L is for Letters

My word choice for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday is letters. When was the last time you wrote a letter? In summer, I like to sit on my balcony and catch up with my correspondence. Mind you -- I only write few letters nowadays, but letter writing is still a dear part of my life. I have written letters since in my childhood and had dozens of pen pals during my teens.

There is something special -- even magical -- about putting your thoughts and daily experiences to paper and send them to a dear friend living on the other side of the world. Do you know the thrill of finding a letter in your mailbox, especially when it's written on a colorful stationery? I have saved one sheet of each of my stationeries since August 1988.

Dreams of One Thousand and One Nights -- and memories of laboriously writing letters in French to a pen pal living in Tunisia.

In the beginning, I found my international pen pals through the Finnish company International Youth Service or IYS for short. For a small fee, you got the address of a girl or boy in your age group. Sadly, IYS doesn't exist anymore -- it closed down in June 2008. The website doesn't exist anymore, but I found somewhere else this last statement by the staff of IYS:

IYS will be closing down this summer, by 30th June 2008

The International Youth Service (IYS) has been operating since 1952, over 56 years now. We have arranged foreign pen friends for school children and students aged 10 - 20 years in over 100 different countries.

The internet has lead to a situation where sending ordinary letters is old-fashioned. Letter writing, once very popular, is now a hobby of a few.

We have come to the end of a certain period. As we can not find enough young people interested in penfriendship any more, we have decided to close down this firm by 30th June 2008.

We thank all our customers, both children and teachers, in past years and wish you happy times. Don’t stop learning different languages and cultures and keep up those penfriendships you have managed to build up.

The staff of INTERNATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE

Over the years I lost contact with most of my former pen pals. Most of the time, I didn't get a reply anymore. On other occasions, there were misunderstandings or we simply drifted apart. It's nice though that all those people have been part of my life for a while.

Another popular way of finding new pen pals prior the Internet era were friendship books or FBs for short. I especially liked the ones which were beautifully decorated. Anyway, below you see one of the boxes in which I keep the letters I have received over the years.

My name on one of the many envelopes. I am still in contact with the woman who wrote this. She is now married with four lovely children.

I love the different, beautiful stamps on the envelopes. I also try to buy special stamps for my letters, as they look so much nicer.

Isn't that airmail drawing just adorable? I even met the woman who drew the bird a couple of years ago, but after a while, she didn't reply to my letters anymore. I hope she and her son are doing well.

Japanese stamps.

These days I like writing both emails and letters. Emails are cheaper, quicker and easier, and they can be great if they are written like a real letter with salutations and embedded photos. Additionally, it's wonderful to receive a real letter now and then -- a greeting card or some personal lines. I am still open to get to know new pen pals and hope that will never change. Maybe you are in the mood to write a letter now -- go for it!

Happy letter writing and pen palling!