Postcrossing Meetup (Received Cards): OKSANA from ESTONIA

We have received our first postcard from Estonia, and more concretely, from the city of Tartu; this is a place I have a special love for, as I spent one Summer month there, about a decade ago, in a 4-week course for learning the rudiments of the Estonian language.

The postcard came to us from Oksana, a teacher of Russian at the Tartu University, and 2999 kilometers away from us.

Tartu boasts of the oldest university in the country (founded in the seventeenth century), and is a bit like Santiago de Compostela: a proud, old, University city and cultural centre of its country. In Oksana's postcard we can see some of the typical landmarks of the place: the Neoclassical Main University Building, a mural nearby with the same building, the Astronomical Observatory, a boat race on the Emajogi river, that divides the town in two...

Want to learn more of the place? You can take a peek here, here and here, or alternatively, you can read what Oksana wrote for us in her postcard.

Thank you, Oksana, for your generosity in sending this card and sharing an intimate piece of yourself in your card too!

Postcrossing Meetup (Received Cards): LUDMILA from RUSSIA

We've been very busy of late at the EOI with the end of course exams and, as we have mentioned in a previous post, we won't be sending any new postcards abroad till the beginning of the next academic year, in September; nevertheless, we still have a lot of things to share which we will be posting during the Summer: the postcards we receive and the city descriptions that were written by the Advanced 1 students.

The following postcard came to us from Ludmila, who lives in the Siberian region, near Omsk, and 5530 kilometers away.

The image in her postcard shows a big postcard with a Russian inscription (maybe 'I love sending letters?') inside a globe with some of the typical monuments and landmarks of different countries (Russian Kremlin, Tower of Pisa, London's rain and double-decker buses, a Dutch windmill, the Pyramids... and a couple of planes flying around. It is a very apt metaphor of how we travel when we write to other places.

The text isn't too long, but it comes with some niceties: a sentence in Russian and some beautiful stamps, with pictures of Russian monuments.

Thank you, Ludmila, for your generosity in sending this card and sharing an intimate piece of yourself in your card too!

Stop 40 - Moscow (Russia)

Our 40th postcard is also going to be the last one for this course; it has been sent to Moscow, in Russia, 3585 kilometers away!

The postcard was sent by María Bargo, a Basic 1 student who wrote on a postcard featuring the image of a conch shell, part of the mural 'The Sea' by local painter Alfonso Costa which adorns the hall of the Old Building of our school.

Thanks, María!

Stop 39 - Spijkenisse (The Netherlands)

Our 39th postcard has been sent to Spijkenisse, in the Netherlands, 1412 kilometers away!

The postcard was sent by Juancho Cruz, an Advanced 1 student who wrote on a postcard featuring a fragment of the mural 'The Land' which was painted by the local artist Alfonso Costa and some teachers and students of the IES Virxe do Mar in the hall of the old building.

Thanks, Juancho!

Postcrossing Meetup (Received Cards): ALEKSA from LATVIA

In the last weeks we have finally received a whole bunch of postcards from abroad. The first one to arrive was written by Aleksa and comes from Latvija, Riga.

The image on her postcard shows us the coat of arms of Latvia, flanked by a lion and a griffin, and with three crowning stars (representing the three traditional regions of the country, I think) on top.

The text of the postcard isn't too long, but it includes some gems, like words in Latvian (like Sveiki, which I think means 'hello' or 'greetings') and a quote by Abraham Lincoln.

Thank you, Aleksa, for your generosity in sending this card and sharing an intimate piece of yourself in your card too!

Stop 38 - Shanghai (China)

Our 38th postcard has been sent to Shanghai, in China, 10353 kilometers away!

The postcard was sent by Raquel Davila, a Basic 1 student who wrote on a postcard featuring a fragment of the mural 'The Land' which was painted by the local artist Alfonso Costa and some teachers and students of the IES Virxe do Mar in the hall of the old building.

Thanks, Raquel!

Stop 37 - Quincy (The USA)

Our 37th postcard has been sent to Quincy, in Massachusetts (USA), 4970 kilometers away!

The postcard was sent by Susana Martínez, a Basic 1 student who wrote on a postcard featuring a fragment of the mural 'The Sea' which was painted by the local artist Alfonso Costa and some teachers and students of the IES Virxe do Mar in the hall of the old building.

Thanks, Susana!