I'm new here, and I haven't browsed too many profiles yet, so I'm not 100% sure what to write. This will probably be temporary until I have a better idea of what people expect to read. :)

Hello! I discovered the wonderful world of snail mail just this year (2015), and I'm only digging myself deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.

I went to school in a different city than where I currently live, and a good friend and I decided to exchange letters. We wrote to each other a couple of times, but she's busy with real life, so she seldom gets to respond.

I then discovered postcrossing.com. I figure most of you know how the site works, but for those who don't, you basically send a postcard to a random person, and when they acknowledge receipt, you're next in line for some random person to send you a postcard, and so on. Now, that's all fine and dandy, but being as I live in the Philippines (and not the capital, at that), mail takes forever to be delivered and to arrive (2-4 weeks), and I may have been a little impatient.

Then came the sub-reddit Random Act of Cards. I love that place! You can immediately respond to offers or place a request, which I promptly did (respond to offers, that is. I was too shy to post a request). Two-ish weeks of waiting later, I got my first postcard, and it all went downhill from there. I also joined a forum where I got a few penpals!

Two months later, I have sent over 250 pieces of mail (postcards/letters), mostly international, but with a number of local ones here and there, and I have received 80 (all from internet friends. I wish my irl friends sent me something but whatever), as of last count. (I have an Excel sheet, if you're wondering. Haha.)

So yes, snail mail is fun! And I'd like to have more opportunities to send (and receive) mail! I prefer postcards because of the postage cost, but we'll see if that changes anytime soon. :)

I have also discovered or realized (I guess that's more appropriate) the beauty of stamps! So I would greatly appreciate pretty stamps, please! I will do my best to reciprocate though just last week, our main/biggest post office apparently ran out of stamps. I didn't even know that was possible. I still have a bunch, but I'm slowly running out, so I genuinely hope they restock soon. (This is being written December 2015.)

I love chick lit and fantasy. My favorite authors are Larry Correia, Brent Sanderson (well, I love his stories, though I wish I found the writing more engaging), and Simone Elkeles (I love her Perfect Chemistry series).

I finished the 2015 Reading Challenge (woohoo!) and authors I want to read more from include Rainbow Rowell, Ally Carter, Douglas Adams, Steve Diamond, and Mindy Kaling.

I love TV way more than I should. I adore Friends and Firefly. I'm trying to watch other Whedonverse shows.

I also enjoyed Leverage and now, The Librarians, because Christian Kane is bad ass and adorable at the same time!

I love procedural shows like Castle, Bones (though I feel that they jumped the shark a long time ago), Elementary, Forever.

Comedy is my bread and butter, though. Go lighthearted things! The Big Bang Theory (though I find it kinda meh now), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Corner Gas (hilarious!), The Goldbergs, The Mindy Project, etc.

Note: Please don't put a customs declaration form when you send in envelopes as this tends to delay my receipt and I'm usually made to pay to claim it, depending on the mood of the post office at the time. :(

TEA

Okay, so I thought I didn't like tea. Well, actually, I still can't say I'm a tea lover, but I have 2 positive tea experiences that stand out in my mind.

The first: I went to Japan a few years ago as a kind of foreign exchange student and one of the cultural activities I joined was a tea ceremony. Numb legs notwithstanding, it was a wonderful experience and I've never been fond of green tea before, but the tea during the tea ceremony was delicious! I try drinking the ones we have in stores here, but they don't taste the same. But that was the first time I had the realization that tea could be good.

The second: I joined a gift exchange on Reddit and my Santa included tea. I didn't drink it initially as (as I've mentioned) I'm not fond of tea. I gave it to my aunt instead. Somehow, we both lost track of it and I rediscovered it quite recently. I don't know what got into me, but I decided to try it and it was yummy! Oh, it was Pukka Herbs Refresh - Peppermint, Fennel, and Rose. I think the reason I like it is because it has a sweet/minty aftertaste.

I know next to nothing about tea, as you can probably tell and, if you've noticed, my positive tea experiences didn't come from me actually buying tea, but by some wonderful coincidence. So I encourage you to send me tea you think I'd like. Please! :D I will so appreciate it.

Edit: Thanks to tea swaps (wooo go Swap-bot!), I've totally been enjoying tea and have it nearly every night now! I'm getting into a fruity phase, I think, so I'd love getting more of those types! And I read about chocolate something or other teas and I'd love to try those also. It sucks living in a pretty rural place where we only have the most basic variants. xD

COFFEE

I'm not really fond of coffee. I drink it for the caffeine and even then, not too often (once every 2 weeks? Give or take.). I only really drink instant coffee. We have an instant coffee variant with lotsa milk and I love it as before, whenever I'd mix the normal instant coffee, I'd do maybe 60% water / 40% milk. Yeaaah. Haha.

So I noticed a lot of people include this part.

If you don't receive something from me, let me know/message me. I'll always send on time (and so far, I've been taking pictures of everything I've sent, though I'll probably stop once I have more ratings); in fact, I typically send the day after match details are released.

That said, the postal system in the Philippines can be... iffy. Typically, during non-peak seasons, it can take anywhere from 2-4 weeks for postcards I sent to get to the US. Canada usually takes 3-5 weeks; India, 3-4 weeks; most of Europe, 2-9 weeks (mail to The Netherlands and UK tend to arrive faster while those heading to Germany can take awhile, depending on which part of DE the recipient lives); East Asia, ~2 weeks; Russia, Africa, South America, forever (> 2 months). It can also take me a while to receive things (and they don't necessarily come in order, which I find strange). During this holiday season, mail from the US has taken nearly a month to get here (in some cases, longer. It's insane.).

So yeah, give it time, then let me know before rating a 1. :)

• tea! This has been promoted to number 1 haha
• note cards. We don't have a ton available here, so I don't know where else to buy but online (and abroad, online, not even local) so I'd love note cards!
• postcards! I'll never say no to spares as I typically send a ton a week.
• stickers, because I don't really know where to buy them here.
• dip pen nibs :D (I dabble in calligraphy.)
• ink (fountain pen or dip pen)
• paper. I adore paper. I love really smooth ones of the Quo Vadis Habana and Maruman Mnemosyne types.
• hockey things. I follow the Detroit Red Wings, but we don't really have hockey-related things, so I'd appreciate anything.
• Amazon.com gift card (I don't know if this is allowed. Haha. But I'm totally addicted to Amazon. Plus, I have a Kindle, so I could use the credit for books also!)
• pretty stationery for penpal purposes
• cute socks. I collect them :D (I do wear them, though. Haha. Size: 25 cm :) )
• canceled stamps! I'm starting a collection! I'm horrible, though, because I judge on looks, not rarity. Haha.

(Is there a way to rearrange these fields? Sorry, I'm kinda a boob.)

I prefer my postcards naked and stamped. If possible, I'd love if you could use the lick stamps and not self-adhesive ones. :) I loooove seeing other countries' unique stamps! :)

I don't mind receiving blanks in envelopes, though, so I can use them to send to others. :)

I'd really love postallove's Greetings From postcards (this definitely naked and stamped) (so far, I have Canada, Malaysia, Germany, Norway, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and Austria)! Or Greetings from your country/state/city/whatever cards! Also, anything with hockey on them would be amazing. Something related to watch/watch movements, science, art, anime (Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, Gensoumaden Saiyuki) would also be cool. :)

Shaped cards would also be nice as I don't have too many of those! :D 3D ones, too. Long/panoramic/oversize ones!

I'd also like cartoon/art map cards! Not too fond of the real map ones. :o

Random list:

• Funny cards!
• Wild/non-domestic animals such as foxes, tigers, etc!
• Schools
• Those vintage ones with the name of the state in huge letters and there are images in said letters (ugh I'm not describing this very well. Hopefully you get what I mean)
• Japan-related
• Sea creatures (including mermaids! Haha.)
• Mythological creatures
• Firefly/Whedonverse

I also love chatty/filled up postcards! Tell me why you picked the particular card for me, if you like. Or talk about the book you're currently reading, a show you're obsessed with (esp if you think I'd like it), a hobby you recently started. Just some ideas. :) Oh, and please write the date you're writing and/or sending it. This is really just for my records. I like taking note of transit time. Haha.

Really, I'm not too picky with postcards, as long as the stamps are pretty/interesting and it's dated. :)

Not too fond of...

• coloring postcards
• statues