8/13/09
Well, still haven't been able to update online- neither Warsaw or Munich airports had wireless, and I didn't feel like paying 7 GBP just to post something last night. But I had a fun three hours wandering about the Munich airport. Wonderful place! Lufthansa has what they call "Service Centers", little points throughout the airport where you can get free coffee, tea and newspapers. It's a long, spacious airport, full of gorgeous luxury shops. I spent quite a bit of time in the Fabriano stationery store, then found a good magazine on Prague- in German, but great pictures, and I can pick up a few of the words here and there. After going through the passport control, I had a yummy grilled cheese sandwich and fresh orange juice, then found a
couple books in the airport store- one of them was written by the author of The Kite Runner, so that should be good.

Had an uneventful flight from Munich to Birmingham, read a polish anime magazine. I'm constantly amazed by how much Polish seems natural these days. Listening to the announcers as the plane took off from Warsaw, I realized I understood more of the safety instructions from the Polish announcer than the German one. And reading an article about a series by Kazuya Minekura, I was able to pick up quite a bit. Maybe I *will* be able to read the newspaper by the end of all this!

Picked up some milk and fruit at BHX for a late night snack, then took a taxi to the hotel. Had a VERY restful night in a real bed with a down comforter. Ah, how living abroad makes you appreciate the little luxuries in life!

It's quite surreal to realize that today, in the space of 6 hours, I've spent time in three different countries; heard 7 different languages announced over loudspeakers, and have four types of currency with me. And that this is as do-able for me now as going to New York or Miami would have been six months ago. Life is pretty darned awesome right now!

Slept in on Thursday morning, then took a taxi to another hotel in Coventry. Drove past fields of cute little sheep, hay bales and signs that said I was entering Shakespeare's Country. Such a nice, sunny day! Spent the early afternoon in Costa Coffee, ate lunch and had coffee, read a crime novel for a while. Later that afternoon, my roommate S showed up- she was really nice and it was a pleasure to finally meet her. We checked in, then chatted for a bit before meeting up with some other people going to the con. We ended up being a group of about 10 altogether.

Eventually, we all decided that food sounded good, so we drove over to one of the nearby centers and ate at a place called Frankie & Benny's. Had a great dinner, lively conversation, good food. One of the waiters looked the spitting image of the main star of "The Namesake", *exactly* like him! After dinner, we picked up snacks and supplies from the grocery store, then came back to the hotel and had beer, chatted some more, watched a silly vampire movie on TV. Went to bed in the wee hours, but had a great day.


8/14/09
Woke up early-ish for breakfast, then half of the group decided to have a little nap before going to register for the con, and the other half went swimming. I opted for the nap. It's so pretty and restful here... almost don't want to go back!

Went out to the university in Coventry for the convention around 3, registered, had a snack in the Arts Center. Pretty campus! Lots of brick buildings and wisteria. Went to panels on Japanese Tea Ceremony and cosplay, tried to watch episodes of FMA but the computer file kept looping after about 30 seconds. Just sort of wandered around and enjoyed all the cosplay outfits- lots of good ones! Saw a very good Hughes, Lust, Jin, Gojyo, and fun Goth-Loli.

Wandered through the artists' alley and manga reading room, then joined people for dinner. Half of us went to the campus pub; the other half ended up in the Asian fusion restaurant. Had a nice red Thai curry and just enjoyed soaking up all the energy and watching the cosplayers. After dinner, we all headed back to the hotel for some beer and more chatting. It's fun to have a huge group to hang out with!


8/15/0
Steampunk Day! Today was a day full of fun cosplay. Most of our group had outfits for the steampunk genre, so they all dressed up and looked fabulous! We had a mad scientist, an anthropologist-gone-native, the captain of the ship and his pirate lady, among others. The hotel's bar was called Hemingway and had cool stairs and glass cabinets with little artifacts in them (letters, binoculars, old typewriters, a pith helmet, old writing sets, books, boots, etc.), so we took pictures on the stairs- good atmosphere for it! Everyone looked utterly fabulous- I was very impressed! Will see what I can do about being the ship's steampunk
librarian for next year ;)

There were a lot more cosplayers today, mainly because the Masquerade was happening later, a sort of cosplay showcase. Later in the day, two members of our group changed outfits and entered the Masquerade as Squall and Edea from Final Fantasy VIII. They looked *great*. I was highly impressed with the quality of costumes at this con- so much effort and attention to detail!

Spent some time in the dealer's room, though not a lot of money. Picked up a couple volumes of manga to take home and read- I miss my collection! Had some lunch, talked to a random guy from Oxford, then joined up with the group again to watch the cosplay event. After that, everyone was pretty hungry, so we drove out to a chips shop and picked up dinner. Wonderful fish and chips, full of salt and vinegar, all wrapped up in paper... tasty! We took them back to the hotel and ate them at the picnic tables outside. Lots of talk about Red Dwarf, and lots of singing- must familiarize myself more with British TV. Went inside, drank beer, played a fun game that involved writing a conversation by passing around papers and adding one's own lines to it. We ended up with some pretty random conversations! Happily went to sleep around 2. Good day!


8/16/09
Skipped breakfast this morning and opted to sleep a bit longer. We had a nice picnic later out on the grass, enjoyed the sunshine and fun costumes, then went to a panel on the history and construction of kanzashi (traditional Japanese hair ornaments worn by maiko) and watched some fun AMVs. The closing ceremonies and comedy skits started around 6. Lots of fun! There were some pretty good ones, especially the last one which was a spoof on Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil.

The hosts of the event were great- really funny banter, much more entertaining than panel hosts I've seen at cons in the US. One of the con's guest stars was an American voice actor called Matt Mercer- he was great! Looked a lot like Luke Wilson, had a fantastic sense of humor.
They also had a charity auction and raised a LOT of money for the British Heart Foundation, which was super cool.

Altogether, I had a fantastic weekend, really enjoyed myself. Yes, this con had fewer people than American ones, but that didn't detract from the fun at all- rather, it gave it cozier, friendlier feel. Everyone was so nice and polite, the entire weekend felt just wonderful and warm and welcoming. I'll definitely come back next year for it, and maybe a couple others!


8/17/09
Time to go home.... we all had an early breakfast, then speedily packed our bags and took off for respective destinations. I took the train to the airport, then just hung out for a while until my plane boarded. I had *such* a fun time, am really glad I went. Made a bunch of new friends and now have great places to visit in the UK if I want a little vacation! Friends and weekends of squeee really are the best! Now time to go home, make sure everything's cool, finish some homework, and go to sleep!


Ugggh.... the flight from Frankfurt to Warsaw was *less* than fun. There was a screaming infant sitting right in front of me, crying the whole time. Thank goodness I've got an iPod full of loud death metal!

Got home ok, aired the place out a bit, talked to my mom, crashed... and woke up again at 4am to THE loudest thunderstorm ever! Guess at least I know I'm back in Poland >_< The sky was flashing with lightning, and there were even lightning bolts this time. Huge rounds of thunder
erupted every few seconds, and it started raining really hard, too. I imagine that this is a bit what being in a combat zone sounds and looks like, minus the weapons. Quite eerie and percussive.


8/18/09
Today was pretty cool- busy at work, got a very sudden trip to Vienna- I leave on Sunday. So this means my weekend in Zakopane with friends will be a bit shorter, but Vienna's a good place to go. Looking forward to more "exquisite dreams"! And it'll be nice to see it in the summertime.

Had a Polish class after work, then sushi and a concert of organ music with M after that. Wonderful evening all around!

Life rocks. ^__^