SANDBOOK August 2011 issue 10
PENPALS AND SWAPPERS
THE MAGAZINE
waffles tasting
US stamp2012 program
Aurorae Yoga send more
FEATURES : • Missive Maven • Pen Pal Interviews • Write Around the World
August 2011
Dear Sandbookers, It is summer, the sun is shining bright and you are reading another issue of our penpal magazine. Whether you have chosen to be at the seaside or in the mountains, we really hope that you are having a wonderful summer holidays! The summer is all about friends, parties and having fun. Don’t forget that in our September issue we will be publishing stories by real penpals on how they spent their vacation. If you would like to be a part of the next issue, don’t hesitate and contact us real soon! Yours,
Raia the Sandbook.Net Team www.sandbook.net
content Editor in chief: Raia Alexieva Graphic Designer: GAYA DESIGNS IT administration: Jason Dimitrov Production Coordinator: Raia Alexieva Information is correct at press time.
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snail mail 18
8 Write around the world 12 Postcards from the Missive Maven 18 Send more mail 20 2012 United States stamp program 22 Fun Mail 26 A good mail week 28 Correspondence with the confined 34 Internationalist prison books collective 36 PenPal Interview: Gabriele 38 PenPal Interview: Bev 46 PenPal Interview: Marta 56 PenPal Interview: Anna 67 Kid’s zone
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gaya designs graphic and web desigN Studio
http://facebook.com/gayadesigns http://twitter.com/ajelin
http://redskyatmorning.net email: info@redskyatmorning.net
content 6
read more 86
68 PenPal of the Month 70 Lost PenPal 72 PenPal and Swappers Ads 78 PenPalling Connections 80 Waffles tasting 86 Go flight! 90 Samantha’s thoughts 94 World Travel: World Heritage 102 Beauty Brite: Frappes! 104 Beauty Brite: Aurorae Yoga 106 Birthday Twins 108 Next Issue 109 Subscribe 110 Contacts
80 102 94
Write
aroundthe
worl d
“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” “Invictus”, William Ernest Henley
I
, for one, refuse to believe t h a t summer is anywhere near over yet. The sun is still shining, the flowers are still blooming and the fields are filled with harvests ready to be brought in. Harvest time is nearly here...
Email: rae@glasscompletelyempty.co.uk Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/GCE-Productions2 Our Office Manager: http://tinyurl.com/GCE-office-cat
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by Rach Gee And it’s also a time when we would like to start stringing together all the wonderful footage we have. We’re looking forward to hearing from our interviewees and piecing everything together. We’re looking forward to everything that this project is bringing. So far it’s brought us new friendships, and rekindled old ones. It’s taken us on travels we thought we’d never see (and boy, are we excited to be leaving the country soon!). Through it, a myriad of wonderful people have stepped into our lives and enriched them far beyond what we could imagine.
It’s amazing and I’m looking forward to seeing how much further it takes us. So, if you’ve signed up to do an interview we’d love to hear from you. I’m keeping it a secret, but there will be gifts for those
who return their interviews to us. A thank you, from Glass Completely Empty Productions to the truly awesome people who have stepped into our life over the last year. I honestly can’t believe that it’s been three years since I first began working on this project and now it’s here, carried along and blessed by the beautiful people of the penpalling world. To all who’ve walked with us through this, who’ve offered to bear their souls and speak to us; thank you. Thank you for being with us, and for staying with us through such a long process. So yes, we’re here. We’re working away. Currently our editing computer (“Cheese” the iMac) is undergoing some renovations. She’s just been used for a huge music project and we’re in the process of formatting and reloading all the software. It makes for a far cleaner, and far easier experience for editing on. Meanwhile, poor “Cracker” the MacBook (See what we did there?!) has been taking the brunt of the workload with various hard drives hooked up to every available USB
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Email: rae@glasscompletelyempty.co.uk Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/GCE-Productions2 Our Office Manager: http://tinyurl.com/GCE-office-cat 10
to make sure she runs smoothly. Needless to say, the hard drives are rapidly filling with footage and they’ll soon be a shopping spree for more.
Once we’re completely finished and have a product we’re happy with, all your beautiful interviews will be archived for all eternity. A few more people have signed up, which is wonderful news! We’re
really enjoying hearing from you. It’s very inspiring that there are so many people out there who are so willing to help and throw themselves into this project. If you’ve been thinking about getting involved but think it’s too late, think again! We’d love to hear from you! You can find all the contact details at the end of this article.
you fancy laughing with him at my expense, then you can find him at: http://tinyurl.com/GCE-officecat Just remember to bring an offering of a box or, at the very least, a beef sandwich!
For the moment, I believe that is all. If you’d like to get in touch (and For those who haven’t met him please, feel free to. We’re not going yet, I’d like to introduce to our to bite!) with questions, comments, “Office Manager”. Well, I use that suggestions etc, you can contact term in the loosest possible sense us at: rae@glasscompletelyempty. because he’s most likely to be found co.uk napping in sunbeams, eating the leftovers or destroying the boxes And you can find our Facebook which our equipment lives in. page at: http://tinyurl.com/GCEBertie, who actually belongs to the Productions2 neighbours but spends a portion of Take care, keep smiling and keep his time with us, is known for his writing! For now, I am your friendly, sarcastic motivational speeches. If neighbourhood film-maker.
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“Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.”
Postcards from the Missive Maven
Lord Byron
http://www.missivemaven.com
PHOTO BY Missive Maven
The genesis of these postcards stems from me searching etsy for snail-mail related postcards... and when I didn’t find what I was looking for, I decided I’d just go ahead and design them myself! The six postcard designs, all printed professionally by Vistaprint, are as follows.
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jumped on that option. I’m writing this blog post to double as a magazine article, featuring all 6 of my postcard designs. A lot of my blog readers have asked if I designed these postcards myself, and it seems I haven’t been as clear as I could have been, so let me proclaim it here: these postcards are all of my own designs, using either vintage graphics or my own photographs that I manipulated using GIMP graphics software.
“Solitude and good company: Lord Byron letter-writing quote postcard”
PHOTO BY Missive Maven
I’m
honored to have been asked by Sandbook.net magazine for pen pals and swappers to be featured in an upcoming issue of their magazine. I’ve been in touch with the very accommodating Raia, and she suggested a lot of great possibilities. Since I’m so excited about all my new postcard designs that I’m selling in my etsy shop, I
PHOTO BY Missive Maven
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white script on black, below a photo I took of three wonderful vintage stamps from the 1974 “Letters Mingle Souls” issue.
“I jump for joy over snail mail!” When I found this graphic of a girl dancing on a
snail, I knew I had to put it to postal use. Does a good letter bring you joy? Do you jump up and down with excitement when you pull promising snail mail out of your mail box? Okay, maybe there aren’t too many of us who are THAT geeky over mail, but you can show your
love of good old fashioned snail mail with this vintage graphic of a girl dancing on a snail. What’s not to love?
PHOTO BY Missive Maven
I have always adored this quote by Lord Byron -- in fact, it’s the very first item I put on this website when I was designing it a few years ago! -- and decided it was high time to design a postcard that featured it. The quote is at the bottom in
“Vintage Postman postcard” Reproduction of a beautiful vintage postman illustration. Meta mail, anyone? Check out his snappy uniform. Look at his bountiful bundle of packages and letters - and he’s offering a letter to you!
Don’t you hate it when someone says “snail mail is dead” or “no one writes letters anymore” or something like that? I do! I put those sentiments to work in my slightly creepy, goth-inspired, Monty-Python-quoting design. The postcard reads “Snail Mail: Not Dead Yet” alongside a blackand-white graphic of a skull holding a letter, accented with a red seal on the envelope.
PHOTO BY Missive Maven
“Snail Mail: Not Dead Yet”
PHOTO BY Missive Maven
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to thank. He suggested this pithy phrase in a comment after I debuted my Snail mail: not dead yet postcards.
“To Get a Letter... Write a letter” The phrase “to get a letter, send a letter” predates my generation by many years, but it is a great motivator for anyone who wants to receive more mail. If you want it coming in, send it out! I have seen this on vintage labels as far back as the 1950s. The slogan on this postcard is slightly modified to match the vintage graphic of writing hands; it reads “to get a letter, write a letter.” I hope it motivates some letter writing and postcard sending!
“Email: when you care enough to send the very least” For this design, I have faithful blog reader (and etsy customer!) Joe Chapman 16
PHOTO BY Missive Maven
PHOTO BY Missive Maven
PHOTO BY Missive Maven
So . . in response to all those who have fallen into the habit of emailing thank-you notes, or corresponding via email instead of proper snail mail, this postcard thumbs its nose! The postcard reads “E-mail: when you care enough to send the very least” set inside an ornate baroque frame, with own postage stamps the email “@” symbol nicely, too!). highlighted in the By the way, I used internal frame. some of my own All the postcard backs fountain pens and have the vintage stamps to “pose” postcard graphic design in photos with the postcards.. the etsy as shown above ... ...and the frame on listings include only the back is a perfect the postcards, and not fit for the current any fountain pens or design of 29-cent stamps. All the postcards postcard rate stamps, measure 4.25 x 5.5 the correct postage inches, and they are sold rate if you’re sending in packs of 5 for $5 USD; domestically within the shipping rates vary by USA. (I realize a lot of the country. Each design has readers of Sandbook are a high-gloss image side, from outside the USA, and the writing side has so I hope the frame a more matte finish that fits some of your is great for writing
good company: Lord Byron letterwriting quote Just make sure to specify in “notes to seller” how many you want of each design. I hope some of you have as much fun with these as I did - I have certainly been enjoying sending Snail mail: Not Dead them off myself! Thanks to Raia and Yet VintagePostman Sandbook.net magazine To get a letter... for this opportunity to Write a letter crow about my postcards. Email: when you I hope Sandbook care enough to readers might check out send the very least MissiveMaven.com, and I jump for joy over my blog readers might SNAIL MAIL! take a look at the great Solitude and Sandbookblog,too!
with any kind of pen, including fountain pens. They are also available in combination packs of postcards so you can mix and match your favorite designs. You can get any combination of the 6 designs: • • • • • •
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SEND MORE MAIL
A
by Jaime Maddalena http://sendmoremail.blogspot.com
little while back I worked on a creative that was shown on Oh So Beautiful Paper and The Wedding Co. I thought it was high time that I showed it on my own blog. Tanya, owner of Snap + Tumble, printed some gorgeous letterpress invitations that were then addressed by the talented calligrapher Barbara Kua and stamped up with my stash of vintage Canadian stamps. I love how all of the elements work together. 18
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artists that the stamp releases. I read about the rpieces. I take the time to create such maste m wall that even have a poster on my bedroo year. And I shows all the stamps releasing this come out. try to buy the new ones when they
ince I started really mailing things e (I have been mailing things sinc ) forever, but never as much as now h wit ted I have become more fascina o stamps themselves. And really wh t tha effort hasn’t? I mean there is so much (this would goes into making postage stamps lf wouldn’t be an awesome topic in and of itse e to look it?) and not many people take the tim at them.
ing lets get Now after that SUPER long beginn program is down to business. The 2012 stamp s that will releasing previews of some stamp each day. be released next year. One stamp for ious places You can find this information in var ond the Perf )...OR atic I (Facebook, Twitter and Bey fan mp sta e tag pos a am I t tha w. Well..now ld just tune in here for a quick overvie cou you ng ndi rou sur s new the keep up to date on all
by Misty Davis t.com http://pen-thief.blogspo
stamp program
2012
united states
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It’s almost too hot to think today, but I thought it would be the perfect day to share some of my “fun” mail that I received lately. The first is this GIANT pair of goofy glasses from Kelly P.! How funny is this? Would you like to know something even funnier? I had a pair that I picked up at Target that I was saving to mail to someone. ( I did actually mail my pair today to someone who needed a pick me up. =) )
s n o is
s f e e i n f -th
Coof a pen
Fun MAil by Misty Davis http://pen-thief.blogspot.com
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Next was this lovely package from Limner Cade. I honestly, no lie stared at the package a good 10 minutes before even attempting to open it. I just didn’t want to ruin the wrapping. (and I didnt.) Once I got it opened though I found.... How cute is that fish?!?! I wish it would photograph better (but the flash distorts it) because that picture SOOOO does not do it justice. I haven’t named it yet. Though I am going to. I am also going to do as Limner suggested and attach a bit of string to the back to hang it. If either of you are reading this...THANK YOU!! Such wonderful gifts to find waiting in my mailbox. I love fun mail! Have you gotten anything fun in the mail recently?
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Big Duck, Little Duck So if you have read this blog for a while...or perhaps you took the time to read back (yeah right) you would have read about the GIANT rubber duck that I send off to Illinois. Well, I finally have a few pics to share with you of the duck (being that I forgot to photograph it before I sent it).
Penpallling finally has its own soundtrack! On her Penpals music show experiment, Georgia will be blasting music up to 11 from as diverse genres as the world we live in! Send in your comments, requests, questions for the show!! As Georgia sums it up: “You are the music, your wish is my command!”.
Georgia’s penpals Music Show
on air since March 20, 2011 Look at how he fills up Kelly’s mailbox!! But how about this shot?? That my friends would be a regular duck sitting in front of the GIANT one I sent. =) He is massive!
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And while I was uploading those pics, another little duck decided he would like to travel. So he may just end up in YOUR mailbox. =)
Get in touch on powerofthesun89@hotmail.com and on the FB page of the show!
A GOOD
goodmail
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Asian_European_Swappers/
WEEK
This is a group only for swappers of 18+ from Asia and Europe. You can swap anything really here like FB’s, slams, decos, lyrics, bags, address labels, postcards, stamps, stickers, stationery goodies....
photo by technicolorgirl.deviantart.com
by Judith B. Landry jdthlandry@gmail.com http://bit.ly/goodmailweek
Louisiana. Of course, I did my part to brighten other people’s mail boxes by sending letters to California and one of Hawaii; post cards to Rhode Island, t h o s e Pennsylvania, and Australia. p e o p l e I’ve had even more than post cards w h o and letters in my mailbox. My measure a good week by what they Noodler’s flex fountain pen arrived find in their mailbox. And this week yesterday! It lives up to all the good has been a postal bonanza! reviews. It produces quite a range of I’ve received letters from California, line width and is a nice looking pen, Texas, and New Jersey; post cards too. Since it’s a piston filler, it holds from Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and a lot of ink. All this goodness for Peru, and a birthday card from north $14.00! Unbelievable! I’ve loaded it
I’m 26
with Noodler’s Iraqi Indigo ink and plan to put it to work writing a letter before the day is out. My membership packet from the Letter Writers Alliance arrived, too. It included a membership card, a cool pin with the LWA logo, and LWA stationery. Membership in LWA also allows you to download nifty notecards, stationery, etc., from the website and print them on your own paper. I’m off now to write a letter to the 2011 Letter Project - with my new Noodler’s pen, of course.
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early a hundred men dressed in drab, matching outfits stand in close quarters around a much abused table. A man in a uniform with a distinct military bearing calls out names, occasionally referring to someone by an assigned number. A name is called, a reply is given, and a colorful envelope is passed from person to person, eventually reaching the person called. A variety of stickers adorn the envelope, as well as a distinctly foreign stamp, indicting it is from an overseas address. The often sullen man suddenly is smiling upon receiving his long anticipated reply as other look on with envy. Some ask if he can hook them up with a pen-pal. For those whose names weren’t called, they return to their cells, some fighting depression or low self-esteem and, for the majority, the all too often extreme boredom. This even happens all across America as well as in many other countries. On Monday through Friday, in hundreds of county jails, state prisons and federal correctional institutions, they have “Mail Call”. These men and women prisoners come from all walks
have with people from the “outside”. Often their families and friends have given up on them, have passed away over the years, or just plain moved on with their lives in an attempt to leave the sadness of “what was” behind them. To a
For many prisoners, a letter from a pen-pal is the only contact they have with people from the “outside”.
PRISON PEN-PALS CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE CONFINED By Don Gerhart 28
of life and are serving prison sentences that typically range from a few years to the rest of their natural lives. Their crimes run the full range of criminal activity from simple habitual drug possession to murder. For many prisoners, a letter from a pen-pal is the only contact they
prisoner, a letter from a pen-pal becomes the lifeline to save a drowning man, something that gives them hope when their surroundings seem designed to crush their very dreams and destroy their carefully nurtured aspirations. Throughout America,
as well as around the world, writing is quickly becoming a lost art. Our society is filled with laconic text messaging and terse emails. The ability to quickly convey a titbit of information in as few words or letters as possible is an admirable skill. However, with this technological shorthand we are losing the ability to write complete sentences. For example, try vividly describing what you see out your nearest window in a text message. With this loss of ability to convey the significant developments in our lives, the emotional impact of the trials, tribulations and joys we are experiencing, or to be able to fully express our thoughts, we are losing our ability to communicate on an interpersonal level. Spells has been tossed out the
window, replaced with abbreviated versions of words, some that are often so obscure that they only make sense if you are of the same generation and culture as the sender. I had once read an article that was discussing this exact point I am trying to make. It showed the difference between a letter written by a Civil War soldier to his wife and one written by a soldier in the Gulf War to his wife. Beyond the dismal spelling issues in the Gulf War soldier’s letter, it was tragic to see how much creativity, poetry and sheer artistry has been lost in the last two hundred years with the decline in writing letters to people who are distant to us, but close in our thoughts and hearts. A decline that is rapidly accelerating with the advent of texting and 29
Like pen-palling, learning is not a one-way street. When you write to a prisoner and develop a friendship, you also get to learn from them. brief e-mails to our family and friends. When a friend or family member of a prisoner is asked why they don’t write, often the answer is “that they don’t have time”. While 30
this is more likely a true statement, it’s also a sad statement about our lives and society. It says to a prisoner – a friend, father, brother, sister or mother – that
“you aren’t important enough for me to make the time to write”. For those who can find or make the time to write to a prisoner, they elevate themselves by helping a troubled and lonely person through a rocky time in their life. For a prisoner, a penpal’s letter becomes like a gift at Christmas, something eagerly look for, it becomes a table topic at mealtimes, and an often badly needed chance to improve
their own ability to communicate with others. A skill many prisoners lack. Your letter, your sharing of your life and interests, even the sharing of your problems becomes a learning experience for these people that society would like to lock away and forget about. Like pen-palling, learning is not a one-way street. When you write to a prisoner and develop a friendship, you also
get to learn from them. These people have made serious, often heinous, mistakes in
they went wrong. I don’t think there is a prisoner alive who doesn’t have some
When looking for a prison pen-pal it’s always best to try to find several common interests with which to start things off. their lives, which you can learn from as well as help them learn where
seemingly bizarre, yet surprisingly truthful story about their lives.
Some of these stories are horrific, some are heartbreakers, some are comical, and some can be so easily related to yourself or someone you know. Add in the differences in culture and lands when writing to someone overseas, the things you can learn and the experiences you can share become simply amazing. So how do I find a prisoner to write to, to learn from, to help,
you? There are several ways to do this although by far and away the best is through the internet. There are several companies that offer prisoners, for a few, the ability to post online profiles for developing pen-pal friendships. PrisonPenPals. com (http://www. prisonpenpals.com) and Inmate-Connection. com (http://inmateconnection.com) are two such services that readily come to 31
happened on a few occasions, I thank my friend for the time they have shared with me, wish them well and hope someone will fill the void they have left in my life. To me, penpals are the hope left in Pandora’s Box, a bright light to help guide me through these dark days, and friends who I hope will be with me long after I leave these cold walls and walk out into the sunshine of freedom.
mind, with several others available just by searching for “Prison Pen Pal”. When looking for a prison pen-pal it’s always best to try to find several common interests with which to start things off. Many pen-pals will exchange a variety of questionnaires to develop a well of topics and facts that they
can dip into to spur on conversations. However, with all that in mind, don’t limit yourself to people whose interests precisely match your own. After all, variety is the spice of life, and discussing your differences as well as your coming interests will greatly enhance your letters and growing friendship.
Whether you write with a prisoner or someone in the free world is a matter of personal preference. 32
Personally, I am in my 15th year as a prisoner and I have had extensive pen-pal friendships for most of those years. I have written to people from Australia to South Africa and many places in-between. Male, female, black, white, Asian; none of that matters to me. I start with looking for common interests, take things slow and happily seek out where we differ to discuss and debate in our letters. I make it clear that I’m looking for longterm friendship, not money or anything else (more on that later) and
mostly I try to be a good friend. I have shared the horrors and joys of my life, my successes and failures. I have helped pen-pals deal with major life changing issues such as deaths and major illnesses, celebrated their joys and shared their tears. I try to be as real as possible, yet remain upbeat and not overwhelm someone with the issues in my life. Something that is often difficult to do, but is accepted as being the bad with the good. When a situation in my pen-pal’s life prevents them from writing any more, which has
or are ashamed and embarrassed for where they are and the messes they have made of their lives. It’s very tempting for someone ashamed of their past to create a fictitious, a less heinous crime, and a brighter future than reality will allow. Much like one can find the false identities of people in chat rooms all over the Internet. There are also some prisoners who have
No matter who you write to, developing a pen-pal friendship provides a lot of benefits for both parties. There can be, however, a dark side to prison pen-pal relationships, just as there can be with an on-line or real life friendship. Often people, when they first meet, want to present a façade that they are something they’re not. This is especially true when it comes to a prison pen-pal friendship, as many people who have committed crimes fear further rejection and humiliation from society,
not given up their criminal ways and try to run scams from prison to gain money, gifts, or other things they cannot normally get where they are. So, as with chatting on-line or the development of a face-to-face friendship, going slow and being cautious in the development of this friendship is well advised. Don’t offer money or give in to attempts to get
postage stamps, books, or other minor expenses until you feel confident that your pen-pal is honest and sincere. Frequently, doing a simple background check on the prisoner to which you are writing will tell you what the courts and newspapers have to say about their crimes and past and thus let you know if they have been truthful with you. First, a bit of advice on Googling someone you are writing to. Although it’s generally expected by a prisoner that a pen-pal will do this, give the person a chance to feel comfortable with you and to convey this information on their own. It’s a big step for many to face the fear of losing a valued friend after losing so much in their lives already. So if they are vague or hesitant, give your new pen-pal your support and a chance to let you know what they did to mess up their lives without pressuring them. For many prisoners, explaining about their past and crimes can be traumatic and their fears of rejection difficult to face and overcome.
Whether you write with a prisoner or someone in the free world is a matter of personal preference. There are some people who have been victimised by criminals and feel nothing but hate and contempt for what they term the “dregs of society” and thus are unlikely, as well as unsuited, for penpalling with prisoners. No matter who you write to, developing a pen-pal friendship provides a lot of benefits for both parties. Writing a prisoner can allow you to look into an often misunderstood, and frequently over dramatised, world, broaden your horizons, and help someone who may not have anyone in their lives. Use a little caution, but give prison pen-palling a try. You might be wonderfully surprised at what you can find behind bars. Should you wish to contact Don, you can do at the following address: Don Gerhart #14884-006, Englewood Federal Correctional Institution, 9595 W. Quincy Ave, Littleton, CO 80123-1159, USA 33
by Alex Iwasa
I n t e r nat i o na l i s t prison books collective alextheweaver@hushmail.com
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The first time I saw a Friendship Book (FB), I remember being somewhat surprised by the number of people who asked for prisoners not to write them. I understood that some people might be worried for their personal safety, but I had written various prisoners of conscience in the past, people who have been imprisoned directly because of their political beliefs, for crimes they might not have even committed.
I also knew my denomination had a prison ministry, and it was something I had donated money to. Pen palling was part of the ministry, and though I hadn’t participated in that aspect, I supported it and thought about how I should write prisoners, at least the ones I shared beliefs with. In April when I was still in Tucson I attended a monthly Political Prisoners’ Birthday Party at the Dry River Radical Resource Center, an Infoshop currently located
in the Dunbar Spring neighborhood. Every month the Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective puts together a poster with the birthdays, contact information and brief descriptions of various Political Prisoners (and I would write Prisoners of War [POWs] for clarity, but that’s me). At Dry River we made and signed cards, took pictures to send a long, smashed a pinata and snacked. It was a great deal of fun! Though I can’t really do anything like that where I’ve been farming, I’ve still made a point of
going to prisonbooks.info to keep updated and make sure I could download the posters for May, June and July, and keep up with the writing. Two more online resources for writing Political Prisoners and POWs are: prisonactivist. org/ and zinelibrary.info/ political-prisoner-andpow-support-resources. For those of you interested in writing prisoners but new to it, here’s a great article, TIPS ON WRITING TO A PRISONER: http:// www.prisonerlife.com/ tips.cfm. 35
by Rachel Brazeale lillypadgraphics@hotmail.com http://lillypadgraphics.wordpress.com/ I had the wonderful opportunity to interview my pen pal from Lithuania, Gabrielė. We chatted via IM on SKYPE. Rachel for the Lime Green Giraffe: “Where is
pen pal intervieW with abrielė
Lithuania on the map?” It is in central – East Europe, near Poland, Belarus and Latvia. There were some calculations and it is certified that the centre of Europe is in Lithuania! What is school like in Lithuania? Um. Our classes start at 8 am and we have from 5 to 8 classes everyday which last 45 minutes. After each class we have 10 minutes break. Unfortunately, our school system tends to be more theoretical, if you understand me? We don’t have a lot of practical works. In my school every
G
year students are directing dishes are from potatoes. a big musical! This year it will be ‘Grease’. I’m very What are some excited about it. of your favorite sports/hobbies? That’satoughone!I’mreally What do you mean a huge fan of everything. I by you “don’t have love watching basketball! practical works?” Gabrielė: It’s just that we I love playing ping-pong! learn from the books and This year I started to attend photography and guitar not from the practice. classes. I also love music, movies and hanging out. Ah, okay. What There is nothing I wouldn’t is your favorite love! Lithuanian food? It has no translation to Many countries English but it is a cold beetroot soup. It is in such have some sort of ‘coming of age a lovely pink colour! We ceremony.’ Is there call it“šaltibarščiai”. It is anything like that eaten with hot potatoes. in Lithuania? In fact, all our traditional It would be a nice story. But we don’t have it. Is there any kind of traditional clothing attire worn in Lithuania? No. We are simple European people! What would you like to say to the readers of Lime Green Giraffe? So! I wish you all a good and fruitful school year, enjoyable flashes of adolescence…and visit the Lithuania one day!
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PenPal Interview: Bev Sykes
basykes@dcn.org Facebook user: basykes Twitter: BeverlyASykes Blog/website: I have kept a daily journal for the past 12 years that can be found at http://www. funnytheworld.com, with a mirror blog at http://airypersiflage.blogspot.com (since Funny the World is not set up for people to subscribe to new entries). I also have a blog devoted to penpal letters at http://tonsofmail.blogspot.com 38
Hello there! How are you doing? Tell us more about yourself, your hobbies, personal life, interests. Thank you for asking. I am a bit warm today because the temperatures are in the mid-90s, but I am enjoying the fan here on my desk. I am Bev Sykes, retired from medical office
A sample of envelopes I’ve made–two of my favorites. management but writing theater (not movie) reviews for the local newspaper here in Davis, California. Walt and I have been married 46 years and raised 5 children.
We have 1-1/2 granddaughters (baby due in September). I love writing, reading, TV, movies, theater, photography, PhotoShop, mucking around on the
computer, travel and giving friends tours of my hometown, San Francisco. If you have to describe yourself in only 39
My whole family at my mother’s 90th birthday, 2 years ago. 5 words what would they be? Fat, funny, sarcastic, loyal, affectionate.
Peggy, This is my Australian pen pal. The photo was taken at her home in Western Australia
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Tell us something about your town, city or country. Davis is a medium sized town, 60,000 people (it has doubled in size since we moved here nearly 40 years ago), located about 80 miles
east of San Francisco and about 20 miles from Sacramento, the capitol of California. It is a university town, with one of the best veterinary medical schools in the US. The terrain is very flat and bike lanes are very
wide, so lots of people bike and we are known as the City of Bicycles. How did you start penpalling? When was that? And why did you decide to start Penpalling? I had my first penpal, a
girl in England, when I was in grammar school. I think I just read an ad from a Mrs. Chegwidden (seriously) who offered to find penpals for girls who wanted to write to someone of the same age in England. Sadly, I no longer remember my pen pal’s name. I have always written letters but kind of switched to e-mail for a long time, being a person who likes instant gratification. But I miss the actual writing of a letter (though I type, rather than hand write my letters because even I can’t read my handwriting). I went search on the internet last year, to find out about connecting with penpals and discovered this whole huge community, which I am enjoying exploring. What do you like / dislike about Penpalling/ orrespondence? I love the interaction with people, learning about other lives and other countries. I haven’t been back into official “penpalling” 41
long enough to have made it past the initial “getting to know you” phase and into perhaps deeper discussions. But I am enjoying the whole process. Nothing, really, that I dislike about it. Yet. How do your friends react when they discover you are into Penpalling? Are they also into it or they give you 42
the “strange” Davis is rather plain vanilla in the scenic department, faces? but the campus does have a number of “Egghead” My friends and sculptures by sculptor Robert Arneson. family always think I’m a little strange. We probably wrote to fall off the radar in the Do you still stay in each other for a year or foreseeable future. I touch with your first so. know that some will penpal? Tell us about remain and it would be your first penpal even How many Penpals nice to have a couple if you have lost touch do you have? of dozen good penpals with them. We might Where are they to keep indefinitely. be able to help you from? There are probably locate him/her. At this point too many more from the US than As I said, that was a to count (I always was anywhere else, but also long time ago–maybe an overachiever), but from Australia, the UK, 50 years and I don’t I can sense that some New Zealand, Canada remember her name. of the ones I have will and perhaps one or two
with me. My address Our dog Lizzie entertains the neighborhood is: Beverly Sykes, 539 with her leaps at the front window Villanova Dr., Davis, CA 95616 USA but who can respect my found any from FBs ideas as I would respect or Facebook. They Are you searching What are you come either hers (would prefer not have for new Penpals? looking for in a to correspond with from Sandbook, from If yes, please give penpal? SendSomething, from men). us some contact Someone who will LWA (Letter Writers write regularly, without Where do you information that Alliance) or from one we can publish in too horribly long a gap find new Penpals of the many penpalling between letters, who from? Do you the magazine so blogs I follow. I also is open to exchanging rely on FBs or that people can write to two soldiers write to you back. ideas, even when Facebook or in Afghanistan, with I would never say no to opinions differ, who other websites/ whom I connected someone who wanted won’t try to convert me blogs. through Soldiers to exchange letters to any sort of ideology, I don’t think I’ve Angels. other countries. I have a few email penpals who are from Germany, England, and Russia.
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heard back from her. Not sure if I will! How do you keep track of your mail? Share your tip on how to organize ourselves. I do everything on computer and type my letters, so I have copies of what I have written. Each person has a separate file and I keep track of the dates of incoming and outgoing letters, what stationery and/or envelope I used, and what (if anything) I sent off to each person. Incoming mail right now is kept in a plastic sleeve in a binder. Each pen pal has one sleeve and I just put all the mail from that person in her plastic sleeve. I can see that as I keep at this, I will have to switch to a better system, especially for incoming mail!
Tell us a funny/ interesting story from your Penpalling experience?
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The only story I have is perhaps more odd than funny. I got a couple of names from a site for people who like to write long letters.
My letters usually run about 3-4 typewritten 8-1/2x11 sheets of paper, which I think of as relatively long. But I was not prepared for
the thirty typed page letter of introduction that I received from one of those long-letter people! I responded (4 pages) but have not
Do you swap things? Do you like sending gifts to friends? If yes, what is the most funny gift you have ever sent/
received? I have sent a few things along with letters, like postcards and stickers and occasionally some stationery. I sent one penpal a book because she was interested in the subject matter.
going on in my life (like everyone else) and especially like to write about oddball things that have happened, like something unusual that I saw in the theater or read in a book, weird things the dogs have done, Have you met a places we have visited, penpal? If so, let etc. I love hearing that us know how the same kind of thing meeting went. from other people, I had an e-mail and I sometimes ask relationship with a questions that will woman in Australia, help elicit a response. starting in about 1999. I also like being asked She was a friend of a questions because it friend, but we clicked lets me know what the and began writing to penpal is interested in each other daily. In reading about. 2000 she came to the U.S. and spent 6 weeks When it comes with us (she said “if to making cute it doesn’t work out, I and personal can always get a bus letters, everyone tour somewhere”). It has his/her own worked out better than style. Tell us either of us expected your trick how and 3 years later, I to make a letter/ traveled to Australia to envelope unique? spend six weeks with Do you decorate her. We still remain in it? If yes, how? contact. Give us some tips on how to make What do you the letters more usually like interesting. writing/reading I just learned how about in the to make envelopes letters? and am going crazy I write about what’s turning every oddball
piece of paper into an envelope. My favorites were a Trader Joe’s shopping bag, a coffee bean bag from Peet’s coffee, and an air sickness bag from China Air. Theater programs are great material for making envelopes, as are old calendars and I always seem to have an inexhaustible supply of both. As for the letter itself, I don’t have much of a creative gene, so I often use pre-printed stationery, or decorate plain pieces of paper with stickers. Nothing really creative. Where do you buy your stationery supplies from? Do you prefer traditional shops or e-shops? If so, give us some links. I have a ton of stuff leftover from other projects many years ago, so I haven’t had to shop much, but have bought things from Etsy, mostly from sites that I read about on blogs. And of course, I’m a sucker for Michael’s.
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Hello there! How are you doing? Tell us more about yourself, your hobbies, personal life, interests.
PenPal Interview: Marta Sargenti
martjsmail@yahoo.com FB: http://www.facebook.com/marta.sargenti Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/muggleme Blog: http://listography.com/martj82 http://littlecornerofmyworld.blogspot.com http://www.interpals.net/martj
studying Education part-time. I have always wanted to be a teacher, I was a kid and already forcing my younger sister to attend my lessons, but I studied social work instead Hi everyone! My name as my first university is Marta and I am 29. choice. Still wondering I was born, bred and why though. I love to have lived all of my life work in the social field, but don’t much like in central Italy. the social worker job, This is me, in Ireland a too much bureaucracy couple months ago. and papers to fill in daily and too little contact I am a freshman at face-to-face the university again, with people, with their
real life. After a few temporary jobs with children, I decided to try my luck and apply for Education. I did it and have just finished my first year at the university. Studying wasn’t easy at first, after 4 long years since I graduated last, but I am now starting to feel at easy with text books again and I have two more exams to sit in September to call my first year done with. I am also a part-time worker, because uni fees are high and because I have to start saving up for my own house and for a future. I work for my parents, that would drive anyone crazy, I tell you! We deal with tourism and sell religious items and souvenirs to some resorts not far from where we live. It’s crazy job from March to October, but it’s almost relaxing during late fall and winter months. I am a dog owner, a proud one, and in my spare time I walk around or play at the park with my dog Rolly. He’s a bundle
of joy and a great companion to my days! The rest of my spare time is very limited, I volunteer at church together with my boyfriend. We are chief to a group of 11 year olds, our group meets on Saturdays from 3 to 4 pm. It’s hard job but I love it! Volunteering has enriched my life in the last couple years. I also like to relax, of course, and my best way to do it is writing letters to my pallies (of course I am an avid penpaller, have always been one since my youngster years) and reading: I am a bookworm! Ihave a thing for TVseries and watch way too many, but I am being sensible and try to limit my addiction. If you have to describe yourself in only 5 words what would they be? I am a stubborn person, I would never give up a goal of mine and if I want to get something I will
get it sooner or later. I am caring to those I love, I worry for my overworking parents and I am the one who cooks and cleans for the family. I can’t go without worrying everyone is ok, even when I am not at home. I must add picky to my description. I am picky with friends, I am picky with what I eat (mostly because I am lactose intolerant, so I have to be picky...), I am picky with my education. I am understanding, my friend Ilaria says it’s the social worker in me. I tend to see a good side in everyone and hardly judge people from the “cover”, but try to see things from their point of view, so as to feel empathy to them. Maybe Ilaria is right, deep inside I am still a social worker. I am sarcastic, even if italians don’t appreciate sarcasm that much and often take my sarcasm for snobbery. Tell us something about your
town, city or country. I live in Perugia, a city in the heart of Italy, in a region called Umbria with no outings to the sea, but with an amazing landscape to fall in love with! The city counts some 170.000 inhabitants, mostly living in the suburban areas. Our old city hosts students coming from all over Italy and worldwide (I am proud to say that Perugia hosts the University for foreigners, so if you want to study Italian you have to come here and get your Italian Language Certificate here). I love to walk around the old city and I am proud of the history that old Perugia shows to the tourists that come every year, especially in July for the Umbria Jazz Festival. We have a mean of transport that is pretty unique here, it’s called Minimetro and it’s a sort of an elevate metro. Tourists are enthusiastic with it! What I love the most
How did you start penpalling? When was that? And why did you decide to start Penpalling?
of minimetro is that each stop hosts a “book-stop” green desk where people can leave their books for others to take home and read, following the real bookcrossing philosophy. You never know, great books may cross your way when catching minimetro to university! Another event that’s worth mentioning is the Eurochocolate, nothing less than a real chocolate festival, where you can taste and buy chocolate of all flavours and shapes! They even hold a competition of statues made from big blocks of chocolate! 48
Minimetro rail and a minimetro cab.
My experience with penpalling started when I was 12 years old, when our English teacher at school introduced us to foreign correspondence, giving each one of her students an English correspondent to exchange letters with. I was matched to an English blonde girl called Beth who sent me a first letter in purple stationery decorated with flowers. I was absolutely excited with her first letter and would show my whole family the photos she had exclosed, with her house and family! I guess my English skills must have been almost non existant because the girl quit writing after my second letter. Can’t blame her, I could hardly say much more than my age and a few phrases about my family! And that was already talked about in
my first letter... I tried it with other few foreign girls because I loved the idea of being friends with someone from another country, but had to temporarily give up foreign correspondence because my English was a real disaster and no one would go further than letter number 2! Back then I was member of a book-club. We got a magazine every second month and in the magazine there was a penpalling section: kids could place an add there for pals. That’s what I did. I received 20-some replies to my advert, but only a handful of those girls who replied the add were to stay and became reliable pals. With one of them I wrote letters untill a few years ago when we lost touch when she left to Africa for volunteering. I was 15 when I went back to international penpalling. I got 4 addies from IPF service based in Turku, Finland. I wrote to those pals for years, and still have them in my contacts list on Facebook, even if they no more do penpalling. In 1997 I received a fb from one of my italian penpals and I seriously started penpalling and swapping! There was
is easier for me. Of course I also love to meet my pals, once we are close enough to trust eachother. I already met a few of my pals. One wasn’t a pleasant experience, to tell you the truth. It was with a male pal of mine and it made me say “no more male pals for me from now on”! But it didn’t keep me from meeting pallies again! I met twice my former italian pal and we exchanged summer holidays at eachother places for some years. I also met my bestie once and we’ll soon meet again, in November, when we’ll go on holidays together in London. Penpalling means a lot to me. My penpals are What do you like my friends, my penpals / dislike about are with me on good Penpalling/ correspondence? and bad days, my pals support me, they love I love penpalling me for the person I am because I feel with good sides and completely at ease faults. I think that’s with a paper in front enough said to explain of me, rather than why penpalling means having to talk face-to- that much to me! face with someone. I am a shy person and How do your find it terrible to open friends react up with new people. when they Instead through letters discover you are the whole friendship into Penpalling? building process Are they also a moment when I had almost 40 pals! I am not proud of those days, because I was not a quality over quantity person back then, but then I was a teen and of course stationery and many letters would catch my attention the most. Over the years my attitude to penpalling changed a lot. I am now one of those who puts quality over quantity and I am now corresponding with a small group of 8 reliable girls living in Europe, Canada and the States. I consider them all dear friends and write them long letters stuffed to the brim with my life and hopes. I can no more think my life without them friends!
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Eating out with my pal Bonnie, together with my friend Ilaria. into it or they give you the “strange” faces? This one makes me giggle, indeed! Of course some of my aquaitances know that I am a penpaller. And very few of them pretend it’s something they consider normal. Most of them just make pity faces toward my direction and I am sure they think I am wasting my time and being childish. That’s what my dad used to tell me. There was a period when I only wrote letters 50
My letters box.
when alone at home, so that parents wouldn’t see me and blame me for wasting my time! Now I no more hide, of course. I think they got used to letters being delivered to me and to my habit of sitting down at my desk with paper and pen and staying there for hours writing. My boyfriend also didn’t get it, how I could find it funny to write letters. But then I introduced him to Bonnie when she was here in my city studying italian and told him about my meeting with penpals and he’s now more understanding about it. Still he says it’s something he would never consider doing himself. My sister tried to start penpalling when a teen herself, following my example, but she didn’t like it enough to go on with the years. I think there are not many italian pals around nowadays, we are rare species here! Do you still stay in touch with your first penpal? Tell us about your first penpal even if you have lost touch with them. We might be able
to help you locate him/her. I am no more in touch with the English girl Beth. And I would not be able to locate her nowaday anymore, because I don’t remember much about her. I was able to locate most of my old pallies thank to Facebook and I am in touch with them again thank to it. My eldest pal is my best friend Eva, from Hungary. We have been writing letters to eachother since 2001, that makes it quite a long time. Our letters are long and detailed, full of questions and we also send eachother books we read and want the other one to read. We met first time 3 years ago when she was in Italy for a collector fair and I reached her in Verona. It was our first time in the city and we enjoyed sightseeing and talked a lot! We were like old friends and we grew even closer after our meeting! We’re now ready to meet again in London in November. We’ll be sharing a room in a hostel there and spend 5 days together sightseeing and browsing through second hand bookstores. How many Penpals do you have? Where
are they from? I am writing to 8 girls at the moment. They are around my age, some are younger than me, a couple aged 2 and 3 years more than me. All of them are bookworms like me. All of them love to write long letters. With some I share my love for some tv-shows and writers, with some others we share our love for travelling. Each one of them is special for me, everyone gives me friendship and shows me a part of the world through their letters. My pallies are from Hungary, Finland, Germany, England, Denmark, Scotland, Illinois and Canada. Are you searching for new Penpals? If yes, please give us some contact information that we can publish in the magazine so that people can write to you back. Even if I am very tempted to meet some new long letter pals I can share a lot with and become good friends with, I know I cannot take on more pals than those I already write to. I am busy all day both with school and job and
I would not be able to keep in touch regularly via snail mail if I had more pals. That’s is why I have to say “no, thank you. I am not looking for new pals right now”. What are you looking for in a penpal? Of course I am looking for real friends in my pals. I want to share the same idea of friendship with my penpals. It is not necessary to be sharing all hobbies or favourites, but it is useful to share something at the beginning, so that the conversation keeps going from the very start and it’s easier to grow closer then. When looking for a penpal I am asking for them to be reliable, regular with their replies and caring with me, as much as I am with them. Friendship is a mutual feeling. And friendship is what I look for in a penfriend. Where do you find new Penpals from? Do you rely on FBs or Facebook or other websites/ blogs. 51
I already said that in the past I used to look for new pals via IPF penpal service or books magazine and, later on, trough Fbs. Nowadays I am no more into swapping Fbs and mostly look for pals through Interpals, where I have got a profile and where I met most my present pals. I used to think as reliable long letter ladies also. And that’s where my bestie Eva and I found eachother 10 years ago. I am member of Pe n p a l l i n g & Le t te r s group of Facebook, a group that’s too fun to be part of and that I kindly reccomend to any pal who’s reading this and is on Facebook. Tell us a funny/ interesting story from your Penpalling experience? I think the funniest thing that happened to me recently with penpals is when I met online my pal Bonnie. She is an american girl, whose profile I was amazed with. I kept checking her profile again and again but couldn’t come up with something interesting to say to catch 52
her attention. Finally she moved the first step and contacted me. We exchanged a few private messages and agreed to be pals via snail mail. She said we’d to still go on with email for a few months longer because she was moving to Italy soon. We agreed we’d have exchanged adresses when she knew her new adresse in Italy. Well, to make a long story short: she moved to Italy and guess where exactly! Yes, she studied italian in Perugia, of course we met and had some chances to hang out together and I introduced her to my mates here also. She’s still in Italy and now travelling around the country, so we’re not penpals technically, but we did start as potential pals.
yourself organized and neat, without worries of wasting your paper lists! I also keep a journal where I write a list of topics I talk about in each letters, so that I know where my previous mail stopped at and can easily update my pals with my latests without missing anything or writing something twice. I keep all my letters in a box, and number them as they come.
and it was still good when my pallie opened the parcel. She even liked it! That was the most original gift ever sent. Doubt I could do it now, as they check parcels often now and I know you’re not allowed to send food.
Do you swap things? Do you like sending gifts to friends? If yes, what is the funniest gift you have ever sent/ received?
As I already said I met a few pals in the years. I met my Finnish pal Outi in Italy when she was here on holidays. We agreed to meet in Rome and spend a day together there. We met at the train station and it was easy to find eachother there, thank to our mobiles: we’d been texting eachothers all the way to Rome. We spent the morning walking around the city, and trying to save ourselves from the heat by hiding in some bookstores and dvd shops every now and then. Finally, we gave in and spent the rest of the day sitting in an amazing park, on a bench under a tree, talking. We had fun together and it was a lovely meeting!
I love to spoil my pals and send them the odd gift with my mails. Nowadays that postage insanely increased in Italy How do you keep (as if the service offered track of your had improved at all!) mail? Share I send gifts on special your tip on how occasions mainly, such as to organize Christmas and birthdays. ourselves. The funniest thing I ever sent to a pal was a I keep track of my handmade cheese pie received and sent letters we traditionally eat on thank to listography, Easter day. My grandma where I update my page made and baked it and everytime I get or send I wrapped it carefully a mail to my pallies. It’s and sent it in the mail. a useful place where to We were lucky that the place your lists and keep pie got delivered safely
Have you met a penpal? If so, let us know how the meeting went.
What do you usually like writing/reading about in the letters? In my letters I write about my everyday life, my hopes and dreams, my projects, my sorrows and disappointments. I write about my studies and job, about my family, my boyfriend. I write about books I read and tv I watch. I talk about my travelling and I write about italian traditions. I ask my pals to be as open with me as I am with them in our letters. They of course can talk about anything and 54
everything. There’s no particular topic I love to talk about and some that I can’t really stand. Whatever comes to our minds soon becomes a favourite topic to talk about. When it comes to making cute and personal letters, everyone has his/ her own style. Tell us your trick how to make a letter/envelope unique? Do you decorate it? If yes, how. Give us some tips on how to make the letters
more interesting. My letters are pretty colorful I think. I mostly write on lined or squared paper because I am useless without lines. I like to write in black ink or purple sometimes. I underline questions, so that it makes the letter colorful and it makes it easy for my pallies not to miss any questions when replying. And I sometimes decorate my letters with stickers, especially the back of stationery, that’s usually blank. Where do you buy your stationery supplies from?
Do you prefer traditional shops or e-shops? If so, give us some links. Most of my stationery comes from Janet Store, that is absolutely cheap and selling quality stuff. Yet postage grew for Janet as well and it is now worth it only if you place bigger orders, that I cannot afford at the moment. I have got stationery enough to still go on for a couple years still. I have some Diddl pads left from my 2009 trip to Germany and a Hello Kitty pad I bought in a shop downtown before it closed down. Not that I am nuts for Hello Kitty but it’s an ok pad still. I think I will buy my stationery when travelling abroad from now on. Unluckily you can’t find quality paper in Italy and not at all in Perugia, so I am quite unlucky here. I thank you for giving me the chance to take part to this penpal interview! I had big fun writing about my pal experience! Greetings from Marta!
Do you run a business? Would you like to generate more interest and income for your business? If so, Glass Completely Empty Productions is looking for you! Once the pen-palling film is finished we're going to take it on the road for a global tour. We're looking for pen-pals who run businesses to join us by running stalls at the exhibition. It doesn't matter if your business isn't letter writing related, we want to invite everyone to take part! If you'd like to take part, please email Rae with the nature of your business and she'll put you on the list: rae@glasscompletelyempty.co.uk
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pen pal interview Hello there! How are you doing? Tell us more about yourself, your hobbies, personal life, interests. Hey everyone! My name is Anna Tang, I’m 17 years old and I’m live in North Carolina, USA! I was originally born in China, I moved to the US when I was four. Since then, I’ve been back two times, once in ’06 and in ’08. Life is never dull as I have a beagle named Elmo and a goldfish named Mister, I call him Mister Goldfish. My life revolves around green tea, and I swear by the Green Tea Frappuccino at Starbucks. My hobbies include reading and writing, listening to music, sleeping (it’s an epidemic in high school), writing to my penpals (of course!), and fashion! My life revolves around my journal, it looks about as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and my books. I write and I write and then I scribble in my journal. My books define
Anna Tang
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youqi2004@yahoo.com Skype: lolanna21
who I am so I try to buy new books as often as I can (I have boxes of books in my attic!). I read a lot of different books: last week, I started reading Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, before that, I was worming my way through Dante’s Inferno. Two completely different books, but both were interesting in their own way. I don’t think I know a single teenager who doesn’t listen to some kind of music, everyone has an iPod or some
music making gadget stuck in their ears on full blast these days! Anyways, I listen to music from a lot of different countries from Ayumi Hamasaki in Japan to Katy Perry in the US and Yulia Savicheva in Russia. I enjoy hearing music from different countries, it’s like being able to listen in on a different culture. Probably my favorite hobby, sleeping. During the school year, it’s from August till June here, sleeping is something
I wistfully wish for (and occasionally do) in class. It’s a symptom of senioritis, don’t worry, it’s not a terrible disease, it’s a state-of-mind that all rising seniors experience because they are just so happy to be leaving high school. I’ll be writing about my penpals throughout this interview, so I’ll go ahead and skip that right now. I feel no guilt about it. Fashion! Fashion! Fashion! I’m not a slave to fashion (it means I don’t wear it), I’m
simply a follower. I have always loved clothes that are provocative and inspiring. Designers like John Galliano and Salvatore Ferragamo are my favorites, and Chanel and Ralph Lauren are classics. I have tried to design my own clothes, but in the end, they always look nothing like how I want them to look. I sketch my designs out and once I finish them, I like to send them to my penpals and ask for their approval. I read Vogue, W, Teen Vogue, Elle, and Allure. 57
If you have to describe yourself in only 5 words what would they be? Only 5? I had to think really hard on this one, but here is my top five: Parenthetical: I use parenthesis as a means of my “background voice.” It’s my way of 58
telling the world that I talk a lot, because I have to use parenthesis to express my “opinion” on everything I write. Oh! And I almost forgot, there’s another meaning for the word parenthetical, I’m using my own definition of parenthetical (it means opinionated) here,
the real definition has something to do with punctuation marks. Genuine: I am not another version of anyone else; I’m the first (and only, I hope) version of me. On-the-Go: Ok, that’s actually three words, but for the sake of this interview, let’s just
every pretend that it’s one word. I’m always doing something at
moment of every day of my life (like now, I’m writing this interview).
Foody: I don’t think that’s actually a word, but I use this to describe myself. I cook and I cook and then I eat. I believe that food is a way to a person’s soul (hence: Soul Food!), so I always try to cook the best dishes for my friends and family (it’s not because I want to see into their souls, I can already
do that, I just know that they are really hungry.) Cheddar: Ok, another thing related to food. The truth is: my life revolves around cheddar, so I eat a lot of cheese. I guess this is my way of saying that I’m unique because this one time, I wrote a paper on the history of Gouda and the English
teacher said that it was the only paper she didn’t fall asleep reading. (You should’ve seen the class’ face…) Tell us something about your town, city or country. I live in a small college town in North Carolina called Chapel Hill. It’s a 59
slightly) is reading a letter in which the person put in absolutely no effort to write. It leaves the reader (you, me, and all who read their penpal’s letters) with a very down feeling followed by a period of resentment. I spend on average three hours (and counting!) writing and working on each penpal’s letter because I believe that every letter should be special and of some significance. I’m not too picky, am I?
relatively small town with some 30,000 people and 3,000+ college kids. Right in the heart of Chapel Hill is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and even though it is a public college (not private like Duke or Yale), kids come here to learn from all over the US and all over the world. Chapel Hill is mostly famous for its basketball team, the UNC Tarheels. They got their name from all the tar pits that used to occupy NC back in the old days (and soldiers complained 60
about their boots getting stuck in tar when they tried to move around.) Then, there’s the ageold rivalry between the UNC Tarheels and the Duke Blue Devils. Duke is another famous university that’s located near Chapel Hill. Basketball season is very popular among the locals (that’s me) and college kids alike. Aside from all the colleges and sports, Chapel Hill has delicious Southern comfort food.
I ’ m talking about fried chicken (very fatty, very delicious!), mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits and gravy (we eat a lot gravy down south!), sweet tea, and fried okra. There’s a lot more, I’m just naming my favorites! Most of the tourists are here for the food, and the fast food restaurants (think: McDonalds) don’t do nearly as well as the
southern fast food restaurants (say it with me, Bojangles!). How did you start penpalling? When was that? And why did you decide to start Penpalling? I first started penpalling when I was a sophomore in high school. I started out wanting just one or two penpals from Russia because I had recently become fascinated with
How do your friends react when they discover you are into Penpalling? Are they also into it or they give you the “strange” faces? My friends are neutral when it comes to my penpalling habits. Two of my friends have their own “version” of penpalling, they write to their friends that live in other states (as in, they moved and communicate with their friends through letters). I was actually the first one to mention to my friends that I did penpalling. They were shocked at first
because I told them that I met them on the Internet. There was (and still is) this big policy at my school about Internet safety and this elaboration that no one online is who they claim to be. I think that’s probably a big reason why my friends were cautious about my penpalling, because of how I met them. But after I showed them pictures of my first (and current!) penpal, they calmed down a bit and started doing their own penpalling. Do you still stay in touch with your first penpal? Tell us about your first penpal even if you have lost touch with them. We might be able to help you locate him/her. YES! I am still in touch with my first penpal! We have known each other for over two years now, and there’s never been a dull moment. She’s from Russia and five years older than me but we still have so much to talk about. We met on a language exchange website called italki. Most people on
there are looking for someone to practice a language with, I don’t think anyone on there is solely concentrated on penpals. Anyways, I sent her a message commenting on how exotic her profile picture was, she replied, and we’ve been friends ever since. We talk to each other about everything: her university, my beagle, her love for languages, and my outrageous scribbling abilities. It’s only been about a year and half since my first penpal and I started exchanging letters. I was a bit nervous about the idea at first, but I learned that it was just as good, even better, than sending messages to each other all the time through email. We also recently started using Skype to communicate. We send each other instant messages through Skype and (with the permission of my grunting parents) we also have video chats. I have a fondness for video chats because it feels like you are actually meeting your penpal since it feels like as if they are in the next room talking to you. How many Penpals do you have?
Where are they from? Don’t laugh, but I only have 5 penpals. Two are from Russia, one is from Italy, another from Hungary, and the last one is from England. I am really close with all my penpals as we have known each other for over a year now (save the first penpal, that’s two years), and I write letters to them on a daily basis (once or twice a month, depends on the mood of my local post office). Back when I first started penpalling, I went wild. I had met a lot of people, and we agreed to write letters to each other. But after about a letter or two, someone usually lost interest, and for that reason, we stopped sending letters to each other. At one point, I had over 30 penpals that I wrote to. It was really hard to keep track of all of them, so if one or two didn’t reply, it took a while to notice. I had penpals from Brazil, Argentina, Spain, France, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Finland, Belarus, Austria, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Israel, Qatar, Thailand, Australia, and Scotland. 61
the country. But I would’ve been fine if someone from another country, say Finland, wanted to be my penpal. Looking back, I didn’t really know much, if anything at all, about penpalling. But now I know there’s more (a lot more!) to just writing letters, it’s about making a connection. It was a bit scary at first because I didn’t really know how I would start. Typing the introduction to my profile at a penpalling website alone was harrowing. But after a while, I got 62
used to the idea of messaging people and introducing myself. It got easier and finally, after a lot of trial and error (and some time in the Spam Box), I did find penpals whom I’m still friends with today. What do you like / dislike about Penpalling/ correspondence? I like writing the letters to my penpals and frantically searching the aisles at stores for presents to put in my letter. I HAVE to include something in my
letter; I’ve been doing it ever since I started writing to my penpals. It’s a tradition with me that has never (never ever ever!) been broken. When I’m writing a letter to my penpal, I feel like as if time has stopped. I can write as fast as I want or as slowly as I want, it doesn’t matter. It’s very low-stress and low-key. On the other hand, when I search for the “perfect gift,”that’s when the stress begins. I always want every gift to be special and a representation of something special.
What I don’t like about penpalling is when I’m writing the address on the envelope and halfway, I mess up on a letter (or once in my case, a whole line!). I don’t want to send the letter that way because it’s got a huge blotch of white out on it and when it’s on a manila envelope (yellow!), you can so totally tell. So I have to get a whole new envelope and rewrite the entire address over. That’s my ultimate pet peeve of penpalling. Another thing that bothers me (ever so
It was fun while it lasted knowledge. Well, maybe and if I could do it all over not the last part so much, again, I would. I just like people who are inquisitive. Are you searching Really, I just look for people for new Penpals? who are adventurous, If yes, please give that’s what penpalling is all us some contact about, it’s an adventure. information that we can publish in Where do you find the magazine so new Penpals from? that people can Do you rely on FBs write to you back. or Facebook or Haha, that’s a good other websites/ question. I think that blogs. I am still looking for When I started penpalling, penpals because I’m I found several penpals on always looking to learn the language exchange about new people, their website, italki. I found my lives, and their cultures. first penpal there. I still I like getting to know use italki, but I also like to new people, and for that use studentoftheworld, reason, I always try to it’s my #1 website for find new penpals. finding a penpal. I would My email address is definitely recommend youqi2004@yahoo.com studentsoftheworld And finally, my Skype is to anyone new to lolanna21. penpalling, there are so many nice people on What are you there! I met the majority looking for in a of my penpals on there! penpal? Other than those two Oooh, another tough websites, I don’t really question! I don’t have use any other websites. anything specific that I I rely on Facebook for look for in a person. I’m keeping in touch with looking for someone my friends when we who is willing to share aren’t sending letters their culture openly with to each other. For my someone else, who is a penpals who don’t loyal friend, who loves have Facebook, I like to talk and make new to use email, it’s as good friends, and who has an as Facebook, and even insatiable appetite for though I have had more
than my share of time in the Spam box, I enjoy communicating by email. Tell us a funny/ interesting story from your Penpalling experience? I think the funniest thing that ever happened was the one time I sent my driver’s license to my penpal. (In the US, it’s possible to get a license at 17, some have gotten theirs at 15.) I had to deliver a huge box to my penpal (it was a Christmas present), and the lady at the post office asked to see some ID. At the time, the box wasn’t sealed, so I handed her the driver’s license and when she was done, she put in on the box. At that moment, I was getting cash from my purse so I completely forgot about my driver’s license. After I finished paying her, I shook the box a little (don’t ask why, I don’t know!) and behold! The driver’s license fell through the crack and into the box! I didn’t know that I had sent my driver’s license to my penpal until she called me and ask why I had sent it to her! I had to get another one. How do you keep track of your mail?
Share your tip on how to organize ourselves. I have a set of decorative boxes that I use for the letters that my penpals send. I try to create a special box for my penpals and I keep the boxes in special place in my room. It was a lot of work making and decorating the boxes at first, but it was worth it in the end. Now, I don’t have to worry about misplacing or losing a letter because I put lids on the boxes. Then I stack them on top of one another so they don’t take up too much space in my tiny room. So in one corner of my room I have these really wacky designs practically shooting from the floors. Do you swap things? Do you like sending gifts to friends? If yes, what is the funniest gift you have ever sent/ received? From the first letter that I have ever sent to my penpal, I always put some little gift in the letter. It’s like my tradition and it’s never been broken. I guess because it’s a tradition with me, I like sending things to my penpals. The funniest thing that I have ever sent was a board 63
instead! Have you met a penpal? If so, let us know how the meeting went. Unfortunately, I have not met any of my penpals! I will definitely try to visit all of them, sooner or later. I love to travel, so I think I will meet all of them.
game. I sent the game “Mouse Trap” to a penpal for her birthday. She wrote back and told me that she had a good time setting up the mousetrap and playing the board game. 64
I once received a report card from a penpal. It was really funny to see that in Italy, the grades were in numbers (1-10) while here, the grades were letters (A,B,C…).
I could just imagine an American kid going home afraid that their parents would see a bad grade on their report card only to open it and find that it was a number
What do you usually like writing/reading about in the letters? I like to write about my life, my highlights, my dooms, myself, and my increasing desire to get my hands on a box of calissons, a delectable French candy made exclusively in Aixen-Provence. I write about daily happenings from a cute boy that I saw in the hallway at school to the upcoming presidential elections. There’s no one specific topic that I focus on, I try write about as many different things as possible. Sometimes, I would have endless conversations about one specific topic with a penpal, other times, I would just mention it and they would comment on it and that
would be the end of it. Reading-wise, I like to read about everything that the penpal has to say. There’s no limit as to what to talk about, I’m really interested in knowing about a new lifestyle, custom, or just a different opinion. Who knows? I may find a new topic refreshing and exciting and new! But most importantly, I think that the idea that I’m reading something from someone who is so far away and at the same time so close is enough for me. When it comes to making cute and personal letters, everyone has his/her own style. Tell us your trick how to make a letter/envelope unique? Do you decorate it? If yes, how. Give us some tips on how to make the letters more interesting. Oooh (I do that a lot!), was I supposed to decorate the letter? I believe that while we should not judge a book by its cover, we also should
not judge a letter by its envelope. I usually mail my letters in a plain manila envelope. I guess that’s my unique trademark: an ugly envelope in the mail. I don’t really decorate the outside of my letters nor the actual letter itself. That’s another trademark: a letter written on notebook paper. I like to keep it simple because it’s distracting (to me) to read a letter that has
flowers and puppy dogs swimming all over it. My “style” comes in when I make the gifts that I send to my penpals. I love fashion so I sketch my clothing designs on
paper and I send those to my penpals and ask for their approval and what they think. Also, I like to include things in my letter from my daily life like school newspapers, fashion magazines, sketch books, fruit roll ups, Jello and pudding mix, and origami paper. And of course, I try to be extravagant and spoil my penpals when I send
things like teddy bears (Build-ABear!) and perfume (D&G anyone?). My goal is to always keep my penpals guessing on what I will send them next.
Where do you buy your stationery supplies from? Do you prefer traditional shops or e-shops? If so, give us some links. I can usually get most of my supplies from a local office supply store. I get my art supplies from a specialty crafts store called Michaels, they have everything from stone to cotton balls! In this sense, I’m a traditionalist when it comes to shopping for things for my penpals. Of course, I get my gifts from a multitude of stores, department stores and boutiques. It all depends on how I’m feeling (and how much money I saved up from my allowance.) I have never bought anything online before for my penpals, not yet. Currently, I have my eyes set on Janet Store, they have the cutest things, and I’m coveting their things right now!
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KIDS'
zone Emilio De la Tejera (age: 6) from Mexico / USA Emilio loves to read books, draw, play video games, climb trees, watch TV. He is very friendly, speaks both English and Spanish and would love to have a penpal from any country in the world!!! Email: carmen_delatejera@hotmail.com Wilona B채ckman (age: 4) Wilona draws her letters and loves to send and receive small gifts. We also make her letters with different craftings. She loves to dance and does gymnastic. Email: fam.backman06@hotmail.com My 11 year old daughter is looking for new penpals from anywhere.She recently got a few postcards but none had a return address, so she is sad cause she could not write any letters or cards back to anyone. ...Please if there is anyone out there willing to become her penpal or have a child that would like to write here, feel free to drop her some words on paper :-) Her details are: Darylaine Kransen P.O. Box 2487 San Nicolaas ARUBA Dutch Caribbean Thanks in adavance :-) Contact: Topasio Dv Dv (on Facebook) http://www.facebook.com/Topasio998 Vikki Lawson: My daughter Raven is 9 years old and is looking for more pals. She loves stationery, stickers hsm and lots more. Email: vikki75@btinternet.com Sally Courtney: My daughter is 14 and would love to write more people her age. Boys or girls. Just e-mail me for info. Email: scoobysgang5@yahoo.com
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PENPAL OF THE MONTH CONTEST
1 1 0 2 June
Salomé Biver, France
julie priest, England
How long have you been penpalling? I began penpalling 13 years ago when I was 16.
How long have you been penpalling? I have been penpalling since the age of 12 (21 years ago).
Do you still write (stay in touch) with the first penpal with whom you started penpalling? No, unhappily all the penpals I had at that time stopped writing. Do you prefer typed or hand written letters? Handwritten letters, they’re more personal and beautiful. I like seeing people’s handwriting. Give some tips/idea how to make a letter more interesting? For me, a letter is more interesting if the person writes about her/his feelings, who she/he’s deep inside, her/his opinions. I like deep letters, there’s nothing more boring than a list of things people did without anything about their feelings. I need to know who are my penpals deep inside. Then, decorated letters are a bit more exciting to read. 68
Do you still write (stay in touch) with the first penpal with whom you started penpalling? Unfortunately, we lost touch many years ago, but i do still have a couple of penpals from 19 years ago and we still write letters. Do you prefer typed or hand written letters? I prefer hand-written letters as they are more personal, however i don’t mind receiving typed letters from time-to-time or if that penpal has difficulties in handwriting letters. Give some tips/idea how to make a letter more interesting? Decorating a letter with stickers and using expressions (i.e. smiley faces).
1 1 0 2 July
Bernadette Umer(USA) nominates Adela Neduha (Canada) “My penpal Del has been by my side since 2001. She has been there for me through the good and the bad in my life. She stood by my side when all of my other friends left me. I was going through some tough times and my mother got in a car accident and fell ill. Through all of that she still remained my best friend. Even though I do not get to see her as often as I like she did come to meet me once in 2003 and it was a very nice time for us both. I really wish that there were more sincere people like her in this world! She truly is unlike others and my best friend forever! :-)” Votes: 371 CONGRATULATIONS, Bernadette and Adela! You are our penpal of the month July 2011 and you won so with over 300 votes!!!
It all starts with filling out an application that’s available on our website and your nomination is done in no time. And one day, you are a Winner! To vote for your favorite nomination go to our website www.sandbook.net.
LOST PENPAL
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Sarah Trewhitt, UK therose1972@hotmail.co.uk Hiya , This is not really for any one in particular .. but i used to pn pal about 5-6 year ago and had to give up for many many reasons .. i have started pen palling again over the past year and if there are any of my old pen pals out there that would like to get in touch then please do so.
michelle [voyles] lowe, usa lwmcll@yahoo.com Christina Santos - she was living in Chicago, IL, if I remeber right. I miss her letters and would love to find her! Katarina Långdahl, Sweden gulliolli@yahoo.com I'm looking for two lost pen friends. Mauy Burr who used to live on Taylor Avenue in East Brunswick, NJ. She's born 1973.I'm also looking for Ellen Blaze who used to live on Kane Street in Lackawanna, NY.
Nanda S. Gaikwad (born 24-02-1973) 26-A-Sarnath Anushaktinagar IND-Bombay (now Mumbai) 400094 India (address valid until 1993) Additional information: her father worked at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Bombay (Mumbai). Tina Jacobs (Nieman) ,USA tina70mercer@yahoo.com I had a pen pal from Greece who I wrote up to 5 years ago and we just lost touch. Her name is Helene Anastasopoulou. I have wrote her old address a few times and no response. I have searched her on the internet and still no success. She is 39 and lived in Patras as her last address I had. I’m hoping we can reconnect.
Marlene Miller,Ohio,USA,marlene159@zoominternet. net Hello, my name is Marlene Miller, 55 and I am in Ohio in United States, have a favor to ask, am looking for friend I wrote to about 8 yr s or so ago, we lost touch, when she divorced. Her name was Jennie Smith. She lived in Australia, has son and daughter ,grown now, We wrote and taped letters on regular bases. We were doing email then lost my computer( blewup) and lost contact as well as her addy as never had it whenshemoved.Anyoneabletohelp,pleaseemailmeatmarlene159@ zoominternet.net and put in message about her,thanks for any help you can give. Tammy Albertson Dupont, USA (via Facebook) I have been looking for a friend of mine who I lost contact with along time ago and I really miss her. Her name is Kim Bear and she lived in Texas. I would love to get back in touch with her. Her maiden name was Heiliman. Jules Muni (via Facebook) My penpal of 15 years Jacqueline Mcinnus who last known lived in Kingston, Jamaica.I hope that I will be able to get back in touch with her. 71
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Mary Morielli maryshome@msn.com Hi I am looking for my lost penpal, her name is Winnie Ho Shuk Fan. She lived in Hong Kong and we stopped writing in 1998 after 20yrs of wonderful friendship.
Mallika Karunatilleke, Sri Lanka m_karunatilleke@yahoo.com I am looking for my two pen pals with whom I have written for a long time. Lena Gepilango from Hongkong (She is originally from Philippines) and Heather Mace from England. Please send me a msg to my inbox if you ever get any details about them.
Beverly Kuttler Rampero, USA (via Facebook) I’m trying to find a good friend of mine. Her name is Aimee Plunkett. We have been writing for about 17 years. She use to live in Tracy, California but then moved away to another state and I lost her new address. I havent heard from her since.
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Maria Nieves (or Maria Neus) Estébanez Gutiérrez (born 29-03-1974) Carrer Briquets 1, entlo primero E-Barcelona 08033 Spain (address valid until 1991)
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Mallika Karunatilleke (Abeysinghe), Sri Lanka m_karunatilleke@yahoo.com I am looking for my lost pen pals - Urara Arametta - Germany Regine Tetu - France Aminah Ibrahim - Singapore Hannah Darling - India Hope I will be able to find them.
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Sonia Hardoin (born 08-08-1973) 461 Rue de la Trapinière F-50000 Saint-Lô France (address valid until 1993)
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Grace, UK shirleabristow5@gmail.com Mail me here, panica37@aol.com
Samia Oumohand, France samgunsjovirow@yahoo.com Hi all! I’m looking for my former penpal Jerry Lynn Daniels. She was a huge fan of French supermodel Laetitia Casta and is from the USA (from Tennessee, if I’m not wrong). If you know her, please let me know at: samgunsjovirow@yahoo.com
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Theda, Germany info.tiehsvd@forum-artium. net
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Reconnect!
Then this is the section for you. Place your story about your Lost penpal and we will try to help you
Katharina Nöhring (was: Melter), Germany KathaNoehring@aol.com Actually I am looking for a couple of former pals: Nike van Heeswijk from the Netherlands, Josephine (Joyce) Camilleri from Malta (Gozo island), Vivienne Hunter from England, Zenildo Rosa Jr. from Brasil. We lost contact a LONG time ago, and I would love to get back in touch. Does anyone know about them? Any help is appreciated!
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HAVE YOU LOST A PENPAL? YES?
Tom Todd, England lustywinos@yahoo.com Kara from Wichita Ks. We wrote for about 10yrs in the eighties. Queen fan.
PenPal & Swappers Ads How to place an ad in the magazine? Go to www.sandbook.net and click the Magazine section. Then simply select “Place an Ad” and you will have to fill out the form that loads on your computer screen. Ads placed on pages/groups/walls on Facebook will not be printed. Please note that the ads on our website are ads for the website itself. Unless you fill out the form under Magazine --> Place an Ad, you won’t see your ad here. Our Ad Policy: 1) We are not a dating site/community - write appropriate ads to have them published. 2) No inmates - we have kid members in our community! 3) No money requests - such ad will result in your permanent ban from our community. 4) Snail mail addresses - if you want you can leave your snail mail addresses but please note that the SandbookNet Team is not responsible for any spam (junk) mail that that may generate. We urge you to submit only digital contact information to protect your privacy! 5) Religious, racial or discriminative materials would not be tolerated. 6) Any form of abusive or rude language is forbidden and will result in your ban from our community. 7) Ads are printed as they are submitted. We are not going to correct your messages, so please note to write them in “clean” way. What is the policy on Commersial Ads? If you would like to place a commercial ad for products or services, you will need to get in touch with us (email us at magazine@ sandbook.net ). These Ads are going to be reviewed and negotiated with the respective companies.
PenPal and Swappers Ads July 2011 ADs:
www . s a n d b o o k . n e t a t n e w s l a t e s t t h e c h e c k i t ?
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Name : Lisa lisaelliott16@hotmail.com Age : 33 Country : United Kingdom Ad : I’ve been pen palling for years at one stage had about 60 due to moving lost touch with quite a few. I’ve got about 30 now but could do with a few more. Would like to hear from other pen pals from all around the world. No men or prisoners. I like photography, going to concerts, walking my dogs, going to the cinema, watching TV, listening to music, I swap FBs either one time FB swaps or regular swaps also make FBs. I collect merchandise on my favorite band. I will write back regular as well. No hanging around. I also like the following cute stickers, disney Name : Patti Navarro or anything shiney, glitters, 03patti@gmail.com Hello Kitty, Diddl. I’m also Age : 46 getting in to Scrapbooking. Country : USA I like cute Stationary. I don’t Ad : I am looking for people to write huge longs letters but I write to. I will answer all who can welcome them.
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Name : Agus agus.wendaiguo@gmail. com Age : 35 Country : Singapore
write. I collect angels, tiger, stickers, postcards and hello kitty stuff. I love to scrapbook, wooden rubber stamps, love to go to thrift stores and yard sales. I love friendship books. I can trade postcards from Phoenix, Arizona. I hope that you will write. Thank you.
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August 2011 ADs:
Ad : Hi, my name is Wen Dai Guo, I come from Singapore, I like post cards very much and I need a map postcards from all countries and city around the world. I will send you any post card from Singapore as introduction and my token, so for this reason, would you give me your address and I will send a post card for you. If you need specific postcard or stamp you can mention it in your reply message. If you do not have map postcard, I would like to receive any city or region specialty from your country or you can ask me for it. I like the communication and friendship, not only postcard collections If you like post card like me you also can join to the postcrossing.com and you can send me a message at http://www.postcrossing. com/user/wen_postcrossing For your convenience, please write down my address with this format: Agus 18 Rose Lane Singapore 437378 SINGAPORE So, what is your address ?
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4- Gerard Butler 5- Matt Passmore (actor from the tv show “The Glades”) 6Buttons (sewing) 7- Seed beads 8Cross-stitch patterns, magazines, books and kits 9- “The Outsiders” (movie from 1983 starring C.Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon and Ralph Macchio) 10-Jigsaw puzzles (100-300 pieces) 11-Pink 12-Pictures of women with nice short hairstyles 13-F.B.s & Label Bags 14-Insence 15-Scented candles 16-Burned cd(s) of your favourite songs 17-Nice Soaps 18-Decorative bobby pins 19-Zach Galifianakis (comedian with big beard – super funny!) 20-Ribbon (any kind, colour, size) 21-Paper / cardstock (any colour, plain or patterned - pieces must be AT LEAST 5 x 5”) 22-Fabric (any colour, plain or patterned pieces must be AT LEAST 6” x 12”). Please send me an E-mail with your Wish List, if you would like to make a trade with me. Hope to hear from you soon!
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knowing about other ways of life, cultures, and traditions, so I am very interested in communicating via snail mail Name : Jennifer with anybody, I don’t mind if EMAIL: you are a male or a female, jmobandoe@yahoo.com and age doesn’t matter. I love Age : 35 Pen paling, Sports, Reading, Country : Peru Writing, TV (reality shows, Ad : I am looking for female documentaries, news), swappers I would l can send Animals, Geography, History, stamps, postcards, kawaii Nature, Cultures, Traditions, stuff, fb’s in return I would Languages, Books, Religions, like kawaii stuff (sanrio, san-x, Postcards, Stamps, My crux, kamio). address is: Farid Anoune Name : SHELLON La Pharmacie Anoune loveshellon@yahoo.com Rue 05 juillet, Age : 39 Merouana 05300 Batna, Country : Guyana ALGERIA Ad : Hi everyone my interest here is to make long lasting Name : friends. My hobbies are Elizabeth Overduin cooking reading pen paling Email: and meeting friends.i have lisaoverduin@ lots more hobbies but will hotmail.com mention in my letters to any Age : 41 one that would write me. Country : CANADA Ad : Hello from CANADA! Name : Farid Anoune I’m looking for swappers farid.anoune1@yahoo. from all around the world. I com am especially interested in Age : 31 people who like to collect Country : Algeria magazine pictures and Ad : My name is Farid, I’m an articles on celebrities. Which Algerian, I’m looking for pen celebrities do you collect on? pals from all over the world Is there anything else you’re to exchange ideas and to looking for? know what and how people Here is a list of things I in other parts of the world love to collect: 1- Stickers are living, because I adore 2- Stationery 3- Madonna
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Name : Barbara Email: himilika@yahoo.com Age : 22 Country : Poland Ad : Hello everyone! My name’s Barbara and I’m a student from Poland. I’m looking for a devoted pen-friend who loves long letters and won’t stop writing after few weeks/ months. I’m a talkative and open-minded person. I love writing long letters and put small somethings into the envelope. I have lots of hobbies, so I’ll list just some of them: books, musicals, languages, history, fantasy, culture and swapping . I’m a huge bookworm and I spend most of my time writing reviews. I also enjoy watching TV shows like “Supernatural”, “Glee”, “Bones” and “Criminal Minds”. I collect and swap: letters, cards, letter sets, stamps, stationery, stickers, bookmarks, photos and drawings. I’m especially looking for pen-friends from USA, Canada and Spain, but any country is welcome, except for Africa/Ghana. I’m sorry but I had enough of bad experience with them. If you’re interested, feel free to write! I have just one,
small request – put the word penpals into the subject line of the message. Thank you!
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Name : Jennifer Email : jmobandoe@ yahoo.com Age : 35 Country : Peru Ad : I am looking for female swappers I would l can send stamps, postcards, kawaii stuff, fb’s in return I would like kawaii stuff (sanrio, san-x, crux, kamio).
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Name : Dorie Email : zdora@hotmail.hu
Name : Ashwin Ramesh Email : ashwinramesh007@ rocketmail.com Age : 19 Country : INDIA Ad : I am an animal lover, Painter, Photographer (product, fashion, nature & wildlife), Philatelist cum Numismatist..... Bird-watching, Wildlife conservation, Herpetology, Ornithology, Ichthyology, Photography, cartooning, Gymnastics are some of the things I am obsessed with. I do have special interest in Modern arts as-well as impression art, animals & wild-life, Clay modelling,
Sufi music (with néy), Archaeology, Music n Movies, cooking, Snail-mailing, and sports like Boxing, cricket, soccer, pool, chess, Black jack etc....n yeah, I live my life for the people who love me......n I hang around with them...24X7.... I love to have penpals who are real, open, Caring and Transparent (just like me). I am here for a long-lasting friendship. Penpals who quit after 2 or 3 mails are not welcome. I love to have healthy talks on almost all subjects. I befriend people of all age, sex, country, religion etc. In fact I am someone with a secular heart. Everybody up there I am the perfect dude you’ve been looking for. I promise that I’ll not make you regret your experience with me ;-).
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Name : Autum Email : autum.arellano@ yahoo.com Age : 36 Country : USA Ad : Hi I am a married 36 yr old mom of 5. I like penpaling, taking photos, reading romance novels, watching soccer & futbol, cooking, baking. Looking for female penpals around my age and of course moms, from overseas would be great to also find a spanish speaking mama out there too. Only females no men please.
Age : 18 Country : Hungary Ad : Hello~ I’m Dorie and I live in Hungary. I’ve been learning Japanese for 4 years, so apart from English, I’d be interested in writing letters in Japanese too. I love writing letters, sewing, drawing, reading books and watching Asian dramas. I’m also a big fan of language-learning. I’ve just graduated from highschool (I’m 18), I’m going to college in September, majoring international business. Can’t wait to have lots of cool penpals ;D
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for all kinds of people who would be willing to write me and have a meaning friendship with, exchange an occasional gift, card, photos and postcards. I don’t mind age or gender, though I must admit I normally feel more comfortable writing to women, but if you are a man interested only in friendship, then I could be a great penpal for you too. I speak portuguese, english and dutch, so feel free to write me in any of these languages! Write soon ;) Nadz
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Name : Christina Tillery EMail: cltillery1969@gmail.com Age : 41 Country : USA Arizona Ad : Hi I am a working mother to 3 kids ages 20, 16 and 11. I live in Arizona and work at a family doctor practice. I love pen palling and swapping Fbs. I am looking for pen pals that love snail mail, swaps
and a true friendship. I enjoy Name : Ellie writing letters, reading, cats, ellie.sparkle@hotmail. online sweeps, traveling, co.uk music, surfing the net, and Age : 19 much more. Please email me Country : UK for my address. My 11 yr old Ad : Hi all! I’m looking for daughter would also like pen pen-pals across Europe and pals around her age. America, also Japan too! I’m Ellie, I’m 19 and I live in Exeter Name : SUBRATA DEY in the UK! I’m fun, easygoing, Email: quirky and eccentric, and I’m subroto.global@yahoo. a devoted pen-pal! I love to com make letters chatty and long, Age : 40 and I’d love to exchange small Country : India gifts along with letters! I’m Ad : I want penfriends looking for only female penworldwide. Also like to pals, though, please! :) So just exchange mint stamps & email me if you’re interested, un-circulated Bank-notes and I’ll get back to you :) worldwide. Honest exchange partner wanted worldwide. I Name : Nadja Paes Leme also publish an International nadzy_86@yahoo.com.br Penfriend/Hobby/Mail Order Age : 25 magazine named ‘Global Country : Brazil Contact’. Latest issue by Ad : Hi everyone! As you Airmail for US$5 or EURO 5. can see above my name is Listing is FREE. Nadja and I’m from Brazil. I Mailing address: have always penpalled and SUBRATA DEY, OPP. simply looove it (Im working IRRIGATION COLONY, RUBBER on an article about how I BAGAN, TEZPUR-784001, started so you can all read!). INDIA. I love swapping, reading and writting my own stories. Name : Munir Traveling is also something I misty_red_eagle@yahoo. eager to do more and more com and I’m very glad to have had Age : 42 the opportunity to visit some Country : Pakistan of the most amazing places Ad : Looking for nice friends in Europe and the USA, but I from around the world. don’t want to stop here! I look
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Name : Liz Crasten Email: paisleynut@aol.com Age : 49 Country : USA Ad : Hi from Liz Crasten in New York. I’m 49 years old, B.D. 12/13/61 and I’ve been snail-mail penpalling since February 1975. My hobbies include penpalling, swapping FBs and other envelope tuckins, reading, listening to country music, watching TV, going to the movies, renting DVDS, playing computer games and surfing the Internet. I’d love to correspond with long letter snail-mail gals near my age with similar interests in the USA, Canada, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South America, Guam, Guyana, Australia and New Zealand.
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www . s a n d b o o k . n e t
PenPal & Swappers Ads
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PenPalling Connections:
l i k e i t ? c h e c k i t ? c h e c k t h e l i k e
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PenPal Directory and Newsletter Hi! I am Tracy. I sell stationery address and stickers. I also have a penpal Directory and a newsletter. Take a look at my links if interestered. My new thing is making a catalog of all my designs: http://tracyscreationsstationary.shutterfly.com/ http://addresslabels4sale.shutterfly.com/ For more information contact: Tracy Sanders, tracylynnsanders38@yahoo.com
THE CAULDRON BUBBLES http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Cauldron_Bubbles/ Pagan, Witchcraft, Wicca and mysticism with aromatherapy, herbology and a few other things thrown into the um… cauldron for good measure!!
www . s a n d b o o k . n e t
WWFBDO (or Worldwide Friendship Booklets and Decos Only) http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/WWFBDO Friendship books, Decos, Label bags, and that genre of swapping
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LITTLE ANGEL RAOKs http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Little_Angels_ RAOKs/ We fulfil flaked swaps, wishes and Random Acts of Kindness.
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RECYCLING IS FUN http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Recycling_is_Fun/
LONG LETTER EPISTLERS http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Long_ Letter_Epistelers/ Penpal group for LONG letters and occasional swaps.
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PGMT (or Postcard Pals Groups Management Training) http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/PGMT Learn to be a moderator or manager of yahoo groups.
UK_PandS_Official Group (UK Penpallers and Swappers) http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/UK_PandS_ Official_Group/ This group is for UK based penpallers and swappers to swap within the UK only!
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MULTICULTURAL SWAP SHOP http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/ MultiCultural_SwapShop Swap or get rid of stuff you don’t want. Sell handmade stuff.
PURE POSTCARD PALS http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pure_ Postcard_Pals/ Swaps of Postcards only.
R-E-C-I-P-E-S (or Recipes Eating Cooking Ingredients People and Extraordinary Sites) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/R-E-C-I-P-E-S Like CRAFTS above but for recipes, organised by occasions, type of ingredient etc.
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LIVE FOR LIFE http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Live_for_Life Info on health issues, links to articles and recipes for diet specific illnesses and weightloss.
POSTCARD PALS http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/PostcardPals Despite the name we swap “anything which can legally be sent thru the mail”!
Pen Pal Book C/O Kimberly Garigin 3726 Green Pond Rd Gray Court, SC 29645 One issue is $12 black or $18 color. Subscription for 4 issues is $20 black or $25 color. Its like buying two and getting two FREE. Comes out Jan. Apr. Jul. & Oct. I take Cash, checks & Money orders in my name. It is non-profit!! Pen Pal ads to be put in is FREE starting with Jan 2011. Business ads r 5 cents per word/symbols & count your name & address. Add $2 more for Canada or $4 more for Over seas. I use quick print to see the darker print its $4 per issue or $16 for 4 issues. No Inmates!!! For more information contact: Kimberly at vandine69@yahoo.com
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L-I-N-K-S (or Links In No Kind (of) System) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/L-I-N-K-S As for CRAFTS above but non-specific links (i.e. not recipes or crafts), organised by type.
Hints and tips on throwing out less and reusing things.
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t h e l a t e s t n e w s a t www . s a n d b o o k . n e t l a t e s t n e w s a t www . s a n d b o o k . n e t
C-R-A-F-T-S (or Crafts R A Fantastic Time Stealer) http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/C-R-A-F-T-S A craft link ‘bucket’ with links organised by craft and sub-categories of Holidays or item.
Hello Kristel and welcome to Penpalling & Letters! It is great you are visiting us today! Maybe you’d like to tell us a bit about yourself and your penpalling experiences?
Waffles Tasting
A
Are you preparing your summer holidays these days if located on the Northern Hemisphere? Perhaps you can do a little stop at Travelling around the World sharing Cultural
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Heritage, Folklore and Background to be able to land in Western Europe. Three official languages are spoken in this land: Dutch, French and German and it shares borders
with France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. This country takes its name from the ancient Roman province called “Gallia Belgica”, in the northernmost part of
Gaul that, before Roman invasion, was inhabited by the Belgae. So, this is the name of the country we are visiting today, “Belgica” in Latin or Belgium in English, as we all know!
Hello! I am Kristel, a 37 years old female living in Belgium as you already know! I started penpalling many years ago, about the age of twelve, I guess. In fact, it had been “suggested” by my language teacher to improve our learning of French. Further on, I started to learn English and German and I tried to get in touch with people who spoke those as native languages, too. As this was in pre-Internet times, it wasn’t always so easy. Some teenager magazines had a little ad section and it was most successful to put one ad myself, usually. After trying ads, I got to know Friendship Books through my American penpal; I put my name in it and I sent it back to her again, as none of my other pals used it, hehe! Years later I am still into FBs exchange, and I think it is still fun! Through Internet I have found different penpals who aren’t into swapping, but I don’t mind. I like those friends, too! I like to decorate my letters. I think it is nicer reading a cute paper than a blank one. My letters are handwritten and typed and I don’t mind typed letters from my penpals. In fact, I prefer typed when people have a difficult-to-read handwriting, if you know what I mean. I collect all sorts of cards (viewcards, greeting cards...) and special stamps worldwide. Once I made an account at Postcrossing, but I only used it a few times. Maybe
Penpalling & Letters: www.penpallingandletters.blogspot.com Find PenPalling & Letters on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/penpallingandletters PenPalling and Letters is a blog dedicated to correspondence. You can find many interesting articles there together with polls, so feel free to voice out your opinion. There is also a section with interesting links that you can follow and learn more about the wonderful hobby of penpalling! 81
And right now I would like to share two recipes with all of you. It is of my favourite sweet snack, which represents my country, too: Belgian Waffles! The best way to make a basic Belgium waffle recipe is to use yeast. Yeast will make Belgian waffles fluffy, soft and yummy. You could also use baking powder or cake flour but you will get the best result with yeast. If you use yeast, then eat them when they are done - they are not that good the next day. Tools you’ll need to make waffles: - Iron waffle maker - Measuring cup and spoons - Whisk or hand mixer - Small sauce pan - Large mixing bowl and spoon - Heat safe spatula Ingredients: • Three 1/4 cups (1 lb. 82
500g) all purpose flour One sachet (7g) instant dried yeast Four medium eggs Whole milk (you can also add some sparkling mineral water and make them even fluffier) Two sticks (1/2 lb. - 250g) butter Vanilla sugar Some salt
tools,ingredients
in the future I will be back to it... Sometimes I participate in Swap-Bot: you can find me there as kristel1974. So, you can say, I am first of all into the penpalling thing and I mostly swap things with people, depending on our interests. However, I don’t have e-mail penpals, as I do love the spirit of real letters!
lumps. The question you • might ask yourself here it is how dense should the dough • be and how much milk to • use? It should be thick as you should think they are like pancakes. 6. Gently mix the beaten egg • whites into the dough. 7. Leave the dough resting • and rise at room temperature • for a while. How long? Until the volume of the dough And now, the doubles or even triples! That directions to do the is why a really big bowl is basic Belgium waffle needed. If you are in a hurry recipe are: then wait for thirty minutes to one hour, but if you can, 1. Take a cup of milk and heat make the waffle dough in it until it is warm. Then mix it the evening and leave it in your yeast. You can now overnight. leave the yeast standing for 8. Use the oil to grease the a while. waffle iron (which should 2. In the mean time melt the be very hot) so your waffles butter, but stop as soon as it don’t stick to it and pour the melts. Don’t over heat it or dough in it. Bake until they even burn it as you will lose turn golden brown. the taste. 3. Separate the egg yolks And the basic Belgium waffle from the egg whites and is done! Now it is time to beat the egg whites until put the topping as they are you get snow. strawberries, chocolate, 4. Now take a big giant sugar, honey, syrups, ice huge bowl and throw in all cream... whatever you can the flour, vanilla sugar (one imagine which fits the waffle. sachet) and some salt. Make Also decorate it as wished! a whole in the middle of the flour and fill it with melted The typical Brussels butter, dissolved yeast and Waffles recipe: egg yolk. 5. Mix while you are adding Ingredients: milk (and some mineral water if you want). You should mix • One 1/2 oz. of yeast (40 it really well so there are no gram)
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• • • • •
One pint of tepid sparkling mineral water (4 dl) One lb of flour (500 gram) A pinch of salt One pint of tepid milk Eight eggs 1/2 lb of melted butter
The directions to do the Brussels waffles are: 1. Dissolve the yeast in tepid water. 2.Shift the flour into a bowl and make a whole in themiddle. 3. Mix the dissolved yeast slowly with the flour, add the salt and the milk. 4. Add the egg yolks. 5. Whisk the egg whites and scoop them carefully with a slice through the tough. 6. Cover the dough and leave it to rise until its volume has doubled (about 15 to 20 minutes). 7. Use the oil to grease the waffle iron (which should be very hot) so your waffles don’t stick to it and pour the dough in it. 8. Bake them until they turn golden brown. 84
tools,ingredients
•
They are served with butter and vanillated sugar or powdered sugar.You need a bigger waffle iron for this variant. The light structure is due to the use of sparkling water. As topping you can use any of the elements told above. Also, use your imagination to decorate it! After so much hard work baking, it is time to enjoy some Belgian Waffles now!
Thanks for participating in Penpalling & Letters, Kristel! Let’s try your recipes in our homes to taste the typical Belgian waffles! Whenever you feel like participating again you are welcome to visit us again! If you are interested in reading more articles featuring characteristics of our homelands don’t forget to check: Travelling around the World sharing Cultural Heritage, Folklore and Background. I am always looking for people who would like to take part in this section of the Blog: Travelling around the World. If you would like to write about any aspects of your homeland don’t hesitate to contact me at:npallingandletters[at]gmail[dot]com and we will work on it! 85
GO
By Rach Gee
FLight! And the final lift off of Atlantis. On the shoulders of the Space Shuttle,America will continue the dream. SHUTTLE QUICK FACTS Shuttle Fleet: Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavor Cost of Endeavor: $ 2.1 billion Total Weight at Lift-off: 2.04 million kg (4.5 million pounds) Maximum Payload Weight: 26,786 kg (59,000 pounds) Shuttle System Length: 56.08 m (184 feet) Orbiter Length: 37.19 m (122 feet) Orbiter Wingspan: 23.77 m (78 feet) Shuttle System Length: 56.08 m (184 feet) Orbiter Length: 37.19 m (122 feet) Orbiter Wingspan: 23.77 m (78 feet) Engines: 2 solid rocket boosters, 3 mainengines,2orbital thrusters 86
machine that the Hubble Telescope and the International Space Station were able to be realised. Without it, I was two days short of being two we would never receive some of the months old when the first Space mind-blowing and beautiful images Shuttle launched. It was April which Hubble has sent back to Earth. 12th 1981, and she was manned Without it, we would not have been by astronauts John Young and able to interplanetary explorers into Bob Crippen. The Shuttle has space. never had an unmanned flight, which is a normal procedure for While Enterprise (named for the new craft so they really were USS Enterprise from Star Trek) was making history. The first manned only used for test flights within Earth’s space flight of an untested atmosphere, Columbia, Challenger, vehicle. With it, the Space Shuttle Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor carried the dreams of many, completed 135 space flights between dreams which had only existed in them. They’ve taken 355 astronauts into space since 1981 and have flown science fiction. 870,000,000 kilometres. Each shuttle Conceived long before man and its boosters have 2.5 million even stepped onto the Moon, moving parts and, at take off, weigh a the Space Shuttle has allowed us staggering 2.04 million kilogrammes. to expand our knowledge of the This final mission is carrying 3.5 universe. Able to carry large payloads, tonnes (one year’s worth) of supplies it was thanks to this ingenious to the International Space Station. And, with those words, flight STS135 kissed gravity goodbye.
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SHUTTLE QUICK FACTS
Other than Enterprise, the other five and the tales of how the crew could see space for myself. I wanted to be orbiters were named after famous have still been alive as they fell to there, sat atop what was essentially ships. Earth haunt me to this day. a very large bomb, waiting to be blasted to the outer reaches of our Tragically there were two Shuttle For me, the Shuttle has been a knowledge. I wanted to see if there disasters, resulting in the loss of poignant piece of engineering as really was life on the dark side of the fourteen lives. On January 28th 1986, I grew up with it. Coming from an Moon. I wanted to watch the sun Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds engineering family, it has a special set and then rise again. Most of all, after take off, while on February 1st place not just in my heart, but in the I wanted to fulfil what has been the 2003, Columbia disintegrated during hearts of many of those I’m related childhood dream of so many; to go re-entry. I remember watching the to. As a kid, I remember dreaming to space. Columbia disaster as it happened about learning to fly the Shuttle and There is something amazing, 88
something astounding, about this firebreathing creation which manages to leave the Earth’s gravitational pull and head for the stars. There’s something mind-blowing about a machine which, while carrying humans, can move at over 4 miles per second. I know that it’s been not just us who marvel as it hangs seemingly motionless in space, capturing breathtaking images of the Earth below it. An Earth which we wouldn’t have seen had it not been for one of mankind’s greatest creations. Some may call the mobile phone or the computer the pinnacle inventing and engineering but, without the Shuttle to take help take some of the satellites into space, you wouldn’t have that connectivity. Because of it, we have a world which is faster and far more beautiful than you can ever imagine. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at some of the stunning images
returned by astronauts and the Hubble telescope. And, on July 8th 2011, at 16.30 GMT the Space Shuttle Atlantis took off for the last time. As they departed after final checks, flight crews issued heart felt messages for the 30 years of service that the Shuttle program has given them. The words “Godspeed Atlantis” were heard over and over, while banners featuring the words “Best Wishes Atlantis” were seen hanging in the Space Center. I cried, and I’m proud to say that I did. It is most certainly the end of a very iconic era. Hubble Photo Gallery http://hubblesite.org/gallery/ Space Shuttle Mission Photos http://www.space.com/12104-10amazing-space-shuttle-photos.html Shuttle Quick Facts: http://www.frontiernet.net/~docbob/ shuttle.htm
Solid rocket boosters: • 454,000 kg (1 million pounds) of propellant • Each provides 1,194,020 kg (1315 tons) of thrust (sea level) • Burn time - 2 minutes and 2 seconds • Reusable Main engines: • Utilize 547,524 kg (603 tons) of liquid oxygen and 91,708 kg (101 tons) of liquid hydrogen in external tank • Each provides 154,360 kg (170 tons) of thrust (sea level) • Burn time - 8 minutes • Reusable Orbital maneuvering system engines: • Each delivers 2,452 kg (2.7 tons) of thrust • Hottest Skin Temperature on Re-entry: 1650 degrees C • Electrical Power System: Fuel cells generating 7,000 - 12,000 watts 89
s a m a n t h a’ s Thoughts
by Samantha stroy
What do you really enjoy the most about penpalling? What is it about pen and paper and a simple stamp or so that makes us crazy about enjoying this hobby?
www.facebook.com/angelbaby916 http://itsapenpalworld.blogspot.com Itsapenpalworld@gmail.com A book review blog I share with Beauty Brite http://beeskneesreviews.blogspot.com
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Well
when he got out of prison a few months later and for 8 years he lived paralyzed from the next down. July from my perspective I have 13th was the day he died had a lot of family members in 1997 I was 13 years old that had been in prison and and I want to share a few all they had was to sit there parts of some song lyrics of and write. Well, my Uncle his favorite songs as a small Tommy who was in prison tribute if that’s ok. when I was a baby until I was I am just taking snippets of 5 years old, wrote my mom certain songs and I will add and nanna all the time. We who sings them also. were real close. He got shot (Here I am, on the road again
photo by Manuela Balocco
There I am, on the stage Here I go, playing star again There I go, turn the page
You pretend it doesn’t bother you, but you just want to explode) ( Turn The Page- Bob Seger)
Despite all my Sunday learning, Towards the bad, I kept on turning. ‘Til Mama couldn’t hold Well you walk into a (One and only rebel me anymore. restaurant all strung out child, And I turned twentyfrom the road From a family, meek and one in prison doing life And you feel the eyes mild: without parole. upon you as you’re My Mama seemed to No-one could steer me shaking off the cold know what lay in store. right but Mama tried,
Mama tried. Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied. That leaves only me to blame ‘cos Mama tried.) (Mama Tried- Merle Haggard) (Oh, mirror in the sky What is love? 91
labels designs
Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life? Well, I’ve been afraid of changing ‘Cause I’ve built my life around you But time makes you bolder Children get older I’m getting older too) (LandslideFleetwood Mac) We 92
had
a
good
relationship. He was my father figure, my best friend, like a brother, my life. I miss him so much. Anyways, penpalling goes back to earlier then the 1700’s when mail was delivered in sadlebags and horses carrying them. Maybe that is what makes it so interesting. The person you are writing to you don’t know and get to know and soon enough they become your best friends or maybe even family. There are
a selected few that I consider like sisters to me or best friends. So, how many letters do you write to someone before you open up and confide in them? Me, about 5 or unless I feel that I can confide in them sooner or having contact via phone or Facebook and get to know them better. You can always message me or follow my blog and answer my questions. What do
you think will make my column better? In August here and other parts of the states we have Hot August Nights where people show off old cars from the 1900’s or the 1950’s, lots of good food, dancing, music, poodle skirts, hair held up by a strand of ribbon, roller skating, lots of fun. My dad used to take me as a kid. Well, here is where I end. Hope you enjoyed my article. Love Always, Samantha Stroy
www.antslabels.gr
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I
n this series I intend to (briefly) visit each area of the UK working from North to South. If popular I will continue with other countries and work our way around the world. Even if
THE WORLD TRAVEL WORLD HERITAGE World Heritage (UNESCO) sites play an important part in not only historical and geographical senses, but also for postcard traders it’s a ‘niche’which a lot of us try to get at least one postcard from each place.
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By Paula Milburn joelspinklioness@googlemail.com
you don’t collect postcards, to travel the countries from the comfort of your own home without the need for passports or the high cost of travel tickets will be interesting I’m sure....
Ironbridge Gorge, sand for moulding cast Shropshire iron, limestone to flux the slag in the blast-furnaces, The Ironbridge Gorge and clay to make tiles is a deep gorge and bricks, railways and formed by the river rivers for transport. Plus Severn in Shropshire, men with ideas, and the England. Ironbridge ability to push those Gorge became a World ideas to fruition. Heritage site in 1987. It was originally known The area made a big as the Severn Gorge, but contribution to the now takes its name from Industrial Revolution the famous Iron Bridge. in the 18th century. The iron bridge was Pioneering industrialists built to link the industrial like Abraham Darby, town of Broseley with William Reynolds, Thomas the smaller mining Telford and John Wilkinson town of Madeley and led to the Ironbridge the industrial centre of Gorge becoming the most Coalbrookdale. technologically advanced ItallstartedinCoalbrookdale area in the world at the with Abraham Darby’s end of the 18th century. invention of coke smelting The eponymous Iron for producing high quality Bridge of 1779 still exists iron. Broseley, Coalport today - it was the first and Jackfield, developed bridge in the world to be their own industries and made of iron. made the whole the area a Ironbridge contains all new industrial centre. the elements that fueled The gorge was formed the Industrial Revolution. during the last ice age. either been exposed or Mines for the iron, coke Materials for industrial close to the surface. Coal, for the blast furnaces, production had left
iron ore, limestone and clay, were available for 95
the manufacture of iron and porcelain . The deep, wide River Severn allowed easy transport to Bristol and the sea. Ironbridge Gorge developed around mining, iron and ceramics, but these industries have all disappeared from the area by today, and the gorge has returned to its peaceful pre-industrial days. The Iron Bridge Opened in 1781 to a design by 96
Shrewsbury architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and cast at the Coalbrookdale ironworks of Abraham Darby. In 1773, Thomas Pritchard suggested to a local ironmaster, John Wilkinson that a bridge made of cast iron could span the gorge. The volume of river traffic meant that a bridge with a single arch was necessary. Pritchard proposed a revolutionary
iron structure that would span 120ft. In 1775, Pritchard commissioned Abraham Darby III, an ironmaster from Coalbrookdale to cast and build the bridge. Darby carried the risk of overspending, and ended in debt for the rest of his life. The whole project was on a massive scale and embraced completely new technology. The bridge
was made of more than 800 castings. The largest parts were 70 ft long and weighed 5.25 tons. The construction method was based on woodworking joints like mortise and tenon, and blind dovetail joints. Bolts were used to fasten the half-ribs together at the crown of the arch. As early as 1784 there were reports of cracks in the Southern abutments
caused by ground movement. There were cracks in the cast iron which may have been casting cracks. These cracks were pinned with wrought iron straps. The miscreant southern stone abutment was demolished in 1802 and replaced by iron arches. The bridge was overdesigned, and therefore very heavy. Designers learnt from Iron Bridge, and later bridges like as those built by Thomas Telford used much less cast iron. His cast iron arch bridge at Build was used less than half the weight for a greater span, but it did suffer from movement problems too, and was replaced in 1902. The cast iron bridge at Coalport built in 1818, is even lighter, and is still in use today. Iron Bridge’s foundations were strengthened in 1972 by the creation of a ferro-concrete counter arch under the river. The bridge was renovated again in 1999-2002.
Tells you all about the Gorge. An audio-video presentation and scale model showing the area in Victorian times are among the exhibits. Enginuity In Coalbrookdale on the same site as the Museum of Iron. Enginuity is an interactive design and technology centre telling you how things are made and how they work.
tons of iron each day, several tons of timber was needed each day. The coke fired process produced substantially more high-quality iron than traditional charcoal smelting. This process formed the basis of the industrial revolution.
Broseley Pipeworks Restored tobacco pipemaking works Blenheim Palace, World Heritage Site
Blenheim Palace is located in Woodstock, Blists Hill Oxfordshire, England, a few miles north of Victorian Town A living outdoor museum Oxford. Uniquely is the where all the staff dress in only country house, in period costume. You can England, to hold the visit restored Victorian title “palace” that is not buildings, shops, factories, the seat of a bishop. Museum of Iron & schools. Blenheim Palace is one Darby Houses of England’s greatest In Coalbrookdale. On houses and was built view is the original The Coalport between 1705 and Darby furnace where he China Museum first used his coke fired The former Coalport completed about 1722. iron smelter. Abraham china works has now Its was originally built Darby I’s discovery been converted into as a gift to the 1st Duke of the use of coke, an exhibition area to of Marlborough from a rather than charcoal, display the National grateful british nation in to fuel blast furnaces, Collections of Caughley recognition of his military was one of the most and Coalport china. victories against the French. important technological D e m o n s t r a t i o n However its construction became embroiled political breakthrough’s ever workshops and shop. infighting which led to the discovered. Charcoal, DukeofMarlborough’sexile, even in prodigious The Tar Tunnel quantities, could only A short distance from the fall from grace of his fuel output of a few the China Museum, the Duchess, and diminution tons of iron a day which tunnel is a source of of the reputation of the architect Sir John was made from timber, natural bitumen. Vanbrugh. The palace The Museum of the was the only source of is also notable as the fuel used by the iron Jackfield Tile Gorge birthplace and ancestral On the bank of the industry, which had Museum Severn close to the Iron resulted in large areas of Displays of decorative tiles, home of Prime Minister exhibitions, Winston Churchill. Bridge. Ten Museums deforestation. In order to geological The plaque above the spread along the valley fuel a single blast-furnace workshops and shop. East gate gives the beside the River Severn. that produces only a few 97
family’s view of palace’s construction: “Under the auspices of a munificent sovereign this house was built for John Duke of Marlborough and his Duchess Sarah, by Sir J Vanbrugh between the years 1705 and 1722. And the Royal Manor of Woodstock, together with a grant of £240,000 towards the building 98
of Blenheim, was given by Her Majesty Queen Anne and confirmed by act of parliament.” The truth is that the building of the palace was a minefield of political intrigue, with scheming on a Machiavellian scale by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was born in Devon, to a family that
gentry rather than aristocracy. He joined the British army in 1667, and soon was promoted to colonel. In 1678 he married Sarah Jennings, and seven years later, on the accession of King James II, became Baron Churchill. On the accession of William III Churchill was further elevated
to Earl of Marlborough, a title which had become extinct in his mother’s family. Then during the War of the
Spanish Succession he gained series of military victories: Blenheim in 1704, Ramillies in 1706, Oudenarde in 1708,
and Malplaquet in 1709. By neutralisiing the danger of French invasion of England, he became a national hero and was elevated to Dukedom of Marlborough. His wife had become Queen Anne’s closest friend and confidante. And it was
Queen Anne who decided to gift Marlborough the former royal manor of Woodstock to site a new palace and Parliament voted a substantial sum of money towards its creation. However the relationship between Queen and Duchess later became strained and following a final quarrel in 1711, the money for the
construction of Blenheim ceased. The Marlboroughs wereforcedintoexileabroad until they returned the day after the Queen’s death. The architect was a controversial choice. The Duchess was known to favour Sir Christopher Wren, famous for St Paul’s Cathedral. The Duke however, following a chance meeting with him, issaidtohavecommissioned 99
Sir John Vanbrugh. Vanbrugh was an untrained architect, who usually worked in conjunction with the trained and practical Nicholas Hawksmoor. The duo had recently completed the first stages of the 100
baroque Castle Howard. Marlborough had obviously been impressed by Castle Howard and wanted for something similar atWoodstock. However shortage of money led to problems for Vanburgh.- accusations of extravagance and impracticality of design.The Duchess of Marlborough, having been foiled in her wish to employ Wren criticised Vanbrugh on everything from design to taste The palace was eventually completed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, his friend and architectural associate. The precise responsibility for the funding of the new palace has always been a debatable. Queen Anne wanted the national hero to have a suitable home, but its the exact size and cost were never actually specified. A warrant dated 1705, signed by the parliamentary treasurer the Earl of Godolphin, appointed Vanbrugh as architect, and outlined his remit. This warrant did not mention Queen, or Crown. This error provided the escape clause for the state when the costs escalated. From the start funds were spasmodic. Queen
Anne paid some of them, but with growing reluctance, following her frequent quarrels with the Duchess. After their final argument in 1712, all state money ceased and work came to a halt. £45,000 was owing to workmen. The Marlboroughs were forced into exile on the continent, and did not return until after the Queen’s death in 1714. On their return the Duke, now 64, decided to complete the project at his own expense. In 1716 work re-started, but the project relied completely upon the limited means of the Duke himself. 1717 the Duke suffered a severe stroke, and the thrifty Duchess took control. The master craftsmen Vanburgh had used, such asGrinlingGibbons,refused to work for the lower rates paid by the Marlboroughs. Following the Duke’s death in 1722, completion of the Palace became the Duchess’s ambition. The Duchess finally completed the great house as a tribute to her late husband in 1722. Blenheim Palace is today open to the public, with an atmosphere still that of a large country house. Concerts and festivals are
staged in the palace and park. The Duke retains final control over all matters in the running of the palace, but has out-sourced to Sodexho Prestige, the commercial running of the house. The family still entertain in the state rooms, and dine on special occasions in the saloon, around the great silver centre piece depicting the 1st Duke of Marlborough on horseback. Blenheim Palace remains the tribute to the 1st Duke which both his wife and the architect Sir John Vanbrugh envisaged. Today aWorld Heritage Site, features to note are The Great Hall. The ceiling, painted in 1716 by Sir James Thornhill shows Marlborough victorious, with his troops at Blenheim spread out for battle. Long, vaulted corridors running from the north and south sides of the Great Hall are typical of Vanbrugh. The staircase is concealed by the arcaded eastern wall. The complicated lock for the hall door was copied from a lock found on the gates of Warsaw. The Saloon. The state dining-room is used by the family once a year, on Christmas Day. The table is laid with a Minton service with silver gilt. The
silver centre piece shows Marlborough on horseback after the Battle of Blenheim. The murals and painted ceilingarebyLouisLaguerre (1663 - 1721). The marble doorcases by Grinling Gibbons, the overdoors are emblazoned with the two-headed Eagle crest of the Duke of Marlborough as a Prince of the Roman Empire. TheLongLibrary.Originally designed as a picture gallery, this 55 metre long room has a fine stucco ceiling. There are full length portraits of Queen Anne, King William III and the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Plus a magnificentWillis organ at the north end. Two marble sculptures of Marlborough and Queen Anne are also displayed here. The Formal Gardens. 9th Duke of Marlborough created the formal gardens in the 1920’s.The French landscape architect Achille Duchêne, redesigned the previous gardens to provide the Palace with the formal gardens seen today. Water Terraces, designed around the Bernini rivergods’ fountain; beautiful Italian Garden centering on the Mermaid Fountain designed by Waldo Story; the beautiful Secret Garden water features, bridges, ponds and streams. 101
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Addicted to McDonald’s Frappes! by Beauty Brite My husband and I are addicted to the Caramel and Mocha frappes from McDonald’s and when I realized we were buying one at least once a day, I decided to look online for homemade recipes. I found one that I have been using for the past 4 weeks or so and love it! It’s really easy to make, although my homemade version isn’t as sweet as McDonald’s, I am happy with the taste!
Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate Ingredients 1 Cup ground coffee 32 ounce container (1 quart) Strainer, Large basket type coffee filters 102
I barely made it 4 days without a homemade mocha frappe because we were out of vanilla almond milk. I made myself my mocha frappe this afternoon and forgot how delicious it tastes! I am not sure how much money we are saving by making it at home, but I do know that I can have one anytime I want without leaving home and I can have as many as I want! If you are as addicted we are, I am posting the recipe below.
Preparation *Place ground coffee in container, fill with cold water. Cover and let sit on kitchen counter for twelve to fifteen hours. Place strainer over large bowl and put coffee filter inside. Slowly pour over about half of the coffee and let sit until strained. Replace filter and repeat. Store coffee concentrate in fridge.
Caramel/Mocha Frappe Recipes Ingredients: ½ cup strong coffee (I use cold-brewed coffee concentrate-recipe follows) ½ cup milk (I use vanilla almond milk and it works fine, feel free to use any type of milk you have on hand) 1 Tbsp chocolate syrup for mocha frappe; Hershey’s caramel ice cream topping for caramel frappe Optional: 2 tsp. sugar (you could probably omit this if you wanted, would save 15 calories) 1 cup ice cubes Preparation* Put into blender and blend until smooth. Top with whipped cream and drizzle with syrup. * This coffee concentrate can be used in several coffee recipes that call for strong coffee, or mixed with equal parts water and heated to drink as regular coffee. 103
Aurorae yoga mats include illuminating colors, focal point icon, extra long and extra thick yoga mats as well as yoga bags, and yoga accessories. Browse their best reviewed yoga mats, yoga bags and yoga accessories for all your yoga needs. My Review: by Beauty Brite www.beautybrite.com
Aurorae Yoga by beauty brite review
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I first started working out in 2003 doing pilates three times a week and I still have my first yoga/pilates mat! Over the years, I stuck with pilates until I found another workout program called Turbo Jam! I have now upgraded to Turbo Fire. Throughout the week, Turbo Fire includes
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a stretch, tone, and sculpting class which usually requires the use of a yoga mat. When I found Aurorae Yoga, I knew their product would be perfect for me! Their yoga mats are made with eco safe material, biodegradable, and phthalates free. Besides the beautiful bold colors of my yoga mat, I noticed that my mat doesn’t have that chemical smell that other mats have. I received the Northern Lights Yoga
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Mat in Sunset (orange and yellow) and love the colors! They are so bright, uplifting, and positive to me. The extra length of my yoga mat is an added benefit too, especially during my long stretches that I don‘t have to worry about slipping off my mat! I may be short, but the extra length gives me the extra space to work with. The Northern Lights yoga
mat has a nice texture to it and is sticky enough to keep me grounded during each stretch and pose. The mat feels soft and thick enough to give me the extra cushion on my bottom for my toning and sculpting classes. The mat may be bigger than the average mat, but it’s light when rolled up! I just love it! You can find Aurorae Yoga on Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon.
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BIRTHDAY TWINS: AUGUST CELEBRITY BIRTHDAY TWINS By Rach Gee August is here but the summer is far from over! If your birthday falls in August, check our your birthday twins. And we wish you a very Happy Birthday and a happy new year to you! For more famous birthday twins, go to: www.famousbirthdays.com 1st August 1963 – Collio (Rapper) 2nd August 1977 – Edward Furlong (Actor) 3rd August 1950 – John Landis (Film Director) 4th August 1961 – Barack Obama (44th US President) 5th August 1930 – Neil Armstrong (First man on the moon) 6th August 1928 – Andy Warhol (Artist) 7th August 1884 – Billie Burke (Actress) 8th August 1866 – Matthew Henson (Explorer) 9th August 1968 – Gillian Anderson (Actress) 10th August 1928 – Jimmy Dean (Singer) 11th August 1953 – Hulk Hogan (Wrestler) 12th August 1931 – William Goldman (Screenwriter) 13th August 1930 – Don Ho (Entertainer) 14th August 1966 – Halle Berry (Actress) 15th August 1912 – Julia Child (Chef ) 16th August 1972 – Emily Robison (Singer) 17th August 1892 – Mae West (Actress) 18th August 1957 – Denis Leary (Comedian) 19th August 1871 – Orville Wright (Inventor) 20th August 1966 - “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (Guitarist) 21st August 1929 – X.J. Kennedy (Poet) 22nd August 1920 – Ray Bradbury (Author) 23rd August 1946 – Keith Moon (Drummer) 24th August 1890 – Duke Kahanamoku (Surfer) 25th August 1961 – Billy Ray Cyrus (Singer) 26th August 1910 – Mother Teresa (Nun who cared for the poor and sick) 27th August 1988 – Alexa Vega (Actress) 28th August 1965 – Shania Twain (Singer) 29th August 1958 – Michael Jackson (Singer) 30th August 1982 – Andy Roddick (Tennis Player) 31st August 1936 – Marva Collins (Teacher who encouraged children to excell) 106
Birthday Twins! What’s more cool than finding someone who shares the same birthday date with you? No matter how far away you live from one another an instant connection is made. On one and the same day, you party together to celebrate Your own Special Day!
say a very Happy Birthday to: 3rd August 1957, Caroline French from Australia 11th August 1963, Teresa Uriarte from USA, 13th August 1958, Alice Fenerty from New Zealand 13th August 1957, Nancy from USA 24th August 1974, Tonya Cassell from USA, 27th August 1981, Alisa Evers - van Eck, The Team of Sandbook.Net would like to Netherlands
29th August 1978, Jennifer from Mansfield, Ohio, USA May you all have a wonderful day! To join our birthday twin section, send us your birthday, name, country and email to our email: fun@sandbook.net To contact any of our Birthday Twins, log onto our website and look at the Birthday Twin Section. 107 107
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