I am the WINNER OF THE MONTH :)

I am back from a really hot and a bit tiring week in UAE. It was nice to spend time in another muslim country but our timing was not correct. It was around 50 degrees and I had hard time getting used to it. I managed to make it to Dubai though and met Lila (AKA hagaki), a postcrosser from UAE. We had a lovely day in Dubai but I am saving the details of my day with Lila for another day.

After a long journey (Dubai-->Abu Dhabi-->Istanbul-->Ankara-->home) and a missing luggage, I came home to find more than 20 postcards and one of them (the one below) was telling me I was "the winner of the month". It was too good to be true after an exhausting journey...

The beautiful card this Moroccon lady was from Isabelle in Germany (isagv in the forums). First, I thought I might be the pseudo winner and immediately checked the "Winner of the Month - August" thread to see if there was already a real winner. There was none. I thought maybe the sender of my card was the winner but the card was sent from Germany and there were already some German participants. I know very well how fast German post is. If Isabelle was the real winner, she should have received other German members' cards but maybe noone had sent yet! Then, there was this discussion about the address of the real winner. I use both my home address and office address for postcrossing. At the end, I was so sure and posted in the thread that I was the winner of the month.

Then, Ipue, last month's winner, wrote that I only received one card and that may not mean I was the winner. Plus, she sent me the real winner's address. I was so ashamed at the beginning so decided to stay silent. Today 8 more cards arrived and then I officially declared myself as the "WINNER OF THE MONTH" :)

For those who are not familiar with the lotteries part of the postcrossing forums, here is some info. Firstly, you have to play if you want to be the winner of the month next time. For this particular month, playing means sending a postcard to me. Hehe :) On the first day of the next month, this month's winner chooses next month's winner and pseudo winner (in case the real winner wants to play in that month as well). Isn't it fun? Come and play then. Who knows? Maybe you'll be next month's winner :)