Teachable Moments from Around the Globe Via Postcard

Today after a short dry spell most likely due to the Volcano disrupting postal service around the globe we received a postcard from our friend in Malaysia. She writes: Today I have purchased 40 postcards and have began mailing them to my postcard swap friends like yourselves. The picture displayed on the card shows a typical Malaysian village home. I reside in Kuala Lumpur but was born in Pahang.my parents home looked much like this till recently. In my village many of the kitchens and living rooms have been renovated. I am living in a quiet village. When I lived at home I used to fish, it is a hobby of mine. I have many hobbies which include writing, photography, postcard collecting, poetry, and riding my scooter. I work on my own now selling jewelery in Kuala Lumpur. I am taking German lessons twice a week also. In Malaysia we speak Malay, Chinese, and Indian. Many of the locals in my town speak perfect English I am still perfecting mine. When I can gather the funding I would like to visit the United States someday. I have traveled on several occasions to Europe but sadly have not yet made it to America. Till next time


Many Thanks to Shana S for this wonderful postcard we have learned so much! We hope you enjoy our postcards, and we wish you the best on your future travels.

Well yesterday nothing in the mail but today a big surprise! Thanks to uncle Luis we have not one, or two, but many wonderful postcards from all around the Big Apple, New York City! There are 17 postcards total in this collagee. We love this so much we had to create a collage just to fit them all on the blog. The postcards display well known sites like Central Park, Times Square, The Statues of Liberty, The Manhattan Bridge, The Brooklyn Bridge, New York Harbor, The Empire State Building, and Rockefeller Center. There are also many cityscape views which I love, being a native myself of New York City I want to teach our child all about where her mommy and daddy grew up. Not all cities are the same but this is why we are enjoying this project. To teach our daughter that there are many wonderful places to see and various things to do and that exploration is apart of life. Thanks again tio Luis for your tremendous contribution to this project!

Today we received 4 postcards and 3 are from our friend Stephanie in Canada. Thank you so very much Stephanie for the wonderful postcards from Toronto, Niagara, and Marine Land Canada (Its is somewhat like USA's Sea World Park). This is so amazing. I myself have only been as far as just within the Canadian Boarder for part of the Niagara Falls tour. I would have loved to travel further into Canada. That was a great family trip and we can now create one with our daughter. I had never heard of the Marine Land Canada until this postcard we will be sure to add that as a place to visit when we travel to Canada. The Toronto postcard is a wonderfully pristine cityscape view how amazing. The Niagara postcard is bursting with rushing wasters from an elevated aerial view. We hope you enjoy our latest postcard additions from around the globe.

PS I recall on my family trip that the buses are referred to as people movers we loved that interesting fact so much I remembered it! We learned more interesting facts at: http://www.toronto.ca/visitors/

Today we received 4 postcards this is the first I pulled out of the mailbox. I jumped for joy because growing up in New York City the Guggenheim Museum is a staple in the rich art history of New York's high end art museums. The building itself has attracted architects from around the world for 51 years. This is yet another great learning artifact for our global project. It is also our very first postcard from New York City, thanks to an old friend and her sister! As usual we looked it up on Google Earth to give the visual a more concrete feel. Someday we will visit many of the museums on Museum mile in New York city. Also I have gathered a picture of The Guggenheim Museum direct from its main website: http://www.guggenheim.org/guggenheim-foundation/architecture/new-york. I also learned on this website that there are several Guggenheim Museums around the world (this was a surprise to me) but I am glad to discover and share this with our little girl!

Yesterday we didn't receive any postcards and today we lucked out with a total of 3. I am enjoying the hard work I have put out more and more because it is paying off. The smile on our little girls face when she gets her postcards from around the world is PRICELESS. The other two postcards we received today where from Alabama. One displays USA on a hot air balloon and the second card reads "Greetings from Alabama The Heart of Dixie."

We dug up some facts online about Alabama and discovered...


The State's Name

The etymology of the word or name, Alabama, has evoked much discussion among philological researchers. It was the name of a noted southern Indian tribe whose habitat when first known to Europeans was in what is now central Alabama. One of the major waterways in the state was named for this group and from this river, in turn, the name of the state was derived. The tribal name of Alabama was spelled in various ways by the early Spanish, French, and British chroniclers: Alabama, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alibamon, Alabamu, and Allibamou. The appellation first occurs in three of the accounts of the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540: written Alibamo by Garcillasso de la Vega, Alibamu by the Knight of Elvas, and Limamu by Rodrigo Ranjel (in the last form, the initial vowel is dropped and the first m is used for b, the interchange of these two consonants being common in Indian languages). The name as recorded by these chroniclers was the name of a subdivision of the Chickasaws, not the historic Alabamas of later times.



The popular belief that Alabama signifies "Here We Rest" stems from an etymology given wide currency in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beauford Meek. However, the first known use of this derivation appeared earlier in an unsigned article in a July 27, 1842, issue of the Jacksonville Republican. Experts in the Muskogee dialect have been unable to find any word or phrase similar to Alabama with the meaning "Here We Rest."



According to some investigations, the tribal name Alabama must be sought in the Choctaw tongue, as it is not uncommon for tribes to accept a name given them by a neighboring tribe. Inquiry among the early Indians themselves appears to have yielded no information about the meaning of the word. The Rev. Allen Wright, a Choctaw scholar, translated the name as thicket clearers, compounded of Alba meaning "a thick or mass vegetation," and amo meaning "to clear, to collect, to gather up."

Updated: April 14, 2010

http://www.archives.alabama.gov/statenam.html

Today we received our very first postcard from Finland (and in record time from what other postcard swappers tell me.) The card as you can see displays some of Finland's rich architecture along with its lush greenery. The card was sent by Tarja, it reads: "Hello There! Greetings from Finland. We Have an old castle her in Hameenlinna, "Linaa" means castle in Finnish and "Hame" is our region. The pics in the middle show hotel Aulanko with it's huge and beautiful park. Verkatehdas is an old clothing factory, and Nowadays it is our popular culture & congress center including cinemas, concerts, theater, etc. Thank you Tarja again for this fantastic piece of Finland information of things not often read in books but heard only by people like yourself who enjoy these facts of their homeland everyday.

My daughter and I also went to Google Earth to look at the latest visual of Finland. Loved it!