When You Meet Your Pen Pal
Hello and welcome back to my blog!
This blog post has actually been one that I’ve been really excited to write and I knew what I wanted to talk about, but then I forgot about my idea until now. So, here I am, talking about what to do when you meet your pen pal (as well as the before and after stuff).
I’ve only met one of my pen pals, but I’m hoping to meet another one in the next year or so (as well as visit the one I already met). I am not an expert on what to do when you meet a pen pal and it’s honestly such a subjective topic as each person and relationship is different. Hopefully, this will give you some inspiration for what you can do when you meet your pen pal.
Additionally, if you have family that doesn’t live in the area, some of these ideas maybe provide inspiration for when they visit you or vice versa. 😉
Before the visit
First, let’s talk about before you meet your pen pal!
One of the things that my pen pal and I did before we met was connecting online through texting and video calls (not too much to the point of stopping the letters). I actually found this to be really helpful before we met because we had some real-time interaction with one another (as well as siblings and pets). I was able to see her house and she saw mine; we knew better each other’s personalities, how the other person talked, how they respond to things, what sort of sense of humor they had, etc.
Here are some of the things that we did together over video call (and other ideas I’ve come up with):
Online Mario Kart (for computers)
This was really fun to play with all the siblings on both sides of the video call because we weren’t just sitting around staring at each other and not talking and being awkward (though you better believe there was some of that too). If you have something where you focus your attention on that thing but there is room for talking (and it certainly comes with the competition!), it’ll not be as awkward.
Other online games that I’ve found: Uno, Guess Who, Escape Room, etc. (You better believe my pen pals and I are now doing escape rooms!)
Watch a movie together
A lot of streaming services now have an option where you can watch a movie with someone and we did that with When Calls the Heart on Amazon Prime. It was fun to watch the same movie and we’d also be on a video call (mics muted so we couldn’t hear background noise) and use the chat area to make comments on the movie (which was a lot of fun when the makeup and costumes became super unrealistic).
We’ve also done where we’re on a video call and just start our movie (same movie, but on a watch party) at the same time.
Workout together
One of my pen pals and I started doing this recently (and one of those times may or may not have turned into a 5 hour video call…). We both expressed that we wanted to work out more consistently and it’s always more fun to do it with someone as well as having the accountability. Again, we watch the same video and start them at the same time and then we could see the other person on the screen doing the same workout.
This is really fun especially when you’re both beginners and can fail at the workouts together. We both really liked the Chloe Ting workouts and started one of her programs together.
Eat dinner together/movie night
This is really similar to watching a movie together and I did mention above that one of our video calls wound up being over 5 hours long and we ended up making our dinner together, eating together, and then watching a movie together. We thought it was fun and now we want to do a more official movie night together.
After plans were made for her family to come to visit and the date came nearer and nearer, my pen pal and I both made countdowns or something similar to an advent calendar. This was a fun way to keep track of how long it would be until we finally got to meet.
I made a pdf of the countdown that I made if you would like to use it for yourself. I designed it so that you color in the last section on the day you meet your pen pal. (You do the math on when you need to start coloring it in.) You can download the pdf and print it out and color it in or use it as inspiration and make your own if you like.
This was how mine turned out after I had colored the whole thing in. I chose the colors purely because it was around Christmas/New Year’s and I wanted it to match the decorations that it was up with.
During the visit
The main thing that I wanted to do when my pen pal came to visit was show her places/people that were part of my daily life and that she would have heard me talk about. Since it was over the holiday, I wasn’t able to take her to our library which I really wanted to do. We were able to do other things that are part of our normal lives or places that are exclusive to our state.
Dinner and movie night
Church on Sunday morning
Playing games (cards and outside games)
Our New Year’s tradition of watching the Pasadena Rose Parade and eating Apfelküchles (basically apples fried in a batter).
Going to the beach
Recreating movie scenes and making other funny videos (which we already did separately)
The other thing to do when you meet your pen is to TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS. It’s a really unique and special experience and you’re gonna want lots of photos to remember it afterward.
After the visit
After the visit, keep investing in the relationship by writing letters, occasional video calls, etc. My pen pal and I actually feel even closer after meeting each other and we talk to each other nearly every day now! Yes, we still do write and it’s almost more enjoyable because you’re writing to someone that you actually know and met in person. It’s still so bizarre to me that we actually met each other and ate dinner together and took photos together… like what?? It feels like it was just a dream or that it happened so long ago!
In fact, it makes me look forward more to hanging out with her again and meeting more of my pen pals. 🙃
Well, that’s all I have to say about that. Did you draw any inspiration for when you meet your pen pal (or long-distance family/friends)? What else would you add to do before your visit? What about during and after?
Thanks for reading;
Sincerely, Lilly
P.S. I wanted to do a Q&A for next week’s post and if you want to send me any questions, you can submit them here » https://forms.gle/ffZA6kW6jnsqVePi7
You have some great ideas to do before and after meeting your pen pal, Lillian! Lot of them sound like lots of fun to do! I hope you get to meet all your pen pals in the near future!
I love this post! It was so fun to read about all of it and it makes me look forward to meeting my penpals one day even more! :)