Of course, this is no big news to you, as I’ve already told you in the last post. Well, I’m thinking I’d like to include a little text about the place I am at when announcing the month’s card. Let me first tell you this though, physical cards are all ready and just waiting for shops to open on Monday so that I can get some stamps and then they’ll be on their way to you. Digital ones may arrive a bit later, as I am still waiting for some test prints to arrive so that I can be sure what you’re receiving is of tip top quality. I’ll streamline things in the upcoming months so that soon you’ll have the cards in your mailbox earlier in the month.

Now, about this card: In the picture below you can see me, trying to pose next to my hometown’s medieval castle. One of the online personality skills I’m still working on, as I’m not quite comfortable with having pictures taken of myself, especially when the warm spring day has poured people all over the castle hill.

I could tell you that Marburg is a lovely university town almost right in the middle of Germany, a bit to the left, who recently celebrated her 800th anniversary. Neither too small, nor too big, I consider it to be about the perfect size at around 80.000 inhabitants. Many of those being students, after all, this city is home to one of the oldest universities in the world. However, instead of continuing to list stats you may as well find with a quick google search, let me tell you what this place means to me. A metaphor often used to describe my hometown is that of an island. Although we do have a decent river running through, in my eyes one of, if not the only, short coming of this lovely place is that there isn’t enough water around. Other than that, the island character is hard to deny. Although mentally, any place can be one, the way the old town center spills up the shores of the castle hill does make it quite the island, especially on foggy days. To me, it has always been a safe harbour and I am immensely thankful for that. It is also a town of history and fairy tales, like those of the brothers Grimm who lived here for quite a while. There is an illustrator whose influence on my own visual preference and work I only realized with distance form this town, although my primary school was named after him. This would be Otto Ubbelohde, whose etchings of wind swept skies, scraggly trees and squiggly hags illustrate the, I believe, first edition of the brother’s fairy tales. I spent a good portion of my life here, most my childhood, and now almost half a year again, which, honestly, wasn’t exactly the plan. You’ll hear more about this in the coming posts I’m sure. For now, it has been a good place to rest and focus. I am incredibly lucky to have a harbour like this to turn to, to have calm shores I know I can rest or get washed up on. As I’m typing this I realize my metaphor has outgrown me in a way that now my last few words will make me sound like a pirate. I think I don’t mind that. It is time to set sail again! Who knows where the next card will be from? (I do) - I can tell you this much: I won’t be in Germany anymore.

Until then, love you lots. Let me know when the cards arrive!

PS: Ich hoffe sehr, dass euch deutschsprachige Club-Mitglieder (irgendwann muss ich Pins organisieren) das Englische nichts ausmacht. Es ist ein Thema, mit dem ich immer wieder hadere, aber im Endeffekt ist es einfach der kleinste gemeinsame Nenner. Die Tatsache, dass bisher der Großteil von euch (5 von 7) deutsch ist, verunsichert mich ehrlich gesagt noch etwas in der Entscheidung. Doch ich hoffe, dass unser Club munter wachsen wird. Danke auf jeden Fall, dass ihr dabei seid!