Letter #174 from England

Letter #174 comes from Gracie in England.She is originally from the city of Nottingham in the Midlands.She is currently taking off a year before going to university,so she is currently volunteering in the city of Chichester,caring for a lady in a wheelchair.She will be going home in a month and is so excited since her temporary home is 5 hours away from her family,so she rarely sees them.

As many may already know,Nottingham is where Robin Hood is from.There seems to be some controversy over where he is from.....many people say he is really from Yorkshire,so Nottingham may have no claims to him,although they do brag about having his statue there. ;)

Most of the wealth of Nottingham came from manufacturing lace and also bicycles later on.Now the lace maker buildings are used as a college since they are so beautiful.Gracie did her "A-levels" there.She said that homeschooling is very uncommon in England and that kids must attend school until age 16,but they are going to be increasing the age to 18 years old.When Gracie goes to university,she plans to study Englis and French.She will be going to university in London and is excited about it!It will be so different from where she is living,doing her volunteering work.Chichester is in the countryside and when she moved there in January,it was very cold and she thought it was so boring because nobody ever left their home,so the town seemed so empty.But once spring time came,everybody came out of their houses.Gracie loves having picnics in the cathedral gardens or on the beach.Chichester Cathedral is the only medieval building in Britain that has a free-standing bell tower and a still operational almshouse-hospital.

During the first part of Garcie's "gap" year off before university,she spent some time in South America,for three months with a host family.It was an exchange/volunteering program and she was among a group of 16 Bristish people who helped to teach English and build part of a nursery school.She says the thing that surprised her the most about being there was the huge gap between the poor and rich.She says that in Lima,Peru,the area was very built up and looked just like every other city where people live,but only one hour away from there,were people living in shanty towns and slums.Many people have no access to running water and their homes are made of wood.The school they were building had no regulations,so they mixed cement by hand and used nails to hold up the ceilings.She said that at first it was a big shock to see the people love like that,but she actually got used to it because even though the people were so poor,they were amazingly very happy people since they all lived together and shared the same problems/concerns.She said the shanty towns popped up in the 1980's and 1990's because the people were fleeing from terrorism.She said that she had a great time with her wonderful host family and recently learned that her host family had another baby,so she feels like she has another "host sibling".She says that this opportunity has made her realize that maybe we'd all be happier if we tried to be more of a community,rather than living in such a materialistic,money driven society.I couldn't agree more,we have definitely left behind the days when you would borrow things from your neighbors and ask them for help building your house,etc.We really love such sheltered lives these days and don't communicate with our neighbors as people did in the old days.It would be so nice to go back to those old days.I know where we lived in Michigan,they were trying to build more community friendly neighborhoods to bring back that feeling and in the center was a park for the kids.It was a really good idea,but I don't think it worked,people are too involved with their jobs and their own personal lives.I really love how people are trying hard to bring communities together with community kitchens and gardens.Hopefully these ideas will spread farther and become more popular.Gracie says she really misses the shanty town dearly and hopes to return.I think maybe we all should try helping volunteer to help those less fortunate so they we can really have the feeling of how truly blessed we are to have what we have,because at least in the states,we can get some help (food stamps,etc) that people in poor countries cannot even imagine getting.

Thanks Gracie for your lovely letter and all the brochures,ticket stubs (we love ticket stubs),pictures (one of Lima,Peru and then the other shows the complete opposite,the shanty town and also one picture of the school they were building) and postcards!They can all be seen below:

Letter #173 from Maryland

Letter #173 comes from Angela in Maryland.Angela lives in a suburb of Washington,DC called Wheaton.Angela works as a librarian (yes,another great librarian!). :) Wheaton is 12 miles from DC and is one of the stops on the Red Line of the Metro (subway) that serves DC.Her city is very walkable and she is close to many places.She says it's really nice when it snows because when the roads aren't passable,she can still walk to most places.

One of her favorite places to visit is Wheaton Regional Park,which includes Brookside Gardens,which is a flower garden/conservatory.She says it's a great place to go to enjoy nature since the city is an urban area.She says they have a yearly event called "Wings of Fairy", where they release the butterflies in the conservatory building so they are free to fly all around.Everybody gets to walk among the butterflies,which must be really nice because butterflies are so beautiful and unique.

Angela also enclosed some printouts about Wheaton,which I will summarize below:
Wheaton is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County that started out as a crossroads in the 1700's.Wheaton was named after the Union General Frank Wheaton,who defended nearby Fort Stevens and Washington,DC in the Civil War against Conferderate General Jubal Early's attack in July 1864.

The first U.S. television license operated out of Charles Francis Jenkins' home in Wheaton,in 1928.Wheaton became the birthplace of the first television transmissions from Jenkins Broadcasting.

After WWII,a massive influx of Federal government workers moved to the metropolitan area.Prior to 1947 only 29,000 people lived in Wheaton,mostly on farms and large estates.The number doubled in 1950,then again in 1960,creating unprecedented growth.

In 1954 building began on Kemp Mill Estatesof the Heitmuller Tract,which opened in 1959 as Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center.At that time it was the 6th largest in the nation,and has since had major redevelopment as Westfield Wheaton.

In 1958 the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission began buying land to create Wheaton Regional Park,now a 536 acre sanctuary.

Along with her lovely letter,Angela included brochures from Westfield Mall,Brookside Gardens, a Metro Pocket Guide, and since she remembered we are collecting books in different languages,she said that her library sells used books that also includes books in several languages,thanks to the diversity of her area.She included the book,"Spot", in Arabic,"The Very Hungry Caterpillar", in Yiddish,and a Garfield book,which neither of us were sure about the language,I think it could be Dutch,but maybe somebody can click on the picture below and tell us if that is correct or not.Thanks!

Thank you so much Angela for your lovely letter,brochures and books (we really love them & didn't have books in those languages,so thanks a bunch!).We also loved the new "Go Green" stamps,our post office didn't have any as they only get a few of the new stamps. :( They can all be seen below:

Letter #172 from Idaho

Letter #172 comes from Jennifer in Idaho.She lives in a suburb of Boise,the capital of the state.She is a freelance photographer and runs a small photography business from home.She loves the flexibility that working from home offers.In her free time,she enjoys reading,writing,cooking,camping,bird watching,beadwork,crocheting,cross stitching and playing hockey on her playstation 3.

Jennifer is also an avid long distance cyclist and can always be found riding as long as the temperature is above 10°.She enjoys running all of her errands by bike and also does longer rides for charity.

She lives in an area that is considered "high latitude" desert climate,with hot and dry summers.Fall and spring are her favorite time of the year with the mild weather.They sometimes get a lot of rain from March to May.Their winters are cold and snowy and she says that there is still a heavy blanket of snow on top of the mountains in the higher elevations.Burr!

Idaho is a rurla state with a population of 1.3 million people.She said that she read that they have double the amount in cattle.Idaho is also a very agricultural state and within a mile of Jennifer's house,she can see potatoes,sugar beet,onion,mint and hay fields.As many people in the U.S. know,Idaho is well-known for their potatoes.

As Jennifer mentioned earlier,she loves photography and she prefers to to take photos of landscapes and nature,but also takes pictures of weddings and kids sports.She also included some photos she took herself.One of her favorite places to take photos is at Boise Depot,which is an old train station that was in use until 1990.It is now a park and historical site.The pictures she included with her letter are of the folowing places: Jump Creek Falls,Eagle Island,Petit Lake,Sawtooth Mountains,Fairfield School House (I think this may be my favorite photo,although it was a hard choice),Boise Depot,Silver City (an old mining town that I would love to see in person,it remind me of Little House on the Prairie),her dogs (I thought they were both blind,but she says that both of them each have one blue eye and most people think that,too when they see them), and her last photo is of a pear tree that is in her backyard.Along with the photos,she enclosed four postcards,two have potato recipes (Potato Cheese Soup and Puff Potato Rounds),one shows downtown Boise and the last shows the Seven Devil Mountains.Last but not least,she included some cute stickers of Idaho.Thanks Jennifer for your lovely letter,beautiful photos,postcards,and stickers.You can see them all below:

PS-Sorry for the bad photo,her photos are really beautiful in person,but taking a picture of a picture isn't easy. :)

Letter #171 from Australia

Letter #171 comes from Kathleen in Australia.She lives in an area known as South East Queensland with her husband and two sons.She has sent us pages upon pages of information about her country along with many brochures and other goodies,so I will try to put in as much as I can.She has only begun penpalling just a few years ago and found our blog while searching for letters and letter writing blogs.She said she loves to write fat letters,which is great because we love to read fat letters. :) Like myself,Kathleen is the oldest of three children and says that people often come to her when they need a shoulder to lean on or just a boost in their life.

Heather and her family also have a couple of pets- a dog,two cats,two chooks,two ducks,sheep,one pig,ten zebra finches,tropical fish and a partridge in a pear tree...ok,so no partridge,but I just had to get that out. :) She has always been around nature/animals and loves it.Her parents also have a sheep and cattle property.

I didn't realize just how large Australia really is until after reading her letter and actually looking at the grpahics she enclosed showing just how big Australia is in comparison to the U.S.Even though her and her parents live in the same state,it's a nine hour drive to get there,so they try to get there a few times a year.

She also says that Australia is a dry continent and they often struggle with drought and this year they had floods,which probably was just as bad as the droughts for the farmers there.Like many of you may already know,since they are in a different hemisphere from the U.S.,they are in a different season right now,it's the beginning of winter.They also drive on the opposite side of the road.Even though they are a vast country,they have a small population due to large tracts of land that are inhabited.

Australia is also home to some unique creatures,such as kangaroos,possum,koala bears,emu,echidna,crocodiles,wombats,and platypus,just to name a few.Kathleen says that she has seen all of those animals and has held most of them.Her parents even have wild koalas on their property,along with kangaroos,emus and other native animals.All we see in our yard are the occasional deer,rabbits,and plenty of birds.She even had a pet kangaroo as a kid,until it was killed by a fox.Can you imagine having a pet kangaroo?

Kathleen and her siblings were homeschooled for a few years because they lived so far from town.When they were older,they went to school,but it was a one hour trip on the bus each way,so that made for a long day.She also says that even though her and her siblings are all different,they have gotten closer as adults since they are sharing similar situations in life.

Kathleen's favorite part of the day is early in the morning when most people are still asleep and the native animals are heading home after a night of activity or for a pre-dawn graze on the dew dropped grass.That's when the day is so new and fresh and full of possibilities.One of her favorite memories is as a kid,laying on her bed at night and hearing the birds sing their lullaby on a moonlit night.Sometimes she would sit on the porch and enjoy listening to nature and looking at the brightness of the night sky that she doesn't have in her area.I must say that I know what she is talking about because early in the morning,we'll open the windows to the sound of many birds singing the most beautiful song so early in the morning...it is so peaceful.That is when you hear them the most.We have so many different birds taht visit our property and we have one that has even made a nest under our carport on top of some vines.It is too high up for us to see if the babies have been born yet since you always hear so many birds,we don't know if they hatched or not.

In general,Australia has such a beautiful climate that many people love to eat "alfresco",which means outside.I love eating outside,but we have too many of natures smaller creatures attacking us,such as stink bugs,wasps,bees,mosquitos,etc....all the little creatures we don't like,we have. :) So we no longer enjoy outdoor picnics since we figure the neighbors will start thinking we are really weird when we all start running around and hollering. :) Tourists generally love the weather there since it's much warmer than Europe...many people even go swimming in the winter there.

She says that Queensland is known as the "Sunshine State" and has been recognized by a phrase relating to the weather- "Beautiful one day,perfect the next".I must say that is the best weather to have!

The flag of Australia features the stars of the Southern cross,the Union Jack and Commonwealth or Federation Star ,which has seven points representing the unity of the six states and territories of the Commonwealth of Australia..The Australian National Anthem is one of their most important national symbols.

Here are a few Australian word usage, or "slang" that she told us about:

loo or dunny means toilet
flat out means busy
bloke means a man
fair dinkum means to be honest
shout means to buy someone a drink
arvo is short for afternoon
chook means a chicken,usually a hen
cuppa means a cup of coffee or tea


Along with her fabulous letter,she sent us a variety of info and brochures.She really sent so much to share with us about her fabulous country!She also included stickers,brochures,clippings of her area and animals,stamps,play money,a flag,a recipe for Chocolate Slice and Anzac Biscuits,etc.She also included pictures comparing Australia's size with the U.S. and with all of Europe...I thought that was an excellent way to show their size.She even included a sample of Vegemite,which I know is famous with Australians,but most people dislike the taste...I'll probably have my daughter taste test it for us since I'm not too brave about trying new foods. ;)

Oh,since this post was about Australia,I wanted to recommend a great movie that my girls and I have really enjoyed,it's called "The Rabbit Proof Fence",about the aboriginal people....it's really a sad story & I think you can watch it on youtube.I highly recommend you watch this great movie.My girls and I talked about it for days after watching it.

Thanks so very much Kathleen for all the goodies you enclosed....you have really sent us so much to tell us about your country and we truly appreciate it!Excuse me for any mistakes I may have made in the post,my eyes are about to fall out. :) Check out all the goodies below....we were shocked to get such a huge package for the project!

Letter #170 from Finland

Letter #170 comes from Heather in Finland.Heather is originally from Oregon but moved to Finland almost 12 years ago because of love.Aww, how sweet! ;) She says she loves living there and wouldn't trade it for the world,well,until those dark,cold winter months arrive,but even then,she still loves Finland.She says it's very beautiful and is a green and clean country.The people are very reserved and quiet until you get to know them.She said it was hard at first to get used to it being so quiet but has grown to love the silence.

Heather got her degree in Finland for International Business and told us that school in Finland is totally free for everybody!Yes,you heard that right,my favorite "f word"- free! :) That is so amazing that they truly see the value of providing everyone with a free education.I wonder if school will ever be free in the states...I doubt it. :(

She says Moomins is one of her favorite cartoons...ours,too.If you have never seen Moomins,you must watch it on youtube.I really love watching it with my daughter...wish we would have known about them when my girls were younger.My daughter even has a small collection of Moomins thanks to her wonderful Finnish penpal.We just can't get enough of the Moomins.Heather was so kind as to include a cute Moomins book titled, "The Unexpected Visit" and also a brochure about the Moomin Valley museum,which they are lucky to have there.I believe I recall reading somewhere (maybe in a letter to us) that the creator of the Moomins would draw the cartoons on the walls of her parents summer cottage,but never thought the cartoons would be successful.

When Heather isn't working,she enjoys spending time with her husband and two cats.She also loves to visit with friends when she has the time and she also enjoys arts and crafts,beading,glass jewelry,key chain dangles and just about a little bit of everything.She also loves to bake,which means she has to exercise a lot to work off those sweets. :)

She also wrote a couple of words for us in in Finnish and told us that the Finnish letters sound a lot like the Spanish letters.Here are some words for you:

cat= kissa
dog= koira
green= vihrea
blue= sininen
red= punainen
orange (color)= oransssi
orange (food) = apelsiini  (hmm,wonder what apple must be because that looks like it should be apple) :)
hello = Hei!/Moro!/Moi!
thanks = kiitos
my name is = minun nimeni on (your name here)

Thanks Heather for your lovely letter and for the key chain/cell phone dangles,Moomins book,Finland guide and Moomins Museum guide,which can all be seen below:

Letter #169 from Michigan

Letter #169 comes from Amanda in  "snowy" Michigan.Amanda lives in the upper peninsula of Michigan where winters are longer than in the lower peninsula.I know when we first moved to Michigan,we didn't realize that Michigan had an upper peninsula and I think most people don't realize that,either.She lives in the upper peninsula (also known as the UP) because she goes to school there,but has questioned her sanity for moving that far up north to go to school.She said from October to February,it snowed every single day,nonstop.

Amanda is studying Cellular and Molecular Biology at Northern Michigan University.She wishes she could be just a history major,but she doesn't like to teach or write,so she picked genetics to ensure she would have a job after graduation and because she gets to do her senior internship at the Mayo Clinic.The Mayo Clinic is the second best hospital in the country,behind John's Hopkins,they also have the best lab system and John's Hopkin's even runs some of their tests through the Mayo Clinic.She has to wait three years before doing her internship there,but she is really excited about it!

Amanda has also recently become hooked on postcrossing and loves the thrill of getting a postcard or letter in the mail.She also told us that if we ever go to the UP,we must try a pasty from Jean Kay's in Marquette,Michigan.She also told us that the upper peninsula has the highest concentration of Finnish people outside of Finland...see, even though we lived in Michigan,we didn't know that fact.We also didn't know either that people call the lower peninsula "troll land".Haha!

Along with her lovely letter,she sent us a printout of a little joke about the upper peninsula....maybe we can switch the peninsula's around and call the UP troll land...haha! ;)

Well,Amanda,we wish you all the best and hope that you are not continously stressed out and broke....those two things don't go good together. ;)  We also hope your exams went well!Thanks Amanda for writing!You can see her lovely letter and joke below:

Letters #134-168 from Germany

Letters #134-168 come from three great classes at the Albert-Schweitzer Schule.The children vary in ages from 6-10 years old.All of their fabulous letters are written in German,so we will have to translate them in order to know what they told us. :) They also drew some lovely pictures on their letters,which we really love!We really love getting letters from kids,especially classes.They all wrote about how they were going to celebrate Easter,so that is why you will see most drawings with bunnies on them. :) As we were skimming through the letters after opening them,we noticed a few signed their signatures starting with "Deine",so we thought that it must be a popular name,but after researching it online,we found out it wasn't their names,but it was the ending to their letter, "yours",like "yours truly",so that was pretty funny for us to find out. :)

Some of the kids did not sign their names,so maybe their teacher can tell us who we missed and if we messed up any of their names,we apologize and will correct it asap.Thanks Alexandra for getting your students to participate...tell them we loved all of their letters and drawings.Here are the names we could find on the letters,so we want to give a big thanks to these students below for their letters:

Johanna
Serkan
Jula
Julia
Christin
Sina
Paul
Cedrick
Van Jaqueline
Elena
Samuel
Spohie
Jacob
Luca
Darold ?
Marivs
Monika
Alina
Kekona
Nilay
Fliegen
Jonas
Von Nergis
Trami
Mara
Philipp
Ronja
Jahre
Wiebke
Alina
Leonie

And here are their beautiful letters:

Letter #133 from California

Letter #133 comes from Stephanie in California.Stephanie lives in the California Bay area,which is 20 miles from San Francisco.The land and residents of the Bay area is very diverse.She says that when she drives through Berkeley,there are tiny concentrated areas of great diversity of which you can find anything you want,from kosher foods to Spanish foods to Japanese foods due to the diversity of the area.Stephanie considers herself very lucky to have easy access to a variety of food.We miss that about Michigan,here in Virginia,where we live,there isn't that much diversity when it comes to grocery stores and we really miss that.

As many already know,California has many geologic faults.One thing I didn't know,is that they get earthquakes every day,but most are only 1.0 on the richter scale,so she doesn't even notice them,but says that when she does notice them it feels like a big truck has drove down her street.I think I would always be worried that it's the big one,but I guess after living there a while,you get used to it and realize it's nothing.She says that these tiny quakes are actually good,which is something I didn't think about,but it's true.It's better to have many small ones,than one big one.She compared it to a stretched rubber band,it's much better to release it slowly instead of letting it go quickly so it doesn't snap back so hard.

Stepahanie loves to do needlecrafts,some knitting and quilting.She says that even though quilting is quite tedious work,the end result is very satisfying.She also likes to garden and is experimenting with some new things this year,such as a plant called a ground cherry,which has fruit that grows nestled in leaves like a Chinese lantern plant.She says it tastes very sweet and tropical and hasn't been able to find the fruit in any stores,so she has decided to try growing it herself so she can enjoy this fabulous fruit.I hope she is able to grow it successfully.Last summer my husband planted some squash seeds and he was so succcesful,I think we could have fed a few families since it was so huge!

Stephanie enjoys volunteering in the animal husbandry department of her local aquarium.She gets to play with a variety of animals,including chinchillas,turtles,tortoises,kingsnakes,and more.Of course there is a down side to this-cleaning the cages,which is not fun at all,but overall,she feels that she gets to do what most would consider "goofing off".She enjoys playing with the animals.

Along with her lovely letter,she has enclosed some great Japanese paper and some tea bags.Thanks so much!You can see her letter and goodies below: