Letters from Correspondents to our 10th Graders

April- June 2002

Hello Amanda,
I'm Ward sorry I couldn't mail you sooner because I was very
ill at that time.
I'm eighteen years old my hobbies playing on the computer and listening to
Queen. I'm a very nice guy a little touch on the romantic site. Peoples say
that I'm a kind of weird in a nice way though. And they think also that i'm
very amusing. I make everybody laugh. I visit my fourth and first secundairy
school. The thing is I was dropped out this school in 1st class or 7th grade
if you might call it. Then I visited Stella Maris I fell in love and she
broke me heart so I was sent to another school Sint Michael where I got my
diploma. So I thougth why not a better shot so I came back.

I was born on the nineth of july of nineteenhunderdeightythree. In
Landgraaf. I was a quite quit baby and child. I had almost no friends
because I was fat but was soon to be over because I gave the small big buly
a bunch of hits and he didn't liked he attacked me so I punched him to the
ground. I dislike violence but sometimes there's no other way it is in the
instinct of men. When I was eigth my family moved to the village Ransdaal a
very nice village with quite much farms Nice people made very much friends.
so that is all of the most boring parts of me

hi amanda !!!!!!!!
My name is Gabriel and i am 19 years old and all of my life i have been living here in Monterrey, sadly i only know a little part of my country even thou i have been living here all of my life. Monterrey is also very big and overall is full of cars.....traffic is horrible in the mornings and in the afternoon around 6:00 the problem is that there are more and more cars every day, by the way i was going to ask you....do you have a car???? but anyways i agree with you about those people that believe in a supreme race, i mean that doesnt even exist, the other day i was watching the movie American History X, or something i really dont know the name in english, and it really bother me the way this people think about mexican people, but anyways watch it is very good, i mean just to know what this crazy people thinks.
Also i was going to ask you about that thing called Capoeira or something, what is it????.....well i mean i know that is a type of dance mixed with Brazilian self defense but i really dont know about it, is because i cousin of mine told me about a place that is teaching this and invite me to join. oks i hope you write me soon and also send me a picture of yourself if you have.
well see you!!!!

Hi Giulia, I´m Jonhatan R. As u knwo, I´m living in Mexico,
specially in Monterrey. Well....you maybe know about the Cumbre in
Monterrey, by the UN. Other things that happend in Mexico are the beautyfull
beaches, like Cancun, Acapulco. And beautyfull views like in the state ok
Chiapas, Oaxaca, etc. Other things that i should tell you about Mexico is
taht the capital city es Mexico, D.F (wich means Distrito Federal). The city
of Monterrey is called the "industrial city of Mexico". Is called this
because is the city that generate more jobs and money for the country, also
there are a lot of factories.
What can ai said about me??? I like playing soccer, go out with my friends,
go to the movies, drive my car, etc.

Well ...I hope your answer soon...see u
bye

Hello Candice, how are u ? nice to meet you, well im victor from monterrey mexico, it's a very cool place and big like mexico city, people think that monterrey only cuz is in mexico is like a town with cactus and that isn't true monterrey is a modern city, it's the most industrial city in México, the last month people from all the contry visited this city because the United Nations reunion, so i like trance music and I play soccer all day, Im always thinking about soccer, I sometimes watch brasilian futbol like Sao Paulo, Vasco da Gama, Corinthians, Palmeiras, i like that soccer matches, Im always with my friends and family, they are the best, i don't like traffic, I do 35 minutes to school, well that's all, im gonna leave this computer room, hey do you have icq or msn, i wanna chat with live..
See you later, have a nice day..
can u send me some pics from Sao Paulo, I will send you some monterrey pics ...

Hi Sally,

Well, first i wanna tell u, that i was born on 5th november of 1984, so
my zodiac sing is Scorpion. I imagine that u k now how is a scorpion. Well
here in Monterrey (where i study) i lived in a building too by 2 years,
but now i'm living in a house that i rent. When i went to Toronto Canada
i lived in a building too, and there i met a lot of brazilian people.

Monterrey is a big city, and have many many traffic, so that's why parents
don't want that i had car here. In Puebla i have a car, but the last spring
break i had an accident, :(

Sinceraly i don't like Monterrey, is very bored. Monterrey in contrast with
others citys of mexico don't have many places of turism, because Monterrey
is more an industrial city, with a lot of factorys and things like that.

Another thing that i don't like of Monterrey is the food, because here is
most like USA, and i don't like this!. Whatever Monterrey is one of the
citys that receive more money of others countrys because invertions. And
that's good to Mexico. I want to tell u something, i hate USA, i really
love my country, and latinamerica.

Do u know about the recently problem between the government of Cuba and
my government? All the world know that was caused my USA, i don't like that!.
I prefer one cuban friend than 10000 americans friends.

Mexico have a lot of nature and beautiful places, and beaches too. Mexico
have many different ecosystems, and wheathers. For Example Monterrey is
a very very hot city. Mexico city is like 15° to 20°, but Toluca is very
very cold!. About beaches i know that Brazil have a very famous beaches
too.

Well i have to go to my house now, but i will continue writing to u in 40
minutes.

My ICQ number is xxxxxx, and my msn is xxxxx
so bye bye take care
c u soon.

Hi Sally!!

How are you today? I'm surprised that I received an e-mail from you so soon.
has only been about two weeks ago since I signed up for the project. I'll
tell you something about myself.
My name is Suzanne M. and I am 17 yers old. I live in Voerendaal.
That's in Holland. I liver there with my mother, stepfather and my little
brother. I live with my mother, because my parents are divorced. And I also
have a boyfriend who's name is Maurice, he's 20 years old.
From Monday to Friday I go to school. I'm studying at Sintermeertencollege
in Heerlen. It's not so far from my home, so that's a benefit. This year I'm
better at school than the last years. I don't have a favorite subject. I
don't like Economics and Computertechnology. I have to work hard for those
two subjects.
Then my spare time. My hobbies are Jazzballet and playing the clarinet. I'm
doing Jazzballer since I was 4 years old and I still really like it. I'm
dancing every Thursday and Saturday. On Friday I play the clarinet, also
with al lot of fun.

Now something about my country, Holland. It's a very small country with 12
compartiments, who all have their own name. I liver in the most southern
compartiment, called Zuid-Limburg.For the whole country it takes about 4
hours to get from the most southern part to the most northern part. From
east to west it will take about 2 hours, but I never tried it. I live quite
near the border of Germany and Belgium but I don't go there very often. I've
been there only for a vacation or for driving throug it on our way to Italy
or France.
The place I love most in Holland is Amsterdam. It's the capital of the
Netherlands. I've been there a couple of times and it is a great city to
shop. In Amsterdam there a sometimes very strange people and you can laugh a
lot.
The nearest shopping city for me is Heerlen. It's fun shopping there to, but
there are also a lot of criminals. But I don't really mind.
I didn't have a lot time to write you an e-mail, because I'm very stressed
about school.
I do hope I told you enough about myself and that you are giong to mail me
back very soon.
If there is anything wou want to ask me, please just do it!!

Lots of love,
Suzanne

hello Candice

how are you?
I'm fine! thank you for your mail! I was very surprised by your email
because I didn't expect one so soon
my name is Lisan S. I'm a girl and I'm 15 years old (birthday 27 May
1986).
I have brown eyes and brown hair. I'm 1.79 m. would you send a picture of
you in your next email?
I'll send one in my next email.
Let me tell you something about my spare time. I like also listen to music!
what kind of music do you listen? I love sport, I play handball, what for
sport do you play? I go oft shopping Heerlen or in Maastricht. and sometimes
in Amsterdam that's the capital of our country.

I live in Simpelveld that's a small town. Just like everyone else I have to
go to school every day. I'm studying at Sintermeertencollege in Heerlen. I
go to school by bike that's 10 kilometres. if the weather is bad I go by
car. my driver is my mother.
when I'm older I want to be a fysiotherapeuth. I have a little brother he is
12 years old. sometimes he is very nasty, but he can be sweet too.

Maybe I could tell you something about our country although I don't know
that much about it. Well Holland (or formally spoken The Netherlands) is a
very small country. It's split up in 12 compartments who have an own name,
but which have all the same laws. I live in one of the most southern
compartments called Zuid-Limburg. It's so small that you can travel from the
most northern part of Limburg to the most southern part in about half an
hour. For the whole country it takes about 4 hours to get from the most
southern part to the most northern part. From east to west it will take
about 2 hours, but I never tried it. I live quite near the border of Germany
and Belgium but I don't go there very often. I've been there only for a
vacation or for driving through it on our way to Italy or France. I like
Holland because it's such a free country. I don't know if you know but in
Holland the drugs-use is legal. You might think that everyone in Holland
takes drugs so every now and then, but it's not like that at all. In fact,
it are not so many people who use hard drugs. Softdruggs is very well-known
and generally used a lot, but not by me. I hate it, but in my opinion
everyone is free to decide weather they want to take drugs or not.
now something about our soccer team: to bad it isn't qualificated to the
WK!!!
Well I hope I told you enough about my life and the things I like to do.
Please mail me soon and if there's anything you'd like to know about me
please don't be shy to ask.

lots of love
Lisan

Hallo Ezra!

How are you? It was a very long letter what you send. I don't think I can
write that much about the Netherlands or myself, but I'll try. My name is
Laura S. and I'm also 15 years old. (my birthday is july 12).I have
brown hair and I have bleu eyes.
I have one little sister (who is very annoying). I live in the Netherlands,
in the very south. The town I live is Heerlen. It isn't a very big city, the
Netherlands are not big ether. In the whole country their live 16 million
people. I like to dance and to play the clarinet. I like to do sports,
except for soccer, I hate to play it, but I don't mind watching it.
I love all foot that comes from exotic countries like Indonesia and India. I
go to school on the sintermeerten college, I only have to cycle for 10
minutes. I have been on this school for 4 years now. Before I went to a
primary school in my village. My favourite subjects are chemics, geographic
and history and English. I'd like to study archaeology, but I don't know
that for sure.
I live in a normal house ( it isn't to big) with four walls and a rove.
Heerlen is in the south of the Netherlands (the Netherlands are only 300
kilometres long). In Europe we're famous for our flowers (tulips) and
windmills.
We don't have a very warm climate, for this time a year it is hot (here it
is spring, on this moment it's 20°C) Normal it isn't to warm here, in winter
times it can be 7 degrees below zero. In the summer it is around 20°C. Our
official language is Dutch, but almost everyone in the Netherlands can speak
English with German or France.( I don't speak any French, I didn't liked
learning al those words, so I quit with it) Our country you'll find several
believes. In the north there is the protism and in the south the katholism.
But there are a lot of other believes. There are a lot of forenders in the
Netherlands. I don't like the netherlands but I love Limburg (it's the area
were I live) Limburg and the Netherlands are very different. We have our own
'language'. We look more like our neighbours Belgium then the Netherlands.
I hope I'll hear from you soon!!
Laura

Hey Daniela!

How are you doing? I'm really sorry that it took so long to e-mail you, but
I haven't checked my e-mailbox till yesterday! You can only check your mail
on school and I don't go very often on the computer there.
I live in the Netherlands and your country sounds just lovely. Here, it's
always cold and rainy and I have to go by bike to school, through the
rain!!!! I don't have a chauffeur and I believe actuelly noone on my school.
You go by foot, bike or bus and sometimes if your parents are in a good
mood, they'll drive you, but in my cause that doesn't happen very often.
Both my parents have to go to work when I have to go to school. The traffic
here is also bad, but not as bad as at your country. But, tell me, is it
really so hot in your country?
I'm also very curious about what you know, like and think of the
Netherlands. Here, you hear very often from foreigners: where is the drugs,
the weed and where is Amsterdam?? That's really strange, but also fun.
What kind of music I like?? I like almost everything, but the most of
hardrock and r'n b.
I also hate math and economy!!!!!! The languages are my favorite subjects. I
study French, German, Englisch and off course Dutch. I have for some
subjects good marks, but not for everything. By the way, you said that your
school starts at 8.10, well, the mine starts at 8.30! But twotimes of the
week the school starts for me at 9.20 and that, I think, is really relaxed.
What can I say about the Netherlands??? Well, the Netherlands have over 16
million habitants. It's not very big, if you go by car you can across the
country in eight hours! We have also a beach, but I don't go there often,
because it's a bit far away. The Netherlands is kind of famous, because we
are the first country you can ask for, when you're for example really ill,
medication to commit suicide (I don't know the english word, I hope you
understand it) and you're allowed to use drugs, like weed. Did you knew??
For the rest the Netherlands aren't really special.
You said your parents were overprotective, howcome? Are you allowed to go
out in the weekend? I'm really curious about everything, I hope you don't
mind?
Oh, for I forget......I'm sixteen and my birthday is at 17 august. I've got
two brothers and three sisters, a big family, isn't it?? But that isn't
usual here in the Netherlands, most of my friends have no brothers or
sisters and some of them only one or two. I think it's great your sis gets a
baby! What name will he or she get???
I hope I hear from you soon, and please don't be mad at me, because I
e-mailed you so late.

Greetzzzzzzzzzzz Sann.

Hey! My name is WingCN, my parents are from Hong Kong
and I am borne in Holland.
I am 14 years old. I have one elder sister, who's 18.
My hobbys are tennis, fitness, music, shopping and the internet.
I also love to make fun with my friends.
Every Saturday I go to the Chinese school to learn
the Chinese language.
I always have a lot of fun there.
My favorite food is Japanese, like sushi mmmmmm.....!!
What about you?
I don't like tv-series like Big Brother.
Usually I watch Chinese series, and I sometimes watch
'the weakest link'. I stop writing now.
I am looking forward to your next mail!
Wing-Chee

Hi Leo(nardo),

How are you, I was very surprised by your e-mail because I didn't expect one
so soon. It has only been about two weeks ago since I signed up for the
project. Well, let's introduce myself. My name is Jorien and I'm 17 years
old. I live in Voerendaal. That's in Holland as you probably know. I live
there with my family which contains father, mother and a younger brother.
I've lived in Voerendaal since I was born. I like it very much there.
Just like everyone else I have to go to school every day. I'm studying at
Sintermeertencollege in Heerlen. It's about 2 kilometers away from home, not
quite far. There are several subjects I like, but there are also ones which
I dislike. My most favorite subject is English. I also like Physical
Education. The subjects I dislike are Economy and Computertechnology. It's
way to hard. Luckily I'm doing great in maths this year, something I never
expected.
Let me tell you something about my spare time. My hobbies are Jazzballet and
playing the trumpet.I've done jazzballet for about 12 years now and I still
love it. I've played the trumpet for 3 years now, and before that I played
Clarinet. But I still have to say I like the Trumpet better. I practise the
Jazzballet twice a week as well as the trumpet. It's very diffrent from each
other, but I wouldn't miss either one of it.
Maybe I could tell you something about our country although I don't know
that much about it. Well Holland (or formally spoken The Netherlands) is a
very small country. It's split up in 12 compartiments who have an own name,
but which have all the same laws. I live in one of the most southern
compartiments called Zuid-Limburg. It's so small that you can travel from
the most northern part of Limburg to the most southern part in about half an
hour. For the whole country it takes about 4 hours to get from the most
southern part to the most northern part. From east to west it will take
about 2 hours, but I never tried it. I live quite near the border of Germany
and Belgium but I don't go there very often. I've been there only for a
vacation or for driving throug it on our way to Italy or France. I like
Holland because it's such a free country. I don't know if you know but in
Holland the drugs-use is legal. You might think that everyone in Holland
takes drugs so every now and then, but it's not like that at all. In fact,
it are not so many people who use harddrugs. Softdruggs is very well-known
and generally used a lot, but not by me. I hate it, but in my opinion
everyone is free to decide weather they want to take drugs or not.
The place I love most in Holland is Amsterdam, but I don't go there
frequently. It's so nice because you can shop till you drop and you see
people from all kinds of cultures you can imagine. You might think that I
love to go shopping and it's absolutely true but I really don't buy that
much. In our country are quite a lot of criminals and violence, but I'm not
afraid. I don't know why.
Well I hope I told you enough about my life and the things I like to do.
Please mail me soon and if there's anyting you'd like to know about me
please don't be shy to ask.
Lots of Love,
Jorien.

hi Giulia

My name is Michel J., im a 17 years old Boy from Holland (you might knew
that prior to sending your mail to me though :] ). as you I'm also very
found of sports, esspacially basketball, it's my favorite sport. I'm also
very found of motorcycles, next year my dad wil buy me kawasaki ninja for my
18nd birthday. my family on my fathers side is Dutch, on my mothers side
Serbian. I also have a 16 years old sister. in school my favorite subject is
physics, I'm the best of my grade in physics. I'm still not certain what I'd
like to be after my graduation, maybe a pilot or graphical designer.

I feel kind of sorry, you send me a hughe e-mail and I just don't know what
to tell you, if there's anithing you'd like to know just ask me. ive given
you to e-mail addresses, pleas send you futhure e-mails to both of them.

well, bye bye, I'd like to hear from you in the future,

michel

hi Jonathan,

Thanks for your letter.
I was very surprised that I got a mail from you. But I like it.
First I will tell something about myself and maybe some thing about my
country.
I'm lieke. 17 years old. I live in Heerlen, that's in Holland. I like it
very much in Holland, because everything I need is in there. I have almost
always a save feeling on the streets. There is not much violent in the place
I live. I think because softdrugs and alcohol are allowed (you only have to
be older than 16).
I go to a school named Sintermeerten college. I like it there. I have some
friends there. But most of my friends go to other school.
When I don't go to school I work. I work in a restaurant, where people have
to get there own food. Whit that I mean that I don't have to serve them, but
to clean the tables when they are gone, to refill the food and to make them
pay.
And ofcourse I have also a few hobbies. Climbing, Karate, snowboarding. I
also like to read books.
I don't really know what to write about, because I don't know you (yet). And
you didn't asked me anything. But I make up my mind.
I have a question. Do you have a own email-adress. Because a friend of mine
(jorien she mails with leonardo) has also received an email and it was from
the same email adress.
I you want to mail me at home that is possible .
The adres that you got from you teacher is my email-adress at school. I
don't use that very often, because my friends mail me on the other adress.
Was it for your own interest to mail me or did you had to do this for
school? It is my own interest, we could choose to mail or not to mail. It
love it to talk to people from different countries, because it's always nice
to know different cultures.
I hope I get a mail back soon
lots of love,
lieke

P.S. My English is not perfect I'm still learning, so sorry for my mistakes

Hi,

My name is Moniek D. I am 15 years old. I am Dutch and I am born in Wilnis. Wilnis is a very small town in The Netherlands.
I have got 2 sisters named Jose who is 13 years and Christel who is 10 years old. I feel sorry for you, because I know how annoying it is to have younger brothers of sisters. My father is Dutch, his name is Gijs and he is 46 years old. My mother is also Dutch her name is Gertie and she is 42 years old. I am living on a farm. We have about 80 cows, 11 sheeps, 5 chickens and a couple of cats. I love the Internet and music too. Somethimes I am going to the cinema with my friends. I don't like sport too! I hate volleybal! The onliest sport I like is Inline hockey.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon!
Moniek
Dear André,

I am sorry you had to wait so long for an answer from me. It's not my fault. My English teacher had no time to give us the e-mails. Never mind, my name is Bastiaan B. and I am 15 years old. I have got a father, Laurens a mother, Janneke; and two sisters, Moniek and Tineke. We live in an ordinary house in Mijdrecht.
I Study at, what we call 'Atheneum'. This is the highest level of education in The Netherlands. I am in third year of this six-years-taking education. My notes are very well and I still have time left to do other tings than studying.
I like to do things on the computer, like making a web site. I also like playing on my keyboard. I am not as sportsmanlike as you are, according to your last e-mail.
Well, this is all I know to say about myself, except that my e-mail address is xxxxxxxxxxx

Till next time,
Bastiaan


Hi Chloé

thank you for your mail. You asked me some questions I like to answer them. My name is Roel(you say it as "Rowel")K. I'm 15 years old and live in The Netherlands.

I've got one brother, called Tobias and he is 18 years old and I've got one little sister, called Caro and she is 11 years old. My parents are divorced and I live the most part of the week with my mother, my brother and her new boyfriend.

I'm in the third form of a High school. You asked me the name of my school. The name is: Veenlanden college. You can also say "het VLC". There are 23 students in my class.

There a lot of things that I like to do. I like to play hockey, I play hockey four times a week. And I like shopping, but that's not special for a girl. I like to go out with my friends but that's not special too.

I've got a cat(called Japie) and a dog(called simmy) and they are both very sweet.

Sorry but I can't talk to you on the ICQ. I don't have it.But thank you for asking.

I think that I answered your question now.I hope that I told enough things about myself.

love
roel