Dear Attila,

    Hi! How are you? This is Mrs. Chlan's and Mrs. Andrew's Mod 1 class. We'd like to ask you some questions.

What is the most popular car in Curacao? The most popular bike? answer How did you like living in Curacao? answer Are there any malls in Curacao? answer What are your parents like? answer What kinds of clothes do they wear in Curacao? answer How much money do you make? What type of money do they use in Curacao? answer What is it like to travel so much? answer Is soccer popular in Curacao? answer Does Curacao share any holidays with the Uniteds States? answer Why did you go back to Seattle? answer How old were you when you had your first girlfriend? answer What language is spoken in Curacao? answer Have you been to any Mariner's games yet? answer What type of food do people eat in Curacao? answer How tall are you? answer Do you want to have children? answer What is your wife like? answer

    We are anxious to hear from you and hope you enjoy answering our questions.

Many thanks to all of you for your nice letters and your questions. It was fun finding out about you, and I'm honored to have you as my pen pals. I hope you will enjoy my answers to the questions you asked me!

The most popular cars in Curacao are small and inexpensive vehicles like Toyota Corolla etc. In Curacao, cars are simply tools that bring you to places, and the sun, sand, dust, and wind will sooner or later get to every car. Many people also take the bus. Bikes in Curacao are not that popular, mainly because the traffic is more chaotic and riding a bike is not very safe. However, some people ride bike out into the hills.

I loved living in Curacao. Life is good there. For the most part, people of all backgrounds get along with each other, celebrate together, and dance together. The sun always shines and the sky is blue, the beaches and the sea are beautiful, and there are many things to do and to look at. At times it can get a little small, after you've visited every place, been to just about every restaurant and seen every beach. But luckily, there were always opportunities to travel. While living in Curacao I've been to Europe twice (mainly to Holland, but also to Belgium and Germany), to the U.S. three times, to Brazil, we visited the neighboring islands of Aruba and Bonaire, and went to Caracas in Venezuela.

Curacao doesn't have a mall. However, you can find anything that a mall might have in the little stores of Punda, Otrobanda, and Saliña. It's a lot of fun to be there, surrounded by restaurants, stores, businesses, bridges, boats, markets, and all kinds of people doing all kinds of things.

My parents both live in Germany. My father is Turkish and my mother is German. I like both of them a lot. My Mom is a teacher for kids that need special attention, and my Dad is a business man and a constructional engineer. They always did many things with me and showed me the world. When I was young, they took me on many journeys throughout Europe. I'm very thankful to the way they brought me up.

People in Curacao wear two kinds of outfits. They dress very elegantly to go out, especially when going to church, or they wear summer clothes and beach wear. At work people also dress up, especially when your business function involves being in contact customers. That means that I was lucky, since we never had customers in our office and didn't expect any either. Some people came in flip-flops and shorts, but I always made an effort to wear long pants and a shirt. It makes a difference to dress nice.

The currency in Curacao is officially called the Netherlands Antilles Florin, but people also call it Guilder. One U.S. dollar is almost worth two guilders (1.8, to be exact). Many stores and restaurants also accept U.S. dollars, which makes it convenient for tourists. I make enough money to live a comfortable and nice life. However, the amount is not really important, it's more important what you do with your money. I like spending it on music, books, food, and travel.

Travelling is a lot of fun. Every couple of months I usually feel like going somewhere. It's a great experience to be in different places and enjoy the good things there. Coming home again is also a nice feeling. As I said earlier, sometimes the place you live in can get a little small and monotonous, so travel is a great escape. Sometimes it can also get a little too much, e.g. always packing your suit case, unpack it, etc. Sometimes I wish I could just throw the entire suit case in the washing machine and it would be ready to go again. I don't know where we might go next. We certainly want to go to Brazil, but it's a long journey. We're also thinking about visiting Curacao around Carnival, but somehow it's never the same when going back to a place where you have lived. I could probably write a whole book on that. Hawaii doesn't seem to be too far, and I always wanted to go there. In other words, we don't really know yet.

Soccer is popular in Curacao, especially having its Dutch influence. Soccer is big in Europe and South America, and the World-Cup is always a great attraction. TVs are put up in restaurants, businesses, and banks, and everybody watches. The favorites are Brazil and Holland, and it gets especially wild when the both play against each other, like it happened this summer. I even saw one guy who was prepared enough to have one Brazilian outfit and one Dutch outfit, and he changed after every goal to be on the leading team. Everybody was sad that Brazil only got second.

I think the only holidays that Curacao shares with the US are Christmas, New Year, and Easter. Curacao has some other holidays such as Ascension Day, Day of the Flag, Queen Beatrice's Birthday (the Queen of The Netherlands), and Labor Day (but not the same day as in the US).

We moved back to Seattle for two reasons. The job here in Seattle is more attractive for me, and Lauri has a chance to go to college. In Curacao there aren't any good colleges. We miss Curacao and living there a lot. It's cold and rainy here, and we miss our beaches, our nice house with palm trees and tiles, and the yummy food.

I can barely remember when I had my first girlfriend. I started dating when I was a teenager, but none of the relationships were serious or lasted longer than a few weeks. There were more like friendships, I guess. My first longer relationship started when I was an exchange student in the U.S. Back then I was 16 or 17 years old.

The native language of Curacao is Papiamentu, sometimes also spelled Papiamento. Papiamentu is a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, and it also has some Arawak Indian and African influences. Here are some basic things to say: "Bon Bini" means "Welcome", "kon ta bai ku bo?" means "how is it going with you" e.g. "how are you?", "bon, danki" means "good, thank you". Papiamentu is pronounced exactly as it is written, e.g. as if it was German or Spanish. At times it sounds pretty funny, as if a kid came up with the words. But that is probably due to the fact that people on Curacao took the most intuitive elements from all the languages it consists of.

I've never been to a Mariner's game. I'm not too much into watching sports, especially not going to the events themselves.

Since Curacao is in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, we eat a lot of fish and seafood there. Local specialties are Dradu (Mahi-Mahi), Piska Kora (Red Snapper), Karko (conch meat), shrimp and lobster. We also have many wild goats here, and Kabritu Stoba (goat meat) is another specialty. Plantains (fried bananas) are also very popular and are often served as vegetable side dishes. Keshi Yena is also very delicate and means "filled cheese"; the cheese is filled with chicken, raisins, and some other things I don't remember. Side dishes are usually white rice, fried rice with beans, baked potato and french fries. Funchi is another specialty and is made out of corn; it's similar to corn bread. All these foods are referred to as Creole dishes. I like Karko and fresh shrimp, especially when they are served in a garlic sauce. As a side dish I like mita-mita (half fried rice with beans, and half french fries). Besides these Creole dishes I like Pizza, steak, Lasagna, Paella and Turkish food.

I'm about 6 foot and 2 inches tall. Sometimes when my hair is standing up I might be a bit taller even.

Yes, I want to have children. Probably two or three would be nice. We will probably wait a few years with that since I want to get ahead a little with my career and also wait for Lauri to finish her college. I'm looking forward to playing with them and showing them the world.

My wife Lauri is very nice. She's Brazilian and grew up in Manaus, a city in the middle of the rainforest. When she's in a silly mood, she can make noises like a monkey. We do many things together and enjoy each other's company. Lauri likes music and dancing, she likes going out to places, she likes art and building or drawing things, and she also likes travelling and visiting new places.

Ok everybody, this is the end for now. I hope you enjoy reading my response. I'm looking forward to hearing from you again soon. The question I enjoyed answering the most was "What is it like to travel so much?"

Many many greetings to all of you.

    Attila...