Seriously, even the tiniest little postcard or a simple letter in an envelope means more to me than you could imagine. I am shamelessly asking for mail.
Lately, I've been quite spoiled. Let's recap:
After Johnny's awesome cards, I got an AMAZING care package from my friend Clark Barbieri :) It consisted of a box of brownie mix, 3 seasons of Scrubs on DVD (did I mention my frustration for not being able to watch anything in English?? I'll get into that later), a special Chuck collector's mug (our favorite show), and OVER A DOZEN DIDDY RIESE COOKIES!! If you have never tried Diddy Riese and you live in LA, get your butt over to Westwood right now and try some, they're amazing. Clark even went through the trouble of individually wrapping each cookie in 2 layers of cellophane and tin foil. It was incredible!!!
A little bit after, I received a much needed care package from my momma. You see, there isn't much of a "fall", in the American sense, here in France. First of all, there are no pumpkins. Well, maybe like 2...but nothing like the pumpkin patches on every corner and in front of every super market in the states. Needless to say, there is nothing pumpkin flavored either. No Halloween decorations, no jack-o-lanters, no pumpkin pie, no isles filled with candy at the supermarket...you get the idea. So my momma sent me: a pumpkin scented candle, a mini pumpkin, a picture of the whole family circa 1994 dressed in costume in a "Happy Halloween" frame, a plastic jack-o-lantern picture holder with a picture of David's latest football portrait, a gigantic can of pumpkin with 2 cans of concentrated milk to make pumpkin pie (!!!), tostadas to make ceviche (lack of Mexican food in France), and a stationary set. Needless to say, that took care of the Autumn blues right quick :) and my room smells like pumpkin!!
Then came the super secret package...My host mom came home one day with a large box that wasn't from the USPS with no sender noted. I hadn't been expecting anything so I had no idea what it was or who it was from. It turned out to be 3 deliciously scented fancy pants Dayna Decker candles! We searched all over the inside and outside of the box looking for a sender. I had no idea who would send me such a nice surprise! Finally, hidden in the top corner of an invoice, I saw the name of my friend Clark Smith :) He had meant for it to be a complete surprise, but I figured it out! haha it was a lovely surprise, nonetheless.
jWhen me and my cousin, Alyssa, were little, we used to write in little journals with sparkly pens for 1 week at a time, and then mail the journals to each other and switch off. Before I left for France, I found the journals and me and Alyssa went through them - laughing at our adorable 11 year old narratives ("My mom wouldn't take me to the mall today and now I'm mad"). So about a week ago, I received a package from Alyssa containing a brand new (grown up, I may add) journal. We decided to bring back our journal writing tradition since Alyssa is in her last year at UCSB and I'm doing my year in France - so it's a big year for the both of us. I couldn't be happier to read about everything that's going on in her life and I'm excited to share mine with her as well.
When I got home from Lyon, I had an envelope waiting for me on the kitchen table. It was from my friend Madisson, whom I met in high school and have been lucky enough to stay in touch with (for the most part). This was a nice change of pace because it was a good ol' fashioned hand-written letter - 5 pages long :) Me and Madisson haven't seen each other in a while or been able to catch up on our lives, so it was incredibly nice to hear from him. Of course I love my care packages, but there's nothing like the intimacy of a hand written letter - especially in the days of e-mail, facebook, and well...blogging :) Looks like me being in France has given me a really good excuse to rekindle old friendships and really push to keep in touch with everyone.
Today I had the lovely surprise of a postcard from my friend Léa! Léa is also living in France, in a town called Blois, working as a teaching assistant (like Mallory does in Lyon). In case anyone didn't know, I collect postcards from all over...and they're one of my favorite things to receive (and send!) in the mail. Even though Léa is in the same country as me, it's nice to get something from someone without them feeling so far away. In other words, ALL mail is welcome :)
So in case you couldn't tell from the length of this post, mail makes my day. In any length, shape, or form. From post cards to packages - it all means more to me than anyone could know. Don't know what to send? Send me ANYTHING! Postcards are cheap AND add to my collection! You don't even have to write anything on it, just send it to my address with a heart and your name :) Send me a mix CD! I can't download any music, and my itunes bill is getting out of hand. Send me ANY english language movie - perhaps your favorite? It's rare to find things in English here. The French love watching things in, you guessed it, French. They do voice-overs on pretty much everything. So movies are welcome as well. Pictures too! Pictures of anything!! I can't stress it enough, ANYTHING will suffice. If you don't already have my address, e-mail me at mhernandez25@gmail.com or contact me on facebook and I'll message it to you. If you want it to be a surprise...well...get creative?? haha Perhaps ask one of my friends on facebook or my mom for my address. I don't want to just post my address on the internet for obvious reasons.
And with that I'll leave you with one of my favorite videos from a time before the internet when people were SO excited about getting mail, they just had to sing about it:
You have friends?
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