Quick mail update.

Hello dears,
how are you doing? I'm pretty fine actually, I just had dinner with my boyfriend and after this post will read a bit and get my stuff ready (I'm heading to Berlin on thursday to a meeting and will stay there until saturday) and then sleep. 

I just wanted to show you the last bits of mail that went through my hands...

There was this letter to Alex in the Philippines. I used an old paper bag for the envelope and would have loved to send it like that...

Letter bag

 But of course we know that one cannot do that, so I had to seal the envelope with my new tapes :)

Back of the Envelope

 I also finished my reply to Korina and sent that out, too.

Outgoings

 I always feel the urge to describe the place the letter is going to if it's an unusual country, like Guam here. Do you feel the same? A post office worker once asked me where a specific country was so I feel safer specialising that...

Till Eulenspiegel stamp - I love that one! Till Eulenspiegel is a famous figure of German literature.

Another famous German invention - This stamp celebrates 125 years of the car. The patent from the firm Benz & Co. dates January 29, 1886 and is said to be the "birth certificate" of the car.

 The next letter that went out was for my pal M. in the Netherlands. Her birthday is coming up, so apart from a letter I also sent her some extra stuff. What kind of things do you send your penpals for their birthdays? I found it a bit hard to find things flat and light enough to mail...
And a letter to my pal F. in Italy.

Letters to M. and F.

 Of course I had to use that flag stamp for the letter for F... We'll see who wins tomorrow.
M. is being greeted by the congratulations-fishes :)

Suiting stamps for the letters...

Incoming of today!

After six weeks of travelling, I received a package from Nicole! So now we all know how long it can take if you don't put the airmail label on your envelopes...

Besides a dress which I'm actually wearing at the moment I received four AWESOME envelopes. Thank you so much! It will be really hard to part with these....

Envelopes from Nicole

 More incoming of today: A letter all the way from Uganda! Such an awesome and interesting letter, I really look forward to getting to know that girl better.

Long letter from Uganda.

 Oh and look at the stamps. I love animal stamps, I think they are the greatest...

Great stamps from Uganda

 And the last incoming of today, a letter from Lucas, written with a fountain pen of course :)

Letter from Lucas

 Lastly, here are the outgoings of tomorrow: A letter to Lucas, a postcrossing card and two "first postcards" to Sri Lanka.

Outgoing of tomorrow... many alps there :)

 And lastly, the stamps I used today.

So, that's it from me. I sent many letters on the weekend which aren't shown on here, to Shelby, Laura, Patry, Anne, Bee and Jennifer. I hope they'll arrive soon :)

Take care all of you!

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Liebster Award

I guess we all saw this award around the last days...

So, I have been tagged by Sabrina! Thank you dear :)

What is This??

The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have 200 followers or less.
The word Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.


Here's the Rules:

1. Each person must post 11 random facts about themselves
2. Answer 11 questions the tagger has given you and give 11 questions for the people you tagged
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post
4. Tell them you've tagged them. Remember, no tag backs!

So, here are my facts:

1 - I can eat a lot, except for when it's food of my university restaurant. I can't stand the food from there, but there are no other options, yet that the next supermarket is at two kilometers and in only 45 minutes lunch break I don't have the time to go there, get something to eat and go back.

2 - I walk everywhere, if it's more than three kilometers I take the bike. I can't remember the last time I took the bus here in Germany. I don't take the car (if we have it... which doesn't happen too often) for things I have to do in town and usually I can take the train to go anywhere I need to go.

3 - I started snail mailing when I was seven.

4 - In my whole life, I only saw one James Bond movie.

5 - The only fruit I ate until I was 19 was apples. Since then, it's also mandarins and pineapple :)

6 - I love to have a clean apartment, but I'm horrible at keeping it clean - I'm super chaotic.

7 - I collect stamps but I can't bear to take them off the letters I receive from my pen pals, so I don't really get new ones regularly.

8 - I'm one of the smartest kids in class :D ;-P

9 - I don't wear makeup.

10 - I just drank more than a liter of milk in the last 40 minutes. Don't give me coffee in the morning, milk is just fine. Also for lunch, in the afternoon, in the evening... Always fresh milk with 1,5 % fat. Just perfect. 

11 - While rowing, me and my boat partner once got lost on the water - and had to ask a sailor on how to get to a certain island where our group went to.

Okay, now on to the questions from Sabrina:

1. What inspired you to blog the way you do?

I saw some other blogs with the theme and I wanted to have more pen pals and share mail I send and receive... the rest is just me. I don't have any role models for blogging.

 
2. What is your favorite post you published?

I really don't know.

 
3. What do you see right now?

My messy desk, my boyfriend across the room and white fluffy clouds on blue sky outside the window :)

 
4. What is your best feature/characteristic? 

My boyfriend says: that you're always so joyful and laugh so much.

 
5. You are offered a super power. Which one do you choose? 

Ooooh - can't I have two? Or three? Or as many as I want? No? Well, than I guess I'll take time control. Stopping time whenever you need it etc.

 
6. What's one thing you see every day?

Hmmm... me. The rest is unsteady :) On the good days I also see my boyfriend.

 
7. Do you have any regrets?

Some, but this is not the space for them. Not that many though.

 
8. Which is your favorite blog? 

I can't decide on this one. I think all the blogs I follow are special to me (otherwise I wouldn't follow, right?).

 
9. If you could do one thing without suffering the consequences, what would you do?

Honestly? Robbing a bank :)

 
10. What is your favorite TV show? 

I don't have a TV. The show I like though is Gilmore Girls. It's also the only show I saw regularly. 

 
11. What are your favorite kind of clothes?! 

Totally depends on the weather. Usually I am dressed in a jeans, t-shirt and sneakers. I like dresses, too, but mostly at home. I don't wear anything shorter than up to the knee to university / work.

Here are the 11 Questions:

1. Do the people from your "real life" know you are a blogger?

2. If you won a million $ at the lottery, what would you do with it?

3. What are the things you cannot go without? List five.

4. Which was the last book you read and how did you like it?

5. What are your favourite sweets?

6. If you were to travel somewhere where would you go? And who would you go with?

7. What are you most looking forward to right now?

8. What is your earliest memory in life?

9. You are offered a super power. Which one do you choose?

10. What is your favorite season and why?

11. What was your dream job as a kid?

I'm tagging Laura.

Take care!

A fan letter

Dear Penpals,

I think there’s one thing you need to know: You are great!

I just realized that today; when I finally had time to really read the letters I got the past week. Whenever I find something from you in my mailbox, it brightens my day. I can’t wait to read your letters, I’m wishing I’d have more time to reply to you instead of studying and I read your letters over and over again.

My classmates glare at my letters when they see them among my things in class, often saying “wow that looks so pretty!” or “where does that envelope come from?”.

At night, when I’m home, I’m telling my boyfriend “Oh, you know what Laura told me? And guess what happened to Rocio! And have you heard about that strange water law they now have in England?”

You guys are real friends to me.  And I’m so glad to have you. So thanks for being so awesome. You ROCK!

You don’t believe me? Look at the awesome mail I got this week:

From Annie in Russia

Thanks for this awesome envelope full of goodies! You surely brought a big smile to my face, looking through all this stuff. Thanks for thinking of me and sending me something!

 From Rocio in Argentina

Gracias querida por tus lindas palabras! Trataré de no estresarme tanto jajaja.

 From Alex in the Philippines

Many thanks for your awesome first letter! I’m so looking forward to building our friendship and I hope we’ll be good friends :)

 From Korina in Guam

Thank you for your first letter and the cute mini origami crane envelopes you included! I’ll send you a reply soon and I’ll make sure to use great stamps :)

 From M. in the Netherlands

Thanks for being such a great penpal and for replying so super fast. I hope your lion can roar again in the next tournament (even though I still hope that it’ll always be Germany who wins…)

 From Bee in the Czech Republic

Thanks Bee for your letter! I’m looking forward to getting to know you even better, and you did an awesome job with that drawing on your envelope!

 And, not a penpal but still a postcard

Thank you to my dearest cousin for always sending me postcards from wherever she goes and for being my cousin.

 

That’s most of the mail I received last week… Also two postcards, but they’re not that special so I won’t post them here.

Talking about stamps… (yep, I did, when talking about Korina’s letter) – I bought some new ones today. 

Thanks postoffice for having a philatelic counter with a post office worker (who knows me wohoo) who always takes his time to show me the greatest stamps and is helping me with picking the ones I want to have in my limit of 50 Euros :)

 And actually also new tape. 

New tape (four of the rolls are "old tape", but I wanted to take a complete picture...)

What do you love about your penpals?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Mail in and out

The last days my mail has been rather slow, I think partly because I don't have that much time to write letters at the moment. Once next week is over (I have to hand in the 20-pages-paper on thursday) I'll have a few days to write before I'll have to study extra hard for the exams, so please understand that my replies might take a bit longer at the moment :) Exams will be over on July 13th, so I'll reply to all mail that I haven't replied to yet by then.

However, I still sent some mail this week - on monday, actually. Plus one letter more on thursday, but I didn't take a picture of it.

Mail sent on monday

Still, I was spoiled with mail :)

I received a letter from Jennifer on cute paper,

Letter from Jennier

 a postcard from Sabrina, I especially like the big monkey :)

Postcard from Sabrina

 A letter from my pal F. from Italy. Her letters always feel like talking in real life somehow.

Letter from F.

 and a letter from Shelby in the US.

Letter from Shelby

Shelby also sent me some great stamps, thank you so much! You can't see them very well on this picture, mostly because they are still wet (due to taking them off the paper) and bad light, but they are awesome. Thanks Shelby!!

Shelby spoiled me with stamps

 And today I received a letter from Anne, thanks!!

Letter from Anne

What do you guys do in the phases where you don't have enough time to write fast replies to everybody? Any good tips? I am somewhat a bit desperate knowing that all of these awesome people who send me mail are waiting for a reply and I don't have time to send it within 10 days... That's usually my "deadline". Are you also in a busy time right now?

Take care and 
alles Liebe,
Caddi 


On a sidenote, I just saw that my package arrived in Malaysia :)

Did you ever wonder how the Germans are like?

Hello dears,

no mail today, you'll have to check the last post for that :)

But I wanted to share this article with you, which I found on the internet - I had so much fun reading it :)

http://www.uberlin.co.uk/what-i-know-about-germans/

I disagree with three things though - 
# 3 Sauerkraut is disgusting (in my opinion. I know very very few people (actually I can't think of anyone) who likes it.)
# 72 Most people I know don't talk about money.
# 78 Most people I know drink lots of tap water.

Enjoy reading :) Maybe you'll then understand me better... ;-) Did you already knew or suspected some of the things?

To the other Germans out there: Do you agree or disagree with the things on the list?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

A mail pile

Hi everybody!

Have you also been so busy? Besides the obvious workload I have from college, I also have a huge mail pile to reply to these days. I’m digging through them though :)

So, since the last time I wrote I had lots of incoming mail. 

On June 1^st, there was this postcard from Costa Rica, sent from Erick via sendsomething. It shows the biggest ox-cart of the world.

Postcard from Costa Rica

 

I also received a letter from my dear pal F. from Italy.

Letter from F. in Italy

 

The next Monday, the 4^th of June, I received three letters from the USA.

One from Laura, which I am looking forward replying to, you know why :)

Letter from Laura with a postcard of her hometown and an extra envelope for me to use inclosed

 

One from Melissa, on very creative writing paper! That’s an old children’s book telling the story of some mice. She decorated the envelope she made herself with lots of stickers and she used great stamps :) So I do have another one of those birds!

Letter from Melissa

So many stickers!

Great stamp!

 

And one letter from Brittany, which was more a selfmade postcard in an envelope.

Letter from Brittany

 

The next day, which was Tuesday, I also received one more letter – this time from T. from the USA. She works in a post office, how neat is that? She also used great stamps, I especially like the black cat.

Letter from T. in the USA

Cat stamps!

 So, that was my incoming mail of the last days :) I didn't receive anything on wednesday, yesterday was a holiday and I haven't been to my P.O. Box today (yet...).

On to the outgoing.

This was mailed out last monday. One letter to Jennifer in the UK, (which actually already arrived), one to Destiny in the US, one to F. in Italy and another one to a potential new pen pal in Kenya.

Outgoing of June 4th

 Backside of the envelopes :)

 The next day I only managed to get one piece of mail sent out, this letter is now on its way to Lithuania.

I really like the stamp with the matching sticker :)

 These are the letters going out the next time I'll pass a letterbox...
 One to Abbye in Northern Ireland,

Letter going out to Abbye in Northern Ireland

 one to Melissa in the US,

Letter to Melissa

 one to A. in the Czech Republic,

Letter to A. in the Czech Republic

 and another one, also going to the Czech Republic, but this one is going out to Barbora.

Letter to Bee in the Czech Republic

 I also got the package ready (and had to take one surprise out again, as there was a picture of a 100€ bill on it... damn duty restrictions.)

Give away

 And this is how it looks :) I hope the stamp won't get damaged! I'm a bit worried actually... But we'll see.

Give away.

So, now I have to sit down and reply to the six remaining letters. Oh, and I also have to finish two intro letters... As you see, I don't have time to be bored :)

What are your plans for the weekend?

Alles Liebe, 
Caddi

Giveaway winner

First of all, thanks to all of you for participating! I'm really sorry that I can't send the little booklet to all of you, but that would be a little bit pricey for me.

So I wrote all the valid entries on a little piece of paper and had my boyfriend pick one out of a box...

And the winner is:

Congratulations! Please tell me your address so I can send you your price :)

I'll be posting a picture of the ready-to-be-sent package in the next days :)

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Stats of the month - May 2012

Here they are - the stats of the month!
 
In may, I sent:
10 postcards and 36 letters
 
and I received:
2 postcards and 23 letters.
 
I spent 32,85€, so an average of 0,71€ per piece of mail I sent.

Most of the mail I received in May

Stats of the Month - May 2012

Since I started this blog in February, the graph up there should look like this:

Stats - February 2012 - May 2012

So, as you can see, I do send more than I receive actually... But oh well. Isn't it always like this?
How was your mail month? How many pieces of "good mail" did you get?


Alles Liebe,
Caddi


PS: Don't forget that you can still enter my giveaway!