11. Find and write to a pen pal in another country.

So, a month or so ago, I joined a pen pal website called Penpal World to help me fulfill this goal. The site was pretty lame and no one wanted to be my pen pal, probably because the picture I put up of myself wasn't incredibly sexy like all the other exotic Russians and Brazilians. Despite being the humble underdog, I did manage to find Charlie whom I like to refer to as "Charlie the Explorer" simply because he has never left his country before. We've been exchanging letters and postcards since early December, and it's been great receiving his mail. He draws, so I always get cute little pictures. Anyway, besides the point. Two things happened to disqualify him.

1. The Mom said he was a waste of time. Charlie is my age ("Too young!"), wants to make comic books ("Too nerdy!") and plays the accordion, juggles and can ride a unicycle ("No comment"). Honestly, I feel this makes him a perfect pen pal, but The Mom said I should instead spend my time writing to someone who has "potential." ie. Someone I can date. Let it be known that I am not looking for penpal love and have no problems with my current pen pal... except for the following point.
2. Charlie is from the United States. The coolest pen pal I could find is from my own country. Besides the fact that I just did the most culturally stagnant thing ever, the fact that he's not from another country makes my "accomplishment" completely invalid. Regardless of how awesome I found Charlie, I still had to find someone else.
   

Introducing Michael. I joined another, more well-rounded website called InterPals and that proved to be a way bigger success. Turns out, InterPal users like half Japanese girls a lot better than pure bred Brazilians, and so I found Michael within days. Michael is from Austria where he lives with like, four cats. He's pretty witty and writes really well, which is something an English major like myself can appreciate. I don't really know too much about him at this point, except that he's familiar with Weezer and speaks German.

It's very possible that he's a crazy stalker who now has my address and a variety of information about me, but hey, life is all about taking risks, right?

I'll let you know how it goes.