My parents had a garage sale last weekend. Hanging out in the garage for a while, was getting boring so I started going through an old box of my stuff. I found lots of "gems" in there. My old tap shoes (which of course, I put on and tapped my heart out), my Cabbage Patch Kids, some old school work and awards, all my Girl Scout patches from back in the day, etc. I also came across a TON of old letters. You see, in my Freshman year of High School, my French teacher had a program where you can sign up for a pen pal from another country. Well, of course, the intent was for us to get a French pen pal so we could practice our French. So what did I do?? I signed up for an Australian pen pal instead! Then a Malaysian one. And an Italian one! haha. Most of the letters were from them.
I also found some letters from my cousin Nina from the Netherlands. We had never met at the time. Her grandma (oma) and my grandpa (opa) were brother and sister. So my dad and her mom are first cousins which makes us second cousins. So our grandparents set us up to write to each other since we were the same age. We wrote for years and then after High School, Nina and her family came to visit us in California and we were able to meet. It was so funny to my parents when I knew that Nina liked pizza or that she LOVES ice cream. They kept forgetting that we had been writing for about 4 years by then. A few years later, Nina and her friend again visited California and this time stayed with me in my 1st apartment. We even went to Vegas! :-) Fun times. We still write, however now it's emails and reading each other's blogs. :-) Oh how times have changed.
My other Favorite pen pal has been my Australian pen pal, Alicia. I've also been writing her since my freshman year. Which means we've been writing for about 16 years!! Wow, just doing the math right now makes me feel OLD! We immediately hit it off when we started writing. We had a lot in common and we were both sooo excited to be receiving international mail! In one of the letters, she mentioned how she really wanted a pen pal from California, but you could only check the box for USA. You couldn't pick a state. So she had been hoping she would get one from CA. And she got it!!! haha. We sent each other pictures, magazine clippings, mixed tapes (yes, i said tapes. not cd's yet!), videos, samples of our money, etc. It was awesome! She also sent me tons of pictures of my first crush.... Dean Cain. All of her magazines had these poster pictures of him which she gladly sent to me and I then wallpapered my room with them. Through the years, things changed. We started making mixed CD's instead of tapes. We started emailing instead of writing letters. Eventually we created Facebook pages to be able to see each other's pictures.
I was able to visit her in Australia about 6 years ago. Wow, can't believe it's been that long ago already. I flew from LA to Sydney. I did work at Marriott back then as well. So I stayed at a Marriott downtown. I had the first night to my self in Sydney. I had a feeling I would need the rest because of the jet lag. So, she met me at the hotel the next day. It was CRAZY to meet her. We had been writing for years, but had never met. However, it seemed like we were just old friends that hadn't seen each other in a while. We hung out in Sydney for 2 more nights. We went to Taronga Zoo which has an amazing view of the harbor and Sydney.
http://www.taronga.org.au/taronga-zoo.aspx We checked out views of the Syndey Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Went to The Rocks and a few market places where I was able to get my Aussie souvineers. (pronounced Ozzy....not Ossie!)
Her boyfriend came to pick us up in Sydney and drove us to their apartment in Wollongong, NSW. Wollongong is about 1 1/2 hours south of Sydney. They showed me around their house and then we went to her parents house. It was crazy because I've seen tons of pictures of the house so I felt immediately connected to it. I absolutely loved her family. Her parents, Cheryl and Phil. Her brother and his girlfriend, Adam and Debbie. And of course, her boyfriend, Matt. her mom made us an amazing dinner one night and the other night we all went out to their traditional Sunday night family dinner spot. It was actually more of a "club". A sports club. It's called Collegians Rugby League Football Club.
http://www.collegians.com.au/ It reminded me of something between a casino and a pizza parlor. They had a few different food options where you get your food and bring it to whichever table you want. They had games, kino, bingo and of course, TV's for sporting games. I wanted to go to a place where they always go so I could feel like a local. Their dad suggested the club and everyone sighed and groaned complaining that they always go there. So of course I said...."Well then that's where I want to go!". It was tons of fun.
Then the "kids" all hung out in the family room back at their house watching the American Video Movie Awards and talked about everything. I felt like I really should have studied before I came to Australia. They were all very interested in asking tons of questions. It was really fun.
Her dad also gave us a nice tour of Wollongong. It was a great trip and I wish I could go back and visit again. I would especially like to meet the new member of her family, Mia. Her daughter! Her and Matt have since gotten married and just had their first little girl!
I just can't believe how long we've been writing. Lots of good memories from all those letters I found. I'm so glad I kept them. Nothing like some old "snail mail"! I think it's a lost art and we should all send a letter now and then. Instead of an email. Email is amazing and instant. But snail mail lasts forever! haha.
Had to throw in the tap shoes picture!
Happy Travels travel peeps!
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