If only we had our own owls to carry letters...

Hello there! How have you all been? I want to give you a quick update on what has been happening in my little snail mail world recently. Although at first I want to ask you a question: have you ever felt disappointed by your own mailbox before? If it comes to me, the postman in my area must clearly hate my letterbox because he's been avoiding putting letters in it for a whole long week! Several times I walked all the way to the gate* to check my mailbox for letters every single day. Every time my high hopes were destroyed by finding out the mailbox was empty. No, wait... I actually found A BILL there once! Has everyone forgotten about me? Or is the postal service really slow? To be honest, I wish everyone could have their own owl that one could use for carrying letters just like in the Harry Potter series. Wouldn't that be wonderful? If you ask me, I think it would be much quicker and handier! We wouldn't have to rely on the postal service. There would hardly be any problems with sending letters to your friends plus it would be much cheaper ☺ 

source

source

I love Harry Potter, by the way! ♥♥♥

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The past week was particularly busy for me. I had a couple of family reunions and had to prepare for my exams in college. Thankfully, I managed everything alright. I didn't write many letters, although I posted a postcard to the wonderful Edii who also runs a snail mail blog: http://ediimail.blogspot.com/

Edi hasn't been feeling too great lately so I hope the postcard cheered her up a bit! 

the postcard I sent to Edi last week

Other than that, I thought I would reactivate my account on Postcrossing again! Admittedly, I closed my profile on that website a while back but I have missed it. There is something special and magical about choosing a postcard you are going to send to a stranger living in a foreign country! This time I got to write postcards to Russia and Germany:

this one is travelling to Russia

and this one is going to reach Germany

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Before I end this post I would like to ask you some questions about your snail mail plans for the summer this year. Are you going anywhere? If you do, are you likely to send postcards / letters to your friends? Do you think summertime is when people get most postcards? I wish you a good start of your summer holiday! My break hasn't started for me just yet! I have a couple more college exams to pass... Hopefully I'll have more time for myself when I'm back in Ireland in about two weeks!

Cheers,

Caroline

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*To those who are feeling confused: In Poland and some other European countries people have letterboxes hanging on the tall gates encircling their private properties. In Ireland and the United Kingdom there are no mailboxes. In those countries most houses have special slots in their front doors through which letters are delivered. Additionally, in the United States people have mailboxes that differ from the European ones:

an example of a Polish letterbox (source)

letter slots in the UK and Ireland (source)

a typical mailbox in the USA (source)

Intro post: Welcome to my blog! + Outgoing mail.

Hello everyone and welcome to my snail mail blog! After a long time thinking whether I should create a blog about my hobby or not, I have ultimately decided to give it a go. It was by no means an easy decision for me because I am aware of the fact I'm not great at writing. Besides, running a blog requires regularity if it comes to post writing and I'm not good at that, either. But you know what? Sometimes you have to challenge yourself, change your mindset and make a U-turn. I might be good at a lot of things but achieving those bigger and smaller successes required time and a lot of commitment. Same applies to developing your writing skills. I thought that I would never get any better at writing if I didn't train myself. This blog will make me connect something pleasant and beneficial together, right? So here I am, writing the first post on this freshly created blog!

On my Instagram (@rasmuser) I said I would publish the first post in mid-July because I thought that I would be able to use my boyfriend's camera and take better pictures then. Instead, I have decided to just work with whatever I have at the moment and make the best out of it. Maybe the quality of my pictures isn't a knockout but it's not too bad, either, methinks!

Why have I decided to make a blog about snail mail?

First of all, snail mail is one of the greatest hobbies of mine. I was obsessed with letters ever since I learned how to write. I used to collect a magazine about dogs when I was eight or nine years old, and on the last page of that magazine there were a bunch of pen pal ads. The age range of those people was various but the majority of them were kids, just like me! One day I grabbed a pen and a clean sheet of paper and began writing. The words started to flow... I wrote about my hobbies, interests, dislikes, animals, school - pretty much everything that came to my mind at the time. Writing my first serious letter felt amazing, and what was even better was when I received a response from the person I wrote to! I still remember that big, red envelope filled with stickers and messy 8-year old kid's handwriting. The memory brings a wide smile to my face ☺

It's always nice to brighten up your postbox with things other than bills and junk mail!

My name is Caroline and I am 21 years old. I still enjoy writing and receiving traditional letters. My attitude has never changed - I only got more mature and I write a bit differently but, other than that, everything's still the same. I enjoy quiet evenings (especially when it's autumn!) when I can light my favourite candle, make myself a large cup of tea, sit comfortably on my chair and begin writing a long, meaningful letter. Those are the best evenings for me. Of course, I get overwhelmed sometimes - I'm only human. I lose the enthusiasm for letter-writing but it always comes back. I feel bad when I let my pen pals wait too long for my response but I've made a promise to myself that I would improve that. Yesterday I replied to a letter I got back in January this year. It was send to me by the wonderful Ilga who lives in Germany. I'm sorry for taking so long to reply! 

Little snippets of the letter to Ilga:

Two days ago I also replied to my other pen pal's letter - Ruta's! I posted the letter yesterday so hopefully it'll reach you soon! Fly, fly away, all the way to Canada!

That would be it for this post. I hope my love for snail mail will inspire you in some way! Writing letters is incredibly beautiful and if you've never written one, you should! Find yourself a pen pal and feel the magic of the snail mail world! Cheers!

Caroline