Karina2

I'm Karina, I'm in my late 30s, and I like both coffee and tea, meaningful conversations, writing letters and postcards, doing sports (like yoga), and traveling. I find joy in the little everyday things, I'm always curious about other countries, as well as inspiring stories. I like to listen to music and sing along when I cook. :-)

I love everything creative. I like scrapbooking and crafting with paper, as well as crocheting (especially little things that fit in an envelope so that I can send them with letters). I also like to draw.

My mom and I are best friends, and for quite some time we were both dreaming of leaving the hustle of the city behind and living in a more relaxed and smaller place. We finally decided to let that dream come true and recently moved to a small town, close to nature, together, which I could not be happier about. I just love the peaceful atmosphere, the trees all around, to live more simply (in a good way) and to be able to focus on what is essential.

I am a mentor to a 10 year old girl in Malawi. We have a video call once a week (made possible by an organization that builds community libraries and supports education through programs like the mentoring program). We have so much fun drawing together, reading books together, and I always look forward to our sessions.

I love nature, and I like to celebrate the Wheel of the Year (a nature-based spiritual calendar with festivals that celebrate our connection to nature).

My favorite travel destinations are Portugal and Ireland. I have been to both countries several times and love them dearly.

In my 20's I spent 5 weeks in Peru with friends and we traveled the country together. This has been one of my biggest adventures and an extraordinary experience.

If you don't receive a swap from me, please notify me. I send out my swaps on time. I'm so happy that I discovered swapbot, and it brings me so much joy. So in case something doesn't arrive, it has to be a postal problem and I'll try my best to figure it out.

When I told my mom about swapbot she liked the idea so much that she wanted to join too. Therefore, both my mom and I are on this site now and since we live in the same house, we have the same address. I do not have a second profile it is just my mom ( @SabineM ). While we do enjoy similar swaps we are not the same person!

I love the forest, the ocean, and nature in general. I like Portuguese azulejos (beautifully painted ceramic tiles), and Irish leprechauns. :-)

I love to receive happy mail, and I like lovely surprises. I don’t want to list too many specific Likes & Dislikes because I think it’s fun to receive a surprise and to get a glimpse of somebody’s creativity (what you put together, maybe craft, draw, or decorate, depending on what kind of swap it is). It's always so cool to receive something creative someone made. It makes me happy and inspires me.

To give a little bit of an idea: I like for example stickers, postcards, and notepapers. Everything for crafting and scrapbooking is nice. I love handmade items. What I don't really need is used stamps.

Then, I value quality over quantity. So you will make me happier with something special rather than sending as many items as possible. For example if you could send a postcard or stickers that you got from a local shop near you, instead of something that is easy to order on the internet from everywhere in the world, I would be overjoyed. :-)

As for tea, I like black tea, green tea, fruit tea, as well as herbal tea. The only thing is that I don't really like when it's with vanilla, cinnamon, and stuff like that. I prefer if there's nothing like that added in the tea.

I love reading. My favorite books are from authors from different places in the world.

Some examples:

• "Conversations with my Cat" (Conversaciones con mi gata) by Eduardo Jáuregui. He is a psychologist specialized in the sense of humour and positive psychology, and to me there is so much wisdom in his novel.

• "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. There is something magical about this book.

• "The Little Book of Joy" by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, a wonderful children's book that's beautifully illustrated.

• I also love Lisa Currie's "Surprise Yourself", an activity book with lots of cool ideas to try something new.

I like beautiful and inspiring movies. Just like with books, my favorite movies come from different countries:

• "The Intouchables" is a wonderful movie from France about an extraordinary friendship.

• "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" is my favorite movie at the beginning of autumn, and such a beautiful story.

• "The Velvet Queen" (La panthère des neiges) is an amazing documentary in which photographer Vincent Munier and writer Sylvain Tesson attempt to see a snow leopard in Tibet.

• "La Misma Luna" (Under the same moon) is a Mexican-American movie that I like.

Thank you for reading & happy swapping!