Incoming postcards

     After InCoWriMo, Lettermo and Write_On, I got a little overwhelmed with my mail pile and let it sit for a while. I'm in a frantic race to reply to all mail by Monday, August 26th when I go back to school. 8 letters to go.  I'm going to do it. It is said "
     In order to get good mail, you need to send good mail." The other day, I was straightening up the desk where my computer is and I saw my pile of postcards to put away. I realized that, compared to the average person, I get a massive amount of personal mail. I send a lot too, but this pile made me happy. I thought I'd share with you some of the great postcards that I've received just this month. For anyone considering Postcrossing, this is where most of these Postcards came from. (I apologize if I posted a few of these before, I didn't want to scroll through all the posts to check since I don't have a lot of time tonight.)  It's so great to connect with people across the globe in a positive way.I've written where each card is from above the cards:

Australia:

Belgium

 

Canada

 

 Remember my vacation from last post? This is the famous "Three Churches" I was talking about. I bought myself this postcard as a souvenir.

 China:

 Czech Republic:

 Finland:

France:

Germany:

 

 

Hong Kong:

Japan

 Khazakhstan:

Luxembourg (And I understood most of the German without needing to look it up!):

Malaysia:

 Russia

 Taiwan

US

 (The Portland card is from a #Write_on  pal.)

 

So, ask you can see, I get a great variety of cards.I have lots of other news to share, some good some not so good. Well, nothing bad,  just a little stressful. I am going to let myself get back to school before writing those posts.

July 12

Good news, it seems that my writing mojo is back. (This may be bad news if you follow me on Twitter and have gotten my million notifications of sending a Postcrossing card. Sorry). I spent some time yesterday and this morning writing thank you notes and writing some Postcrossing cards. I look forward to tossing them all in the mail today and then attempting to tackle my overwhelming "respond" pile. Thanks to everybody who has been patiently waiting. Postcrossing cards are being sent to: Russia, Germany, Canada, Japan, Finland, USA (California),Portugal, Poland, France, Netherlands, and Romania. 

 

 

  It will be nice to start receiving so many cards back once these ones are registered. I hope to have the maximum amount of cards traveling as I am allowed to. I think I'm up to 19 now. I have a few more to send tomorrow and then I'll be at the maximum.

Secret Christmas RR- #1

     For the past few years I have participated in the Secret Christmas Round Robin in the Postcrossing forums. I love seeing Christmas wishes from different countries. Here are some of the Postcrossing cards, as well as some from penpals around the world:

Varnoja, Lithuania

 Ognesk, France

 Angie, US-

 Masako-k, Japan-

Manu86, Germany

 Barbizon, Netherlands

Christina and Tobi, Germany- Advent calendar

 Donna, Canada

     I will add more posts as they come in. Wishing all the people who read my blog a wonderful Christmas filled with many blessings!

Japanese Candy II

     Happy Halloween! We just got home from trick or treating and I decided to do a few more candy trials so I didn't steal candy from my kids. lol.
      Big Thunder II:

     The cookie pieces inside reminded me of a mix between Oreos and the "chocolate crunch" pieces in Dairy Queen's ice cream cakes.

      Frankenstein Candy- no English on the package.

    Excuse my oldest son in the background. Apparently the dog costume and seeing himself on a screen was too much to handle.

Something new in the spirit of Halloween

     Our family will "celebrate" Halloween tomorrow. In the spirit of Halloween, and because I don't understand Japanese, I thought I would try something (scary for me) different.  Recently I received a package from Japan that had many different types of candy. Fortunately/unfortunately, most of the text is in Japanese so I have no idea what I'm eating. (Fortunate because I feel fine trying something new. Unfortunate because Tim has food allergies and now I can't share.) So, David and I decided to make a few videos telling what we thought.  Disclaimer: I'm swapping with someone that I trust and intelligently packed. Obviously, be careful about swapping and eating things you get through the mail.
    We tried 3 different candy bars tonight. The first one was Tirol Chocolate.

    This is my first attempt ever recording a video for the blog and it was spontaneous, so I apologize I'm not all dressed up with makeup, wonderful lighting, etc. This is a pretty good representation of just every day me at the end of a long day.

    Overall, this was pretty good. I think Japanese chocolate tastes a little more sweet to me than American chocolate. It also tastes a little creamier.

Next up... Sequioa?

   Very tasty. Kit Kats are one of my favorite candies here in the US. Ironically, that leads us to the candy I saved for last in hopes that it would be delicious.  I forgot to take a picture.

   Well, that was interesting. This led me to research other types of Kit Kats. I knew there were some crazy ones. Check out this article that tells about "weird and wacky flavors" of Kit Kats in Japan. I will have to steal all the American Kit Kats from my children's Halloween treats to purge this taste from my memory.

      This was a lot of fun. I still have 6 pieces to try so I'll save 3 for one day and the last 3 for another.  People reading from other countries- have you ever had an American candy/sweet that you really disliked?
     

recent postcards

   I know I have not shared my mail lately. I have been slow to log everything. Here are a few cards I have received lately:
From Japan:

 

From the Czech Republic

 

From Australia: (this card changes depending on the angle you're looking at it)

 

From Russia:

 

From Thailand:

 

From Taiwan:

 

From South Korea: 

From China: The card was very shiny so this was the only way I could photograph it without it reflecting too much.

From South Africa:

 

From the US: (Though I think the first one is actually a picture in Belgium?)

   I have a few more that I will photograph and post in another post. I got all almost of these cards through Postcrossing.(The one from Washington DC was given to me by one of my 8th grade students when they traveled there as a class)  If you have not heard of Postcrossing before, I strongly recommend that you check it out here. I have learned so much and gotten so many beautiful cards.