk on the playground who always stole the other kids’ desserts and then said that his mom’s pie was better. Why did you even bother snatching up my dessert?!

I guess the point of this mini-rant is that if you’re going to explore the world, you have to keep your mind open. Is it scary sometimes? Oh hell yes it is! But so was my first time eating sushi, and it’s one of my favorite foods now. You can’t get the full experience until you try it.

And TLC is as far from a real experience as you can possibly get.

And The Duggars are imperialist douchebags, but that is a post for another time. 

To Vintage or Not to Vintage?

I will be the first to admit that I’m pretty selfish. Sometimes I stumble across a postcard that I myself don’t want to part with. About a year ago, I got this gorgeous, genuinely vintage postcard from artlover.

It got me thinking about how someone could willing send a gorgeous, rare card like this one to a complete stranger halfway around the world, let alone allow it to be tainted with stamps, writing, and postmarks! Granted, I’m very glad artlover did just for me, because this is one of my top 5 favorite cards I’ve ever received. But it puts into perspective what to do if you find or buy a postcard for your ‘To Send’ pile, but find yourself loving it so much you just can’t bear to send it off.

The obvious answer would be to keep it for yourself. After all, your collection doesn’t just have to be of cards sent to you, right? But I also have the dilemma where I WANT someone else to get this card and call it their favorite. I want the enthusiastic reply I get when someone sends a ‘thank you.’ For someone who invests way too much time emotionally into this hobby, it’s truly a conundrum.

Last year in Seattle, I visited the Asian history museum, and picked up a bunch of cool cards with ancient art on them….I bought ten and I still have seven because I just HAD to keep so many of them! I figured that I don’t know if I’ll ever make it back to the Asian History Museum ever again, so why not keep my own souvenirs of the lovely time I had there? I suppose the same goes for vintage cards too….vintage postcards are so rare as it is! Why send them away?

I do find a few very lovely vintage cards in second hand bookstores that I can pick up for a quarter a piece. Some are even fascinating because they’re either local vintage, or used cards with someone else’s writing and dates on it. How cool is that? Holding a piece of genuine dated history in your hand. For a geek like me, it’s pretty damn awesome, I have to say.

So, if you want my advice, keep your favorites for yourself and be selfish! After all, what are the odds that you will stumble on the same card twice?

What to Send? What to Send?

It’s actually pretty hard choosing which postcard you want to send out. I think anyone would be surprised when I talk about how much time I take thinking about this every time I go to write a card.

I think the first thing that makes the task hard is people on Postcrossing can be so picky. Once I’m assigned an address, I can look at the receiver’s profile, and most of them list at least a few preferences of what they’d like to get in their mailbox. Most are pretty open to anything, or request something easy like ‘images from your hometown,’ or ‘I like art cards.’ It’s really when people start asking for some pretty specific cards, or set up these criteria that go above and beyond a normal suggestion (‘no multi-views!’ or ‘I like Rodin but not Degas!’).

I’m very tempted to tell these people to be grateful I bothered to spend fifteen seconds thinking of them in choosing a card I think they would appreciate, even if it doesn’t fit in with their expectations. I never do, of course, but I also don’t languish for hours on it either. I like people respecting my suggestions (I do have some of my own, after all) so I try to respect theirs. But this is only the first problem I encounter. There are also the people I am assigned that have absolutely NO preferences. I still want to send them something I think they will enjoy, but I also feel like sending them a more generic ‘Syracuse!‘ card would suffice.

I’m pretty sure this appears next to ‘generic’ in Webster’s Dictionary. 

I have to admit, the pickings around here as far as local postcards go are pretty slim. Most are multi-views, which a lot of people don’t like (I guess because it makes the images too busy to really appreciate). If it isn’t a multi-view, it’s a simple skyline (boring) or a close-up of a place on the SU Hill (frankly, who outside of the US would even care about a state school?). I want it to look like an effort was made, and I want to fairly represent my city!

Aw, come on! They didn’t even try!

Admittedly, I cheat sometimes. I travel a lot for work, and in the winter months I commonly take the train. Train stations I stop at usually have a small gift shop with some pretty cool New York City-centric cards. I’ll send some of these. Sure, it implies I’m from one of the most exciting cities on Earth instead of Mehh-It’s-Ok, NY. But these cards are much more exciting and generally better-received than the Syracuse-based ones.

I’ll even pick a few cards up on vacation elsewhere and send these. For example, last year I went to Seattle for a few days, and ended up acquiring and sending out nearly fifty cards that show off how cool Seattle is.

I mean, I don’t expect Syracuse-based cards to be Rembrandts or anything, but I do feel that twinge of jealousy when I get cards from Nowhereland, New Zealand that are cooler than the ones I send.

On the flip side of this little rant, I have to admit that this aspect of the hobby is as enjoyable in some respects as receiving the cards. If you’re genuine about the collection, you develop a sense of caring about your fellow collectors and want to try and contribute a favorite or a stand-out piece to their own stash. When I receive a card I especially adore, I will PM the sender (an option on the site) and tell them so. It’s flattering when someone does the same for you.

A quick note before I end this post: if you have questions you would like me to discuss or a related topic you wish for me to bring up, let me know! I’m open to requests for guest-posts as well! Until next time!