Letters in Music: "Aš ant balto smėlio parašiau tau laišką"

A República de Lituania,  "o tigre báltico", é un dos países que me encantaría visitar no futuro próximo: Vilnius (a capital) e o seu casco antigo barroco (o meirande do norte de Europa), as praias do istmo de Curlandia coas súas dunas móbiles, o río Nemunas ou a reserva natural do golfo de Kursiu son algúns dos seus atractivos que seguro que paga a pena visitar.

Fonte:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons

Da maior das repúblicas bálticas, da man da encantadora Simona Armonavičiūtė,  chegoume unha escolma de cancións lituanas que tratan do tema das cartas, que irei presentando en varias entradas e que espero que vos dea tamén unha idea do acento cantareiro desta lingua, o lituano, que é recoñecida como unha das linguas indoeuropeas vivas máis conservadoras e que retén máis características do protoindoeuropeo, perdidas xa noutras linguas indoeuropeas.

Quédanvos aquí dúas versións dunha mesma canción sobre unha carta escrita na area, cuxas dúas primeiras liñas din:

Escribinche unha carta na area branca,

unha longa carta de amor desde o fondo do meu corazón

My Personal Correspondence: Friedrich Bock

I have told you on previous occasions about Postcrossing, the website that allows you to write and receive postcards to/from random members all over the world. One of the last cards I sent went to Vienna (Austria), to Friedrich Bock, who ranks 4th on most postcards sent from Austria. 

In my postcard, I asked Dr. Bock if I could ask him some things about his hobby and he was kind enough to send me the following text and pictures:

The postcard – an Austrian Invention

The Austrian University Professor Emanuel Herrmann proposed in 1869 to the Postal Administration a totally new way of delivering post: 'To use cards by the size of a letter which may be sent open by the Post'. The idea was accepted and already the same year the first cards titled 'Korrespondenz-Karte' were printed. They were so successful that in the first month 1.4 million pieces were sold.

In 1885 private entrepreneurs too got permission to produce such cards. This was the birth of the postcard with a picture. In 2019 we will celebrate 150 years of postcards.

My grandfather (born 1883) spent his whole professonal life as a post employee. As a young officer he accompanied the special post waggon in the night train from Vienna to Trieste (now Italy,  then the most important harbour in old Austria). Each time he wrote a postcard on arrival to my grandmother. I still have 63 of these. Here is one from 1911

Thank you very much, Friedrich, for this information and for sharing this postcard!

Creative Writing Workshop: Snail Mail

Patricia Ares, the Coordinator of Cultural Activities in EOI Santiago has very kindly invited me to give a workshop this afternoon to introduce students to snail mail and the possibilities it offers to practise writing skills in a real context.

I am really excited, I will be talking about a topic which I really love and which lies at the heart of our project. I certainly hope attendees will enjoy it and that it will ignite a spark of insterest in snail mail.

Here's a short video I have put together to introduce the workshop.

Thanks for your invitation, Patricia!