Letternet & Me

What is Letternet? (http://www.letternet.de/web/friends/home)

It is a German Club, organised by 'Deutsche Post', where you can find penfriends from all over the world. 'Letternet enables you to make contact with interesting pen pals who like writing and are looking to find a pen pal.

Letternet is the world's largest, free-of-charge pen pal club! They have members in more than 140 different countries. If you want, you can write to their members in languages other than English, such as French or Italian, for example.'

My Story

Once upon a time ... at the beginning of the 2000's years, at the end of my primary school, some teachers recommended  Letternet to me. They told that it gives a good opportunity to develop my language skills. I can get one or more penfriends from all over the world and I can write in German and also in English. They gave me a few magazines called Lettermag.

I applied for a membership with a postcard from this journal. I could decide from which country, age, gender etc. I want a penfriend. I have chosen Germany because the first language I have learnt was English and the second is German and I wanted to practice both.

At first I got two addresses, one was a German girl and the other one was a German guy. It was very cool to get to know eachother, exchange infos about our culture, home countries, languages, families, habbits, hobbys, favourite things. I remember that I was very excited when I got a letter. I tried to send always something special, even if it was seen only in the paper pattern. At that time, I remember that in Germany there was a much  bigger choice from that and I adored it. 

In every season I also got the magazine where people could read articles from different topics and true stories how penfriends meet eachother after years of sending letters. I always thought that it is impossible for me. It seemed so far. But I loved these tales and secretly never give up dreaming about it.

The years were passing quickly. During secondary school we kept in contact more or less but when the internet got avaliable for everyone, we just stopped writing letters to eachother so often. E-mails and MSN substituted them. Then I attended to university and the 'Facebook times' came. We were just discussing with my friends that how cool this network is because people can find there forigners too. That's when the idea came into my mind to add my 'old' penfriend, Tobias. I just searched for his name and I was lucky. I found him without any difficulites. He was surprised and happy that we could get in touch again. Since then we wrote messages to echother about the typical topics 'how are you', 'what's up' etc.

Last winter, in my final year of the university, I decided that after graduation, I want to travel and work abroad. I have chosen Germany because I wanted to develope my German knowledge and get some experiences at the workfield. I have found an EVS (European Voluntary Service) project. (http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/european-voluntary-service_en.htm) I had to write a CV and a motivation letter in German so I asked Tobias to correct my papers. He was kind and gave me some tipps. He liked my idea to come to a foreign country.Then I applied and got accepted for a project in Leipzig. Now, I am working since two months as a European volunteer in a German kindergarten.

In August, I had an on arrival training in Walberberg, Nordrhein-Westfalen. Tobias lives in this county so we got very excited and decided to meet. I was so glad that he managed to come to Walberberg. It is a village and my accomodition was outskirts, next to a nice forest and a beautiful lake. We went for a long walk to the lake and after that we drunk a coffee in the one and only Cafe in the village. Actually the place did not really matter because we enjoyed eachother's company so much. I hope we could meet again till I live in Germany and of course after that too. 

This experience gave me a lot of energy for my staying in Germany. I am very happy that we could make this meeting happen. One of my teenage dreams came true. I wish for every Letternet members to experience the same.

I have chosen to write this story in English because it is the language that most of my blog readers understand. I hope I get your attention and interest. Write letters, das macht Spaß!