Report, first week and new conquest!
Quite a few things have happened in about 10 days or so!
First of all there was the Connichi which - I think - deserves an in-depth report but I'm not sure that short before bed-time is a good moment to do it. However, I will attempt it!
My general sentiment towards Connichi 2011 was "blah". This had to be the con which I perceived to be the most stressful and demanding to prepare for. First of all quite a few things went wrong before hand. To just list a few; my sister's wig did not arrive on time (well, actually, a few hours to late; we were already gone when it arrived), my card got eaten by the ATM, our tickets ended up not arriving because there was still a certain amount to be paid, cosplay wasn't finished. Etc, you get the drift. It's strange; we've had a lot of stress before for cons but for some reason this time was particularily bad...
After just a few hours of sleep (read: less than four) on Friday we departed and had a rather smooth journey there. We took the wrong tram and ended up at the convention location in stead of at our hotel. Oh well (but, the Strassenbahn would strike again. More of that later). First impression was rather good and we took our time to get ready.
Friday was Macross Day and I think that was the most comfortable cosplay. First of all I had to get the worry about the tickets out of my system. Being the big sis and all I have a certain responsibility to organize things. When we got to the convention it had not opened up its gates yet. And there was a huuuuuge queue in front of the doors. Not knowing exactly what was going on I simply assumed that the con was already open and that this was the queue for the tickets. So my sis and I got in line. And waited. And waited. Once the connichi actually opened its gates it went rather fast. We got our tickets for Friday and Sunday, unfortunately we had to pay the fees again (even though we had sent money... I still need to get that straight. Huuugh. What a bother).
Having waited for so long my sis and I decided to check out the stalls before rejoining the other two. Then we settled into the usual things you do at a con; sit on the grass outside, do some walking around, take pictures, get your pictures taken... Highlight (of some sorts) of the day was getting autographs, even though I had to pay for a grossly overpriced Macross Frontier CD (46 Euro for God's sake! But I was idiot enough to buy it...). We also saw part of the opening ceremony and the cosplay event.
It was rather late when we were done even though I can't properly remember what we did for the day to last so long! X3 In the end we stumbled into what would become our source for food for the next few days: Kyoto Take-away or something like this. We got some take-away food and ate it in our rooms.
Shock of the day next to the pricely CD; my sister had apparently already spent most of her money on God knows what. Hhhh. I knew this was a bad omen. A bad omen of an immensely expensive convention that would teach me better for next time.
Saturday; the day where we didn't have any tickets. I didn't like that idea and Debby volunteered to get there early to get tickets with me. So we got up at half past six, ate an early breakfast and got ready in our Odin Sphere cosplays of the day. Fun fact; when we got there we could just waltz in and get our two tickets (also hugely over-priced. I'm really glad for the low Euro-Swiss Franks ratio of the moment, but it was still far too expensive...). Well, truth to be told we even got a third at a later point (so what was all the drama about endless queueing and tickets being sold out about?) which meant that each of us did have a ticket in the end. I know that this day was rather uncomfortable. I got a sun-burn and moving around in the costume was just no fun. Next to that there was another Odin Sphere group and while I would have only be bothered a bit (hey, ho! Low-self esteem) the fact that they just walked up to where we were and made their meeting and photo shoot right next to us without even acknowledging us was very, very, very shitty and inconsiderate of them. And one of them was even a Swiss cosplayer as I've heard afterwards, one that's at least supposed to know Eve. At least she could have been more sensitive to the issue. Grr. Anger flaring up again.
In any case, I didn't feel all that comfortable and especially with the other group hanging around I knew how incomplete and amateurish I was. On the other hand pictures were still taken of us and I was able to listen to a nice concert! But the day was over rather fast because none of us was up to spend the entire day at the con. It's a fact that conventions are rather exhausting. So we got home, changed, got food and had a nice dinner! :D
Third day, Sunday. The come-back of the unfinished cosplay. I had not managed to finish Oichi, not by a long shot. However, I got the wig, I got the upper stuff almost done. I could at least take funny pictures so I was happy. I was still exhausted and was just happy to sit around most of the day. However, the day in itself was not that great because it was freaking cold outside... Funny enough, the stalls closed very early and we had no other choice but to go outside, which was rather sad... But I had seen the cosplay event which was quite nice! And with Sunday over and done, the convention was at its end. We were able to take our time with getting back to the hotel, eating, going through our stuff etc. It was actually nice to not have to rush off the convention to catch a train and to worry about running around, carrying a suitcase in a possibly rather eye-catching cosplay.
Monday, the day we returned and the day university actually started, still had one shocker ready for us: The hotel was far more expensive than we all had calculated. And even though the lady went on and on about how every hotel would be full fast and that we should reserve our rooms right away, I doubt I'll return to a hotel that asks for 55 Euros a night per person and not cater a super 4 star service. :/ I mean, come on, we're students, we don't have money. This is not Switzerland. Probably I'm asking for too much but Kaiser Karl, the very first hotel we've been too (and had paid less for) is my standard. And this was top-notch, well worth its money. The one in Munich wasn't. While it was nice it had none of the grandeur of Kaiser Karl and to make it more expensive just because there is a convention is stupid (even though it's usual). Sorry, money issues make my blood boil with hardly conceiled rage...
And I promised you the return of the Strassenbahn; the freaking stop did not have a ticket machine. Being the righteous person I am this worried me a great deal. I had money enough for my ticket and assumed that there would be enough for the others as well. So we hopped onto the tram once we realized that the stupid machine was inside. Having learnt that it takes only two stops I at least knew what buttons to press. So I was pressing buttons and then the next big worry; there was not enough money in coins for us. I was frustrated, standing in front of that thing and embarrassing myself in front of other customers. Then the first stop went by. I was getting restless, hoping for the others to still pull out some coins of their wallets. And then the next stop where we had to get off. Feeling bitter and ashamed I had to push the button and got the money back. So, actually, we drove without tickets. The others didn't seem to mind at all. I did. Brrrrruugh, stupid morals. But we got on train and had a relaxing drive back.
So, to sum the Connichi up: I think it was nice, but too stressful and too expensive. Next time I hope for things to run smoother.
--
Anyway, my second topic would be first week of university but because this hasn't been all too eventful (but scary, as always. I feel like a first semester student) I'll just skip it and move to the third part. My new conquest! (And I'm not talking about that handsome student in one of my courses, because staring at someone can hardly be called a conquest)
--
I'm not an anime type person. Not anymore. But I'm a fangirl. And my fandom flashes and loves strike me in unexpected ways. With Assassin's Creed I've been aware of its existance without knowing too much about it for a long time. I've seen fanart and brushed it off, I've seen the game, but never played it (despite owning it). The thing that finally got me interested in it was seeing cosplayers for it. It reminded me that I had the game. I approached it slowly, and also via the novels, and fell in love after a long time of passive resistance.
Now, history repeats itself with another fandom. I've seen it on my tours around pixiv. I've heard people talk about it. I knew its name, but never knew what it was about. I checked wikipedia, read some basic info and stashed it away in one of the "yeah, right" drawers of my fandom interested mind. I've made attempts to get to know it, but my plans always failed because I was so easy to side-track (still am). But then was the Connichi and there were cosplayers. And suddenly I recalled it. I recalled that series that I've always wanted to get to know about. And for some reasons on this boring Friday afternoon that I spent with ditching work I typed it in my search window: "Tiger and Bunny." And then it started. I watched the first episode. And didn't want to stop there. About six episodes in I stopped for long enough to go on a fanart searching spree, cementing my views on how to ship my pairing (Kotestu x Bunny, by the way) and then I continued. I got shortly side-tracked by watching about four episodes of Supernatural, but after having to hide behind my hands for quite a chunk of an episode I needed more light-hearted stuff. Yesterday I finished watching. I'm glad I did. I love it (for now).
I even glued a picture onto my university planner thingy. *lol* I've already put the fangirl stamp on me. And season two is another reason to look forwards to november!
AAAAAND! Now I have to go to bed.
First of all there was the Connichi which - I think - deserves an in-depth report but I'm not sure that short before bed-time is a good moment to do it. However, I will attempt it!
My general sentiment towards Connichi 2011 was "blah". This had to be the con which I perceived to be the most stressful and demanding to prepare for. First of all quite a few things went wrong before hand. To just list a few; my sister's wig did not arrive on time (well, actually, a few hours to late; we were already gone when it arrived), my card got eaten by the ATM, our tickets ended up not arriving because there was still a certain amount to be paid, cosplay wasn't finished. Etc, you get the drift. It's strange; we've had a lot of stress before for cons but for some reason this time was particularily bad...
After just a few hours of sleep (read: less than four) on Friday we departed and had a rather smooth journey there. We took the wrong tram and ended up at the convention location in stead of at our hotel. Oh well (but, the Strassenbahn would strike again. More of that later). First impression was rather good and we took our time to get ready.
Friday was Macross Day and I think that was the most comfortable cosplay. First of all I had to get the worry about the tickets out of my system. Being the big sis and all I have a certain responsibility to organize things. When we got to the convention it had not opened up its gates yet. And there was a huuuuuge queue in front of the doors. Not knowing exactly what was going on I simply assumed that the con was already open and that this was the queue for the tickets. So my sis and I got in line. And waited. And waited. Once the connichi actually opened its gates it went rather fast. We got our tickets for Friday and Sunday, unfortunately we had to pay the fees again (even though we had sent money... I still need to get that straight. Huuugh. What a bother).
Having waited for so long my sis and I decided to check out the stalls before rejoining the other two. Then we settled into the usual things you do at a con; sit on the grass outside, do some walking around, take pictures, get your pictures taken... Highlight (of some sorts) of the day was getting autographs, even though I had to pay for a grossly overpriced Macross Frontier CD (46 Euro for God's sake! But I was idiot enough to buy it...). We also saw part of the opening ceremony and the cosplay event.
It was rather late when we were done even though I can't properly remember what we did for the day to last so long! X3 In the end we stumbled into what would become our source for food for the next few days: Kyoto Take-away or something like this. We got some take-away food and ate it in our rooms.
Shock of the day next to the pricely CD; my sister had apparently already spent most of her money on God knows what. Hhhh. I knew this was a bad omen. A bad omen of an immensely expensive convention that would teach me better for next time.
Saturday; the day where we didn't have any tickets. I didn't like that idea and Debby volunteered to get there early to get tickets with me. So we got up at half past six, ate an early breakfast and got ready in our Odin Sphere cosplays of the day. Fun fact; when we got there we could just waltz in and get our two tickets (also hugely over-priced. I'm really glad for the low Euro-Swiss Franks ratio of the moment, but it was still far too expensive...). Well, truth to be told we even got a third at a later point (so what was all the drama about endless queueing and tickets being sold out about?) which meant that each of us did have a ticket in the end. I know that this day was rather uncomfortable. I got a sun-burn and moving around in the costume was just no fun. Next to that there was another Odin Sphere group and while I would have only be bothered a bit (hey, ho! Low-self esteem) the fact that they just walked up to where we were and made their meeting and photo shoot right next to us without even acknowledging us was very, very, very shitty and inconsiderate of them. And one of them was even a Swiss cosplayer as I've heard afterwards, one that's at least supposed to know Eve. At least she could have been more sensitive to the issue. Grr. Anger flaring up again.
In any case, I didn't feel all that comfortable and especially with the other group hanging around I knew how incomplete and amateurish I was. On the other hand pictures were still taken of us and I was able to listen to a nice concert! But the day was over rather fast because none of us was up to spend the entire day at the con. It's a fact that conventions are rather exhausting. So we got home, changed, got food and had a nice dinner! :D
Third day, Sunday. The come-back of the unfinished cosplay. I had not managed to finish Oichi, not by a long shot. However, I got the wig, I got the upper stuff almost done. I could at least take funny pictures so I was happy. I was still exhausted and was just happy to sit around most of the day. However, the day in itself was not that great because it was freaking cold outside... Funny enough, the stalls closed very early and we had no other choice but to go outside, which was rather sad... But I had seen the cosplay event which was quite nice! And with Sunday over and done, the convention was at its end. We were able to take our time with getting back to the hotel, eating, going through our stuff etc. It was actually nice to not have to rush off the convention to catch a train and to worry about running around, carrying a suitcase in a possibly rather eye-catching cosplay.
Monday, the day we returned and the day university actually started, still had one shocker ready for us: The hotel was far more expensive than we all had calculated. And even though the lady went on and on about how every hotel would be full fast and that we should reserve our rooms right away, I doubt I'll return to a hotel that asks for 55 Euros a night per person and not cater a super 4 star service. :/ I mean, come on, we're students, we don't have money. This is not Switzerland. Probably I'm asking for too much but Kaiser Karl, the very first hotel we've been too (and had paid less for) is my standard. And this was top-notch, well worth its money. The one in Munich wasn't. While it was nice it had none of the grandeur of Kaiser Karl and to make it more expensive just because there is a convention is stupid (even though it's usual). Sorry, money issues make my blood boil with hardly conceiled rage...
And I promised you the return of the Strassenbahn; the freaking stop did not have a ticket machine. Being the righteous person I am this worried me a great deal. I had money enough for my ticket and assumed that there would be enough for the others as well. So we hopped onto the tram once we realized that the stupid machine was inside. Having learnt that it takes only two stops I at least knew what buttons to press. So I was pressing buttons and then the next big worry; there was not enough money in coins for us. I was frustrated, standing in front of that thing and embarrassing myself in front of other customers. Then the first stop went by. I was getting restless, hoping for the others to still pull out some coins of their wallets. And then the next stop where we had to get off. Feeling bitter and ashamed I had to push the button and got the money back. So, actually, we drove without tickets. The others didn't seem to mind at all. I did. Brrrrruugh, stupid morals. But we got on train and had a relaxing drive back.
So, to sum the Connichi up: I think it was nice, but too stressful and too expensive. Next time I hope for things to run smoother.
--
Anyway, my second topic would be first week of university but because this hasn't been all too eventful (but scary, as always. I feel like a first semester student) I'll just skip it and move to the third part. My new conquest! (And I'm not talking about that handsome student in one of my courses, because staring at someone can hardly be called a conquest)
--
I'm not an anime type person. Not anymore. But I'm a fangirl. And my fandom flashes and loves strike me in unexpected ways. With Assassin's Creed I've been aware of its existance without knowing too much about it for a long time. I've seen fanart and brushed it off, I've seen the game, but never played it (despite owning it). The thing that finally got me interested in it was seeing cosplayers for it. It reminded me that I had the game. I approached it slowly, and also via the novels, and fell in love after a long time of passive resistance.
Now, history repeats itself with another fandom. I've seen it on my tours around pixiv. I've heard people talk about it. I knew its name, but never knew what it was about. I checked wikipedia, read some basic info and stashed it away in one of the "yeah, right" drawers of my fandom interested mind. I've made attempts to get to know it, but my plans always failed because I was so easy to side-track (still am). But then was the Connichi and there were cosplayers. And suddenly I recalled it. I recalled that series that I've always wanted to get to know about. And for some reasons on this boring Friday afternoon that I spent with ditching work I typed it in my search window: "Tiger and Bunny." And then it started. I watched the first episode. And didn't want to stop there. About six episodes in I stopped for long enough to go on a fanart searching spree, cementing my views on how to ship my pairing (Kotestu x Bunny, by the way) and then I continued. I got shortly side-tracked by watching about four episodes of Supernatural, but after having to hide behind my hands for quite a chunk of an episode I needed more light-hearted stuff. Yesterday I finished watching. I'm glad I did. I love it (for now).
I even glued a picture onto my university planner thingy. *lol* I've already put the fangirl stamp on me. And season two is another reason to look forwards to november!
AAAAAND! Now I have to go to bed.