I see. He’s a smart one!
Glad your son got a kick out of that card. It’s not a real picture, but there ARE giant dinosaurs to be found just off Interstate 10 near Palm Springs…and they are very cool. I was up in the T-Rex’s mouth just last year!
He loved it. I can’t believe I forgot to mention DINOSAURS in my “what’s he into?” paragraph.
Because you don’t have to? Because all little kids are into dinosaurs? As well as all little kids in tall bodies?
Planes and military things huh?
off to root through the cupboard (says the Air Force Public Affairs Officer)
I’ll see what I can find, but I want to call around, it may be delayed…
Oh oh. I think your son may need a bigger mailbox. No way is a jet fitting in the one he made.
For a minute I thought you were talking to yourself. 
How fun! I’m loving this and plan to steal this idea for a grandchild someday.
Back in the 80s, before the Internet and Email, there were several organisations offering pen-pal through schools, so German kids could practise their English/ French/ Spanish by writing to kids from other countries, and also learn about other cultures, promote understanding and peace between nations yadda yadda, the usual exchange stuff.
Interested kids signed up for which language and then received a letter from somebody. (I got a letter from a kid in Greece, but didn’t write back often enough, so it atrophied).
If your kid is really interested in not only getting mail, but also ready to write in return, and wants real letters, not emails, you could ask around - I’m sure they still exist (today, screening of adresses is probably more important than back then).
Posted a card today! Fingers crossed for a quick arrival 
I wrote the postcard last week, but forgot it last time at the PO, so it was posted today. It will probably take a week or so across the ocean.
Since space is limited on a postcard, a few additional info:
The uppermost line is my own adress, in case he wants to write back. I make no promise how soon I will answer, though (I’m terrible at answering letters, though I will read it!)
The web adress has some basic information about Herzogsägmühle, the protestant charity where the card was made (I picked it out before I had read your entry on what he likes).
The real stamp shows the famous Kreidefelsen (Chalk cliff) at the island of Rügen, and the name of the national park its part of. (He should be able to find more info at wikipedia).
The printed stamp shows the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, which due to the Berlin wall has a lot of emotional importance for Germans.
You could also tell him that I took extra care to write the 1s and 7s the American way so that the USPS would have no problem with it, but that we write them differently. (And that we use Umlauts like the ü in München in the German language.)
I might look through my own postcards to see if I have a city postcard, but that will take some time.
First card (finally) sent off yesterday. More to come.
I’m sorry that I have been a slacker, but I had a plan. I want to send a shot of the Sydney Harbor skyline at night with two tickets to concerts I attended at the Sydney Opera House - Fleet Foxes and Beirut, with questions for Alex.
But bugger me I can’t find a bloody postcard out west where I live.
Soon. Honest.
I haven’t been around when Alex gets off the bus and gets his mail lately so I don’t have immediate commentary like the last time I posted, but I’ve got my nephew here for the weekend and Alex keeps saying things like, “Oh! Oh! Read this one. It’s from WAY across the world!” and handing my nephew postcards from Germany and Australia (a really beautiful aerial shot of Sydney harbor and a funny note; he especially liked the commentary for the dingo stamp), and of course he bragged about the two from San Francisco, both of which are shots of bridges at night (HE LIKES COOL BRIDGES! I don’t think I mentioned that, either!), and the other one from San Francisco which has the TransAmerica building in the background. He recognized it immediately from the television show Charmed, which his grandmother watches. He got one postcard with a silly (but freakin’ AWESOME; we both agreed on that) plane on it and loved, loved, loved it.
brujaja, he gave my nephew the card from you and said, “Do you think that was bought?” and the nephew, 14 years old, said, “Well… yeah.” So Alex said, “Read it!” Keith is a big hit in our house.
He got one with a note that said “Greetings from California!” on the back and came up to me all, “This one is really easy. I can just bring a thank you note to school tomorrow.” I asked him what in the world he was talking about. Turns out he only just glanced at the note and thought it said “Greetings from the Cafeteria!”
Mine should be there soon!!
I don’t know how I missed this thread! Does he still want mail? I live near a dinosaur quarry/area.
Alex got a HUGE package from Australia this weekend and postcards keep coming in.
He got quite a nice letter from a girl around his age in Singapore and we are working on replying to that, definitely.
I want to say that he is extremely appreciative of every single thing he gets. He has two huge laminated maps, one world map and one of the states, hanging on a wall in his bedroom so we have a routine where we check the postmark (or, in the case of postcards, we check where the picture on the front was taken) and find it on the map. I think he is still very much in awe that people from these far away places are mailing him things for no reason and I really think that sometimes he thinks I’m doing it (sort of like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy; why not fake a bunch of mail?) but then he gets some foreign candy we’ve never seen and he gets that it’s really not me.
You guys are phenomenal. This got way bigger than I expected and our whole family has enjoyed it (even the toddler; he’s the only one who happily ate the Musk flavored Life Savers 
) so thank you all so very sincerely. It’s been so much fun.
I got in trouble for not including pictures in the letter she off…next time definitely. She’s keeping an eye on the mail for Alex to reply
I must admit though - I have ulterior motive, I want her to practise her writing and typing…
Argh, I said I’d send one but haven’t yet – I’ll be in town on Thursday, promise to buy some postcards then.
In honour of this thread, I am eating musk flavoured life savers today.