Sister city pen pals!

January 10, 2008 11:57 AM

Help me find pen pals in each of my city's sister cities!

I always thought it would be fun to have a pen pal in each of Minneapolis's sister cities. Preferably bloggers, as I plan to publish their stuff on my blog and would like to quid pro quo on that. Also, I'm looking for pen pal's who are a little outrageous. What do you suggest?

Here are Minneapolis's sister cities: Eldoret, Kenya; Harbin, China; Ibaraki City, Japan; Kuopio, Finland; Novosibirsk, Russia; Santiago, Chile; Tours, France; and Uppsala, Sweden.

posted by Astro Zombie to human relations (5 comments total)

Zombie try Couchsurfing.com.

A quick search shows:
Eldoret: 1
Harbin: 10
Ibaraki: 0
Kuopio: 26
Novosibirsk: 27
Santiago: over 300
Tours: 185
Uppsala: 212 members.

Not all members are natives; expect expats. Couchsurfers are generally laidback and curious and occasionally outrageous too.

(You will have to sign up.)
posted by sushiwiththejury at 12:49 PM on January 10

I tried to be nice and started browsing blogs centered upon Uppsala. Every single one just had entries about what people watched on TV yesterday. I puked a bit in my beer glass, had another sip and decided no never, ever move to Uppsala.

Here is a list of blogs with some connection to Uppsala. Prepare to be bored...
posted by uandt at 1:02 PM on January 10

My dad grew up outside of Novosibirsk, so I could ask him if he could suggest anyone if you'd like. Though, technically, it would be Academgorodok, and not Novosibirsk. There's a university there and I know they have students learning English who would likely be willing to do the whole pen pal thing. It's also a huge research town, so you might be able to find some crazy physicists to pal with.

Another suggestion is to try facebook. There are likely groups or networks for these cities. I've been invited to several "Russian" groups before, and there were members from all over (usually people post on the wall or message board) so I'm sure there are country groups you could scout if you don't mind doing some fbook stalking.

Also: sweet idea!
posted by theRussian at 2:43 PM on January 10

I'm in Japan teaching English on the JET Program; not in Ibaraki, but I do happen to have the Ibaraki prefecture JET page bookmarked. You could try creating an account there and asking in their forums for help finding a penpal. A lot of the JET teachers probably do private tutoring on the side, and I'm guessing some of those private tutor students would be very interested in a penpal to improve their English.
posted by p3t3 at 4:28 PM on January 10

This should be easy via Facebook and/or MySpace.
posted by LordSludge at 1:50 PM on January 11