Pen pals .....anyone?
By Rocketj1
@rocketj1 (6955)
United States
September 9, 2008 8:17am CST
Before the internet, when I was in school (when dinosaurs were alive haha) I had several pen pals from around the world: Finland,The Netherlands,Malaysia,the Philippines,Australia. There is such a great thrill in getting a hand-written letter from an exotic far-off place. I made such wonderful friendships this way and learned so much about other countries from the perspective of someone who lived there. I LOVED getting a reply and usually sat right down to write back immediately. I'm still trying to locate my friend from Penang, Malaysia.
One of my penpals was from the Netherlands and I had friends who were cooincidentally visiting the exact same town to attend a wedding. They were able to hand-deliver a gift to my friend from me. Awesome, huh?!
How about you? Is writing letters longhand something you like to do? Do you have penpals? Where do they live? How long have you been writing?
4 responses
@shimly (23)
• China
9 Sep 08
i have had lots of penpal,but just around my own country!
For i am a chinese with poor english skill.
I really want to make some foreign friends to improve my english and talk to each other!
May i talk to you feel free just like friends did?
But penpal? Use the paper? I think it is a slow way!
If i can use the Email to write to you?
AND our chinese called it "e_pal"
MY address:xiamihappy99@163.com
Hope to become your friend!
1 person likes this
@sapphire67 (41)
• United States
9 Sep 08
Penpals!! How funny. I had penpals when I was in school. I can't for the life of me remember where they were from but of course that was a lifetime ago. That's very cool about your penpal. Especially having your gift hand delivered. How fun!!
1 person likes this
@rocketj1 (6955)
• United States
10 Sep 08
My Malaysian penpals were acquired in an unusual way. An article appeared in my city's newspaper about a woman who's name ended up in a Malaysian newspaper. She was listed as someone who wanted a penpal. She had no idea how her name ended up there. She was inundated with addresses and asked if people would take some off her hands. She sent me quite a list and I ended up regularly writing to about 3 that were my age.Weird, right?:)
@sanjo0679 (225)
• United States
9 Sep 08
Yes, I do believe I had a penpal at one time but for the life of me I cannot seem to remember where they were from. I, though, thoroughly enjoyed actual, pen-in-hand, letter writing. I always found it to be rather theraputic. I wrote to many of our soldiers overseas, especially during the Vietnam War Era. (Needless to say I'm not of the current generation.) My best friend moved away when we were in out mid-teens and during that time (early 70's) letter writing was our main line of communication, even though I wrote many more letters than I ever received from her. More thought goes in to actual pen-in-hand letter writing. You actual have to pay attention to what you're doing rather than using a computer with using spell-check.
1 person likes this
